And the hits just keep on comin’!

Yesterday, mid-email reply, my laptop froze. It’s not the first time it’s happened, seems that every time there’ s an update to Chrome that needs to be done at or around the same time as a Windows update the lappy likes to freeze while I’m trying to close out my browsers to get to the point where I can do the updates! Ridiculous, right?

Well, it gets better!

When I went to boot it back up from the hard shut down I had to do, it wouldn’t restart. For 5 hours. When The Hubby came home and looked at it the reboot happened finally, but then the screen was black. As is in dead. As in, this is the second time this has happened in the last 6 months. As in we already spent $200+ to fix it the first time and now I have to use our TV as a monitor so I don’t get to be online as much as I’d like because A) it hurts my eyeballs something fierce and B) the TV is on top of a high dresser so I have to look up at it and that hurts my neck.

He keeps insisting I use his lappy instead, but all of my stuff and all of my settings are on this one, besides what will he use if I’m using his lappy and this one is only hooked up to the TV?

I used to watch TV and surf at the same time, so when we had the TV on tonight to watch Zombieland on FX (great flick BTW, see below), I think I had insight into what smokers go through when they’re on the phone or just after dinner, it’s automatic to want to have that access – I wanted the lappy, yet I couldn’t have it because the TV was already being used.

Super annoying.

So, yeah – Zombieland:

2009

Jessie Eisenberg (aka Mark Zuckerberg from The Social Network) as Columbus

Woody Harrelson (aka Haymitch Abernathy from The Hunger Games) as Tallahassee

Emma Stone (aka Gwen Stacey from The Amazing Spiderman) as Wichita

Abigail Breslin (aka Olive Hoover from Little Miss Sunshine) as Little Rock

Bill Murray (aka Garfield in Garfield) as Bill Murray

Columbus is a shy, video game playing, loner in college in Austin, TX when the disease that causes people to become zombies gets unleashed on the world. He hits the road, headed home (to Columbus, OH), to see if Mom and dad are still alive – they were never close, but maybe things could change. He has rules for surviving the apocalypse he calls “Zombieland” and they make sense, though we never get the full list here are a few:

• #1 – Cardio – people underestimate how fast the zombies are and if you’re slow, or worse, fat & slow, then you will get eaten.
• #2 – Double Tap – people killing zombies better make darn sure they’re dead, just because they’re down doesn’t mean they’re done, always give ’em a second shot in the noggin, just to be sure.
• #3 – Beware of Bathrooms – now, as a bullied kid (he was a major dork) I’m sure he was always leery of them anyway, but bathrooms are places of death with zombies – easy pickin’s!
• #4 – Seatbelts – always wear them. Smart tip. Plus, if you have a zombie on your car and you have to stop suddenly to get them off, they fly, you stay seated. Thumbs up to that!
• Among others.

Along the way he meets Tallahassee, he’s a redneck type who loves guns and seems to be thriving on the zombie killing stuff. They decide to ride together for now, though Tallahassee doesn’t really see a point of having a companion along, but he’s damage and we’ll find out why later…

Then they meet Wichita and Little Rock, sisters who are con artists and liars, and through a series of events the 4 of them wind up on the road together. They make a good group and take care of each other when the going gets tough. The foursome even meet Bill Murray, though, sadly, they kill him in the middle of a prank gone awry.

It’s a fun romp, tongue-firmly-in-cheek, an adventure, a zombie flick, a horror flick (lots o’ gore), a romance, a drama, and a comedy, all rolled into one and I enjoy it every time I watch it! 🙂

• Fun fact: Ms. Breslin’s breakout role in Little Miss Sunshine was as Olive, and Ms. Stone’s breakout role in Easy A was also named Olive. Coincidence? I think not! lol

So that was my Friday night…though I was going to watch Grimm, but the cable hookup we have decided it didn’t like NBC tonight so it muted the channel and then took it off the air completely, which is fun. Not. LOL

Have a terrific weekend my dearies!

