SassyBlonde

Whew. Finally finished the Christmas decorations, and now I'm off to play another show. The house looks so nice with the lights out front!

Only, poor hubby, he's deep in the middle of Christmas tree lights. There's a dull grumbly thunder coming from the living room. Doh.

Oy. I don't think we've ever been this broke. Not even $5 to go to the store. And no major paycheck in sight until al least January 21st. Thank God for holiday gigs and shows. Maybe someone will leave us some good tips at the show.

Methinks homemade presents may be the order of the day this Christmas. Hats, scarves, etc-- time to clean out the yarn pile!!

So, it's off to shop with Lucienne today. She's the best shopping buddy ever--we're like two sides of a coin. When I go in a store, I like to look at EVERYTHING, and I do mean everything. She, however, is a woman on a mission-- find it and get on with you life. She speeds me up, I get her to look at stuff she wouldn't look at otherwise.

On the docket today, manicures and putting a super-cool coat on layaway at the Saks outlet. (Lamb's wool/cashmere with the coolest fur collar--real fox!!!!! And of course, the matching hat.)

Most of the Christmas shopping is done, but there are still a few things to pick up today, so hopefully I'll have it polished off by next post!

Hi all,

Hoping your Easter Sundays are hopping along and you're having truly exceptional sugar highs from all those Peeps and Cadbury Eggs. I'm still recovering from my sister-in-law's fabulous wedding party last night, so will go drink a little more water and do some yoga before I hit the Microbiology books again. Have a fabulous day and enjoy your Easter eggs! (Be sure to find them all-- that could be nasty later)

Here's the finished product:

(Trogdor, Dalek, Cylon)
I should point out that the intricately carved Trogdor is courtesy of The Muse's artistic talents.

So here I thought that I was a great carver of pumpkins, then I get these pictures from my illustrious sister:

Holy CRAP. This extremely prodigious entry netted her 200 clams at the pumpkin contest at her job. H&M here she comes!!!! She rocks.

If you are reading this, you have much to be thankful for:

The Miniature Earth

Ever wondered what an esoteric art dealer would get for their true love? Find out, according to the Calamity Carolers of Doom. (This is NOT SAFE FOR WORK due to repeated F-bombs, but watch it when you get home tonight. I guarantee it's worth it.)

Via Solonor.

Yeah, I know-- it's late. But better late than never, right? Here's my Christmas Wish List, in case anybody still needs to know:

For any of you who may have missed the Studio 60 Christmas episode, it featured a goosebump-inducing version of O Holy Night played by a group of New Orleans musicians, organized by the Tipitina's Foundation. NBC has made the audio available for download (left-click to play, right-click to save), and the clip of the segment can be seen on the Studio 60 website as well. If you want to make this musician's holiday more happy, donate.

Happy Holidays everybody.

This has been a public service message brought to you by the color green and the letter G. Happy belated Earth Day.

Found over at Frank Notes.

So how do we celebrate Memorial Day here at Chez Sassy?? Well, this time it was with fried chicken, mashed potates, muscadine wine and a healthy dose of Captain Jack Sparrow. Now that we're all caught up with the first two Pirates movies, we're free to go see the next one tomorrow. Yippee!!

Oh yeah, boys and girls. It's go time. Even better than last year, though not as geeky. And I'm here to tell you folks, even with cool LED fake candles around (the two on the right), real candles are still the best way to light a pumpkin (on the left).

I still have a couple more to do, including another mini. Not quite sure of what to do with the last full-size one: what do you guys think? Cylon? Dalek? Spider?

People, we gave out five bags of candy last night to come of the crazy-cutest kids on the planet. In the process, we fried some chicken and okra, ate entirely too much mashed potatoes, and barely managed to save the the cats from a visiting basset hound.

On that last score, I have to say I've never seen the Spaz lose his shit quite that badly, but I can't really blame him. If some big hairy beast came into my house and chased me around the house baying at me, I'd probably be a basket case too. Even after the pooch in question left the house, the Spaz wouldn't come down from anything less than a height of four feet for more time than it took to cross the room and jumped at every noise (every last one), and his eyes were so dilated that I thought he was going to keel over from a heart attack. I couldn't figure out why he was so scared hours after the dog left, but D told me today that unfortunately the poor cat really did have a real Halloween scare-- while he was running away and before D could catch the dog, he slipped while jumping up on the counter and the pooch almost had a piece of him for dinner, seriously. I can't imagine I'm not going to have nightmares about that tonight.

