Willo O'Brien

OK, Mom is safely on her plane (or atleast I hope so, cuz I left her at the airport) – and now I’m back to work. Oh computer how I missed you so. Oh shopping how I’ll miss you till we meet again. hahaa

Today was shoe shopping day. Oh & my Momma helped me figure out my Quicken – I was off in my balances and didn’t know how to fix it so I had practically abandoned the program for the last couple months. But my Mom is an accounting extraordinaire, so she helped me! woohoo! I’m psyched to finally get back on track with that. There’s so much the program offers, it’s hard to learn it all! That & I’ve changed up my invoicing between doing them in word, then using Quicken and now I use iWork – so I’ve got to get it all in there and streamline my deposits – yadda yadda yadda. I’m sure you’re so enthralled, but to me it’s exciting. I’m learning how to run my small little business better & better every day! The artist part of me struggles with the accounting. Except for depositing checks – I know how to do that really well :) hahaa.

Alright so lets see… My mom found some shoes today, but I didn’t. There’s these light pink loafers I *almost* got, but didn’t. I’m a penny pincher. And it’s really amazing how you can look at like 200 some shoes and not find any you like! Well, I’m picky I guess. I seriously just look for ones exactly like my favorites – and end up walking out empty handed.

I’m gonna look on zappos though – I’m hoping it will let me search for all light beige leather (aka blond leather/tan) I have 2 pairs that are lighter leather and I love em. I also could have like 20 pairs of red shoes. Blah blah blah. Can you tell I have shopping on the brain?

Yesterday we went to IKEA and my Mom wasn’t impressed at all. I was sure we’d walk out spending gobs, but she was like ‘whatever!’ and after all that dealing with the crowds and walking through the store, we came out empty handed! CRAZY! However I did see a bookshelf/filing combo thing that’s just what I’ve been looking for. Except I want a drawer addition, and the guy said they wouldn’t be out until July.

I got these super cute jammies though this weekend at Target. They have these cutie #’s on em and make me want to sing that Sesame Street song “1, 2, 3, 4, 5 – 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 – eeelleeven, tweeeheeelve!”

Have I told you how much I love Target? See, we’re not the shopping gluttons that hit BCBG or Nordstroms. Oh no! We’re down for the DEALS! Give me 5 new peices of clothing for $100 or less, please. That’s my kinda shopping :)

Ok, but really I have to work now. Busy week ahead of me!

It’s monday and I’ve had quite the weekend!!!

Friday night was so nice, my Mom and I met up with a friend of hers from Steamboat and her daughter, who’s going to the same art school I went to: Colorado Institute of Art in Denver. It was fascinating to hear what the school is like now vs 10 years ago when I was there!

We all went to Bacar and my Mom and I had yummy cosmopolitans and we all feasted on some very delicious food.

Saturday – let the shopping begin!!! My Mom (in true Motherly spirit) insisted on helping me get a few things for my house. Well, who am I to argue, huh?

So guess what I got? A whole patio set!! It’s awesome!!!! I’m soo excited about it. I’m SOO having a BBQ!!! I can’t wait!!! I’ve had random furniture out on my deck for the last year, but have desperately needed a little cafe table & chairs. And this set is darling. AND I got a cute matching bench. It’s totally more than I ever would have bought for myself… so it feels luxurious! I’m so psyched.

Saturday night we met up with the Rickster for a yummy dinner at Tin Pan. My Mom loved it and it was fun to have them meet for the first time. My Mom loved him and Rick thinks my Mom is cool – and it’s undeniable that the lady is just gorgeous, if I do say so myself. :) Bodes well for your boyfriend to see how pretty your momma is, huh? haha.

So after our yummy dinner, we dropped Mamacita off and then headed to the Sleater Kinney show. Two words: Janet. Weiss. Three more: Oh. My. Gawd.

Janet Weiss is the drummer extraordinaire behind Quasi and Sleater Kinney – and she totally BLEW the top off the place!!!!! I’m so gonna be a drummer and I can only hope to be a drummer who rocks as hard.