–Christine aka QoUI

I have been remiss

I have been sick, but I’ve also been lazy, as well as fighting ‘the sad’ as I battle a few inner demons (as well as some very real ‘outer demons’).  So with that in mind this will be a shorter post, but I have a question for you all:

Who do you talk to when you need to ‘talk’ to someone?

Vent.

Rage.

Rant.

Cry.

Or any and all of the above.

Assuming your partner wasn’t around because they’re working, or perhaps they are around but because they’re going through the same issues, and they handle them very differently from the way you do, they don’t want to think about them let alone speak about them anymore than is absolutely necessary. While you, on the other, need to talk, voice your concerns, fears, anger, annoyance, whatever the issue may be.

So who do you turn to?

Ideally, I’d go to a therapist, assuming I had the money for counseling, but if I don’t have the money for that I would hope a friend or loved one would be able to listen without judgement. But what if the issues are ongoing, perhaps taking months to resolve, do you continue to burden that same person (the unpaid friend or loved one, the paid one will listen to whatever I want them to hear for a fee)?

Or do you bottle it all up inside, wait to be alone, and cry, or scream, until your head hurts and you can breathe again?

 

What are your coping mechanisms?

 

 

*Cough* *cough* welcome to the first cold of the season

You may be singing Christmas carols, or getting ready for Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, but I am enjoying another tradition this time of year brings to us all — the first head cold of the winter! YAYYY! What fun!!

Oh, wait, what’s that you say? You don’t enjoy a head cold? Hmph. I can’t imagine why…your head feels fuzzy and 5 sizes too big, your throat gets substituted with sandpaper without your permission, the ‘drip’ ‘drip’ ‘drip’ down your throat from the fun stuff that’s living in your sinuses makes you gag, your nose is red from blowing it every 30 seconds and your lips are chapped from licking them because you have become a mouth breather. How is that not fun??

NyQuil is my best friend. I thank the gods above for the person who invented NyQuil. I would make a shrine to them if I had the energy to move from the warren I’ve created in my bed. The Hubby is sick too, though he’s about 24-36 hours behind where I am, but regardless he is working his cute little butt off trying to earn a few bucks to keep my NyQuil habit humming.

At any rate, thanks to my sick-fun, I’m cutting this one short, sorry guys, I will write a better one next time, I think…I hope…I’ll try… 🙂

 

— Christine — aka QoUI

Having strange reactions to the cold

It’s odd, I’m usually a very warm person physically, sitting in shorts and a tank top in January in front of the TV while The Hubby is wearing layers and layers of clothes and is bundled under blankets. But for some odd reason ever since we moved into the apartment we’re in now on campus I have the heat jacked up to 77 degrees and I’m always cold and he’s comfortable. At first I thought maybe I was getting sick, time for the winter cold I experience when the leaves fall, but it’s been going on for almost two months now. I think in part it’s because I’m in here pretty much 24/7 because I’ve that when I do leave and go out of the house for awhile when I get back I’m warm and open a window or turn the heat off for awhile, I need to get out of the house more often, I need a job just so I can be warm in my own home. Weird, right? LOL

I’m listening to music on my headphones, I rarely do this, but The Hubby is tutoring his sister via webcam and he has to talk really loud for her to hear him and it’s a wee bit distracting. LOL Besides, it’s not like I could benefit from what he’s teaching, first of all it’s physics, I only ever had that class once in my life and that more than 20 years ago; plus, he’s tutoring in Turkish and I don’t speak that except for a few curse words. LMAO

We went to a few Halal Markets yesterday and got some yummies for the kitchen, bread, wafer cookies, rock sugar for tea, bulgur, and walnut nazook which is so fricking yummy it should be illegal. 🙂

Have I mentioned that I’m a football fan? NFL, not college, college football looks so…immature somehow, like Pee-Wee football almost. I’m a native Philadelphian so, yes, I do follow the Eagles (all the way into hell apparently) and yes, this season has been beyond Horrible with a capital “H” I want to point the finger at Andy Reid (head coach) but I think some of the blame should be placed on Vince Young the back-up QB we picked up over the summer who decided opening his big, fat gob and saying  they were the “Dream Team’ pretty much doomed them to be the worst in the NFC this season. I hope the guys in the locker room beat him severely for that. lol Has the man never heard the word “jinx” before? I mean, come on! I thought pro-athletes were a superstitious bunch?! Where’s your brain at man? lol

