Vehicular Omen

The "Check Engine" light came on today, on my dashboard....... And I have no idea what's wrong. Seems to be driving just fine, no discernible problems. Drat. I wonder what's getting ready to break. Hope I don't end up stranded somewhere before it gets figured out.
If, sometime in the next few days, you abruptly stop hearing from me, search the roads for my car. Hopefully I'll still be in there, sobbing quietly and slowly dying of thirst after all the spare ketchup packets have been consumed.

One possible downfall to liking hot spicy things...

Quote for today:

"Years ago, it meant something to be crazy. Now everyone's crazy."
-- Charles Manson

Waaaaahhh!!

Today I tried yet again to download Firefox. Whenever I've tried with Explorer, I always always always get an error message that says "The Plug-In did not initialize properly." (Whatever THAT means).
So today I tried with Netscape 7.1.... and got this dialog box. I don't understand how to proceed.
For those of you who can't read it, it says this:

"The file 'Firefox Setup 1.5.0.6.exe' is of type application/octet stream/ (Application), and Netscape does not know how to handle this file type. This file is located at:
http://ftp-mozilla.com/pub/m...irefox/releases/1.5.0.6/win32/en-US/
What should Netscape do with this file?"

My answer: "Duuuuhhh, uh, I dunno!"

Please, do any of you know what the heck I should do when this comes up?
How can I finally get this thing downloaded?????????

More weird pictures I made just for the heck of it...

A Tour Of Janna's Tuesday Evening

Band went fine, but I'm worn out!
I did take my camera along and attempted some pictures, but unfortunately most of them came out blurry. Surprisingly, the ones in really low-light actually turned out well. I just couldn't hold STILL. Must remember next time: Don't breathe! Don't blink! Don't move!
Here are some that turned out relatively ok:


This is the building where we rehearse every Tuesday.


This is my chair, with my french horn on it. Notice how I'm right in front of the percussion section. I wonder if they can hear me as well as I can hear them!


The guy at the far right of the picture, the one looking so philosophical and contemplative, is our director and fearless leader, Bob Livingston. He is amazing-- one of the very best conductors I've ever worked with.


After band, some of us go to this Italian place in Hillsdale called Cavoni's.
"ABC Group" = "After Band, Cavoni's."
They have good subs and garlic bread and pizza and... well, lots of good stuff. It's not cheap, but not too outlandish either. Tonight I had half a BBQ sub and half an order of garlic bread. Needless to say, I sprinkled a whole bunch of hot pepper flakes on my sub. (Yum!)

I was the first one there tonight (has that EVER happened before?? I don't think so!), so I got to take a picture of the place when it was still almost empty.

After we eat, some of us sit around and talk for awhile on the bench outside. Usually we have at least 5 people who decide to stay afterward, but tonight we only had three: Me, Kyle, and Morgian. (It felt strange not having more people!)

Here's Morgian, smoking... notice how the lighting makes it look like an atomic bomb just went off in her head. Either she just had a REALLY great idea, or her mind has finally snapped. (Perhaps this is how Matt-Man feels after drinking an entire bottle of Wild Irish Rose.)

Sometimes Kyle brings his hookah, and passes it around. He has a variety of flavored tobaccos that he uses. Tonight the flavor was raspberry. I think last week it was mint.
I hate the smell of cigarette smoke, but the hookah does NOT stink at all. Really! It doesn't smell like smoke. It just smells like whatever the 'flavor' is. Tonight it smelled like raspberries.
I think I'm the only one in the group who HASN'T tried the hookah yet. Maybe one of these days. Or maybe not. I don't know... we'll see.
Here are some pictures of Morgian and Kyle being silly, entertaining, and amusing:



So this is what I do on Tuesday nights. I wish more of the pictures had turned out! Maybe next week I'll try getting a couple more.

...Hey! Wake up! It wasn't THAT boring, was it???

Testing the e-mail thing...

I'm testing out this thingy where I can post to my blog via e-mail. Here's hoping it shows up.  If so, I'll have a way to blog without worrying about my browser crashing.  (I wonder if it'll let me include pictures? Or different fonts?  Or colors?  Or links?  Or HTML?  Or is it simple-text only?)  
In a few hours I'll be leaving for this week's band rehearsal.  After that will be ABC group, which means I'll probably return home smelling like garlic bread and marinara sauce.  (Hey, there are worse things a person could smell like.)
Ok, here goes... I'm hitting the "send" button...

