North of the Columbia
I'm going to deal with my hosting later today and figured I'd better post now because if there's any sort of snafu who knows when I'll get this working again.

Yesterday one of my nerd news feeds said that The Golden Compass was going to be sneaking into theaters a week early and I could possibly see it today. I was lying in bed awake at 4:30a (because why would my body let me sleep-in on a day when I could?) and heard the newspaper thump on the front doorstep and the first thing I thought was: wonder what time Golden Compass is playing.

(Aside: I just pulled up the cast list on imdb.com and Ian McKellen plays the voice of Iorek Byrnison. Lord of the Rings. X-Men. Da Vinci Code. What hasn't this man been in?)

Turns out it's only on two screens and they are both on the other side of the river and on the outer reaches of town. After this week I dread the thought of getting into the car. I'm not even going to do a Trader Joe's run and my wine supply is dangerously low. Although I would do it for GC if it was the theater that's 5 minutes from here.

The Bitch and Whine Roll
I'm having a lot of despair about my transportation situation. On Tue/Wed, 3 out of four travel legs were bogged down by highway accidents. I get to stand in the dark and rain and wait for a bus. Then I get to be damp and sit on a bus forever. It's not even December, yet.

It's a sad state of affairs when the first thing I do when I get out of bed in the morning is run to the computer to check my powerball ticket to see whether I have to go to work.

Driving myself wouldn't help much although at this point it's starting to make sense again. I quit driving because parking is too expensive. If Bob picks me up and I'm a half hour late because of traffic so he goes into a restaurant and eats and drinks something while he waits, how are we saving money? Plus now both of us are inconvenienced.

The most obvious solution is either work closer to where I live or live closer to where I work. Neither are easy fixes for us at this point in our lives/careers.

Meanwhile, my webhosting upgrade whatever is still messed up and I can't get my email the usual way but I did finally figure out, when I was searching for an online help forum (which they do not have), that if I login on the hosting site as a customer there's a place to access webmail. I can't do jack-crap with the instructions they sent me. I can't ftp. I also noticed yesterday's post never showed up in my reader. Is that related?

I called support yesterday and after 10 minutes I was still the 10th person in line so I gave up because I don't really have time to be on hold for two hours. The help screens are completely and totally worthless and say things like, "Webmail is easy to setup and using your username and password you can check your email from anywhere in the world."

That is fantastic news. Too bad I still have no idea how to set it up and there's no HELPful instructions.

Can you imagine if you asked someone to write instructions to make a pie. And this is what you got:

Crust: pie crust is a flaky pastry made from a butter, shortening or other fats combined with flour and salt and sometimes sugar. It is placed in a pie plate in preparation for fruit, custard or other prepared filling and then baked.

Do you feel like you could make a pie from those instructions? When I'm in charge of the world: everything's going to be different.

FRACK!

I finally figured out that my posts aren't showing up because my webhosting did their migration or upgrade or giant-pain-in-my-ass that they had scheduled and then rescheduled. Their instructions for entering the brave new world have no relation to anything in reality and I've spent the last hour trying to figure out how to set up my ftp in my blogger settings to make it work. You'd think blogger could tell me my ftp is effed up and not that "it's taking a long time to publish" worthless info. Jeez, it's like the entire planet is conspiring to waste my time.

Rain Maker For Hire
Yesterday I made it rain again. I decided to hoof it over to Powell's to see if I could pick up a few more copies of the anthology with my story in it. The sky did not look rain-like and I clicked the trusty weather icon on the desktop and there was Nothing about rain. So off I went without my umbrella and wearing my non-waterproof wool hat. You can guess the rest. For the second time in two days I had to wring out my panties. Also, Powell's didn't even have the book but I've learned since that's available here.

In other news, on Monday night when I got home I had a piece of mail from a lab that performed routine and completely uncontroversial lab work for me at my regular check up in September.

The form letter indicated they hadn't received payment for their services and further that according to Oregon law, if insurance refuses to pay a claim, they need to notify the lab and the patient in writing. The bill was for $50.

The letter goes on to instruct me to contact my health insurance and find out what's going on and then call the lab and tell them and if the health insurance doesn't have a copy of the claim then I need to call the lab with the name and fax # of the representative I'm dealing with and they'll resend the bill.

For the time and money it cost to waste my time, why not just start by re-billing insurance? Why am I even being involved?

I phoned my health insurance phone tree and after being advised that wait times were longer than usual I went through their website and sent an email relaying all of the above and giving them the lab's billing department phone in the desperate hope that I can be taken out of the loop on this stupid thing.