Otherwise, we had a really good time-- ate way too much candy and giggled at all the cute little kiddies that came up. We had the best Dorothy I've ever seen-- wig and dress and shoes and even a little bitty basket with a dog in one end and a place for candy on the other. My favorite kid all night was the kid dressed up as a toxic waste canister, though. He had on a big silver cardboard canister, and when he turned around there was a little canister on his back to put the candy in. Brilliant!

Every time I watch M*A*S*H late at night, I get so tickled looking at Hawkeye's stockroom supplied gin still (a.k.a The Wellspring of Life), and I keep thinking how fun it would be to rig one up someday (I already know how-- it's one of the first labs you ever do in college O. Chem. ) Well, here I was this afternoon making up my Christmas list, when what should I come across but the website for Destilarias Eau de Vie, seller of fine working copper stills. Seriously? This is freaking awesome. They even have a mini version of a Chanterais still. AND they sell all the accessories for measuring and regulating the final product too! So. Friggin'. Cool. (via Mighty Goods' 2007 Luxury Gift Guide)

To be honest, I used to totally hate the idea of a list of resolutions, but it's been awfully helpful this past year in assessing what I want to accomplish for myself and keeping me on track. This past year has been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, of accomplishments and failures. I've finished some resolutions, broken others, and crossed off at least a couple of things on my Bucket List. All three of these lists (2007 Resolutions, Virtuous Aspirations, and 100 Things To Do Before I Die) have been duly updated today with the accomplishments therein, and tomorrow will bring a new list of goals for the new year.

It's time once again to revisit and revise the resolutions for this year. Feh. More work to do. (List after the jump.)

Happy Easter, all you peeps out there. Hope you have a Sunday filled with hams, egg dying, and those horrible marshmallow creations that are so much fun to microwave.

Me? I'll be celebrating by mulching my yard and going to the gym, after I sleep in (in between bouts of peep jousting, of course.) Yeah. My Easter bonnet is a garden hat.

It's been a very long time since I spent Easter in a church. My husband, the intrepid trumpeter, spends most of the week prior to Easter in some church somewhere, trumpet players being a hot commodity around this holiday, but no one wants a clarinetist or flutist, this being a day for fanfares and pious pompous brass chorales proclaiming the Resurrection. So I spend my Easter Sunday saying hello to my flowers and turning over soil and breaking up mulch and pruning trees and cleaning out my potting area.

Hope y'all find all your Easter eggs. (No May surprises later-- that's just nasty.)

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

People, today has been one of the most swing-of-the-pendulum days I've experienced in a long time (and that's saying something.) It started out with utter divorce from life, stress, and reality for a few hours, and then the world came crashing down on my head again.

This morning, I woke up early (!!!) and met a friend and we scuttled down to the Chesapeake Bay to go fossil hunting. During the drive down to the site we talked about life, the universe, and everything, and then tugged on our wading boots and sifted through millenia-old fragments of shells and coral in search of the shy and elusive fossil shark tooth. For three blissful hours I completely forgot about everything that's been going on in my life, absorbed in the freezing cold water and the waves and the sand and the multicolored chaos in my sand sifter. I laughed for no reason, forgot about being stressed out, and marveled at the wonder of holding a relic that no human being had ever touched, that had been quietly waiting in its dark cocoon of sand and soil for anywhere from five to twenty million years for me to come and find it. Even after I came home I still kind of floated in a sort of suspension of disbelief and stress release for a few hours, scrubbing my shells and taking a bubble bath.

And then the phone rang.

My boss, telling me that if we didn't find the necessary personnel for next week's concert by Friday, he was going to cancel it.

Why does everything with that group have to be so God damn hard? Apparently, because peoplehave been relying on our rather limited resources to find subs for them (which is not our job), now the whole group has to take a huge financial hit. It will cost us as much money to cancel the concert as it will to put it on at this point. Music rental, hall reservation, and all of the ad money. Gone.

