You know, I used to update more frequently

Remember when I would do that? Me, too. What happened?

Of course, maybe that was when I had a life so there was something to update.

Monday - Went home and watched TV. 24 was great!

Tuesday - Potential new roommate didn't make it over to see the place. We're trying for next week. Watched TV.

Wednesday - Watched Enterprise with Matt and Casey then went home and watched Lost and Alias.

Thursday - Youth group. Watched Survivor. Finished my reread of Mystery at Bob-White Cave.

Hm. Maybe I'd have more of a life if I didn't watch so much TV.

Actually, youth group was interesting last night. The youth pastor couldn't make it, and the back-up speaker had soemthing come up so he went out of town at the last minute. So they played games for over an hour, lead worship, and took prayer requests. That was it. No deep spiritual truthes. Yeah, you want me to come up with something, you need to tell me before five minutes after youth group started. Fortunately, we did have a rather small turn out because of sporting events and other things going on.

And we have a fifth person in the condo at the moment. The guy who is causing the other three to move out is out visiting. Seems like a nice enough guy in the 10 minutes we were both around last night to talk. It's rather funny, but I will hardly be seeing him and he's not leaving until Sunday.

There's another poster up from a guy looking for a place to live this summer. So, naturally, I've put the pressure on Casey to find out so I know if I need to persue this or not. Why must life always get so complicated?

Thursday Threesome for April 28th

Brought to us this week by 80's movies (or was it a 90's movie? I'm too lazy to look it up right now.) and The Back Porch. This should increase the weirdness of my google hits.

Onesome: Sex...When did you learn about sex? Was it through those films at school? Word of Mouth? Your parents?
Through a book my dad and I read together in jr. high.

Twosome: ...Lies-- ...do you believe little white lies are all around us? Or do you prefer only the truth even if it hurts someone's feelings??
I do believe they're all around us. Sometimes they can be good if they preserve someone's feelings on an issue that doesn't matter, but I think we often lie to take the easy way out when we really should be speaking the truth.

Threesome: and Videotape-- ...do you buy movies on Video and/or DVD? Or do you prefer to rent? What kind of movies do you add to your collection?
LOL. If you've been to my house, you'd know the answer to that one. :) I buy lots of movies on DVD. Can't remember the last movie I rented, usually because if I actually do have the time to sit down and watch a movie, I watch something I already own. I add mostly kid/family oriented movies to my collection because those are the movies I enjoy the most. And I've also gotten hooked on TV on DVD and buy an obsessive amount of that.

In Which I Am Never Home

Man, what a crazy weekend. I feel like I spent it at UCLA or church. Maybe there's a reason for that.

Friday night I actually was home. Alone, even. I prepared the lesson for Sunday School, watched some TV, including a hilarious Reba I had missed the first time around, then crawled into bed to read for a little while. Of course, a little while turned into a couple hours, but I finished Letter from Home. Let me just say I will be reading more Carolyn Hart and soon. I didn't turn out the light until about 1 AM, which wasn't the smartest move.

You see, Saturday, I got up, went running (what was I thinking?), and headed down to UCLA for the Festival of Books. Met up with Angelique, who beat me again. It's definitely my turn to be early next time we get together! Anyway, we had fun as always. The sky was a little overcast, but it didn't rain. And she let me drag her around from booth to booth meeting various authors. You know, if I didn't try to say hi to everyone, I'd probably have more time to explore the other booths. Got a signature from Sue Grafton. And Laura Levine had just gotten some copies of her next book, Shoes to Die For, that doesn't come out until June. Guess who bought the first copy sold. Yep!

I left at three and came back up here for the youth photo scavengar hunt. It was a walking hunt having to get pictures of the group in front of various things within a couple blocks. I had fun, and I think the kids did, too.

Then I headed south again to the game night. I was bribed when Carol said she'd make Joanne Fluke's strawberry shortcake. It was very good. And we played Life. I'm not impressed at all with the new rules they have for the game. They've taken a good game and ruined it!

Sunday, I headed into Sunday School where I spoke. It went ok. Couldn't have been better, but mostly that was the kids messing around and distracting me and each other.