Feel free to analyze...

Here's another picture I made...
If this were to be psychoanalyzed, it would probably just mean I have to go to the bathroom really bad...

Because they're full of..........

Driving in the rain

Following in the footsteps of Onion-Boy, I've included a picture of me driving... well, more like a picture of the car while I was driving it.
He was going 65, though. Notice how I, the amateur, am only going 25.


P.S. When you go to his site, be sure to take the IQ Test!

More Jack

Hey, look at this! And it's winking at me!





Ahh. Romantic lighting and a fair maiden. What more could any pirate want?

Jack and the gargoyle

"Hey, wait a minute; I smell gargoyle breath..."






"AAUUUGGHHH!! Watch the teeth! Watch the teeth!!!"

Cemetery in the rain

Today is a drab, gray, gloomy, rainy day.
Wait! I'm not complaining!
I like these kinds of days.
When I looked out the window and saw all the gloom, I... well, what does anyone do on days like these? Take the ol' camera out to the cemetery!
C'mon, let's go!





See? Wasn't that fun?
Lot more fun than that "Singing In The Rain" crap, am I right?

Can't sleeeeeep..........

I can't sleep.
It's almost 4:30 in the morning and I'm wide awake...
So I made this picture.
I can't decide if it looks more like insomnia or a migraine.

Badness

Y'know how being around some people makes you feel tired, sick, and drained afterward? I had such an experience last Tuesday, and am just now getting to where my spirits can be lifted again. I've debated whether or not I should blog about it, but what the heck. I doubt the person-in-question will ever be reading this anyway.
It happened at ABC group, after we'd eaten. We were sitting around outside, talking amongst ourselves with the usual humorous irreverence. One person, who isn't usually there with us, made a point of talking about how he's done various kinds of drugs. Pretty much everything goes, as long as he doesn't have to inject it. (THAT creeps him out, but any other form of ingestion is just fine). It was bizarre to hear him speak so casually about it, as if he was proud of it and thought it made him knowledgable and cool. I just kept getting this feeling of uneasiness, which turned to horror after he told one particular story:
He used to work on a pig farm. There were mice who nested in the rafters of the barn. Sometimes the newborn baby mice would fall out of their nest and hit the barn floor. This guy liked picking them up, still live and wiggling, and holding them in front of the pigs' mouths. The pig would then eat the live baby mouse, scarfing it right up as eagerly as a dog eats table scraps.
This guy thought that was hilarious fun.
He made a point of describing the helpless little mice-- still blind (too young for their eyes to be open yet), smooth, pink, and utterly helpless. He mimicked their wiggly movements by closing his eyes and moving his forearms around. And he loved the thought of them being eaten alive by the pigs.
Ok... mice aren't exactly my favorite creatures, and neither are pigs. But I think what he did was horrific. And the fact that he enjoyed it so much makes it truly evil.
It takes a LOT to offend me, and I'm usually not affected this way by people. But by the time I drove home, I felt shocked and ill. Drained. This person's energy felt really nasty to me.

Have any of you had a similar experience? How did you "shield" yourself from future recurrences?

Where's Jack?

"It's kind of hard to hide from the camera behind clear plastic..."





"Aha! They'll never find me now!"

More of Jack

"So do you just sit around all day in people's gardens, or what? Haven't I seen you on TV somewhere? Did you know your hat looks like a road construction cone?"



"You're a lot nicer than that last gnome. Boy, did HE get cranky..."

Waiting.... and waiting.... and....

During one of Blogger's more sluggish moments yesterday, Morgen came up with the idea that I should make this picture.
I agree!