My insurance emailed me back and said they had no record of the claim, that they don't accept faxed claims and to instruct the lab to mail the claim to the claim address. Then I called the lab and they wanted to keep me on hold forever so I hung up and faxed them a note telling them to re-bill. Stupid.

Rain Maker
Everyone in the PACNW can thank me for the rain. Usually I make it rain by washing the car.

Yesterday I did it when I took my umbrella out of my bag because all of a sudden I decided it made the bag "too heavy" and besides, it's been clear for days. During this same frenzy of getting ready to head out the door for work I also detached the waterproof hood from my squall-proof/blizzard-proof coat so I could wear my cute not waterproof wool hat and fuzzy scarf.

I sealed the deal when I was standing in the garage holding a towel in my hands and thinking, "It would sure be handy to have a dry towel in the car but I don't really need it right now." Then I put it back where I found it and continued on my way.

I exited the office at 4:30 and it wasn't just drizzling, it was showering. I no longer park in my building since the parking bastards raised the daily rate to $12 when the lot next door closed so someone can build another office tower. If I ever get the opportunity to time travel I'm going to tell my past self to buy parking lots and then enjoy raking in piles of free money. Now I park about a 10 minute walk away (Only on yoga day. I could, seriously, write a 10 screen post about parking but it's not worth it. The short version is, I drive 1 day a week and take the bus the other days.) so I was nice and wet when I made it to the car not to mention smelling like livestock. (My wet wool hat.)

It sure would have been handy to have a dry towel for my hands and face when I got in the car. Then there was a stalled car right where I exit the parking lot and for some reason everyone in that lane just stopped. No one went around. No one helped. Everyone just sat there. I've never seen anything like it. I finally had to squeeze out between two stopped cars and make a wish that there was no oncoming traffic and drive around the mess.

Added: "Oncoming" may not be the right word. I wasn't driving on the wrong side of the road to get around. There were three lanes and the lane where the parking garage exited was stopped. So I had to drive across this lane and blindly jump into one of the still moving lanes. If this doesn't make sense don't worry. It's just a dumb traffic story.

Let the Cheer Begin
My feelings about the holidays change from year-to-year. I'm not really a holiday lover but not a hater either. I like the holiday cheer part but hate the big crowds and traffic jams it creates.

Last year we had an unusually busy holiday season and tons of events. We're not big social people and while I love visiting with family and friends, I find it extremely draining to be in large groups of people that I don't know.

Also last year my family was here so we did a lot more going out to movies and restaurants and stuff than Bob and I might normally do. At the end of last year I totally hit my breaking point and refused to attend our last function and instead spent the day puttering around the house in my sweats with my hair uncombed.

So as we started the slow descent into this holiday season I was preemptively stressing about getting overbooked and Bob reminded me that we don't have as many events and we're going away for the holiday to a quiet place where three cars is a traffic jam and the only people we see are family and friends so nothing to be exhausted about. (Assuming the weather cooperates and travel goes smoothly.)

I Can Remember Lots of Things

Not long ago Jezebel had a thread and endless comments about Sixteen Candles v. Pretty in Pink.

As if.

I love my Pretty in Pink and my Duckie and my Iona and Andie with her drawer full of pink beads. But if I'm forced to choose, Sixteen Candles is going to win every time.

The movie was on cable last week and I taped it and watched it yesterday.

I love this movie.

Every time Bob came into the room I said, "Honey, come here. This is the best scene in 80's cinema." If you know his taste in films you're laughing right now because he likes weird old foreign stuff with like, one guy in a room playing the accordion while a monkey tap dances. He would think that was the best scene in cinema. He also claims I've already made him watch 16 Candles with me at least 4 times which I find very hard to believe. Or not.

One thing that struck me about the film during this viewing was how much stuff you could NEVER put in a mainstream teen movie these days. Homosexual slurs. Terrible Italian stereotypes. Horrifically racist Asian stuff. Drunk teenagers driving, mixing drinks and doing it with no mention of protection whatsoever.

I have a million favorite moments in this movie but I will mention two. The first is when Farmer Ted is mixing martinis for himself and Jake Ryan and handing him peanuts and giving him girl advice. Classic.

The other is probably my favorite movie scene in history beating out when Luke destroys the death star, "nobody puts baby in a corner" and that moment in the Battle Of Helm's Deep when Gandalf comes galloping down the hill.

It's at the very end when Samantha is leaving the church and people are taking off and all the cars pull away and there's Jake Ryan leaning on his red Porsche waiting for her! And even better, her Dad lets her drive off with him instead of going to her sister's wedding reception. On what planet does that happen?

The best.

The pumpkin photostream is up.

It starts with sprouting pumpkin seeds and ends with pumpkin pies.

