lizzielou.com

[today's post removed because of that blackout thing]

Our latest discovery: Ochokitty likes to sit in front of the humidfier. At first it seemed like maybe it was simply out of curiosity, but now it seems like she’s enjoying the cool mist floating down around her.

This year is off to a good start. One of my major home-owner problems has been solved. Lest you think I have been very productive or something, let me make clear right away that I only watched some handy gentlemen be very productive as they tore down what was left of our retaining wall in the alley and replaced it with a new retaining wall that is so much more substantial and fierce than the previous one that it isn’t even a retaining wall anymore, it is now a “bulkhead.” My dictionary defines this as “a dividing wall or barrier between compartments in a ship, aircraft, or other vehicle.” This works for me.

The wall wasn’t much of a wall before it was turned into a bulkhead either. It was untreated wood, painted blue (sometime after 1925), rotting, soggy, falling down. One day, longer ago than I’d like to admit, I put three buckets-nee-kitty-litter-containers filled with sod and dirt that I swept up on the sidewalk out for garbage pick up. They were not collected. So, I slid them back against the part of the wall that was the worst and there they have remained, collecting more dirt, more weeds, mosquito larvae, and the resentment of the neighbors.

I had spent quite a bit of time back there in the alley staring at that stupid wall, thinking about all the ways I could do it myself and then sadly rejecting them for lack of skill, strength or smarts. I would lie in bed at night complaining to Lolly about the crappy wall and moaning about its awfulness and my ineptitude. To her credit, Lolly did brainstorm lots and lots of ideas for fixing it or shoring it up. However, I would always find some engineering or financial flaw to her idea, and then start whining again. Every time I went past it in the car or on foot I’d moan and crap on about it some more.

After the bulkhead was done, it looked so good we couldn’t stand the idea of putting the old moldy, soggy fence panels back up across the backyard. (And neither could our neighbor who looks directly out upon it who said, as she was nodding her head for us, “That looks so great! You’re going to do the fence now too, right?”) Hence, a new fence. It is six feet high on the yard side, which means there is now a nine foot edifice between the alley (with it’s weirdos and hos and poop kitties) and us. It’s quite imposing as you can just barely see the top of the house poking up well behind it.

Upon completion, I was ready to go out and do some landscaping and planting; alas, it snowed. But I have big plans now. Big Plans!

Here are all the 191 movies that I watched last year. (I know you were just dying to know. I aim to please.) They are listed alphabetically, but I bolded my favorites because you are no doubt dying to know that too. My least favorite movies I’ve X’ed out because they were so bad I feel angry just seeing them on the list.