The Mystery Of The Offended Bagger Boy

Today I went to Felpausch for groceries. I got cat food, shower gel, AAA batteries for my camera, bath powder, a bottle of water, and a bottle of Excedrin. While I was waiting for the cashier to ring it all up, the bagger-boy said "Everything going ok for you today?"
It was an unusual twist to the usual meaningless monotone of "hello-how-are-you-today."
I joked, "Oh, y'know, it's the weekend; that's all I really care about!" I waited for him to smile back, but instead he got totally silent and looked kind of offended, as if I'd just told him to take a flying leap onto a vertical popsicle. And then he left to go bag someone else's groceries instead.
"What happened??" I wanted to shout. "What did I say?"
But instead I just paid for my stuff and left, cursed with the "mystery-of-the-offended-bagger-boy" for the rest of my natural life.

Fiery?? Don't Believe A Word Of It!

This afternoon I decided to get KFC for dinner. The menu sign said "Try our FIERY Buffalo Boneless Wings!"
"Ok," I decided. "Y'talked me into it."
Now, remember my previous post about "hot" things. I had rather hoped that "fiery" actually meant "Fiery", or at the very least, "warm-enough-to-prevent-frostbite." But alas. So sad. The sauce was barely seasoned at all. It barely even had flavor, let alone any semblance of HEAT. Even the regular "Honey BBQ" version has more flavor than these did. I was so dissappointed.

Captain Jack goes to the Wren's Nest

"Here I am in Morgen's store, on his computer, Here's Janna's blog, see? There's that picture of when I was still in that accursed bag. Those were rough times.
I couldn't even breathe!"

"... And here's Morgen's blog.
Hey,what's a 'soap stud'?
Whoa, there's someone with a camera-- they're going to take pictures of me all over the store! Get ready!"

New format

Morgen loaned me a really neat book, called Publishing A Blog With Blogger, and I read through some of it. I figured out how to change my blog's banner-- changing it from a plain white box to a neat picture I made.
Ironically, I made the picture about a week ago, for exactly this purpose; I just couldn't figure out how the heck to make the HTML recognize it as my banner background.
Now, thanks to Morgen and his book, I think I've figured it out-- whether or not I actually understand it is another matter completely. :)
Does it show up ok on your computer?

Coming to you, live, from exciting Dowagiac, MI...

Here I am, writing today's blog in Morgen's store!
I'm here at this lovely desk, typing away on an even lovelier laptop computer which makes MY computer look like rough-hewn stone wheels next to a Porsche. Tears of techno-awe are streaming down my cheeks.
(Think Morgen would notice if I stowed the laptop away in my bra and 'accidentally' took it home with me?) Hmmmm.....
I brought Captain Jack with me, and Morgen is excitedly taking pictures of him at various places in the store. He just called out "I'm having way too much fun with this, Janna!" :) So stay tuned-- soon you'll be treated to photos of Jack's very first adventure!

Hello, Captain Jack!!!

I've been sad and discouraged these past few days, for a variety of reasons, so it was perfect timing that my Captain Jack Sparrow Happy Meal Toy arrived in the mail today.
Yay! This cheers me up a little... and I'm coming up with some fun ideas on how to include him in my blog.
I'm thinking of doing one of those "Where is he today" kinds of things, where I take him to various places and post a picture of where he's been. The locations can be ordinary (e.g. my front porch) or weird (e.g next to dryer lint in a shopping cart along with my left shoe). See how neat this could be?
This might be just the thing I need.
Thank you, Jack!

Weird Dream

Last night I dreamed that I was on a mission with about 4 other people. We were sent to find a special diamond that was rumored to exist at an archaeological site. There was an Indiana-Jones-like maze and obstacle course we'd have to conquer before finding our treasure.
So, we all made it to the site, and my colleagues began crawling through the tiny cave-like tunnels. "Oh, NO, I thought. I'll never fit through there! I'm too big!"

But I refused to be thwarted, and came up with an alternate plan. Rather than go through the maze, I'd just go around it! So I did-- I went to the 'finish line' by taking an alternate route, totally avoiding all the traps and pitfalls my colleagues were experiencing. And there, hidden in shadow right at the end, was THE diamond. It didn't look much like a traditional diamond, of course; it wasn't clear and sparkly and faceted. It was a raw diamond, similar to the one shown in the picture here, only smoother and milkier (kinda like an opal, actually!)
Everyone agreed that YES, this was the artifact we'd been searching for. Yet for some reason, I was allowed to keep it!
Somehow I discovered I was able to visit with the original occupants of the archaeological site (maybe I had a time machine, I dunno). So I took the diamond with me and showed it to them, asking them about its history and significance.
"Oh, THAT thing?" One of them made a face. "That's just something one of us threw up one day."
(??!!!)
And... that's when I woke up.