We are having a quiet weekend. Yesterday I was out chopping back dead dahlias and other yard cleanup duties. I found the box that the bulbs came in on the workbench and as I went to throw it out I noticed there was one packet of bulbs left. I think it was these. I cleared out a spot for them but I needed a bag of dirt to supplement and obviously totally forgot. I took care of that this morning.

I just took the last of the tomatoes from the window sill and put them in a pot with a slab of butter and will hopefully make a tasty little bowl of soup. All the last little reminders of summer, gone.

(Bigger version of photo here.)

The Book Pile
This isn't a completely accurate version of all the books in the house that I plan to read someday but the top shelf is the main holding area for things I intend to read sooner rather than later. The second shelf books aren't a priority but I wanted to get the Han Shot First bookends in there.

The bookends on the top shelf are the Argonath from the Lord of the Rings.

This whole thing is making me look a lot nerdier than I'd intended. I've always liked to read a lot of different kinds of stuff but this year I've been on a sci-fi/fantasy binge much more than in past years. The Kite Runner and The Known World have been here forever and I've "almost" read them a number of times and then seem to be distracted by something else.

I thought about why this might be and my best theory is that when my job changed I started working much longer days and when I get home my brain fried and then I eat dinner and have a couple glasses of wine and it's hard to concentrate on what I'm reading for more than a page or two. In this condition: dragons, space ships=easy, literature=less easy.

I don't know why I feel the need to explain myself. I like to read the books I like. The sci-fi books are also idea for public transportation.

I keep lists of the books I read and short reviews here.

At the moment I'm reading Fargo Rock City and Chuck Klosterman IV by Chuck Klosterman that Meredith and Jeff loaned me. Fargo Rock City is about hair bands. I can't believe I haven't read it already. When I started it I thought a little bit of Chuck goes a long way but I'm having fun reading both. I like particularly like the celebrity profiles in IV. I also started Potter 7 at last. I can't remember much about the other 6 books and I thought I'd speed read through the synopses online but even those are endlessly long. I don't need to reminded of every time Harry drank a tankard of pumpkin juice and scratched his butt.

Worth Eating
I thought I scanned a really old, like 60's era, Thanksgiving photo earlier this year but I can't find it so I'm posting a picture from the Orleans post office instead.

So far all the cooking I did in advance is having problems. Except the pumpkin pie which I didn't really make for dinner today, more like an ongoing snack all weekend. We already cut into it.

Several years ago we were at a party where they served the best chocolate mousse on 9 planets. It was the kind of thing you thought about for days after. The taste, texture and tiny flecks of chocolate. It was a spectacular dessert and I've wanted to make it myself ever since.

I used the Cooks Illustrated recipe and it did not go well.

Perhaps I should back up and confess that I was über-multi-tasking yesterday. I had Star Wars IV, special edition on the tube, I made the pie from my own pumpkins (photos sometime this weekend) so I had to process those and make the pie (also crust disaster as per usual) I made the salad, the mousse, our Wednesday night dinner plus I intended to bake some breadsticks which I ended up passing on but I did do step one of the no knead bread recipe.

The mousse was a large pain in the ass and involved melting things in a double boiler, separating eggs and whipping this and that or the other thing into soft peaks and gently folding this into that and everything needs to be smooth. I was also fretting about the not really cooked 2 eggs thing. Is stirring egg yolks into melted chocolate enough? Is the food safety industry overly paranoid and do we not really need to worry as much as they seem to want us to?

By this point dinner was ready and the season finale of Weeds queued up (aside- tiny spoiler: Kevin Nealon, banjo, awesome.) I folded everything as best I could and reminded myself about Julie and Julia and I'm not the first cook to curse at a cooking project that's not going well. There was no graceful way to get it into the serving cups. My attempt at gentle spooning turned into violent glopping.

Meanwhile, husband and hot food wait at table.

Then I tried to carefully wipe the mess off the rims of the serving cups and it smeared unprettily. At this point I said ferk-it and covered each dish as instructed then threw them in the fridge.

Dinner went fine. We cut the pumpkin pie which was delicious. I finished making the salad without incident and hit the sack without causing harm to myself or anyone else. I worried about the mousse all night and came up with the idea to transfer them into new, clean serving cups.

The mousse transfer is a wonderful idea that totally didn't work. I only did one cup and it looks like someone dropped it and then scraped it into the dish with a tree branch. I tasted it. Fantastic. I left the rest as they are. Not pretty but taste good, dammit!

Meanwhile, my bread dough came out like bread batter. I'm not sure if I spaced and didn't put enough flour (probably) or spaced and added too much water. I shaped it the best I could and it's rising now but I don't think it's going to work. I dug out the bread stick recipe from last night because it only needs 45 minutes to rise. Let's just hope I can turn out decent risotto or we're going to be eating pizza tonight.

