Prayer for the Paranoid
by Denise Sawicki
Denise Sawicki posts whatever she feels able to post without serious consequences
supernaturally unlucky
Back among some of the first posts I made to this blog I had one called "False Hope" and another called "Another Irritating Thing". Well the same kind of thing has happened numerous more times to Darrell, but in the realm of writing, not music. Darrell and Darrin decided they were going to be writers... Go »Armplay
So, It seems like our frequent thunderstorms have programmed me to become wide awake at bizarre times even when there isn't a storm. I am definitely going back to bed. First I wanted to comment on a strange trend in anime. Go »Who are you calling a pipsqueak?
So now we have moved on to watching Fullmetal Alchemist. We borrowed season 1 from the library. I quite like it. Go »More weather and anime
So the flood is on its way out, but not without bringing a little excitement. It was time yesterday to go 50 miles to the farm for Darrell's grandma's 90th birthday. Foolishly, I chose our usual route instead of the alternate route that was high and dry 2 years ago when the water was 2 feet higher. Go »Thundersnow
We had a nice thunder snowstorm on Tuesday evening. It was kind of surreal actually. I don't remember experiencing such odd weather before. Go »Sims 2
So I've been somewhat of a Sims 2 addict lately. But it's so easy. It gets boring when everybody has a perfect life, maxed skills, and reaches their lifetime want. Go »Chair
Over the weekend we went to Mills Fleet Farm to pick up the specific present my dad wanted for his birthday. I doubt you have the Fleet Farm in the more "civilized" parts of the world but it is a bit like a Walmart with the addition of things like calf medicine, saddles, fence posts, and a huge amount of hardware, machinery, building supplies, etc. I mostly stick to the more Walmart-like areas of the store, except for that one time when I built a fence :). Go »American Gothic
Well, for quite a while I have had nothing to say to anyone about anything and it is getting a bit claustrophobic. So I figured I should start saying some things into the void, dumb and trivial as they might be. A while back there was a video store closing sale so we picked up a number of TV series on DVD at 75% off. Go »Stuff you may not realize about me :)
I don't know if people realize this, but I do talk, and I do have a sense of humor of a sort... it's just that it's only with Darrell and Darrin that these things come out! It seems my frame of reference for the world is quite a bit different than most people's. Go »Back in Fargo
I have arrived home after a safe and uneventful flight. Thanks for the memories! It was fun. Go »goodbye dialup...
So, I've finally got some form of high speed internet though it's probably the slowest high speed they make (512 k). I like it though. It is so much better than what we had before. Go »The Two Towers
So last week Darrell's friend Mike discovered on Wikipedia that Galesburg, North Dakota, a town near where Darrell and Darrin grew up and where they often hung out at the cafe, actually has the third tallest structure in the world. I find the photo on the wikipedia page rather amusing, by the way, due to its unusual dimensions. Upon discovering this, Mike, Darrell, and Darrin immediately drove out to pay the tower a visit. Go »My weekend
Hmm well I hope this post is appearing in my blog, maybe I am a bit confused by the changes. I was worried we would have a bad weekend, because we had no DVDs from Netflix or the library, and our AC isn't working and it's been really hot. But finally the weekend was saved by the ultra quick arrival on Saturday of Sims 2 which I ordered Thursday... Go »The British know how to make TV
Correction to my earlier post - we have now seen almost to the end of season 2 of QAF (Darrell decided to watch it after all) and it seems only season 1 is really amazing. Perhaps it gets better again later, I don't know. Is it any coincidence that season 1 is the one copied almost directly from the British version? Go »Why have I not checked this show out before?...
So I happened to find disk 1.1 of Queer as Folk (American version) at the library and it is rare to see disk 1.1 of anything so I checked it out. Go »Dog Tricks
Cross post from Facebook. Here are two new videos of our genius dog doing his amazing tricks. Mimicking Verbal Tricks Go »Don't go computer shopping at 6 AM...
