Alyssa’s Blog…a modern day diary of the random thoughts of Alyssa Amsbaugh

there really IS fire!

I was home alone last night, sitting in bed, organizing all of my scrapbooking stuff for the big “Croptoberfest” event that I’ll be going to this Saturday, when I smelled smoke. It smelled the same as when my neighbor lights his little outdoor fire thingy. Not overly alarmed but wanting to confirm that it was just him (and that my house was NOT on fire), I got up to take a look outside.

HOLY SHIT! (Or I guess I really should say HOLY SMOKE!) There was so much smoke coming from the center of town that it was obvious that something major was on fire.

By now I could hear the fire engines and alarms going off.

I said a little prayer that no one should get hurt in this major incident in our small town. And of course I vowed to drive along the main drag this morning so I could see what the hell happened and give my Mom the scoop. I have to get my ass in gear so I can collect the garbage and put it outside, too, so ciao for now!

idk if “defection” is the right word, but it sure seems that way. Lately a lot of actors from the now defunct and beloved TV series “Stargate SG-1″ are popping up in guests roles on “Eureka.” What’s up with that?

First the actress who played the original doctor from SG1, Dr. Janet Fraiser (Teryl Rothery), showed up as a church organist. Her husband had recently died, she wanted to be with him again, hence she was royally messing up life in the town of Eureka by trying to create a time portal so she could go back in time to be with him. Need I say more? You know what havoc a time portal can cause! Please!

Then the actress who played the replacement doctor from SG1, Dr. Carolyn Lam (Lexa Doig), showed up in town when the air conditioning system was on the fritz and suddenly all the women were strangely attracted to Sheriff Jack Carter (portrayed by Colin Ferguson). Doig was hot for him as well and there was a cat fight between her and Allison Blake (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) over his affections. (Who could blame her? The A/C WAS down! LOL) For what it’s worth, I never cared for Doig on SG1. She spoke with a weird affectation, like a lot of phoney women do.

Now this past week, the actor who played SG1′s Dr. Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) showed up in Eureka as a metallurgist (or whatever you call someone who makes metal statues and artwork). He was his usual hunky self as the town battled a virus that turned metal into gold into rust into, what next? Something harmful to humans? Or just harmful to Allison’s son? Who knows?

OK, while I’m on my soapbox, let me get another thing about this past season of “Eureka” off my chest. Allison and Nathan are over…history…kaput. The divorce papers have been signed. The ink has long dried. So can we PLEASE move on to Allison and Jack? Why complicate things by throwing that woman dry cleaner into the mix? Jack and Allison together is a much hotter story line. And Allison makes an awful head of Global Dynamics. The power of the position is corrupting her ethics. Get with the program, Allison!

Oh, and here’s one last bit of trivia for you. In real life, Michael Shanks is married to Lexa Doig. Go figure. I thought he’d have better taste than that…

Deb’s comment to my previous blog made me want to ‘splain somethin’ to y’all! I make a lot of connections between things in my head but I DON’T always verbalize them. Hence, sometimes it sounds like there’s no connection between the things that I say, but I promise you that there is! LOL I can’t help it if I’m creative. And if I crack myself up. Which I do a lot. One thought triggers another and, voila!, I’m laughing and the world is like, “What?!?”

Case in point. JR has always marveled at how my mother and I converse. She says something very vague (i.e., “What did you think about that?”). It comes seemingly out of nowhere, with no introduction or clue to the topic. And I know exactly what she’s talking about. And of course the converse is true as well. Meanwhile, JR would be clueless. And scratching his head like, “How the hell did you get all that from that?” idk. It could be genetic. Like maybe our neurons are structured to fire the same way. Or maybe it’s just something that happens over time.

I truly believe that “nurture” has a lot of influence over our “nature.” And oddly enough, after being exposed to me and my family for many years, JR now has the uncanny ability to pick up a full train of thought from the slimest thread of conversation. I think it’s hysterical. In fact, he may now be better at it than I am!

We all know I’m silly, but Deb is right about something else: JR and I are very in tune with each other…we always have been. We watch the same show and find that we just had the exact same thought about it. Or we have a craving for the same thing at the same time. Or we pick up on some silliness that the other one starts and run with it. It happens an awful lot. I can’t explain it except to say that he “gets” me. I do believe that I amuse him to no end and that’s something I honestly didn’t expect.

I was feeling antsy yesterday afternoon when I sent JR this text message:

“No meatloaf tonight in my coffee, no meatloaf tonight in my tea.”

His response was:

“No meatloaf to stand beside me, no meatloaf to run with me.”

Yeah, we like to bastardize song lyrics a lot. That was my secret code way of telling him that we were having meatloaf for dinner. Besides, it made me laugh.

Yeah, I delight in this nonsense and I don’t always remember that I LOOK like I’m delighted. I think Erin happened to walk by at this very second and asked me what the smirk on my face was all about. What smirk???