127 hours (2010), 49th parallel (1941), about jenny holzer (2010), ace in the hole (1951), adjustment bureau, the (2011), affinity (2008), all good things (2010), American, the (2010), anatomy of a murder (1959), Arthur (2011), atlantic city (1980), baby face (1933), bad day at black rock (1955), bakjwi [thirst] (2009), battle los angeles (2011), beginners (2011), big dreams in little hope (v-2006), bitter feast (2010), biutiful (2010), black narcissus (1947), blechtrommel, die (1979) [the tin drum], blinkende lygte [flickering lights] (2000), blob, the (1958), blow out (1981), blue valentine (2010), boogie woogie (2009), bridesmaids (2011), brief encounter (1945), byôsoku 5 senchimêtoru [5 centimeters per second] (2007), cave of forgotten dreams (2010), cedar rapids (2011), cercle rouge, le (1970), cheat, the (1931), chico & rita (2010), children of the damned (1963), chung hing sam lam [chungking express] (1994), cinema verite (ctv-2011), conquest (1937), conviction (2010), crime d’amour [love crime] (2010), crimes and misdemeanors (1989), criminal (2004), cropsey (2009), cyrus (2010), date night (2010), days of heaven (1978), dead calm (1989), despicable me (2010), devil in a blue dress (1995), dip huet seung hung [killer, the] (1989), divorcee, the (1930), du rififi chez les hommes [rififi] (1955), eclipse (2010), ecoute le temps [fissures] (2006), edge of darkness (2010), elektra luxx (2010), elle s’appelait sarah [sarah's key] (2010), everything must go (2010), fälscher, die [the counterfieters] (2007), family stone, the (2005), fanny och alexander (1982), female (1933), fifth element, the (1997), fighter, the (2010), fish tank (2009), Frances (1982), free soul, a (1931), frisco jenny (1932), ganske snill mann, en [a somewhat gentle man] (2010), gasland (2010), gentleman’s agreement (1947), gray matters (2006), green zone, the (2010), habitación en roma [room in rome] (2010), harry potter and the deathly hallows: part 1 (2010), helena from the wedding (2010), hell on wheels (2007), hereafter (2010), himmel über berlin, der [wings of desire] (1987), hit, the (1984), holy rollers (2010), hot coffee (2011), hud (1963), hurt locker, the (2008), I’ll come running (2008), I’m not scared [Io non ho paura] (2003), iron man 2 (2010), jagged edge (1985), jeanne dielman, 23 rue du commerce, 1080 bruxelles (1975), jigoku (1960), killer inside me, the (2010), killing, the (1956), king’s speech, the (2010), kiss me deadly (1955), ladies in lavender (2004), ladri di biciclette [bicycle thieves] (1948), last exorcism, the (2010), leaves of grass (2009), let me in (2010), life during wartime (2009), limitless (2011), little trip to heaven, a (2005), lucky ones, the (2008), make way for tomorrow (1937), Manhattan murder mystery (1993), Maria Larsson’s eviga ögonblick [everlasting moments] (2008), mechanic, the (2011), mission, la (2009), mitt liv som hund [my life as a dog] (1985), modern times (1936), mon oncle antoine (1971), Mr. Hobbs takes a vacation (1962), murder at the vanities (1934), nanook of the north (1922), never let me go (2010), New Orleans music in exile (2006), New York, I love you (2009), night nurse (1931), night train to Munich (1940), off and running (2009), operation: endgame (2010), order of myths, the (2008), ordinary people (1980), other men’s women (1931), owls, the (v-2010), page one: inside the New York times (2011), paranormal activity (2007), partir [leaving] (2009), perfect host, the (2010), pickup on south street (1953), platoon (1986), potiche (2010), prime of miss jean brodie, the (1969), prodigal sons (2008), purchase price (1932), Pygmalion (1938), rango (2011), red (2010), red headed woman (1932), red riding: in the year of our lord 1974 (2009), red riding: in the year of our lord 1983 (2009), reel injun (2009), règle du jeu, la [the rules of the game] (1939), revanche (2008), rise of the planet of the apes (2011), robin hood (2010), roma, città aperta [rome, open city] (1945), salt (2010), scott pilgrim vs. the world (2010), search for beauty (1934), sex and the city 2 (2010), shop around the corner (1940), small town murder songs (2010), social network, the (2010), source code (2011), splice (2009), star trek: insurrection (1998), sweet revenge (1998) [the revengers' comedies], thief of bagdad, the (1940), thin blue line, the (1988), thirst (2010), three on a match (1932), time traveler’s wife, the (2009), timer (2009), tourist, the (2010), treatment, the (2006), trip, the (2010), trolljegeren [troll hunter] (2010), tron (1982), tron: legacy (2010), true grit (2010), trust (2010), under the volcano (1984), unstoppable (2010), valkyrie (2008), village of the damned (1960), viridiana (1961), voyage of the damned (1976), wall street: money never sleeps (2010), waterloo bridge (1931), white dog (1982), white material (2009), wild and wonderful whites of west virginia, the (2009), winter’s bone (2010), women in trouble (2009), yi yi (2000), you again (2010), Z (1969)

Last year wasn’t totally awful, but it wasn’t the greatest year either. Fair to middling. Mostly fair, if that’s worse than middling. But if middling is worse, then I’ve have to chose middling. Ok, really, 2011 wasn’t so great at all. Sorta sucky. And it went by so quickly, which I guess, with the suckiness, is actually a good thing, except with the getting-closer-to-death thing that happens with each passing year, so I guess you could say it’s all a wash. Would you say that? I dunno.