Went home, talked to my family, wished my brother a happy birthday, then headed back to UCLA. One of the authors whose book I wanted to get was already sold out. But I did get Stephen J. Cannell's first book in his series. And got the booklet from Greatest American Hero season one autographed while I was at it. Ok, so I'm a fan boy. So sue me! Also got Harley Jane Kozak's new book signed. And told Joanne how much we all enjoyed the shortcake the night before. Even talked to Linda (friend and owner of former mystery bookstore I liked) for a little while.

This, naturally led me back up to church for the worship team practice, evening service, and youth staff meeting.

Now do you see why I felt I was one of two places most all weekend?

Today, I met with a student who's looking for a place to live this summer. He come highly recommended by some mutual friends, and he seems like a great guy. Looks like this will work out, and I'll have at least one roommate. Needless to say, I'm thrilled.

And, I spent a little more time at All Consuming and figured out their new system. Plus I added more catagories for watching and listening to. I'm trying to decide if I should have one catagory for "Currently enjoying" or keep them separate like I have them now. Either way, I'll probably keep four in each catagory. For now. Any thoughts on what I should do?

Word Association for April 24th

Really quick. I need to be headed out the door. Taken from here.

1. Detachment:: Not Involved
2. Regard:: High Esteem
3. Community:: Service
4. Strike three:: You're out!
5. Congregation:: Church
6. Generous:: Salary
7. Pretention:: Better then I am
8. Pregnant:: Lots of people I know
9. Drinking:: Game
10. Brilliance:: Me! :)

Thus Endest Another Week

My mind was not on work today. It was on anything but work. I have a feeling I would have found paint drying fascinating.

My watch broke Wednesday. I had my coat on, and when I went to take it off, I realized something wasn't right with my watch. One of the four places that's supposed to hold the wrist bands on broke off. Watch itself is still working, so I now have a pocket watch. Still, it's rather hard when I'm used to looking at my wrist everytime I want the time or date. My watches seem to fall apart every two years or so anyway, so I was about due.

I left work early yesterday to head to another employment agency, this time in town. And their clients are in town as well. We'll see what happens with them.

Youth group was very different last night. We had a shower for Kurt and Kellie, the jr. high staffers that get married in 8 days. No worship, brief devotional, that kind of stuff.

We've been having weird weather this week. Yesterday, it was in the 80's. Couldn't ask for a nicer day. Today, it's cloudy and cool. We have a 50% chance or rain in the next 24 hours. Just in time for the LA Times, UCLA festival of books. It will probably mean fewer people, which will make it more enjoyable for me. I just hope it doesn't mean I wind up with ruined books.

Speaking of books, I'm working my way through Letter from Home right now. It takes place in a small Oklahoma town in 1944. Very good. Wish I had more time to read it. Of course, with Greatest American Hero season 2 calling loud and clear, I haven't gotten as much reading done this week as I would have liked.

Just got the call I was hoping for from my home owner's association. I got my bill for dues yesterday, and it showed that I hadn't made a payment in 3 months and owed lots of money. So I called them. Got the answering service, but when they called back, they started talking about the error and told me that new bills went out today. Which I'm very glad to hear. There's a $500 difference, and I'm glad I don't have to fight to get a record of my payments into their system. Just hit a wrong button.

Thursday Threesome for April 21st

Brought to us this week by internet bills and the Back Porch.

Onesome: Domain--Hypothetically, if you could own any domain name you wanted, what would it be and why?
I'm really not sure. I'd probably through my internet nickname in there and that would be it. Probably something along the markcarstairs lines.

Twosome: Name-- Are you called by something other than your legal name? If not, have you ever had a nickname? Or done something weird with your name, to try and stand out? Like an odd spelling or a slightly different pronunciation? Or just flat out wanted to change your name? To what?
In third grade, I wanted to change my name to Peter. I was reading the Chronicles of Narnia and had become rather obsessed with them. One summer, I was working at a water slide park and one of the supervisors started calling me "The Biz." And one friend calls me Bakes. Other then that, I'm Mark.

Threesome: Renewal--Do you have any magazine or other subscription that is an absolute 'must renew' whenever you get the notice?
The only magazine that would be true for is the only magazine I read, TV Guide. And let me guess, that surprises none of you. :) I actually have a subscription through 2008, I think. Might only be 2007. Either way, I got a great deal, so I took it. Even if I let it go, I'd still buy it every week in the store. But I really like having it delivered each week.

