Way past bedtime.

But quickly. Had a quick trip up to Canada and back last week. Wasn't entirely happy to do it, but probably for the best.

Friend over for dinner tonight. Nice summer evening. Not too hot. Enjoy the backyard, etc. She hung out in the hammock whilst I cooked and then we ate outside. A good time of year.

And my neighbors had a party this evening too, so I spent some time there which is why it's now past my bedtime. They run a comedy club and a bunch of people there were colleagues, which is a bit intimidating to sit around a table with a bunch of people who get paid to be funny for a living...

It's that time of year again...

Miller moths in Colorado. Obnoxious beasts. Found one on top of my laptop the other morning (currently trapped under a plastic tub thingy, waiting for it to die) and another was buzzing around my sliding glass door a few moments ago. Just googled them before composed this post and read this site, which was insanely educational as I never really knew anything about them before aside from the fact that they've been a bothersome nuisance my entire life. But it's a Colorado thing.

How many posts am I going to make today?

Ok. So. The will-be groom at this LA wedding called just now to check on my RSVP status. I hadn't even looked at the reply-by date on the invite because I figured it was not-yet, but I guess it was early and I missed it.

He's giving me a week to decide. He also gave me a rundown of college people they invited, and I'm pretty much not friendly with any of them. Which is discouraging. But I knew that was going to be the case because I didn't really hang out in their circle so much.

And then he asked me to look up this other dude who lives in Denver in the phonebook to see if I could find him because he'd sort of gotten lost. And I asked whether he'd tried the Google, and I googled this chap and it turns out this guy they're inviting to their wedding had a wikipedia page which informs me that '[i]n 2001, he was named one of the 50 most eligible bachelors by People Magazine,' among other things. Which I found a bit shocking and cool. And then I found a webpage for his place of work and they're open 24 hours a day and I called and he still works there and I got an email address that I passed onto the incipient groom.

But, since I would basically not have any friends worth visiting at this wedding (and really, most of the point of a wedding isn't about the people getting married but instead about all the invitees getting to see one another) and don't have too many other people in LA these days, I think the ability to get a discounted S-H tour might be a potential scale-tipper. So was that an honest offer? And how discounted are we talking here, anyway?

I don't think this blog is searchable...

But I have to be careful. So my friends named yesterday's baby .a.l.i.v.i.a., I guess .o.l.i.v.i.a. with an 'a'. Which is think is slightly weird, but I'll go with it. But whenever I see the name, the first thing that pops into my head - even though there's no 'n' - is Alvin & the Chipmunks...

You ask, I blog

Well, I've now added a couch to my little house. It's good that the space isn't empty anymore.

My mother considers the shades on the window frumpy and thinks I need to get blinds instead. Now that the couch is in, these things can move forward, perhaps.




And a few not-great pictures from outside. Flowers have made a run for it in the last few days (and yes, I need to get something to cut grass along edges...)




And the rhubarb is growing like gangbusters (there was a fence with my neighbors until I was away over the weekend and they decided to replace it, which is proving to be a bigger job than they anticipated...)

...

So, in the past month two of my closest friends from growing up have sired children, one just a few hours ago. I'm not entirely happy about this turn of events. People are starting to move onto this next 'family' phase of life, and I'm just not anywhere near that. Not that I have to be, but it's a bit terrifying that close friends are now fathers and mothers. Sure, most of my friends are married at this point, but for the most part I was really proud of them all for waiting before the whole baby thing. I guess that time has now ended. It's just really weird.

In other news, since my main reader was excited for me before, the couch I bought back a few months ago will be delivered tomorrow. Once it's in I'll have a better sense for the house's continued furnishing.

And do I make it to LA in July for a wedding? I'm debating, but right now it seems unlikely...

Reverse-colored skunk?

So I'm in Princeton with my friends M & R. We went for a walk in the neighborhood after dinner and I saw this animal creeping next to the house. It was black & white and looked sort of skunklike, but with reversed colors from a normal skunk. And it was strange and we stalked it for awhile and I pulled aside an old lady speed walking in the neighborhood and asked her what she thought it was, and she freaked out and thought it was some frazy animal. She thought it swam and called it a nutria, but upon looking this up at home later nutrias don't look like that.

Anyway. Googling reverse colored skunk or some variation seems to indicate that they exist, and I think that's what we saw. It was definitely moving like a skunk.

Anyway, it was fun to watch for awhile. Eventually it ran across the street.