So, we have an old and crummy computer that's been bothering us for years, and for reasons that I can't get into, it suddenly became critical to go computer shopping at 6 AM on Saturday. :P I got a digital video camera for my birthday and Darrell took some awesome videos of Philip and we wanted something that would be capable of video editing. I headed out to Walmart at 6 AM on Saturday, looked at the stats of the various computers,. Go »Crazy day
More happened today than in my usual month I think... which goes to show you how uneventful my life is. So I don't think sleep is really going to happen. Go »Gross jelly beans
So, we all know I am a little juvenile for my age. We went and purchased some Beanboozled jelly beans a while back - the box comes with a mix of good flavors and disgusting flavors but you can't tell the difference until you eat them because the color is the same. I was apprehensive but most of the flavors I tried were really not that bad. Go »I didn't like Brokeback Mountain
I know I'm a number of years too late to be talking about this, but I finally happened to see Brokeback Mountain and I have to say I didn't like it terribly much. Yes, I realize this is an extremely unpopular opinion to the point of being just plain wrong as an objective fact. Note, I do not have a problem with gay people or gay behavior. Go »Londo and Life
I woke up in the mood to write quite a bit but I feel my communication skills have fled me as of late, if indeed I ever had any to begin with. I can only hope someone out there will make some sense out of this. Yesterday was the big day at the convention and it was cool. Go »Mystery Halloween costume
This might look like two guys in ugly clothes, but in reality it is a very nerdy Halloween costume. Can anyone figure it out? Edit: Steve West figured it out, answer is in the comments. Go »More about the coat obsession
I know I already put the pictures on Facebook but I have such an infatuation with this coat that I need to post about it a bit :P. Here is the real dude in the real coat: Here is Darrell in our coat we just bought: Here's me in the coat: Here I am in the coat again (brighter shot): Anyhow, generally when you find pictures of this guy he has on the suspenders and no vest. He does wear a vest sometimes though! Go »Greatcoat
So I am rather pleased to have bought what seems to be a US Air Force greatcoat for $12.50 at a thrift store... Darrell wants to be Jack Harkness for the convention or for Halloween and I can't say I blame him. Go »door to door salesperson
Well last night I had somewhat of a weird experience when this wacky lady came to our door to sell some cleaning supplies for $37 a bottle... I normally do not buy anything from solicitors but she had me flustered and I was cracking up at everything she was saying... Didn't want to send her away empty handed after her lengthy comedy show. Go »Our first Con?
Darrell and I are thinking of going to this: http://www.valleycon.com/. We have never been to such an event before, and it is kind of expensive, but: A. Londo is one of our favorite TV characters ever B. Go »Torchwood
OK, I've read the reviews saying Torchwood is a terrible show that is nothing but gratuitous sex and violence but I gotta say I kind of disagree and kind of like it. Thanks to our public library for stocking such a non-educational program :P. Buffy fans particularly seem to despise this program but what the heck, I like both... Go »TV crushes
I need to apologize for the rather fangirlish reference in my last goo. I was having a little crush on Marcus Cole when I made the goo... that is my justification. Go »More news
So the second crest didn't exactly happen. The first crest was 40.8 (already an all-time record) and originally they said there was a 75% chance the second one would be over 41. Go »stupid water
I guess I'm just not cut out for dealing with anything the slightest bit stressful. Well, I already knew that. So we had our all-time record flood and it has dropped almost 6 feet since then but now they are saying there is going to be a second crest of the river even higher than the first sometime in April. Go »Flood
So... not sure exactly why I live in this ridiculous state of North Dakota. I can tell myself that we're better off than California much of the time but who's to say? Go »Hello
So... I know I've been mostly absent... I saw Amy's comment in RB and I just want to assure her that it is not her fault I quit RB :P. Go »D&D update
The guys made it to 4th level and then we added 2 new characters. We had a dragonborn warlord and an elf ranger, at 4th level we added an eladrin wizard and a dwarf fighter. Darrell is playing the fighter and warlord, Darrin has the ranger (though he's not exactly into the game so we're lucky if we're able to call him to the table to actually make his dice rolls) and I got the wizard even though I'm DM :-P. Go »Long long break
Well I think I have to devote all my game energy to D&D for a long time because it's terribly complicated and not think about Rock Block at all for a while... Sorry I felt the need to check the card exchange anyhow... I hope when I traded a couple cards lately that people were satisfied with the outcome... Go »D&D first impressions
So our books came yesterday and I've been reading the Dungeon Master's guide as scheduled while Darrell's been reading the Player's Handbook. It's quite obvious I am going to have to read the Player's Handbook too since there is not so much actual useful information in the DM guide. It has lots of pages about different playing styles, how to handle different personalities in your group, and weird stuff like how to write cryptograms, but not so much useful data on the actual rules. Go »My stupid brain
It seems I have quite a lot of former friends who wound up really, really, disliking me. So I am always alert to signs of that happening again. It's nobody's fault but my own, I assure you. Go »Ghost of an Unkissed Kiss
As though I don't look bad enough for sharing information on my lame celebrity crushes, here's a real-life one, albeit a really old one. I'd forgotten that his full name was in the movie we watched the other day and maybe hearing his name was what got me started on this nostalgic path. He's got a common name. Go »Jesus songs
I wonder what it is with me liking all these songs that mention Jesus. I'm a total atheist :P Actually I think it might be easier for me to like these songs that it would be for anyone who's religious and might have a troubled background with religion. I guess the name has less significance for me. Go »Haircuts and dandelions
So I cut off all my hair this weekend, about 16 inches of it. Now it is above chin length. I like it better this way but can't be bothered to get it cut more than once a year (I think I went 2 years this time). Go »Weather - the most boring conversational topic?!?
