Barb's Burblings

Financial genius at work

So I went to pay my July rent and, looking through my check register, realized that I couldn't find an entry for my June rent. I figured that I had to have paid rent in June--I remembered paying, and haven't heard anything to the contrary from my landlord.

My question was how I managed to not note a considerable debit from my account, yet still manage to avoid overdrawing my account. My magical abilities?

The answer came tonight as I balanced my checkbook. In addition to neglecting to note my rent payment, I also apparently forgot to add a paycheck. Which is great, as it means that I have extra money! Woo! Not tons, but still, it's nice. And it's nice that my idiocy cancelled myself out.

The power returns...but who needs it?

Yesterday, as part of the O's sweeping a double-header from the Phillies, Brian hit his first home run of the season. Yay! Sadly, though, this has started the crazies up again about Brian--Why hasn't he hit a home run earlier? Last season he had 8 in the month of April! Is he on something?

Which drives me up a wall. Did they not notice that his arm was practically taken off at the elbow last season? Geez! It's astonishing that he managed to play Opening Day; more impressive is how very well he's doing (batting .314, 30 RBIs, 19 SBs, 16 2Bs; his usual impressive self defensively). People just drive me insane sometimes.

For what it's worth, Brian certainly hasn't been upset at his low HR total:

"I was content the whole year," Roberts said. "I knew my power might drop, just because of strength-wise and not being in the same physical condition I was last year. I hoped that I'd hit one, eventually."

Of course, he did have to put up with his teammates pointing out that he's now tied with pitcher Kris Benson for home runs this season.

Damn you, Booth!

I saw Assassins last night at the Signature, and it was fabulous. I was particularly blown away (ba-dum-CHING!) by the portrayal of John Wilkes Booth. He was very much the way I imagine Booth, the man, to be--handsome, charming, and slightly unnerving. Completely riveting performance. (Also, loved when Sarah Jane Moore was fumbling around and shoved her sodas and chicken at him--what's more fun than John Wilkes Booth disgustedly holding junk food?) I also loved the staging; instead of the more traditional fairgrounds, or even the train station setting from the version earlier this year, they chose to stage it in such a way to reflect on the audience. It was intriguing. The ending was fairly disturbing, but worked with how they chose to stage the production.

So now I'm a bit smitten with Mr. Booth. He was hot, yo. And it wasn't like the real Booth was fighting off women with a stick, either. (Handsome! Charming!) It doesn't help that I'm sort of immersed in Booth lately; I'm in the middle of reading Manhunt, which is about the search for Booth after he assassinated Lincoln. Fascinating book and a quick read; I'm almost 200 pages in and just started on Tuesday. Anyway, this Booth thing goes right up there with my minor thing for Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar a few years back. As in, not totally healthy. Ah well.

If there's one thing you can count on with me, it's that I'll soon enough find another musical to obsess over.

Current song in my head:
"The Ballad of Booth" from Assassins

Flashback

There's something about the combination of a thunderstorm and an a/c window unit that brings me back to my youth (I'm obviously old, since I use phrases like, "brings me back to my youth").

I feel silly, because I'm 27, but sometimes, thunder still totally freaks me out.

Late night cleaning session

I'm a procrastinator. I'm someone who needs a deadline to force me into action. And there's nothing like an impending visit from my parents (tomorrow!) to get me off my butt and force me to get my apartment into shape. I've spent the night cleaning, finding places for things, and organizing. I'm down to only having one box left in my apartment (casettes and random small stuffed things--no idea what to do with either group).

Anyway, it feels good! My project now is to put things up on the walls, which remain totally blank. I always find that terribly depressing when I'm moving out, but when I've just moved in, it doesn't really bother me. I can't believe I've been here for over a month, though.

Current song in my head:
"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from The Life of Brian

Amateur night at the Scam Artists' House

So I was sitting at my desk at work yesterday, minding my own business, when the phone rang. What was odd was that instead of a phone number popping up, it just said "Verizon" something. I'm curious, and I pick up the phone:

Me: Barb, [Department]
Caller: [Unintelligible] Please hold
Hold music
Caller: [Laughing voices in background][Unintelligible]
Me: Who are you looking for?
Caller: [Unintelligible]checking account.
Me: I think you have the wrong number.
Caller: I don't! We're the BILL COLLECTORS!
Me: [Laugh] I'm sure.
Hangs up

They called right back, but for some reason, I didn't answer.

Fear the bearcoon

There weren't any beardogs when we went camping this year. There was, however, a bearcoon that brutally attacked our paper towels on Friday night.

It was a good camping trip. We didn't kill ourselves by hiking down to Dark Hollow Falls this year (I should say, by hiking back from Dark Hollow Falls, as that was the part that sucked). It was very low-key, which was great. We did go horseback riding, and my butt still hurts. I don't remember it hurting this much when I spent a week at a dude ranch in 7th grade. A park ranger managed to totally freak me out by telling us to hold our flashlights at ground level at night to see spiders' eyes reflected. Um, no thanks.

Anyway, camping was a blast. And there was the bonus of not bathing for multiple days! Yay!