I don’t really watch any other teams during the season but I do follow the playoffs and the the Super Bowl, though, I’ve over the last 4 or so years that I don’t follow the game as much as I used to. I don’t know why. Am I bored with it? tired of watching the Eagles get close but no cigar? Perhaps I only ever was into it because my Mother and Father were and the older I get the further I get from that time of my life when I was immersed in it. I wonder….

I never came up with a theme for Sunday that I liked very much, I put Sad Sunday in my “Themes” post but I don’t like it, who wants to be sad ever? Let alone one day of the week, every week? lol I will continue to search for a better adjective to use there and change it when I find one that I like, instinct says to go with “Silly Sunday” but I feel like that’s the easy way out and leaves the door to too much interpretation and I’d like a narrower focus if I can find one. Perhaps I should get away from the alliterative nature of the Themes and go for something different, but time will tell.

I’m trying to decide what to make for dinner tonight, I think I’m going to make chicken (bone in chicken thighs and legs) but it’s the treatment of them that is niggling at me…I have canned tomatoes or cream of chicken soup or some rosemary turkey gravy or maybe my mustard sauce. I will come up with something and report back to you with what I’ve done, I’m usually pretty proud of what I cook, I’m very intuitive and fly by the seat of my pants, but 99% of the time it works out really well. For instance I made chili last week and it included ground beef, pinto beans, rice, carrots, peas, corn, green beans, a can of diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, minced onions, onion powder, parsley, cilantro, a small tub of red sauce I made a few weeks back, and some brown spicy mustard. It was FABULOUS if I do say so myself. 😉

Well my dears I will stop being random for now and let you know what I cook later.

–Christine – aka QoUI

 

 

EDIT: So we made a late lunch, a sort of frittata, served with bread. It was beyond yummy! I fly by the seat of my pants when I cook, so no measurements, but give it a go, you’ll love it!!

Feeds 3-4 people (depending on the appetite!):

2 tbsp of vegetable oil

3 small red russet potatoes (cut up)

1 small green bell peppers (diced)

1 small onions (diced)

6 cooked turkey sausage patties (cut up)

(appx 3″ in length) beef pepperoni (cut up)

5-6 thin slices of cheddar cheese

5 large eggs

In a 10-12″ skillet cook the potatoes, peppers and onions together with the veggie oil until the potatoes are cooked, add the cut up turkey sausage and pepperoni and heat them through. Lay the thin slices of cheese on top of the cooked mixture and let melt (put a lid on the mixture to facilitate). Once the cheese is melted crack the eggs into the mixture, break the yolks, and stir in. Cook eggs to desired consistency (we prefer well done here). Serve with bread, ketchup, black pepper, etc, whatever your heart desires to go with the concoction! Enjoy!! 🙂

Saturday…library time!

Woot! Woot! (I cannot believe I just did that. <shaking my head in shame>)

It’s Saturday and I’m sitting in a study room with The Hubby and one of the students he tutors listening to them work formulas in calculus, I have no idea what they’re talking about! LOL

The library here in Fremont is fairly nice, good size, busy, lots of room, but everything is getting kind of old, all of the tables and chairs need to be replaced because of freakish stains or because they’re falling apart. For instance the table my laptop is sitting on is warped so with every keystroke my lappy wobbles and makes a soft smacking noise on the Formica.

I should be writing (working on a novel that I know will never be published, but I still love it!), or at least reading, but I’m too distracted and bored so I’m futzing around online and doing nothing productive at all. Yay for Saturday’s! 🙂

The book I’m reading currently is actually a re-read – Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair.