Seeing Sleater Kinney was AWESOME!!!!!! It was my first time and I absolutely LOVED it and had a GREAT time!!!!! I can’t wait to see them again. KICK ASS.

Sunday was shopping, shopping and more shopping. We didn’t get started till late, but then ended the day with a delicious dinner at Park Chow (and 2 bottles of Chimay – yumm!)

Today we gotta quickly go do a little more (yup you guessed it) SHOPPING.

Gotta run – more later. Happy Monday.

My Mamacita lands today – woohoo!

If you heard how hard I’ve scrubbed my house in anticipation for her arrival you’d laugh. I’ve realized I’m quite the clean freak. But this is like much needed spring cleaning anyway – really I should have her come more often! :)

Anyway – I didn’t post this yesterday & I meant to. Happy 3rd Birthday, baby boy:

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Tonite we’re going out for a fancy dinner & then over the weekend we may hit Big Sur or wine country… And of course – do what Mothers & Daughters do best: SHOP! woohoo!!!

Have a great weekend peeps.

I stayed up late working lastnight and meant to get up early this morning, but I think my body refuses to get less than 7 hours of sleep and I completely slept right through my alarm! I don’t know *how* that happens when it’s the most annoying beeping sound. Selective hearing I guess! :p

So I made myself a delicious soy latte and a bowl of Life cereal and sat down to work. And guess what? My friend Jem wrote me a poem! (note she has a *secret* blog, so I have a code name. And her blog is really really good by the way. I wish I could share it with you all cuz she’s so damn funny and her music reviews are really good! but I can’t – it’s secret!) This poem is from when she came over the other night & we had a little music swap and dinner. :)

Mid-morning Ode

W-gal, W-gal, sweet and fair,

I am glad I burned you Air.

Thanks for sending me off with a spindle of tunes,

I will be occupied til the end of June.

I like Pedro the Lion and Ben Kweller,

W-gal, W-gal, you are stellar!

Thanks for feeding me Pizza (Supreme),

W-gal, W-gal, you’re the girl of my dreams.

How awesome is that? :) I love that Jemmy.

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So then check this out! Not but 10 minutes later I get an email from Eoin (long time reader, biggest fan of kazoobie posts, and he’s Irish! who doesn’t love a nice Irishman!?) who found an old old Irish (8th century) poem online that he’d read in school, called Pangur Bas (meaning white felix). It’s about an Irish monk who worked at home (on a manuscript) with his cat. And since it’s very much like the way I work at home with my kitty (13 centuries later), Eoin rewrote it for me & Kazoo! :)

Kazoo and Willo

Willo and Fuzzy Pants her cat,

‘Tis a like task they are at:

Hunting mice is his delight,

Fixing websites she sits all night.

Better far than praise of men

‘Tis to sit in screen-lit den;

Kazoo bears her no ill-will,

He too plies his simple skill.

‘Tis a merry sight to see

At their tasks how glad they be,

When at home they sit and find

Entertainment to their mind.

Oftentimes a (toy) mouse will stray

In the hero Kazoobie’s way;

Oftentimes Willo’s keen thought set

Will add a new page to the Net.

‘Gainst the toy Kazoo sets his eye

Full and fierce and sharp and sly!

‘Gainst the web of knowledge try

willo her flashy wisdom ply!

When, to play, Willo leaves her den,

O how glad is Kazoobie then!

And Willo’s gladness never sags

She always finds those errant tags.

So in peace their tasks they ply,

Willo and her cat, Kazoo-bye;

In their arts they find their bliss,

She has hers and he has his.

Practice every day has made

Kazoo perfect in his trade;

Willo gets wisdom day and night

Turning darkness into light.

How fun!! These 2 things made my day! Thank you J & E! xoxo

Lastnight we went to see Super Size Me, and it was awesome. The Director and main dude in the movie, Morgan, is hilarious. They do a great job of editing and it’s absolutely amazing (and disgusting) to see the effects of his experiment over just a mere 30 days. Go check it out if you can.