Happy birthday to The Cute One

Today is Sir Paul McCartney's 64th birthday. But before I get to the lyrics, I just wanted to note that it's a bit sad that his divorce is going ahead now--I guess just in time to answer some of the questions the song raises. Anyway, happy birthday, Paul! And happy Father's Day!

When I get older losing my hair
Many years from now
Will you still be sending me a valentine
Birthday greetings bottle of wine

--John Lennon & Paul McCartney

Happy anniversary

Tomorrow is Kathy and Robert's 5th anniversary. Hard to believe that it's been 5 years, though in some ways it feels like forever. (Probably because they've been together for over 10 years now.) Anyway, I wanted to say a big "Happy Anniversary." Their strength through a very hard time this year has been inspirational--not only that they got through it, but the way they supported each other. I'm really glad that they found each other; I'm really glad that Robert has taken such good care of my big sis.

Mind you, I hate them at the moment--they're on a cruise to the Bahamas. I'm going camping this weekend, which will rock, but...cruise to the Bahamas.

Ahh, tv's short memory

Every week during baseball season, Comcast SportsNet airs Orioles All Access. It usually has a recap of the previous week's games, a preview of the upcoming week, maybe a segment on a player or some aspect of the game, maybe a segment answering viewer questions.

This past Sunday they did a segment with Corey Patterson on the art of stealing basics. Not surprising--Corey is leading the American League in stolen bases (1 behind Jose Reyes, who leads the majors). It amused me, though, because it was almost exactly the same segment they did maybe two seasons ago with Brian (who is also a good base stealer). The questions, the footage--everything.

Of course, I'm probably the only one who remembers that segment. Ah well.

My life as a bureaucrat

I had scoffed at people's ideas about working for the government. I've worked for the government for almost 4 months, but haven't really run into many of the stereotypes. There are a couple of people entrenched in their positions who could use the heave-ho, but most people aren't like that. It's a lot larger than anywhere else I've worked, but doesn't seem terribly different.

And then came this afternoon. I needed to FedEx something. Not far; just to another government agency. It seriously took multiple hours. Oh, how I miss just walking next door and grabbing a mailroom guy. This FedEx involved two different forms and chasing down someone for a signature. I seriously had to go 2 or 3 levels above me to get this approved. It was nuts.

Ah, bureaucracy in action.

Cats are weird

I don't know why, but Colin spent about 10 minutes this afternoon sitting on the floor, staring up at my air conditioner. I actually went over, picked him up (maybe he wanted a closer look?). He jumped back down, and went straight back to his previous position. It's all very mysterious.

Yes, it IS another exciting Friday night for Barb

This is incredibly frustrating and incredibly addictive.

Too bad they left out characters from commercials

Courtesy of The Onion: 13 Unpopular TV Characters

I don't know about some of these entries. I was never one of those Buffy fans who hated Dawn; I wound up hating the writers, but that was more about what they did to Buffy herself. And I kind of liked James Hurley and Wesley Crusher; but then, I was, like, 12, so I liked many random, somewhat attractive (...to me. at the time.) boys. I can't really explain it now.

Priorities

It's 10 on a Thursday night. Am I watching Windfall? Nope, I'm recording that. Am I cleaning Colin's litter box? Nope. Am I organizing my linen closet? Nope. Am I rearranging my furniture? Nope. Am I putting away the Chinese food I ordered for dinner? Nope. Am I doing something about the boxes that are left to unpack? Nope. Am I watching the O's blow their third straight game? Nope.

So what AM I doing? Going through the ringtones on my new cell phone, of course. Because that's obviously the most vital thing to be doing at the moment.

Bad idea

I don't know when they started, but the Orioles have started including a "Notes" section on the scorecard. It comes in handy--like yesterday, when Jeter came out of the game after getting drilled, the Yankees totally had to switch around who was playing where, so I had space to write down what happened. So helpful in that way.

Except that now I have a place to vent my frustration. Saturday's scorecard has notes like "Matos sucks" and "It's like they're saying 'We can win, but we won't.'" I also noted that today's "Guess the Year" had a clue that said something about Paul McCarney announcing the breakup of the Beatles. I seem to remember a Paul McCartney in the Beatles, but no Paul McCarney. Oh, foolish scoreboard worker.

Sunday was Photo Day at Camden Yards, and once again Brian totally avoided me. Even Reserve Oriole Boyfriend Adam Loewen (who did a decent job yesterday) trotted back to the bullpen before making it over to me. Oh well.
I still had a blast, mostly thanks to the people I was standing near, both in line and in the park.

Negative? I now have two sunburnt strips on my arms. And I think my lips might be a bit sunburnt, too. I'll just be grateful that my face lotion is SPF 15.

In other news, if you take the Brian bobblehead and the Melvin Mora bobblehead and put them together, you get this:

Isn't that the cutest thing EVER? Oh my. They're doing The Move! I love it! I'm still upset I can't make it to the Brian bobblehead day, as that's Mary's wedding. I wonder if the Brian bobbles at Bowie and Frederick match this. I may have to call and ask.