The GirlAlive Blog

My new best friend.

I have an old green Fender guitar with broken electronics.  It’s been frustrating me for several years, and I’ve never gotten it to play without cutting out on a regular basis.  I love that guitar, but it is aggravating.

My husband has been learning to play bass guitar, so he got himself an amp.  I wanted to play my guitar, but when you plug it into an amp, it’s just annoying.  I decided it was time to do something.

I bought a new set of electronics for my Fender.  It didn’t work.  My guitar is a bit of a mutant and I’m not good enough at soldering to get it together.  (Next time my brother is in town I’ll have him take a crack at it.  He’s an electrical engineer.)

I was checking out eBay and seeing if there were any guitars that looked halfway decent.  The price I set for myself was that I didn’t want to spend more than 60 pounds including shipping.  There’s a crappy Fender look alike in the charity shop, which is poor quality and covered in ugly skater stickers, for 60 pounds.  It’s way overpriced.  But I didn’t want a top quality brand name guitar.  I just want to play.  So that’s the line I drew.  If I couldn’t find anything cheaper than the ugly one in the charity shop, I wouldn’t get one.

There was one on ebay that I liked.  It was a Stagg brand copy of a Fender Jazzmaster.  The starting bid was 40 pounds, with 12 pounds for shipping.  The auction was ending at 11:30 at night so I couldn’t stay up for the end of it because husband had to get up early for work.  I threw a ridiculously small bid in on it and went to bed.

In the morning I found that I had won.  No other bids.  I got it for the starting bid.  52 pounds, with shipping.  It arrived today.

I love this guitar.  It fits into my arms perfectly.  It sounds great.  It’s the most comfortable guitar I think I’ve ever played.  We were meant for each other. 

The picture doesn’t do it justice.  It’s so shiny and pretty.  I love my new guitar.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with the giant box full of crumpled newspaper that it came in… 

Pictures of Jayne

Here is Jayne.  She is very cute.  So far no biting.  She’s friendly but nervous.  She loves to dig and poop.  She poops more than any other hamster I’ve ever had.  She has pooped on me more in two days than Binky did in his entire life.

So that’s the newest hamster in our collection.

Alana 

Jayne loves Weezer

Our new hamster Jayne is very shy and nervous, which is totally normal for any new pet.  A while ago, something startled her and she ran into her little house and stayed there motionless for about half an hour.  Until I put on an MP3 of "Pork and Beans" by Weezer.  Then she came out of her house and started trying to climb up the walls.  After that, I wasn’t playing any music for a while and she just kind of sat around and nibbled at some food.  Then I put on the early demo version of "Buddy Holly" from Rivers Cuomo’s solo album, and she started running in the wheel like a fluffy little lunatic.  I’ve been playing more Weezer music since then, and I’ve never seen a hamster so active during the day.

So our new hamster likes Weezer.  Good thing, cause whether she likes it or not, she’ll probably be hearing a lot of Weezer around here.  The other rodents don’t seem to have strong feelings one way or another, although Spike does like The Beach Boys and The Monkees

Alana 

Once again into Pets At Home

We have another hamster.  She’s a syrian.  Her name is Jayne.  She is orangey colored.  (No pictures yet cause she’s still scared and hiding.)

Um.  Yeah.  Now we have three hamsters.  The coffee table is now being called the hamster table.  Cause that’s where the three hamster cages are lined up. 

How did we end up with yet another hamster?  With Homer dying and me being homesick and everything I was kind of depressed.  We did inventory and decided that with only three guinea pigs, we could afford another hamster. 

I can’t help it.  I like hamsters.

If we had a big enough cage, we would have come home with degus.  But we don’t have a cage big enough for two, and they’re too social to live alone.  So we’re sticking to the plan to get degus once we’re down to only one cage of guinea pigs.

Alana 

sadist

Are there any dentists who are not sadists?  I’d just like to know. 

I was supposed to be getting a temporary filling in one tooth, and then get another tooth yanked out.  I was not excited about this prospect.  I hate people messing with my teeth.  I don’t go to the dentist as much as I’m supposed to now because I went to the dentist far too much when I was in my early teens.  My orthodontist was a jerk, and he made me hate all dentists.

Anyway, I got the temporary filling and it hurt kind of a lot.  Then she moved on to the extraction.  Or, as it turns out, the attempted extraction.  Apparently my tooth is not just rotted from the inside, but is also impacted and stuck in there hard.  She yanked, jiggled, twisted and tugged at my tooth for about 15 minutes before deciding that it wasn’t going anywhere. 

I am going to have to get a hospital appointment to get my tooth removed, and I’m hoping there’ll be anesthesia involved.

I was supposed to end today with a bloody socket instead of a broken tooth.  Instead, I have a throbbing stump of a tooth and yet another dentist appointment.  

Dentists always tell me that I don’t see the dentist often enough.  Why would I when this is what I get for it?  Until dentist appointments end with hugs and puppies instead of blood and throbbing, I will continue to avoid them.

Alana

P.S.  In other news, Spike and Elvis are still getting along great.  Fudge is getting used to living alone, and is happier now that we moved him into the bottom cage so he can see what we’re doing. 

Me and Weezer

Way back in 1994 I remember watching and loving Weezer’s video for Buddy Holly.  (Feel free to click on the link for a reminder.  It’ll open in a new window, so you can keep reading.)  It was hilarious and also a good song.  And after that, I pretty much forgot about Weezer for a good long time.  They came up in conversation now and then with my friends, because Weezer is primarily known as nerd rock, and most of my friends (especially back in college) were both musicians and nerds.

Now jump forward to 2007.  I’m a huge fan of Cute Overload.  I mean, who doesn’t love puppies and stuff?  At some point Cute Overload posted the video of Weezer’s video for Island In the Sun.  There’s an air-drumming kitten and a herd of retriever puppies.  It’s adorable! 

Then there was Pork and Beans.  I watched the video initially because it’s funny.  It’s got all kinds of internet stars and it’s just fun.  After watching in a few times, I started to really pay attention.  That’s when I decided that I love that song, with or without the video.   So after flirting with Weezer for the past 14 years, I’m finally willing to commit.  I am now officially a Weezer fan.  And I think that in Pork and Beans, I have found my new theme song.

Alana