Samantha Ling

At lunch today, we were seated near a very young couple. I'd say that they were in college as I live near the University of Central Florida. She had a retro 50's thing going, dyed black hair, bangs with a short straight bob, and a cute little headband. I noticed her because I always liked that style, but never had the energy to put it together. I thought she was cute. Beyond that, I hadn't thought much about them.

Chris had chuckled a bit after he heard the guy talk. The guy was speaking with a gangsta's affectation with lots of "Ayight's". I thought he was simply playing around, which turned out to be true. He stopped talking that way soon after. I found him completely forgettable.

When the waiter asked how they wanted to split the check, she said, "I'll take the appetizer."

But the guy said, "Just split it down the middle." I don't know what the waiter said, but after he left, the girl asked, "Why did you say that?"

"Because I want you to pay more," he said too loudly because I heard that quite clearly.

"I had half a salad and you had that big pizza, how do you think that's fair?"

"You had a sip of my Sprite," he said. A weak comeback to be sure. California Pizza Kitchen has free soda refills, I might add. It would hurt him none if she drank a whole glass. But he was trying to cover for himself. I think he realized how petty he was being.

He eventually apologized several times and eventually said that he'd give her more money, but at no time did he give her money and I have no doubt that he will pretend to forget he owed her cash.

After his horrible outburst, I glanced over to check him out. I can't even say that this guy was hot much less handsome. He was actually downright fugly. So I couldn't see why she would be with him. It's not because he has a caring and giving nature.

I wanted to tell her not to invest any more into that relationship. He's just not a good guy. If I ordered a pizza and gave a piece to my friend, I wouldn't require her to pay for that slice. It's just not how it's done. I definitely wouldn't do that to someone who I was dating.

But Chris also said that he was a learner boyfriend. You have to date a bunch of bad one's to find a good one. And I hope so. Because nobody should ever date someone that selfish.

Technorati : My Life

Happy New Year! Chris and I spent it at home watching the ball drop on tv. Chris found the new design of the ball really gaudy, but I thought it was fun and colorful. And it was also more energy efficient, so I'm all for that!

From our upstairs guest bedroom, we could see two fireworks displays. We watched them for awhile before we cleaned up and went to bed. Midnight is way past my bedtime

Our backyard neighbors managed to obtain professional fireworks again. And true to form, they managed a mishap that resulted in much screaming, but no one was seriously hurt.

I hope that you all enjoyed your new years eve and that 2008 will bring great things, happiness and great success!

Technorati : My Life, New year

175 wordsTouchtyping for free
Oh yes, I am a machine.

Except that it's been doctored. I really type around 90 words a minute if I really concentrate. On average I type about 75 words a minute. And I use all 10 fingers. How people can type 125 words a minute is a little beyond me.

What I've noticed amongst all those people who have taken this test is that typing speed has nothing to do with writing output. Some writers who type with only three fingers have written much more than I have. And it just goes to show that writing is all about perserverance. You can have 30 fingers, but if you don't sit down and do it, a 1 fingered person will have accomplished more than you.

I just wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays before we head into the hectic weekend before Christmas. I've been so busy that I haven't sent out holiday cards, but I did remember to buy them. It's got a photo of Chris and myself from my brother's wedding, so I doubt we can use it again next year. And the one's I buy aren't horrendously overpriced, so I'm not too bothered by it. Some of you may begin receiving them sometime during the year when I think about it. But since I have 50 of them, I will have some left over. I always seem to have a handful left over every year, but that's all right. I can use them as a yearly chronology of what we looked like. I envy people who can scrapbook, but I just don't have the inclination for doing all that.

I only got one Christmas card this year, so I either have very few friends or everyone else is like me! I'd like to think that it's the latter, however delusional that might be.

I hope the upcoming days are enjoyable and the presents you receive are what you've asked for.

Happy Holidays!

Technorati : my life, xmas

Chris calls most of the shows I watch my murder shows: CSI, L&O, Bones, Criminal Minds, etc. People seem to be constatnly hacked up, burned up, chopped up, or in Bones' case, eaten up. He dislikes all the ways the writers find of killing people. He especially doesn't like L&O: Special Victims unit. He doesn't like people getting sexually messed around with. And I can understand that. So I watch that show when he's not around.

Bones though, he's got a love hate relationship with Bones. He finds the dialogue and the characters interactions amusing, but he finds it is one of the grossest shows too. Not only did they have someone melted in a bathtub full of lye, they have an ongoing mystery about secret society cannibals! Yes, cannibals! More than one! And unfortunately, Bones didn't get recorded yesterday. The DVR seemed to have decided that Bones started and ended at 8:00pm. It recorded that there was a show, just that there wasn't one for recording. Luckily, I can watch it on the FOX website. They have a FOX on demand online, but you have to install a move media plugin. The other option is to pay $2 from iTunes and watch it there.

I'm currently watching Criminal Minds and it looks like its adding Xander from Buffy to its lineup of characters. I find the CSIs and the L&Os mostly forgettable, but good to put in the background. And well, I like mysteries. And there isn't a mystery show out there that's not about murders. Do you know of one? At any rate, it's now past my bedtime, so have a good evening and I will see ya'll tomorrow!

Technorati : My Life, bones, television

Well, the family has gone home. Chris and I had originally planned to go see Hitman today, but I was just too tired. We're sitting at home relaxing now. I'm typing this journal entry and Chris is playing "Mass Effect", a game I bought him for his bday.