Hooray for Morgen!!!

Yesterday, Morgen's blog was chosen as "Bestest Blog Of The Day", by the lovely folks over at Bestest Blog Of All Time. Congratulations, Morgen! Here's a picture I made to help you celebrate.

You're as old as you feel....??

One question before I leave for band rehearsal:
Do you feel older or younger than your chronological age?
I'm 36.
Physically, I feel about 65. (aches and pains, etc).
Emotionally, I feel about 21. (young-at-heart, whimsical, spontaneous...?)
So, let's see, if I average the two together, (86/2) that means I'm 'really' 43.
Hmmm!
How about the rest of you?

Anyone feeling a little "on edge" today?

Wish I could say I drew this, but of course I didn't....

Imagine! Janna actually fits in somewhere!

I play french horn in a community band here, called the Hillsdale Community Wind Ensemble. Our first rehearsal of the fall season is tonight! I'm looking forward to it!
French Horn is a fun instrument, and I've been playing it since I was twelve. I played it all through high school and college. (I even majored in music... yeahhh, lot of job opportunities THERE...)
After band, a group of us always goes to hang out at this Italian restaurant in Hillsdale, called Cavoni's. I call it our ABC Group (After Band, Cavoni's...) We have a lot of fun and can get pretty wild sometimes with our jokes and songs and laughter. Since I've never been much of a social person, it amazes me that I fit so well into this group.

And I'm only 36....

You can tell I'm a perfectionist, because what's gnawing at me right now is "Crap, which one did I get WRONG???"

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 9/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

Don't mess with The Black Onion

Some of you may have seen the name-generator games out there lately... for example, you can find out what your Superhero name is by taking your favorite color and adding it to your favorite animal. (e.g. Red Rhino, Blue Ferret, Green Platypus)...
Well, these are fun because not every formula yields a good result for everyone. Sometimes it just turns out lousy. So when you DO get a fun name, you appreciate it all the more.
For the whole list of names, see Bitter Cup Of Joe, and Rock Paper Scissors Gun. They did the name-game a couple days ago and had a lot of fun with it.
It inspired me to come up with some new name formulas of my own. New! Original! Never before tried in any other forum! Are you excited? (Can you pretend?)
So here we go. I make no promises that any of these will turn out decent for the rest of you, but you're welcome to give them a try.


1. Super-Villain Name: (Color shirt you're wearing right now, plus your least favorite vegetable

THE BLACK ONION
(evil superpower: "The breath of death")

2. Actor name #1: (Color of current vehicle, plus most recent beverage)

SILVER SQUIRT
(If this isn't a porn name, I don't know what is)

3. Actor name #2: (Model of the first car you ever owned, plus color of house you grew up in)

CONCORD WHITE
(Sounds like a new reporter for 60 Minutes)

4. Alien Visitor name: (Last 2 letters of middle name, plus 1st 3 letters of city where you graduated high school... then add the medication you most recently took)

RAJON PROVERA
(I come in peace! Give me your hormones!)

5. Famous Author name: (Last gas station you used, plus last name of favorite teacher)

SHELL SHANNON
(Does she sell seashells at the seashore?)

6. Undercover Spy name: (favorite zoo animal, plus color of the carpet/floor in your bedroom)

ZEBRA MAROON
(Hey, I like it!)

Let me know how these worked out for you... and feel free to swipe them for your own blogs if they turn out to be halfway decent. Just give me a link or something.

P.S. What's black and white and red all over? It's Zebra Maroon!!