Well, perhaps not if you live in ND, I dunno. There's snow on the ground *and* dandelions in the lawn right now. That's a first, at least in my memory. Go »Now I remember why I live in North Dakota
It got hot all of a sudden the last few days, or what passes for hot in ND in early April (50s). It's like a spring break video out there, people prancing around in bikinis yelling "woo"... OK not quite but there is a marked change in demeanor. Go »Bablyon 5 vs. Little House on the Prairie
Darrell is checking out a lot of Babylon 5 DVDs from the library lately. I watch it too when I get a chance. Anyway, perhaps it's because we're nuts, but we think that show has a bizarre number of parallels with Little House on the Prairie. Go »I'm posting a lot
Yeah I suppose I should mention for anyone wondering (besides Scott, who I already talked to) I'm 90% sure I'm too crazy to do this GooCon thing appropriately. But that 10% chance of a successful trip is driving me nuts. I'm really curious to meet some other site users and I know it would be fun if I wasn't so crazy. Go »I wish I wasn't such a freakin idiot about cars
Seems like every time I need an oil change they want to do $600 of service on my car even though it's running fine. It's getting so I absolutely dread oil changes because I feel like such an idiot not knowing what I really need done to the stupid car and I feel like an asshole if I say anything about it. I hate my stupid car. Go »Giant flakes of cereal
The big news of today is we found a big flake of raisin bran crunch. I don't know if it's quite as big as the one featured in the coming link but it's pretty big. You can get some idea of what my life is like because I then proceeded to google for "largest flake" and "giant flake". Go »Writing frightening verse to a buck-toothed girl in Luxembourg
The identity of my birthday RB card will be public soon enough, I'm sure, so I figured I'd write a little about it. I won't state its identity outright, in hopes that I can encourage anyone who's not familiar to click the link :P. First, I didn't know a "wimpy" band could wind up ranking quite so high. Go »A wish
You know, it would be nice to be the kind of person who could sometimes do or say things *without* regretting them. I think that would be on my top three list of wishes :) Just to turn off a part of my brain. It's really freakin cold out. Go »I love waking up early
I got up before 5, took a shower, did a bunch of my fun and addictive getting-free-stuff-on-the-internet activities, had breakfast, and went and found some treasures in Kameo, all before heading out to work at 7:50. That was awesome. We always go to bed before 10 anyway so what's the point hanging around in bed in the morning when I'm not tired. Go »Annoying
Darrell tells me that people actually care about *my* approval and they think I am rejecting them when in fact I am trying to keep away from them to protect them from my insanity. You guys are all awesome by the way... Wish I wasn't too insane to interact comfortably with anyone... Go »Drinks
We found a big 1.75 liter bottle of Absolut Apeach for $10 ... We didn't realize what a great special this was until we saw that the little 0.75 Go »Free stuff bandits
So we discovered that the limited edition "holiday" flavors of that Swiss chocolate are secretly on sale for 90% off... so we went and bought out all the gingerbread chocolate from the Target stores in Fargo and Moorhead, haha. We are so evil. Go »Adventures with food
So, Darrell is getting really into cooking lately so I got him a pasta machine and this weekend we used it for the first time.. OK I used it... and it was kinda fun! Go »Nostalgia from TV shows
We're watching some high school shows lately, notably Freaks and Geeks, which I love, also My So-Called Life which I hesitate to admit I find hard to get into... Anyway Freaks and Geeks sure makes me jealous of the friendships those characters had in high school. Nobody would ever make a show about my high school experience. Go »Vanity
So, is my new picture OK? Too weird of an angle? I think it is a better likeness than the old one because I look kind of worried and I'm hiding in a hood :P. Go »Stupid stuff
Well the most exciting thing to report is I've developed a crush on a TV character. I think this is a pretty clear sign that I need a life. It's not even a remotely original or interesting choice (besides being behind the times) and I don't actually like bad boys dammit :P Go »Our dog is smart
Our sheltie, Philip, is really smart. Here is his latest Oscar-worthy film, where he shows off his ability to mimic Darrell doing the following actions: turn a circle, stretch, sneeze, lie down, roll over (partway), hop, and speak: link Philip also knows how to read a few words, kind of, though I think he gets bored with it :-). Currently he's in school for agility, which entails learning how to run around a course jumping hurdles and using tunnels and seesaws in a prescribed manner. Go »Late Halloween post
Well now that my little goo is expired I can mention how our Halloween party went. I think it went OK. A few people knew who we were pretending to be. Go »Insecurity, North Dakota weather
Does my insecurity have no end? Will I ever stop embarrassing myself and annoying others by putting myself down? Is there some drug I can take to make myself stop? Go »Sewing completed
Well yeah... I sewed a cape.. I am rather impressed with myself, though if you could see it up close you would see what a sloppy job I did. Go »Sewing Project?