If you haven’t read anything by Fforde you’re missing out, he’s fun, creative, irreverent, and literary minded without being in-your-face with his knowledge of classic literature. The world populated by his main protagonist, Thursday Next, is set in 1985 where people still travel by zeppelin’s; Wales is a Socialist country at war with Britain; Britain is in a 100+ years war with Czarist Russia over the Crimean Peninsula; the popular pets are clones of extinct animals such as dodos; and people worship literature, not movies or TV. There are Special Operations police, Thursday is a SpecOps cop, a LiteraTech or SO-27 (her grade), she deals with literary forgeries, thievery, John Milton worshipers claiming that Shakespeare didn’t write the plays his name is on, and performing bad or horrible translated or modernized versions of classical literature is punishable by a court of law. If you can keep up with the quirks and oddities, and if you get all of the literary elements and references you will find this entire series to be hysterical and great, quick read, for almost any age.

After the library though, we are heading to a Halal International Market to see if they any yummies to buy! And tonight, for dinner (I think?) we are meeting The Hubby’s friend/gf, so maybe we’ll have a fun night after a blah kind of morning. We went food shopping last night and spent a ton of money but we should be covered for a few weeks, save a few small trips here and there for more milk or eggs or bread.

Oy. I got no sleep last night and I have no idea why! I think I got maybe 6 hours sleep, woke up to use the little girls’ room and couldn’t fall back to sleep because my mind wouldn’t shut off! Stupid mind.

Random info: my new cell phone doesn’t have a camera, I don’t know if I should be upset about this or not, I mean I used the camera on my other cell, but not often, but I think I would rather have a camera than not, otherwise I would have missed the bird on my car pic that I took in August on our first drive around the area. We were driving past a mall (background of pic) and this little green parakeet landed on the windshield! We were in heavy traffic so it wasn’t going to get hurt by our zooming down the road or anything, but after about 10 minutes of laughing and being worried about the bird I was finally able to pull over through the traffic and stop next to the curb. The Hubby got out and cupped the bird in his hands to place it in a bush (he figured it was a pet and was tired from not being used to flying a lot, but we couldn’t take it in the car or anything, we could only remove it to a bush), but just as it was in his hands it flew off! Like a bat out of hell! *ZOOM* down the street ahead of us and out of sight! LOL It was a fun welcome to the West Coast! 🙂

Frickin’ Friday

Well hello my dear QoUI friends, and welcome to a late Friday post, it’s currently ten of eleven at night, I’m watching Fever Pitch on cable and enjoying it (I forgot how cute this movie was, though I would love to see the original with Colin Firth again, too) I’ve had a snack of cheese and crackers and I’m sitting here all alone.

Why, you ask? Well, The Hubby is feeling under the weather, he’s been in bed since we got home from spending the price of a car on groceries, I woke him about an hour ago and had him chug some NyQuil in the hopes that A- he’ll get some decent rest and B- he’ll get better faster.

So here I sit at our makeshift desk (which is in fact a folding table) with a full tummy a decent movie on and my Hubby snoring in the other room. LOL

We got some not-so-great and not-do-horrible news today from housing here on campus, I won’t get into the details since they’re pretty personal and pretty sad, but fingers crossed that someone will help us eventually before things get worse than they already are.

So tell me readers, what’s on tap for your weekend? We don’t have much going on, The Hubby and I, he has two tutoring gigs (one with his sister via webcam), and Saturday evening I’m meeting The Hubby’s friend and his friend’s girlfriend, we’re meeting for coffee or some other arbitrary thing to see if we think we can put up with each other in an apartment. We shall see how that goes. Hopefully we wind up doing something fun this weekend, I could really use a boost of fun after the month from hell that was November.

Alright kiddies, I’m off, I will try and update tomorrow night after I’ve met the friend/girlfriend and give you the details about that. Have an excellent weekend my dears!

Christine — aka QoUI 🙂

It’s December? Already?!