A Mostly Good Weekend

That's what I had. It had it's frustrations, but I enjoyed most of it.

Friday night started things off right. As I believe I mentioned, the career group had a BBQ. Wonderful food and friends. Plus we watched The Incredibles on an outdoor big screen. It was a little cold for something like that, but I solved that problem by hopping in the hot tub for the second half. That was lots of fun.

Saturday morning I woke up at 6 AM. No clue why. Especially since I went to bed at 12:30. I stayed in bed until 8, then got up and caught up on Friday's sitcoms. I was supposed to be hosting the game night, but by 11, I still hadn't heard from anyone as to whether or not they were coming. And I was actually planning on baked potatoes, not just pizza. So I called the regulars, and sure enough, they were planning on coming, just hadn't gotten around to letting me know. Naturally, this lack of communication didn't make me jump for joy.

Then it came to cleaning the condo. Two of my roommates did pick up their clutter, which I appreciated. The third was at work. But guess who cleaned the kitchen, dusted, and vacumed. One of the two who share the guest bath left without a work about cleaning it. When the other came home from work, he crashed, which I understood considering how much he'd been working recently. I woke him up not too long before people were to arrive to get him to finish picking up and clean his bathroom.

Here's where things get really sticky. We finally ironed things out last night. He left for a minute to talk to someone outside and got a phone call. Meanwhile, I had no clue where he'd gone and cleaned his bathroom for him. Well, a 2 minute version, anyway. Then I blew up at him after everyone had left. Yep, we both handled the cituation with the utmost respect and responsibility. :)

Anyway, the regulars did show and the four of us had a great time. We listened to highlights from my You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown revival cast CD. There are some funny songs on there. Then we played Clue. I won. After dessert, we switched to Master Detective, which I also won. :) It was a good night.

Sunday was the usual craziness. Church, talking to family, and church in the evening. Didn't have worship team practice since we've canceled worship time this week due to a wedding shower for the staff getting married. But we had a SNYF afterwards. Went very well. We played four on a couch, and the girls/staff team won both times! :) And I did manage to finish Wonder Woman Season 2 as well. Need to get my review posted, I guess.

So, all things considered, it was a good weekend with a few hickups. And maybe if I'd gotten more sleep, even those would have gone away.

Word Assocation for April 17th

Stole from here, as always.

1. Great escape:: World War II
2. Cluster:: Peanut
3. Wrong place, wrong time:: Serious Consequences
4. Guided:: Missle
5. Forensics:: Science
6. Pros:: Cons
7. Safety deposit box:: Valuables
8. Quadrant:: 57 (Don't even ask me why)
9. Precisely:: What I was saying
10. Who are you?:: Babylon 5 and CSI

Thoughts After Hours

Yep, it's 5:30 on a Friday and I'm still sitting in my office. Why? Because the career group is having a BBQ tonight, it's about a mile from here, and it starts in half an hour. Beside, it gives me a chance to blog again.

So I had one message from an employment agency I gave my resume to at the career fair last night. And I promptly forgot to call them today. Bad Mark! Bad!

Worship went very well last night, even with all the transitions. I started one song too fast, but other then that, things went smoothly.

I'm going to have to report a couple bad transactions to Amazon. Bought a couple books from a vendor, never got them, and never heard back from him/her. Grrr. Should probably be doing that right now.

Finished Dating Dead Men last night. It was lots and lots of fun. I didn't find it laugh out loud funny, but had a very hard time putting it down. I bought the sequel at lunch time today.

See, Border's is offer 25% off to educators this weekend, so naturally I had to take advantage of it. Bought that book, the rest of my brother's birthday present (which I need to be sure to mail Monday), and Kristin Chenoweth's new CD. I've been listening to it all afternoon, and I must say I absolutely love it. Don't have time tonight, but it will be getting a 5 star rating at Amazon as soon as I get a chance.

Back to having finished that book yesterday for a minute. It's been 24 hours since I finished, and I still haven't started my next book. Feels weird to be in between books.

I'm hosting the game night tomorrow night, and I have no clue how many to be expecting. I have heard from no one. This is so frustrating because I'd prefer not to be shopping tomorrow, but now I guess I'll have to. See, we're having a baked potatoe night, so it's a tad more complicated then calling Papa John's Pizza.