The turkey yesterday was fine, but I had mistimed things and so the corn came out cold. We bought a full meal, pre-cooked turkey breast(we don't eat the dark meat, so why bother buying the whole turkey?), mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and cranberry sauce from Publix (pronounces puh-blicks, not Pew-blicks like Allaman likes to say it). So all I had to do was warm it up. Unfortunately, the directions for the turkey said 10 minutes, but I think what it meant was 10 minutes per pound, which meant that the turkey was mostly cold when I took it out of the oven. Thankfully, all I had to do was slice it up and nuke it. It didn't taste too bad. I could have stressed over it, but I didn't. Seriously, I'm not a five star chef and everyone knows it. I can cook, but it's not going to be some grand meal. People know this when they come over.

But the house is clean and all the five million dishes have been washed. I can't believe how many dishes we go through for a meal. I mean, there were only five of us, but we used up all the knives and spoons as well as all the dinner plates. And I have a set for twelve. How does that work?!

I hope the rest of you had a good thanksgiving. And I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Technorati : My Life

Oh yes, IKEA has finally come to my town and it opened yesterday.  I wasn't crazy enough to go opening day.  The news had people lining up to go in.  The line didn't look incredibly long, but I still wouldn't line up for an opening.  I've got better things to do even if they were giving things away for free.  I'm not too partial to free things.  I can't seem to throw them away because they're perfectly good, but perfectly useless.  Thankfully, Chris has no such compunction.  He lives a Spartan existence.

So we went the day after the opening.  Yes, I couldn't wait until the weekend.  And as it was, there were a lot of people there.  I went to look for a desk and came back with a chair.  A surprisingly comfortable chair.  I always have problems with chairs supporting my lower back.  This one did and didn't cost a fortune, so I snatched it up.  And it's a fancy pants red color too.

I have to measure my space to see which desk will fit.  I found a corner desk that I like with a right hand extension, but we think it might be too big, so we have to measure to make sure it won't be too bulky.  Luckily IKEA is all about small cramped spaces, so there will be a table to fit the space.  The only question is whether I'll like it.  But when you need function over form, there isn't too much you can do. 

Of course I bought some random things like dish towels ($0.49 each!) and a cheese slicer (for making grilled cheese on sliced sourdough. YUM!) and picture frames.  I refrained from picking up more things as I think I can only get away with buying in small quantities.  But since we have to go back for my desk anyway, I figure I'll pick up some more things when we go back in saaaaay three days or so. Oh yes, I do loves my IKEA.

About a month ago, Joanne was looking at my fishtank. It's got a bunch of apple snails, 4 black skirt tetras, 2 bumblebee guppies, and the 2 infamous guppies that I did not buy. (The third one died a while ago. Don't ask me when as I hadn't noticed any dead bodies in the tank. Those fish are viscious carnivores.) She had thought one of my bumblebee guppies had died, so I brought over the magnetic algae scraper (which are totally ingenious as you never have to actually get an algae scraper in there. It's easy to use whenever you see algae, except when you get lazy and it's no longer strong enough to get more the tenacious algae.....which is also what happened to me. So I'll have to go in there with a real scrubber at some point and scrub the hard stuff.)

So Joanne thought that one of my fish was dead, so I moved the algae scraper near it and the goby moved. They like to just sit around on leaves and hang out. Then she discovered that one of the infamous guppies was floating upside down. And with a few pokes of the algae scraper, it did not move. But since I could see that it was still breathing, I let it be. Who am I to prematurely send it to its death? I figured I'd fish it out when the time finally came. Or the other fish ate it. So I checked it the next day and sure enough, it's not there anymore.

The damned thing was actually swimming around. So I checked it the next day and the day after that thinking that it was just a fluke. It'll totally bite it any day now. And I kept checking it until I gave up. Because you know what? It's still alive. And whenever I go near it, the thing wants food. Like all the time. Damned thing came back from the near dead. Don't ask me what was wrong with it. I have no idea. I'll probably have these guppies longer than any of the other fish. And I didn't even want them! They clash with everything else in the tank. Ah well. It's not like I wanted to replace them with other fish.

Until tomorrow people!

Technorati : Fish, My Life, Pets

Chris asked me yesterday how this NaBlo thing was going and I said it was excruciating. I try to make these journal entries interesting, but I'm not sure that I'm succeeding in every entry that I write. But then, at least I'm trying right?

Chris' family calls him three times a week. Ok, maybe it's not three times a week, but it feels like it. They talk to him a lot. If it's not the Mom, it's the Dad. And if it's not either, it's the Baby Sister, who is in college. (She's ten years younger.) But whenever Chris calls the parents and has to leave a message on their voicemail, he always says "This is Chris H, your son." As though providing the last name hasn't helped them remember that they are related, he adds the second part like they're going to forget they had a son.

I very highly doubt that they'd forget him since they come visit once a month. The older sister calls him the Golden Child. But the Golden Child was a bald little asian girl last I remembered and she was walking off into the sunset with Eddie Murphy. I wonder whatever happened to her and would she approve of the Scary Spice Murphy Baby?

Technorati : My Life

I'd been seeing little pieces of Frito's and cereal and just general stuff all over the carpet. So after work, I got the vaccuum and started setting it up.

"What are you doing?" Chris asked.

"I'm going to vaccuum," I said.

"No, really," he said. "What are you doing?"

"What's it look like I'm doing? I'm going to vaccuum."

Then he said, "Who are you? And what have you done with Ling?"

Because I generally don't vaccuum unless Chris asks me too. He was quite surprised today!

Technorati : My Life