What the heck happened to this year? My Lord it just *poof* disappeared! I can still remember being in our apartment in Philadelphia seeing the snow falling and blanketing the parking lot and the trees with a beautiful white film, that was February a mere 10 months ago! The world always seemed so quiet and calm when it snowed. I loved to watch people driving on I-76, zipping along as if it was a sunny day in June while the news was telling people to stay the hell home because we were getting 12 inches of snow and don’t be a moron! But no…not in Pennsyltucky, land of the drivers who cannot drive when it’s a clear day, let alone when there’s snow! Why stay home and be comfy and warm and safe when I can be out there in the snow in my giant SUV scaring the crap out of the few people who actually need to be driving (hospital and emergency workers and the like)? LOL

<steps down from soap box>

*Ahem* But I digress…I miss the snow…the look of it, the quiet and calm, I loved to walk out in the snow as it was falling, see my breath on the air, watching for footprints and hoping to see unusual ones like little birdie prints. It always made me smile. And I miss that. But now, I’m in California, and while it gets cold here where I am, it will not snow. And I’m OK with that, for now.

But December, jeez, we (The Hubby and I) drove to California in late July. We took a direct, yet scenic route, and enjoyed every minute of it. Not once did we get stuck in horrible traffic, and only a few times did it rain (once so hard that we were crawling along the interstate doing maybe 40 MPH in a 65 MPH zone). We stopped in Las Vegas for a few days, gambled, shopped, spent money we didn’t have, sat in the pool. It was lovely and such fun to be able to be lazy and hang out with my Hubby like that. I miss it and think of that trip often. 🙂

Times have been tough for us since we arrived in Cali, we came here so he could get his Master’s degree and eventually his PhD so he can teach, and though we love the area the job market for admins (such as myself) is horrible. For every job opening in my area there are anywhere from 300-500 people applying for that position.

In the 4 months since we arrived I’ve had 4 interviews. Yep. That’s it.

F-O-U-R.

And you guessed it, I’m still looking for work! Ack!

It’s causing some issues, we had to give up our fancy cell phones and cell phone plan and downgrade to a pay-as-you-go plan with phones that are plain old, boring kind, no more Android, no more touch screen or QWERTY keyboard. For the first time I have to text using a 9-key and I have NO IDEA how! LOL

Sad isn’t it? I’ve been spoiled cell phone-wise. I’ve had a cell for about 3 years now and I went from the LG EnV2 with a flip open QWERTY to a Motorola Cliq with a slide out QWERTY. Now? I have a $15 phone that is so light (because it’s so cheap) that I’m afraid to push the buttons to hard in case it snaps in half! LOL But, it’s better than not having any phone at all, so I can’t really complain, just whine a little. 😉

I’m currently waiting for cell to fully charge so I can call my Mother; we found out recently that she has two masses, one on each of her lungs. They’re testing and will do a biopsy, but the doctor is pretty sure it’s cancer. She smoked for 40+ years (big, stinky Winston 100s) so she has emphysema and COPD already, apparently the doctor was waiting for the spots to show. It was just a matter of time.

On that happy note (I will call that Thoughtful Thursday, though it’s borderline Whiny Wednesday! LOL)…

So it’s December, The Hubby and I haven’t had the money to celebrate Christmas in a few years but I’m curious about traditions…my Mother’s side of the family would have a big Italian dinner on Christmas Eve. It started off as the traditional Seven Fishes meal but morphed over the years into spaghetti, or now, roast beef or ham or turkey, whatever strikes the mood of the cook that year. We exchange gifts with those members of the family we know we won’t see on Christmas Day and sit and watch football (if it’s on) on TV.

What are the tradations your share with your family or friends for the holidays?

Do you do the bar crawl on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving?

Maybe a Black Friday get together?

Or perhaps New Year’s Eve brings you together with your family and/or friends?

What traditions do you share with your family and friends over the long holiday season?