But, there were some good things and some surprises. In no particular order we have…

• going to see tulips with my mom (yay!),
• meeting my little cousin while visiting back East (yay!),
• Ocho Kitty found (yay!),
• weight that I lost also found (boo!)
• finding out via The View and The Ellen Show that someone I dated eons ago is now in this one’s entourage (neither boo nor yay, just weird!),
• getting a gold tooth (also just weird…& gangsta!),
• playing tennis in summer (yay!), and
• completing the NaBloPoMo (yay!).

In 2012, I think I might try to learn how to play the ukulele. Seriously. Why not?

So, I was doing NaBloPoMo this year, perhaps you noticed, and I’m pleased to report that I’ve made it all the way through (as long as drawings count). The theme this year was something along the lines of “blogging for the hell of it!” and I believe I’ve met that criterion well. I am ready now to be rewarded with one of the prizes.
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Yes please. I’m ready.
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For my prize.
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Just waiting.
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I’m still waiting. How much longer will it be you think?
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Alrighty then. You know where to find me.
Peace.

I left work yesterday evening at my usual time and walked the several blocks it takes to reach my bus stop downtown. It was dark and a little chilly, but otherwise not at all unpleasant. I had about ten minutes or so to wait, if the bus came on time. Many other buses use this stop also, and it is always filled with commuters heading home after work. Nice folks, generally.

Buses came. One came early and idled in the stop for several minutes until other buses started clogging up the street behind it. Finally it moved on and the backlog creeped forward. At the end of the line, just pulling into the bus stop zone at the end of the block, was my bus. Yay! I wasn’t sure if the driver was going to start letting people on or not, and I didn’t want to walk all the way down there just to have to walk all the way back if he didn’t. Sometimes the drivers don’t let people on if they aren’t officially in the zone. I waited a bit and then he opened the doors and people started walking down the sidewalk and getting on. Because sometimes the driver doesn’t stop again farther up in the zone where I was, I figured I’d better get down there and get on with everybody else.

It looked like I was going to be the last one, so I hurried up and waved at the driver twice, once when he started closing the doors, and once when it looked like he was about to pull away from the curb. But I had made it! Just as he was starting off I put my hand up to the window, slapping the glass, then the door, the side of the bus as he continued driving away. Whaa?

“ASSHOLE!!!” The twenty or so commuters still waiting for their buses turned and looked down the block at me. “This IS the BUS STOP!!”

The driver pulled forward and was now sitting in the center of the bus stop zone where I had previously been standing. The doors opened up again.

For a nanosecond I think I considered not getting on at all. I was hot and mad. But I shuffled up to the back door where one or two other people had stepped on. No surprise, I was again the last one to get there, and thought for a moment that the driver would shut the back door in my face too. “Thank you.” I huffed to no one in particular as I stomped up the steps. I raised my head to find a seat and… there were no seats left.

I was the only person standing, holding on to the railings above my head with both hands. Everytime the driver looked up in the mirror he probably saw me, looming there, all the way home.

It’s not just the typos that make us laugh. Here are a few gems from the “WTF” category of personal ads…

“I was a rugby player in my day, but I’ve had to take a lengthy break after my drunken stiletto accident.”

“I believe in love because that is what I am…ever since the primordial ooze crawled up on the shoes of California we have all been trying to evolve!”

“I am Professional Lesbian looking for same.”

“I hate all feet. And all math.”

“I love waking up with my head buried in boobs.”

“I want to go down on your soul first.”

“I hate smuts.”

There are some nights that I don’t even want sex. I’d much rather hold her all night long…light kisses on her cheeks…and maybe a little bit of grabbing in the butt-u-lar area.”

“If you are like me, you should definitely get in touch with me. I know I am.”