BTW, the original song lyrics to The Guess Who’s “No Sugar Tonight” can be found here:

http://www.lyricsdownload.com/who-guess-no-sugar-tonight-lyrics.html

UPDATE!

BTW, I have to say that while I love meatloaf (the meal), I have always hated Meatloaf (the musician). LOL No Meatloaf tonight…PLEASE!

Yes, this just in from my brother, after I described a recent one-day round trip drive to upstate NY with our folks. I was telling him the story of how Dad’s candy-sucking was driving me out of my mind. At one point, I even timed it. One one-thousand (suck), two one-thousand (suck), three one-thousand (suck). OMG!

I was laughing about it later and THAT’S when I learned that I’m going straight to hell. And as if that weren’t bad enough, my brother said that if St. Peter for some reason should happen to forget that I should be on the naughty list, HE’LL be there to remind him!

Oh well, I guess that just means that you, my friends, can expect to see more monkeyshines out of me in the future. Why not, right? Apparently I have nothing to lose!

Was driving home from work today, listening to the Soultown station on my Sirius satellite radio—that’s only my favorite station—when some oldies but goodies came on. I was especially excited because I recognized one of them as a tune that I was wracking my brain to remember! Bobby Caldwell’s “What You Won’t Do For Love.”

You’d better believe that I grabbed any old piece of paper and a pen and jotted this info down immediately! Am going to get that song and The Chi-Lite’s “Have You Seen Her?” and Bloodstone’s “Natural High” for my mp3 player.

For the benefit of those who don’t know the elusive “What You Won’t Do For Love,” here are the smooth, sexy lyrics. Look it up for a listen and get your groove on!

http://www.amazon.com/What-You-Wont-Do-Love/dp/B000001PGZ

WHAT YOU WON’T DO FOR LOVE

I guess you wonder where I’ve been
I searched to find a love within
I came back to let you know
Got a thing for you and I can’t let go

My friends wonder what is wrong with me
Well I’m in a daze from your love, you see
I came back to let you know
Got a thing for you and I can’t let go

Some people go around the world for love
But they may never find what they dream of
What you won’t do, do for love
You’ve tried everything but you don’t give up
In my world only you makes me do
For love what I would not do

But then I only want the best it’s true
They can’t believe the things I do for you
What you won’t do, do for love
You’ve tried everything but you don’t give up
In my world, only you makes me do
For love what I would not do
Makes me do for love what I would not do

So there I am in Wal-Mart, minding my own business, perusing their selection of razor blades, shopping for refills for my Schick Intuition razor.  omg, let me just say that I LOVE this particular razor for my legs.  Silky smooth results AND no need to use shaving cream or gel as the razor is basically set in a bar of soap.

Anyway, the 6-pack doesn’t look like that much of a bargain so I figure a 3-pack will do, and that’s when IT happened.  I came across a BONUS pack.  OMG!  How much of a bonus is it?  I’m not sure yet because I have no idea how much it costs.  I’ve got to find one of those “what-price-am-I?” scanner thingys first.  So I toss both the 3-pack AND the bonus pack into my cart and head out in search of a scanner.

Turns out this bonus cost less than the price of the 3-pack, so I return the 3-pack to the shelf and continue on my merry way.

When I get out to my car, of course I have to ogle that bonus pack.  OMG!  I thought it contained a razor, 2 refills, and a hanger for the shower, but it REALLY contained A RAZOR, 4 REFILLS, AND A HANGER FOR THE SHOWER!  Holy shit, I hit the motherlode.  Got all that for less than the price of a 3-pack.  AND the shower hanger holds not only the razor BUT A REFILL AS WELL!

Am in consumer heaven and it feels good, a natural high.  Yes, for a chick, a bargain is like the icing on the cake…a delicious pleasure!  YUM

Sometimes it ain’t pretty, and I have to admit that today I’m worn out. Had a blast this Labor Day weekend, which actually started for me on Wednesday when I saw “Balls of Fury.” It continued on Thursday night with shopping (see my previous post) and on Friday with jeans day at work. But I did a lot of running around on Saturday and Sunday and am now more than content to just hang out at home.

Didn’t sleep well at all last night. Got up around midnight and played with a new Sizzix die cut shaped like a bowl (a gift from my sister-in-law Janice). For those of you unfamiliar with scrapbooking stuff, Sizzix is a brand of die cutting equipment. You use it to cut paper into shapes or letters. It’s a manual effort but it’s easy. Just sandwich the paper and the die (blade-side down) in the machine under the handle, gently pull down the handle to apply pressure, and the blades in the die cut the paper into the selected shape or letter. It’s opening up a whole new world to me.

I also got new contacts this weekend. Ended up with a year’s worth of my AccuVues at a great price. God do they feel good!

I also got a new book by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child…”The Wheel of Darkness.” Stopped by BJ’s to get it at nearly half off. Hope to get to read some of it today. It’s the next installment in their FBI Agent Pendergast series.