So... we are into this goofy show "The Prisoner" lately and decided we want to go as people from that show for Halloween. That is, assuming anyone invites us to a party of any kind. Go »Sorry about that extra tall image
Sorry I screwed up the obsessions page with that tall image. But it is true, I have a new obsession. Gee... Go »New Camera
I didn't realize you could get a digital camera for $15 now... Once I became aware of this fact, I had to have one! Darrin got rid of his camera phone and this will serve the same purpose. Go »Cereal
Scott mentioned having 5 boxes of cereal - that is nothing, I just did a quick count at home and we have at least 25! Some extras might be lurking in other rooms of the house! It's quite unbelievable really. Go »People charging me money for nothing...
I guess the saga of me and numberonemusic.com is not over yet. They went and charged my credit card for another $59.95 Go »Narcissist
Oh lord, new worry, what if I'm a narcissist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_Personality_Disorder "NPD is considered to result from a person’s belief that he or she is flawed in a way that makes the person fundamentally unacceptable to others [8]. Go »Nothing much
Well I figured I should mention my health thingy is OK and I don't have to get any more tests for another year... :P The weeks are going by really fast, it's quite alarming. and alcohol is fun. Go »Found things, jerkishness, fuzziness
This morning I found my black pants that have been gone for nigh on a year. They weren't even anywhere weird. They were just on the floor in the closet. Go »Adventures with Free Desserts
Four recent adventures with free desserts: 1. We had not much to do on Saturday morning so, against our better judgement, we decided to go to the furniture store, who had sent us a coupon offering free breakfast and a free gift to "preferred customers". Breakfast turned out to be doughnuts. Go »Vacation
Well I requested some time off work until January 3rd... For the price of 4 vacation days I get 11 days off. We're going to go visit my husband's older brother in Wisconsin around New Years... Go »Cocoa spills and Larry David
In a freak accident, I managed to splatter my husband's entire mug of cocoa all across the kitchen this morning, 1 minute before I had to leave for work. I apologized a bunch of times and kept asking if I should call in and tell them I'm going to be late so I could clean it up... but he said he'd try to clean it up. Go »Would you like the receipt with you, or in the bag?
I don't really understand why people ask this. Doesn't it take longer to ask this question and wait for the answer than to just let the person do what they please with the receipt? Oh well. Go »Halloween
We got some pretty scary masks at KMart. Darrin went as a "Crypt Creature" and Darrell went as a werewolf. That is actually me in the skeleton mask but you'd never guess from this picture. Go »Frustrated
I just get so frustrated. I want my husband to be happy but the things he's decided will make him happy are completely out of our control (success at music). I wish something good would happen for him finally. Go »Another Irritating Thing
The Indian episode isn't the only irritating thing that happened with The Cedars recently. A while before that, Darrell received an e-mail from someone claiming to be from MTV saying they had listened to his songs on the Jones Soda website, liked them, and wanted a CD to consider including in their show. Now this sounds like an obvious fake, but the thing is, some research showed that the person who sent the e-mail does exist and does work at MTV, the e-mail address was verifiable, the phone number led to a seemingly legitimate voice mail, and the address was an actual office at MTV. Go »False Hope
So the guys' band had a show on Saturday and it went really well. A bunch of people came up to say they did a good job, and the headlining band (another local act) really liked the music and wants to do other shows together. And they even got paid! Go »A girl wants to meet me
I'm scared of girls. Go »Crawlspace
Darrell just ordered an Atari on ebay. It just felt good to get annoyed with my mom first :) The guys are so excited looking over all the additional Atari games they could buy. I know it's kind of stupid to be buying that kind of thing instead of the hugely complex games that exist now, but Darrell said he wants the crawlspace to be a fun place without the kind of long, complicated game that can cause painful obsessions. Go »Lost Things
Darrin's sheet and pillowcase disappeared some time back, and I just discovered my nice black pants are missing. I almost always wear jeans so I have no idea how long they have been gone. We searched thoroughly for these items and the only theory we can come up with is that Darrin's ex-girlfriend took them. Go »Office Party
Last weekend we went to an office party at my boss's lake house. We took Philip and he got along famously with my boss's dog, Willow, who is half greyhound and half husky. I like Willow quite a bit. Go »Being Rich
I've decided I wouldn't really want to be wealthy. OK, in many people's estimation I am probably wealthy already, but, what I really mean is I wouldn't want to live like a wealthy person. I wouldn't want a huge house on the lake with my own boat.. Go »The Political Thing
The political thing I hinted at in my first blog entry is over for now. The signatures have been safely delivered to Bismarck. Anyway, here it is, the North Dakota Shared Parenting Initiative, at http://ndspi.org. Go »The Plight of Live Music in Fargo
My husband is in a band.. the problem is it's terribly difficult to find a place to play. Every few months, a new place will start offering live music. Go »