Look how funny this photo is. It made me laugh out loud. There’s lots of good one’s on this Found Magazine site, check it out. [link from Slim]

Sadly this girl’s kitty (or maybe it’s her exboyfriend Patrick’s), Diesel, just died unexpectedly :( I happened upon her site via comment’s she’d left on Jason’s blog, but caught the story on her homepage and It’s amazing to me how similar our kitties are in the games they play, and how we feel about them!

I say this *exact* thing about my kitty:

“… I look at every piece of fur on his little face and think what a miracle of nature he is, all that DNA to colorize each individual piece of hair to come together in his intricate tiger pattern. I’d look at his perfect little eye lashes, his brick red nose. Every stripe, every spot, every whisker of him I had committed to memory.”

And we even used to sing that “I love my kitty” song to the tune of “You are my sunshine” to Kazoobie, too. :)

I’m not sure how long she’ll have the story about Diesel up on her site… but I’m very, very sorry to hear that she’s lost him. :( Rest in Peace, Diesel kitty!

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Also I just wanted to say that I hope Matt doesn’t read the post below. I don’t want to hurt his feelings… but I don’t think he reads my site anymore anyway. They’re just my feelings I need to get out, and I think he gets that. Reading that story about Diesel and thinking of the song thing, made me remember one very wonderful thing about Matt – which was that he always made up silly songs. I loved that about him.

I’m crankin away on a deadline today so I’m hardly on IM or email at all… and I have BAM later – oy! But quickly I’ll say hello…

Yesterday my ex, Mateo, came over for a little Kazoobie bday celebration. Kazoo got some nice new treats, kitty grass, yummy wet food, fuzzy mice and a even few other toys! Way to go, Dad! (Kazoo’s Dad = Mateo) (yes, we’re crazy for our kitties)

Kazoo had a GREAT time and we played with his mouse and ball and he chomped on some grass and a few treats. Once again, the FP is a lucky lil’ guy and I just love him to pieces. It’s nice that Matt does too – cuz not everyone understands that bond and love between you and your pet. He’s seriously like my first born, except I hope that I don’t yell at my real kids “Can you stop it? You’re driving me crazy!” That would be bad.

Seeing Matt was good – he looks good, but we didn’t have much to talk about. He didn’t ask me anything about me, which I guess means he just doesn’t wanna hear it. So I tried to make conversation, but it’s all very simple surface chatter that doesn’t go anywhere before we just start playing or talking to Kazoo again. How dumb. How could I have been with the guy for 4.5 years and now we can’t even hold up a f*ing conversation? It’s annoying. There’s also just little parts of our conversations where I’m reminded how he used to be. Traits I don’t miss, like how I feel like he’s somehow mildly making fun of me or putting me down – even when he says the simplest things. I mean, maybe these things he says is his way of trying to relate and joke with me, but instead it comes across as derogatory. ug… I don’t miss that at all. But I know it’s not his fault, and it certainly doesn’t make him a bad person – as I still love him very much and the man has got an absolute heart of gold… but it just makes me clearer on why we weren’t meant to be. I also just kinda thought that we’d be better friends. That we could still get along and hang out and be in eachothers lives. But that’s proving to be difficult and unrealistic. Wierd.

In my frustration I want to say something or pull words out of him somehow.. make him open up instead of being so reserved and “safe” in our communication. But that’s exhausting, and I feel like I did that for a lot of years and it’s not my responsibility nor is it necessary to extend that energy anymore. He is who he is and I am who I am and if it’s not natural for us to communicate and be in eachother’s lives, I can’t push it.

:( It makes me sad a little, but it takes a long time sitting and thinking about it to get to the sadness. It’s covered in a lot of disappointment and an overall “oh well” shrug of letting it go. It is what it is.