Do tell! I wanna know! 🙂

Themes…themes…themes…

I will eventually come up with a theme for each day of the week and when I post on that day I will try to hit that theme, though I know I will not post everyday of the week, for now at least, when I do post I thought this could be a fun idea …. I’m thinking things like:

• Sad Sunday (placeholder name for now, not sure what to do here yet)
• Maniac Monday (placeholder name for now, not sure what to do here yet, either)
• Titles Tuesday (will be about movies, TV shows, books I want to read, will explore them based on the title alone)
• Wacky Wednesday (where anything goes! this will probably contain a LOT of re-posted links from StumbleUpon)
• Thoughtful Thursday (I will attempt to get “deep” about a subject – note the word “attempt” lol)
• Finally Friday (placeholder name for now, not sure what to do here yet, either)
• Sedate Saturday (relaxing, laid back, lazy, dozing kind of stuff – not boring, things to think about or do on a lazy Saturday)

I’m taking suggestions for any days of the week, I’m happy to have 2 or 3 themes per day, there are no rules here! I’m just trying to have some fun. 🙂

I woke to find someone following my blog <waves fingers> hiya Robotic Rhetoric, and someone ‘liked’ my first post <tip of the hat> hey there I’m On The Bangwagon. It was a nice surprise to see that anyone had even clicked on the blog let alone thought it was decent enough to follow or like, so I thank you both!

In addition I now have my first comment from my G+ friend Leslie over at For Therapy & Function (on blogspot) <enthusiastic wave> hello in Wyoming my dear! Thank you for my first comment! 🙂

The Hubby was up and out the door by 9:30 this morning, today and Tuesday are his long days; Tuesday’s he’s gone from 8:45 AM until 10 PM, teaching, tutoring, and taking classes; Wednesday he’s tutoring from 10 AM until 5:30 PM and then he has class until 9…he works too much and too hard. I really need a job so bad (badly? I suck at adverbs). But alas I cannot apply for any positions right now because we are without phones, but hopefully that will be remedied in the next day or two. Then I will have to update my resume and my online resumes on Monster and LinkedIn to reflect my new number. Yay. I hate doing that. I’ve had this number since 2002. It stinks to lose it now since I’ve used it everywhere for so long! But, it is what it is. 🙂

Yes. I use smiley faces. A lot. I like them. Deal with it. lol (Oh, I LOL a lot, too…lol <—- see what I did there?)

So since it’s Wacky Wednesday I have trolled a bit for some cool links to images and science-y stuff and silly things and then you will laugh and think I am even more amazing than you previously thought! 😉

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/devilstar/5418478976/in/photostream/  Ooooh! I just want to snatch them up and cuddle with them!!
• http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/volcano020411/s_v22_0RTXV9FO.jpg   *gasp* I always wanted to see Mount Doom! lol
• http://blueballfixed.ytmnd.com/  I have no idea what this is, but it’s mesmerizing…
• http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1mZTCV/vimeo.com/32001208  Very cool view of Earth focusing on the Northern lights seen from the International Space Station – very cool video, a wee bit long for my tastes but the first 2 minutes were awesome! LOL

And lastly my image for today…I just love this, it makes me giggle like nobody’s business! 😉

Have an excellent day and night my lovelies! Until we speak again…

Hmm…what to talk about, that is the question…

So why a blog and what’s it all about (Alfie)?

I am not working at the moment and I need an outlet and ‘someone’ to talk to, I’m on a few social networking sites but since The Hubby and I moved earlier this year I have yet to make any new friends to hang out with. The blog, I hope, will give me a creative outlet and possibly even meet a few people.

Let’s see…what will I be writing about…well, The Hubby and I will be a topic, of course, but as you can see from my blog’s title I am the Queen of Useless Information – a title bestowed upon me by my loving family when they discovered that they no longer needed a TV Guide because as they changed the channels I would tell what show was on screen and, occasionally, which episode as well! I know, I know, it’s sad.

So with that title I will be tackling, well, everything really…books, movies, TV, entertainment industry stuff (I love behind the scenes things), games (board games for me, PC games for The Hubby), writing (creative and blogging, as I learn), random images I find online as well as quotes and science stuff and anything else that catches my fancy!

I’m random. I admit it. But random can be fun and informative and hopefully you, dear reader, will agree with me!

I look forward to sharing this journey with you, whoever you may be. 🙂