Another weird dream

Last night I dreamed I shot and killed at least two of my friends who were getting on my nerves (!!!). (Actually they were both girls from high school, one of whom I haven't seen in a long time). Even though one of the shootings had taken place in a parking lot (Kroger in Hillsdale), I didn't get caught. A few weeks later in the dream, someone threw a surprise party in my honor, and all my friends were invited. (Even one of the people I'd shot who was supposed to be dead was there!) It was held in this spacious multi-level mall. I began to get suspicious that this 'party' was actually a set-up to catch me admitting to the murders, or to confront me with incriminating forensic evidence. (Besides, what if they started listening to the person I'd shot??) So I tried to nonchalantly escape, and meandered away from the group.
Someone followed me.
It was Levi, from band. I suspected someone had given him the job of keeping an eye on me to make sure I didn't get away. I went downstairs and through corridors and boiler rooms and all kinds of hiding places, but still Levi followed me.
Finally I went into the ladies' room. I turned around and said "Aha! You can't follow me in here!!"
He sighed in defeat as if to say "Yeah, ok, go ahead, do your business-- but I'll be waiting!!"
So I sat on the toilet and waited for him to leave-- and that's when the dream ended.

Moral of the story: Don't shoot your friends. It's more trouble than it's worth.

What type of writer should you be?

All righty then! I was hoping for either "humor" or "Sci-Fi", and I got one of the two! Perhaps this means I should write "humorous sci-fi"!!

You Should Be a Science Fiction Writer

Your ideas are very strange, and people often wonder what planet you're from. And while you may have some problems being "normal," you'll have no problems writing sci-fi. Whether it's epic films, important novels, or vivid comics... Your own little universe could leave an important mark on the world!

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

What kind of American English do you speak?

What? I'm only five percent Yankee??
And hey, how come the numbers don't total up to 100?

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

20% Upper Midwestern

5% Midwestern

5% Yankee

0% Dixie

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Movies and Characters

Twelve random movies that I liked (in no particular order):

1. The King And I (with Yul Brynner, et cetera!)
2. Heidi (with Shirley Temple)
3. Pirates Of The Caribbean (Johnny Depp!!!)
4. Pretty Woman (Julia Roberts, Richard Gere)
5. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
6. Ladyhawke (Rutger Hauer, Matthew Broderick)
7. Twister (Helen Hunt, Philip Seymour Hoffman)
8. The Wizard Of Oz (How could anyone NOT like this movie???)
9. Goldfinger (Sean Connery as James Bond)
10. Miracle On 34th Street (the original one with Natalie Wood)
11. Independence Day (Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith)
12. Beauty And The Beast (Disney!)

Ten random movie/tv characters I think I might like if I met them in real life:

1. Sebastian the crab (from Disney's The Little Mermaid)
2. Alan Harper (from CBS's Two And A Half Men)
3. Jo Harding (from Twister, played by Helen Hunt)
4. Dr. Ian Malcolm (from Jurassic Park, played by Jeff Goldblum)
5. The Goblin King (from Labyrinth, played by David Bowie)
6. Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp... you had to ask???)
7. Gandalf (from Lord Of The Rings, played by Sir Ian McKellan)
8. Murray Bozinsky (from NBC's Riptide, played by Thom Bray)
9. The Wicked Witch of the West (from Wizard of Oz, played by Margaret Hamilton)
10. The Wicked Witch from just about every Disney movie. (Yes! Let's hex all those darn 'skinny-young-pretty' people out there! A pox on all of you!)