I also got a huge pink monkey from my brother and his family. They had a blast dressing her up as a hooker! Talk about attention to detail…in her purse was a picture of a monkey (her boyfriend) and a gift certificate to Michaels. Now I have to come up with a name for her. My cousin Linda suggested Shenaynay (a goofy girl character that Martin Lawrence sometimes played on his TV show “Martin”…Shenaynay thought she was all that and a bag of chips but she wasn’t sexy at all). I kind of like it!

I also got to savor the flavor of a new Paula Dean cake that my Mom made as our birthday cake. It’s 2 layers of chocolate cake (with Amaretto added to it) with a filling of cheesecake; it’s frosted with chocolate icing (with Amaretto added to it). Very rich but delicious, and I’m already thinking of other combinations that would go well with a cheesecake filling!

Well, it’s already 10:00 a.m. and I haven’t accomplished anything yet. Time to throw some clothes in the washer get going. YAWN!!!

well, by now you get the idea! “What happens in…” It’s not just for Vegas anymore.

Yep, I was up to monkeyshines with my friend, Erin, last Thursday night after work. omg, we had so much fun!

OK, here’s the back story. We had no set plans, but Erin fell in love with a very cute jeans jacket that I recently bought at Fashion Bug so I figured we were going shopping. We ended up hanging out in Wind Gap all night. It went a little something like this:

Went to Fashion Bug (where she got the same jacket and I bought a top).

Went to Payless Shoes (where we tried on a ton of those cute ballet-shoe looking sneakers but left the store empty-handed).

Went to Anthony’s Pizza (where we noshed on mmm mmm good specialty pizza; even the plain pizza was delicious).

Went to visit our friend Janelle (who I didn’t realize lived that close by; met her husband and played with her daughter).

Promptly upon leaving Janelle’s house we experienced a little something called NONbuyer’s regret. Yes, those shoes at Payless were calling us back, so…

Went BACK to Payless Shoes (where Erin bought some shoes as well as a gorgeous amethyst toned necklace for me).

Which prompted us to go BACK to Fashion Bug (because I had previously taken notice of the perfect top to wear with that amethyst toned necklace).

omg, some people would say we’re idiots for doing all that running around, but we’re happy idiots.

Hey, and we could have been high idiots, too! On our second trip back to the stores, there was definitely a joint being smoked somewhere. Reminded me of my college dorm. PU Maybe we should have inhaled more! LOL

FYI, I never smoked cigarettes or joints…bubble gum cigarettes are much more my speed. I just get a kick out of holding and playing with them. The sugary powder on them is so f’ing cool. I love to blow it off for a puff of “smoke.”

That said, I DO like the smell of tobacco in real cigarettes, as long as they are unlit. And my friend Dianne lets me borrow her pack of smokes and sniff it from time to time! LOL Thanks, Di!

uh huh, uh huh, took some time to celebrate (uh huh, to celebrate), just one day out of life, it would be, it would be so nice!

Madonna may have gotten it right, but I sure got it wrong!  LOL

See, at work there’s this tradition where we get to wear jeans on the day before a holiday.  I wanted to wear my new jeans (a steal at only $6.98 on clearance…originally $25).  Yep, that was the plan, until I came across…dum dum dum dum…THE THING THAT WOULDN’T DRY!

Yes, apparently I washed these jeans but forgot to put them in the dryer.  As you well know, if you leave something wet in the washer, it will turn “sour” and stink.  And these did.  So I washed them again, knowing full well that there was no way they were going to dry in time for me to wear them to work.  You see, it was, after all, about six o’clock in the morning on the day that I was planning to wear these jeans.  I was now SOL and I knew it.  And the only other jeans I had were too big.  So I came up with a plan…

But first, I want to take this opportunity to give a shout out to my friend, Scott, who told me that day that I’m melting away!  (You know me.  I was so happy that I couldn’t contain myself and I HAD to give him a great big old bear hug!  LOL)

OK, back to our story.  I think of my friend Debbie, who lives 3 minutes away from work.  Surely SHE won’t mind if I borrow her dryer.  Maybe I’ve still got a shot at this!  So I wear the big jeans and take the twice laundered wet jeans along with me.  Deb has lunch at 1:00, at which time she’s drying laundry anyway, and she throws my jeans in with her laundry.  The plan NOW is for me to change jeans at 2:00.  (I know, it’s late in the day, but THEY’RE NEW JEANS!  LOL)  Deb dried those jeans as long as time would allow but they just weren’t dry enough to wear.

I’d like to take this opportunity to give a shout out to Deb for drying a pair I was dying to wear!  LOL  omg, she’s so good to me!  Thanks again for your help!

OK, so in the end, it’s all good.  I wore those new jeans the NEXT day for our blow-out, all-you-can-eat, triple family birthday party (for me, my sister-in-law Janice, and my cousin Christine).  And BTW, despite the “all-you-can-eat,” those new jeans still fit!  Hooray!