I think I'm just going to move out to the Maryland shore and live in a lean-to. Life would be simpler. With all of the contemplation of the past today, I'm trying to be philosophical: this too shall pass, and one day my bones will be fossils in somebody's museum. No one will care if I end up looking like an ass for next week, they'll just look at my hip bones and say, "My, what a grand fat arse she must have had... I wonder what her life was like?" It's probably better that they'll have to wonder. So I'm not going to fret about it. It's not worth it. Life is too short to spend all your time freaking out about everything, as my friend pointed out today in a total pot-kettle moment.

I'm going to bed. I'll think about it tomorrow.

There's just something about a well-played Elvis song that can completely take your heart and mind to another place.

I meant to write this entry a couple of weeks ago, on the occasion of mine and D's eighth anniversary, but I never quite got around to it with all of the shows and housecleaning and running around that I'm doing, which is entirely appropriate to the state we find ourselves in. Since the last anniversary entry I wrote, things have gone upside-down, backwards and totally askew in our lives. We've gone from stability and a shining almost-certain future to uncertainty and day-to-day survival.

The constant we've had throughout the summer has been that almost every night of the week, we pack up, pick up, and go play the summer show at the theatre, which this time happens to be based on a litany of Elvis songs. Now I don't know about you, but hearing Elvis songs of any fashion brings me vivid memories of watching the old movies in which he sang them, and none more so that Blue Hawaii. I don't have a memory of the plot at all, but I do remember him strumming whatever stringed instrument and crooning I Can't Help Falling In Love With You as my twelve-year-old self sprawled on the floor gazing up at the T.V.

More importantly, I remember singing the lyrics along with him and falling for them and the ideas they held wholeheartedly:

Wise men say
Only fools rush in
But I can't help falling in love with you
Shall I stay
Would it be a sin
If I can't help falling in love with you

Like a river flows
Surely to the sea
Darling so it goes
Some things were meant to be

Well, here we are again, at the close of another year, and it's time for the yearly roundup of dids, didn'ts and should'ves.

Let me start out by saying that bar none, I think 2008 has been one of the crappiest years of my life in some ways. It started off with a bang and the hits just kept on coming all year. I pretty much spent the year in a fog of the worst, blackest depression anyone has ever experienced and so I would like to declare 2008 a non-entity and start over this year with a fresh slate.

That's not to say that nothing good happened in the past 365 days-- I finally met and brought home Gorgeous George, the new project had some major advancements, and I got my web design sideline rolling. Still and all, it's time for an upgrade I think.

That being said, I've updated the appropriate lists: Virtuous Aspirations, 100 Things To Do Before I Die (I crossed off two major ones!!), and the list for 2009 will be up tomorrow.

Enjoy you New Year's festivities and have a happy and safe night! I for one will be for a party and a bottle of bubbly if I can stay upright that long after the show. Sweet!

It's that time again-- the day for starting over and doing better, so here are my goals for the year. (For reference purposes, see this and last year's list) It's a little shorter than last year's, but it has more punch this year I think. Also, it's about as long as I have energy for and about as much as I think I can realistically take on, so here goes:

So here's the thing:

I've missed you guys.

I've had some pretty heavy things going on in my life this year, things which basically have changed the face of my entire existence in one way or another. And I haven't really felt comfortable talking about that here, in public, for anyone and everyone to read. More importantly, there are very good reasons why I can't and shouldn't.

And frankly, it's killing me.

Because if you're still reading this, then I've probably known you, or had you as a reader, for long enough that you're probably wondering what the hell happened to me.

Because if you're still reading this, you're probably one of the people whose opinions and love I value enough that I'm going to need your help in the next year.

Because frankly, I need an outlet more in-depth than Twitter and less personal than Facebook.

So here's the other thing:

On March 1st, this blog is getting a makeover. I'll be moving it to a new server, shaking up the layout a little, and converting it to a new CMS, though the site address won't change. The ranting and raving and silliness will stay the same, only there will be some things that I don't want to share with everybody, some things that I may need to share and say, but only within certain circles. I'm tired of keeping it all pent up and I've done that for long enough.

If you're still reading this blog, and you're been a loyal reader or friend or even a long-time lurker, email me at (sassy{at}sassyblonde{dot}net) with the title of this post in the subject line or comment on this post and request an access key. I'd love to have you in the circle.

Til then, I'll be cleaning house and doing some renovation, and I'll see you on March 1st.