But yesterday zapped me a little. After he left and I went on to dinner, I wasn’t myself.. and for some reason I felt very alone. Even though I was sitting across from my new wonderful boy who was taking me out for a wonderful dinner, I felt very alone and quiet and even a little insecure.

But, luckily R is good with me when I get in my little temporary funks. And I think he’s realizing that even though I may not be able to put it into words at the time, that I’m very accutely aware of being off. And after I can finally bring myself to talk about my feeling off, it usually then only takes me another 10 or 20 minutes to find the words to express what I’m feeling. Which makes me feel better… and I think it’s awesome to be able to communicate it with him so he can understand me better. He’s really such a good honey.

I wanted to write about a few more things, but I didn’t expect all that to come out so long :) So I’m gonna leave it at that & maybe write more later.

xoxo

I’m the luckiest girl!!

I can’t remember the last time I had flowers delivered to me, but lucky me has the sweetest boy and I just got the most beautiful bouquet delivered to my door! wow!

What a wonderful way to brighten up my week. They’re sitting right here next to me so I can look at them and smell them all day! mmm!

They’re so pretty! And I’m so lucky! yay!!! :) :) :)

Sunday morning Rick and I had grabbed coffee, and as we were walking back we passed through the park where there were a lot of cutie dogs playing fetch who you could tell were having the time of their lives. I commented to Rick that dogs were soo lucky because their lives are so simple and happy. They don’t have all the worries and stress, but instead their main goal is to just play catch, get belly rubs and sleep.

I often comment on my kitty’s oh so leisurely lifestyle, as well. Often when I’m scheming up master plans to somehow get him to pull his weight around here! :) But the Fuzzy Pants has got it good!! He’s snoozin right now! He could be mopping for christ sake, can’t you see the floor needs it, Mister?

Anyway – Dooce just happened to post about her dog, Chuckles, today and how she wants to reincarnate as a dog so she can enjoy the ease of a life full of walks and treats and belly rubs. I can totally relate. Our furry friends have got it good!

But one things for sure, is I’m glad Kazoo doesn’t have to get up early and leave for work and then come home tired and just sit in front of the TV all night. :)

Instead he’s right over there curled up like a furry little snuggly baby boy and every once and awhile I can go over to him and touch his super soft fur and watch him be all cute with his sleepy half closed eyes and his big sleepy lion yawn that makes me wanna melt and squeeze him as hard as I can all at the same time.

Ok, so you know how I was talking about getting a KVM switch? Well I got one, but it had audio connectors that wouldn’t work w/ my powerbook, so I took it back to forgo the audio part and just get one that did the keyboard/mouse & monitor. No biggie on the sound, plus it’s less cords w/o it!

So just in case any of you are uber geeky power users like me and you want info on how to control your mac & pc with one monitor, mouse and keyboard – I’ve been digging up all kinds of info.

My mouse & monitor are a peice of cake, but it dawned on me today searching for a keyboard that the whole command vs alt and other various keys differ enough that it’s important I know what I’m getting myself into. Ideally I’d like to stick with a primarily mac keyboard and then just map the keys for the few I’ll be missing when I’m on my PC (the print screen key mostly). The good news is that they have info on all this out there. woohoo! I’m sending a big hug to the geekier than I who have put all this info on the web. And should this help any of who’ve stumbled across it, maybe I’ll get a hug too. Let’s all HUG! hahaa

> Apple Pro Keyboard on a PC (Forum discussion)

> Guide to Sharing Keyboards & Monitors – this is a great resource along with this long list of resources (but there’s a few outdated links on that page). I found the Users Tips section at the bottom of the page is especially helpful.

So right now I think I’m going to buy an Apple Pro keyboard – or I was also thinking about this one from macally.

And this is the KVM switch I’m goin with now:

> Belkin USB KVM Switch

p.s. I think it’d be really cool if there was a keyboard that when I switched over from one platform to the other, it would light up the keys for the related OS and dim out the others. Probably too small of a market to create something like this – or just too complicated – but it’d be cool!