Wild About Hot Stuff

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I love hot spicy things. The hotter the better. Whether it be chili or chips, szechuan or salsa, it's best when it's flavorfully spicy and tongue-smoking hot. Delicious!
One of my pet peeves is that foods which are labeled as "Spicy" usually aren't. Often on a restaurant menu, certain entrees will be labeled:
"Caution! Spicy!"
"Caution! Hot!"
Yet when they arrive, they're about as bland as gravy.
Potato chips are another problem. Some brands have their very own "hot" flavor.
Jay's "Hotstuff" is one example.
They're not hot. They're medium at best.
Once in awhile I still crave them, but they're certainly not deserving of the adjective "hot".
Taco sauce is another example. All too often, "hot" really means "boringly medium."
Yet another example is sausage, jerky, bratwurst, and the like. They have tantalizing labels which promise "Hot!" "Spicy!" "Made with Tabasco!" And while some certainly have a good flavor, most do not contain the extra OOMPH that boosts them into the "Good and Hot" realm.
So, when I find something I like that really is deliciously hot, I like to spread the word. Allow me to introduce you to the wonderful world of Jays "XTRA-Hotstuff" Potato Chips. Not the regular Hotstuffs in the red bag, but Xtra-Hotstuffs in the orange and white bag. They have a delicious seasoning bursting with flavor, and YES, they do qualify as hot. Yum!!!
They're hard to find around here. Previously I'd only seen them in a few Speedway convenience stores, but this afternoon I happened to see them at Broad Street Market in Hillsdale, Michigan. As far as I can tell, "XTRA-Hotstuff" is only available in small 2.75-ounce bags, which is presumably the largest dose any ordinary human could be expected to endure at one sitting. These little bags are sold for 99 cents. Broad Street Market had six left in stock-- I bought all six. One was consumed for lunch, along with a jalapeno-cheddar smoked sausage on a bun. (See previous note about sausages which sound spicy but aren't). The other five bags will be slowly savored over the course of the next month or two.
Back in the early-to-mid-1990's, Taco Bell offered the option of "Wild" tacos and burritos. This meant they would drizzle "Wild" sauce on it for you, which actually was pretty tasty. Of course, it wasn't really as hot as the commercials said, (one commercial had a monk breaking his oath of silence to shout in heat-induced surprise after experiencing one bite of a "Wild" taco.) Still, I liked it a lot and missed it greatly when the promotion ended. I tried a couple times to recreate the sauce in my kitchen, but never with any real success.
Then, a few years ago, Taco Bell began offering "Fire" sauce packets (in addition to hot and mild). At first I was excited, because I thought it was the return of my beloved "Wild" sauce. But alas, no, it's an entirely different recipe. The heat level is about the same, but the flavor and texture and appearance is different. I like it, and I prefer it over the hot and mild options, but I still miss that wonderful "Wild" sauce of yesteryear.

ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz...............

Was tired and depressed yesterday, so I went to bed at around 4:00 in the afternoon... when I woke up it was 2:00 in the morning (ten hours later!) I got up to pee and then listened to the radio for awhile, then went back to sleep around 3:30am... and woke up just a few minutes ago, around 2:00 in the afternoon (ten and a half hours later!)
Wow! Can't believe I just slept for over twenty hours.

Yardley

A few days ago when I posted the picture of Honeynut, Morgen suggested I tell the story of another cat I once had, named Yardley.
I found Yardley when she was a small kitten, while visiting my parents one afternoon. She looked pitiful, and she was injured. Her right front leg had been badly mangled by something. My mother wondered if it was one of the neighbors' raccoon traps. (ouch). I felt so bad for the poor little kitten. My dad, who is not exactly a cat person, wanted to take her out back and SHOOT her "to put her out of her misery."
Well, that's when I took a stand and decided I was going to adopt her and nurse her back to health and pamper her and try to make up for whatever past injustices fate had dealt her.
But first, her leg needed immediate medical attention. The wounds were severe, and they were festering.
So I made an emergency, after-hours call to the vet, who said to bring the kitten over right away. She was in the veterinary hospital overnight. They weren't able to save her leg, and had to amputate. I took her home and that's when she began her new life as an indoor pampered kitty.
I named her Yardley, because there are THREE FEET in a YARD...
She had no mobility problems at all; she could run and jump and play and use the litter box and all the other things cats do. I noticed sometimes she'd try burying her poop with the paw that 'wasn't there' anymore, and kept trying, and trying... sometimes Honeynut actually went in afterward and buried it FOR her. :)
But somehow the kittenhood trauma must have shortened her lifespan, because one day just a few years later I came home to find that she had passed away. She'd curled up in her favorite spot between the window and the rocking chair, and apparently died peacefully. I buried her in the flower bed next to the garage. (Which actually has more weeds than flowers now, but hey...)
So that's the story of Yardley. I'll always admire her self-sufficient spirit; she didn't seem to care whether she had 3 legs or 4, and constantly proved that she could do anything any other cat could.
Except bury her poop.

So much for all those tempting cliffs

Yay!
My brakes are fixed! All done! Completely safe now! I can drive anywhere and actually expect the car to promptly STOP when I push the brake, without soaring off the edge of a cliff!