UPDATE: So, snow and circumstances being what they've been around here, I'm going to have to ask you guys to wait around a little longer, which actually ends up being appropriate for a lot of reasons. I've gotten all your emails and comments, and if you can hang tight for a few more weeks, I'll have the next phase ready on April 1st.

Yeah, yeah. I know I said I wouldn't be back 'til March, but I lied. Basically, as I said in my last post, I'm tired of internalizing and there are a lot of things I have on my mind.

Such as, for instance, Valentine's Day.

Now there's a huge caveat before I begin: I have a lot of reasons to hate Valentine's Day myself this year, but I've always been of a more philosophical bent about it and it's still a sweet holiday to me for a lot of reasons too.

I spent a huge portion of today listening to everybody and their dog complaining about Valentine's Day. People who think it sucks because it's designed to make single people feel horrible about being single. People who think it's a crock of shit designed to sell chocolates and flowers. People who think it's shitty to have a specific day where you have to share your feelings. People who are shitty about having to do things for someone on that day to show them they love them. To all of those people, I would now like to share a rebuttal and an example to follow.

Let's start with the holiday itself: Valentine's Day is, at its most basic, a day to show your most special someone or someones how you feel about them. A license to do all of the cheesy things that, during the course of the rest of the year, you'd never dream of doing because they're too cheesy, too, silly, too extravagant, too sappy. It's a chance to go over and beyond the call of normal duty in an effort to show some small measure of one of the most powerful emotions we humans can experience, love. At the very least, it's an excuse to tell someone how you really feel without being called silly, stupid, or overly emotional or having them think you're a freak for the depth of your emotion.

More than any other complaint this year, I'm extremely bothered by everyone I heard picking up that blase pseudo-argument that you shouldn't need a specific day on which to show your feelings, or shouldn't be forced to show them on a specific day.

Why not?

In a culture where it's far more common than not for people to take their spouses, life partners, and love ones for granted, what's so wrong with that? In my experience, the very people who make this argument are the ones who do exactly that for the rest of the year: undervalue and pass over the relationship. It makes me a little sick. If you love someone, I don't understand how it's possible to feel "forced" to show your affection for them. More than that, if you love someone, I would think it would make you happy to have one more chance to show them in any way you could. In EVERY way you could. You never know when that person could be hit by a bus, or whether or not that one expression could eventually make the difference between delighted and divorced. It's the expression of the feeling that matters, stupid.

Case in point: one of my co-workers, one of the few people I know who I can say honestly and without any sort of reservation is happily married, made plans with his wife to do something fun for he holiday: each of them would get something for the other that they had to wear, no matter how absurd, for their alone time on Valentine's night. It was one of the sweetest things I'd ever seen, to hear him talk about it today, not because he relished making her wear something skimpy and sexy (though he did, but that's also not unusual for her) but because he was so excited to see the look on her face when she saw him wearing what she picked out for him. His smile was sweet, and open, and excited when he talked about seeing her smile. He didn't care about whether she even wore what he'd bought-- the joy for him was making her happy.

You don't have to go out and buy extravagant gifts to do it. A simple hand-made gift would suffice, one that comes from thought and feeling and the intimate knowledge of what makes that person happy. That's what matters, in the end, right? The fact that you WANT to make that person happy? And I don't know what's worse, the fact that in most cases the people who bitch about it don't follow through on the rest of the days of the year or that most of them seem not to care when their significant someone chooses to do so for them (or that their opinion changes when they receive the gift that that someone picked out for them.) I don't mean to sound shrill, but I guess that I'm saying is that rather than complaining about the day, you should be relishing the opportunity to show that person in a real way how much they mean to you. I'm tired of the cynicism about it, the sarcasm, the attitude that they're better than a simple expression that can mean so much to that other person. Love isn't that complicated.

So there's the crux of the issue: if you're more concerned about being put-out by having to do it than by the results of doing so, maybe you should just keep your mouth shut and find something better to do. Like find a better way of showing your person what they mean to you and how thankful you are for their love and attention, because you'll never be sorry for really trying to show them. I guarantee you'll be sorry someday if you don't.

(Above Anti-Valentine's Poppet, who now resides on my office shelf, by artist Lisa Snellings. Get your own little friend over at Poppet Planet.)