Why won't my head stop throbbing?

I have had a sinus-y headache for four days now and no amount of Excedrin Sinus, Advil Cold & Sinus, or Sudefed is making it any better. The light in my office, not to mention this here computer screen, is killing me. Oh, and the sun on my way in to work the morning--Ugh! The sinus pressure is making me walk like I'm drunk, but the headache--OH MY GOD--it's like waves of pain undulating through my brain every time I make a sudden move, like standing up or bending over to pick up a dropped pen. I almost called in sick today but (a) I had lots to do; and(b) calling in sick for a headache seemed ridiculously lame to me. The boss and half the office is sick, though, so it's only a matter of time before this becomes some full-on Nyquil-force illness. Airborne, save me.

Thwarted

I tried to get my car Smog Checked today but my attempts were thwarted. The first place I checked doesn't do smog checks, the second place, well, the entrance was impossible to find and there were too many people there for the car wash, and the third place was closed on Sundays. Okay, truth be told I didn't try very hard. I'm sure I could have found a place further down the street. In fact, I know of a place right down by Kaiser and the Scientology center that is surely open on Sunday. But I'm not feeling well and I was cranky so I went home.
Besides, I had soup in the Crock Pot to check up on.

Such a deal!

I love me some dollar stores. Back in Pennsyltucky, when I worked for the Loews folk, there was a dollar store across the "street" (it was a mall) from my theatre. My friend, Brian Pastor (Hey Bri!), and I would go there nearly every day to see what we could get for a dollar. Sometimes you get a plastic piggy bank or a Virgin Mary night light. Sometimes you found a deal, like when they had a shipment of awesome pens or a whole desk set--FOR A DOLLAR. Brian and I found it endlessly amusing to ask the clerks, "How much is this?" Yeah, we were those people.

So imagine my delight when I traversed the busy thoroughfare known as Olympic Blvd to peruse the aisles of the Kenso Store in search of tissue paper for gift bags and found such delights as a mug with Bugs Bunny playing the piano (some of my favorite Bugs episodes involved the classics), knitting needles and crochet hooks (sizes 8 and H respectively) and yarn (yes, it's acrylic, but treated with aloe) which I can use to teach my co-workers to knit when we get a minute to slow down.





And I still had money left over to buy some chili/lime fruit from the guy on the corner.

Really? It's that easy?

On the Dell homepage, which comes up when I sign in at someone else's computer, features a daily WikiHOW. Today's feature is "How to be patient." It's almost insulting in it's simplicity, like step 3: "Overcome bouts of impatience." Seriously? Shouldn't that be the only step in being patient? Related Wikis on that page are "How to do nothing," "How to deal with impossible people," and "How to be patient while doing homework with your young child."

So, I clicked on the "How to do nothing" tag. I think I need to write for these things. "Step 4: Set an alarm so you know when your "nothing" time is over." Um, doesn't that defeat the purpose of doing nothing? If you have nothing to do, you don't need to set an alarm. If you set an alarm, it implies that your "doing nothing" is actually doing something--that something being nothing. You're also supposed to plan ahead and tell people that you're busy--doing nothing.
Have these people ever done nothing before? Because I'm pretty much an expert on doing nothing and, really, you don't need to plan ahead or alert the media or--God forbid--set an alarm. You simple need to remain inert. See? One step. Done.

Laurie Ann takes a walk

Christmas has exploded all over. My office:

My neighbor's yard exploded too.
Then I took a walk over to Big Lots (I needed a strainer) and look what I found.


"Simply Red"--Don't you love it? Only $4.00!! Winos take note.

On the way home, I found socks and a shoe. The shoe find was a little scary since it was behind a fence in a construction zone. hmmm...

Now I'm getting back to my Veronica Mars marathon and some extra diligent knitting, if I'm ever going to be done by Christmas.Wish me luck!

I'm still alive

I've been very unbloggy lately. Sorry. I'm knitting some gifts, I made some awesome Mac & Cheese, had some ice cream (the real kind, not the finger-quotes kind), slept too much and ignored responsibilities.

But I'm still here. Just in case you were wondering.

Morning people--Who needs 'em? Or, Damn I'm cranky before my first cup of coffee.

It's cold at Chez Gingham. The bed, what with its electric heating apparatus, is warm and cozy. I hit the snooze too many times. A friend is coming over after work and I didn't have time to straighten my apartment this morning and won't have time before she arrives to do any cleaning either. Then I walked out to my car and found a ticket on the windshield, because I'm lazy and dumb. All this left me in a mood. So, naturally, the first person I talk to is some overly glib morning person who greets me with a "Good Morning! How was your weekend??" I mumbled "fine" and went about the business of making a cup of coffee. Then another person asked "how was your weekend" and the poor gal in the work room with me had to hear my rant.

"How was my weekend? It was boring, because my life is boring. I did the same thing I do almost every weekend. I sit on my sofa and knit and maybe watch some bad movies, or good ones if my Netflix came through. Occasionally, as need be, I'll do some laundry or venture to the store for a necessity or two. But for the most part, my weekend--every weekend--is exactly the same. So I wish these cheery mothers would stop asking me every &^%$# Monday how it was. " Or something along those lines.

To which she replied, "so, how was your weekend?"

I had some extra strong coffee and was my usual ray of sunshine coated in sweetness in no time. But, whoa, I was a little scary for a while.