And speaking of pizza, I think I need to call Dominos soon. Their new Cheeseburger pizza sounds so good!

Ok, I'm really rambling. Time to go.

Thursday Threesome for April 14th

Brought to us this week by news magazines and The Back Porch.

Onesome:This--is pretty much the start of Spring (regardless of the snow in the east and midwest last week!); what's on your to-do list for the next few weeks to transition away from this long Winter we've been having?
Nothing that wasn't on my to do list in winter. Read, watch TV, review.... :)

Twosome: Week's-- What is this week's reading assignment for you? Is there a new book on the night stand? (Students, we're not talking the Chem 104 book either !)
I should be finishing up Dating Dead Men tonight and will start on Letter from Home.

Threesome: Feature--What feature would you like to have on your web site that you currently don't have? ...or is there something you do have that you'd like dialed in just a little bit better? Just curious...
I wish we had trackback on blogger. And I'm ready for all consumming to come back from vacation so I can update my reading side bar. And I'd kinda like to be able to add watching and listening to as well. Other then that, I'm perfectly content. :)

Not Quite Abandoned Yet

Nope, I haven't forgotten the place. Just haven't updated it.

Angelique and I got to play host to another Trixie friend over the weekend. Jenn came out from DC on business, and stayed until Sunday so we could hang out. It was lots of fun.

Friday night, we met up for dinner. Saturday, we got together in the afternoon, after I went to Rhys Bowen's signing, and headed to old town Pasadena for a little shopping. I hadn't been to Pasadena in a long time, so it was nice to be back. I love that city. Then we headed down to Annaheim to an Angel's game. Which is pretty funny since Angelique and I aren't baseball fans. But Jenn was thrilled and had a great time. I enjoyed it more then I thought I would. Of course, it moved pretty quickly. The biggest draw back was the price. $12 for the nose bleed seats. And dinner! I don't even want to talk about how much I spent on those nachoes.

Sunday was the normal church and talking to family stuff. We're going to try blending the songs together for worship time more Thursday night. I'm excited but nervous at the same time. This is something new and different for me, so we'll see how it goes.

Monday night, I discovered that when Drew moved out last month, he took one of my cookie sheets with him thinking it was his. And I'm rather upset by how upset that makes me. :)

Last night, got word on a potential roommate that I think would be great! But there's lots that would have to fall into place for this to work, so I'm not going to hold my breath. Still, I'm hopeful. Make any sense?

Today I went to a career fair the local community college was holding. Just took my lunch hour, so I was a bit rushed. Still, I talked to several more employment agencies that actually recruit locally. We'll see if anything comes of it or not, but it never hurts to put my resume out there more, right? Especially since I'm hearing nothing from anyone else. I really need to make the time to look harder, don't I?

Word Association for April 10th

Taken from here.

1. Horrendous:: Horrible
2. Home video:: Funniest
3. What a girl wants:: What a girl gets
4. Grounded:: for Life
5. Trusting:: Learning to
6. Simplistic:: Easy
7. Buzz:: Machine
8. Balcony:: Seat
9. Roar:: Lion
10. Hooker:: Prostitute

Once again a word you never thought you'd see here, right? :)

Man, song and TV show titles. You think I know too much about media?

Thursday Threesome a Day Late

I typed up my post for yesterday right before Blogger completely died. Since my life has been same ole, same ole, this week, maybe I'll try again today.

Brought to us this week by Texas and The Back Porch.

Onesome: Blue...Blue birds singing...what kind of birds say "Spring" to you
Yes. Really don't know my birds well enough to say which go with the sounds I hear. But birds singing certainly makes it seem like spring to me.

Twosome: ...bonnet-- ...what causes get a real "bee" in your bonnet
What doesn't? Injustice, jerks, politics, lots of stuff.

Threesome: days-- ...and what do Spring Days bring and mean to you?
Warmer weather, end of winter, summer is close, allergies.

Welcome Spring! Stick Around

The last couple of days have been georgeous. High 70's. The kind of day where I wish I were outside, but I substitute by leaving my window open.

Tomorrow, it's supposed to crash back to the 60's and stay there through the weekend. :(

This isn't fair! It's the beginning to April. We should be having nice spring weather now and not March transition weather.

Can you tell I'm ready for nice weather?

Got the second season of Greatest American Hero yesterday. Watched the first episode admist the mocks of two of my roommates last night. Can't wait to watch more. Preferrably alone.

I'm getting somewhere at work. Especially once I figured out why the account rec was off my 74,888. It was the balance in the second bank account we had in there. I'd completely forgotten about needing to combine the two to get the true balance. Once I remember that about 11 last night, things started falling into place.

And it's been quite a while since I book blogged, hasn't it? Maybe it's time I caught up.

I finally reread The Marshland Mystery. I think one reason I had such a hard time getting to it was because it's so dull. Even now, I keep waiting for the mystery to start. Not my favorite in the series.

In Like Flynn was very good. And it even takes Molly out of 1902 NYC and into Westchester County. On the train, she even goes through Ossining. This is Molly's fourth mystery. I love the characters in this series. The plots aren't as tight at in the Evan series. Clues fall into Molly's lap by accident. Still, I enjoy the series.

And I finished Owls Well that End Well Monday night. Donna Andrews did another great job. I don't know if this one was funnier then Parrots, but it was certainly right up there. Just ask poor Tom who was trying to sleep in the bottom bunk while I was giggle and silently laughing in the top bunk. Plus the plot has a couple nice twists to it that I never saw coming.

And a word about my currently reading section on the left. The site that comes from was hacked and went down. Plus the owner is leaving the country for 10 days. So I probably won't be able to update it for the rest of the month. You'll just have to watch my reviews at Amazon to the posts themselves to find out what I'm reading, I guess.

This is What Happens When You Only Work 4 out of 10 days

Yes, I'm still at work. Because I've been working! Did leave a little for dinner, but I had to get the month credit card donations for the 1st processed. Now I can go home.

Yes, I'm feeling better today, although I still have my cough. It sounds like that's the last to leave from what those who have had it before me tell me. I could have this thing for weeks. What fun. :(

My fever finally went away yesterday. And I still don't have too much energy. Came into work and was about ready to head out to my car and lie down for awhile. Yes, it's that bad. But I made it through the day and seem to be doing better now then I was then.

In other news, the owner of the car I've complained about most finally got into trouble. :)

Don't know if I'd talked about it here or not, but there is no parking in the allies between buildings in my complex, mainly because there isn't room. You park there, you're parking someone in. There's one car that I've seen park out there lots of times. It was to the point where it would be there three mornings a week, minimum. I said something to the owner one time. Innocent comment, like "You know, this is a non parking zone, right?" (Considering he was standing under a no parking sign, it should have been obvious.) He cussed me out like you wouldn't believe. I've been tempted to call security on him and get his car booted and towed, but haven't worked up enough nerve.

Friday night, I leave the window open to cool it down. Of course, that means we can hear everything that happens in the ally. About midnight, a car comes in blasting it's rap music. And it keeps going for several minutes, too. Then, about 2 Am I away to hear someone talking. It's the owner, trying to get someone to come remove the boot from his car. He's agreeing to pay the money and he's promising to never park there again. Sure hope it works.

At least I think it was the guy. I was tempted to go peak out the window, but didn't want him to think it was me since I had nothing to do with the boot being put on his car.

In other news around the complex, the door into my breezeway from my garage is broken because of kids were playing around it unsupervised Thursday. I kept hearing this banging and finally went down to investigate about the time they broke it. Can't open it from either side even with the key, so I have to use the one for the neighbors. I reported it to the homeowner's association on Thursday. Hopefully, it'll get fixed soon.

Word Association for April 3rd

Can I just say I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired? I've been out of commission since Thursday, which is why I haven't been updating. Low fever, caugh, stuffy nose, but it's very tiring. I've spent most of my time on the couch or in bed, not in front of the computer.

But the main point of today's post is the word association for the week.

1. Renewal:: Library book
2. Someone to talk to:: Friend
3. Count:: Dracula
4. Expiration:: Date
5. Upload:: Internet site
6. Publish:: Book
7. Holy:: God
8. Change in the air:: Spring
9. Titillating:: Shocking
10. Glorious:: Appearing