Power Goose Down Insulation
When I was younger I was one of those people pleasing people and I didn't want to rock the boat and was all easy-going, "I don't care, whatever you want to do." Now I'm Queen of Ornery and I think everyone should be pleased with whatever I'm willing to offer. There's a story involved but we'll save it for some other time.

Remember the -40° coat? I got it last week and yesterday was the test run. I had to wait for the bus at 7am, the temperature was probably around regular 40° (meaning not: -40°).

You know that feeling when you climb into a comfy bed and the pillow is fluffy and the comforter is puffy and you snuggle in and it feels so great? This is what my coat feels like. It's awesome. It kept me toasty warm but not overheated, which was what I was worried about. I don't know who does the temperature rating. I think if it was -40° I would need to wear three of these coats. But it will be perfect for me here. I need to find my scarf and I might remove the hood and use my wool hat instead. I don't like the visibility limitations of a hood.

I've got a big day. I'm doing a bunch of cooking/baking including processing some pumpkin for a pie. (Photo of processing the summer 05 crop here.)

NaBlo-er Gives Birth!

Hey NaBlo-ers. Fellow blogger (and for me, relative) It's Meri Day Every Day! gave birth this morning to a baby boy: Samuel. 9 lbs. 10 oz. Drop her a note if you have time.

The Last Cheeseburger in Vancouver, WA
I enjoy a wide variety of entertainment. I like books, TV and movies. Hobbits, Jane Austen and space ships. I like stories in foreign countries or with politics or with complex family relationships and where everything doesn't necessarily come out okay. I like two pretty people falling in love. I like vampires.

I like horror but I scare easily and gross-out even easier so my consumption is not extensive. Some horror is criminally stupid but other times it can be pretty interesting.

I read a book called The Ruins by Scott Smith. If I told you right now what the big bad was, you'd probably roll your eyes. I was a little disappointed when I figured it out. But the way the story is set up, you meet these 4 people traveling in Mexico together and you are introduced to their personal quirks and their relationships to one another and you can relate to them. One of them convinces the group to go off on this side trip to find a fellow traveler's brother and one thing leads to another and the horror begins.

I liked the story because it was creepy-disturbing-impossible-to-put-down. But I also liked it because I felt like the people were acting like real people would act (well, except for this one thing) and trying to solve their problem by being smart and using common sense. Yet, the horror went on and on.

I read another book called Cold Skin by Albert Sánchez Piñol which is another conventional, yet unconventional horror novel set on a remote island in the Antarctic. I'm going to give spoilers but all this stuff happens in the first 25 pages of the book so it's not like I'm giving away the whole thing. The protagonist arrives to work at the weather station and the person he is supposed to replace has disappeared. There's another man working the lighthouse who seems to be insane. As soon as the sun goes down, the hero finds out that scary creatures pour out of the depths and would like to get their cold claws on him.

The fact that this all happens in the first 25 pages of the book should alert you to the notion that the big bad is only a small part of the horror happening on this island. Another disturbing and hard to put down book that lingers with you.

But here's the point I wanted to bring up. I always wonder about horror stories where there are scads and scads of beasts that all want to eat the 2 or 3 humans that are stuck as the victims in the story. Like in Cold Skin there were legions of creatures chasing down these two men on the island. They must have had another food source. With only two people, each creature would get like, one bite -- it would seem hardly worth the trouble.

It's like if everyone in your neighborhood was starving and rioting and fighting over the last hamburger at Burgerville.

Acting Techniques
I was (am) a huge Buffy, Angel and Firefly fan. Every time I run across another blog where someone talks about his or her devotion to Buffy I wonder why we can't just have our own planet. Joss would make TV shows around the clock and we'd all watch reruns and the new stuff and discuss whether anyone ever really liked Dawn or whether the Buffy/Angel or Willow/Oz doomed romance was more tragic.

I thought Buffy completely lost it in the last season. The group of potential slayers were horrifically bad actors and the story developments made no sense. I was on the verge of giving it up when I found out it was coming to an end so I slogged through to the bitter end.

The purpose of this post is to discuss a nitpick of the show which I call "the stammering school of acting." I don't know who started it but after awhile every single scene where any of the main characters had to express some sort of intense emotion, they would do so by stammering. All the actors stammered. Once you notice it, you can't not notice it and so instead of being drawn into the scene, I'd be rolling my eyeballs back into my head and screaming, "Enough with the stammering." If you've never noticed it before, you will notice it now and you will curse me. So much for the Buffy planet idea.

This relates to a current nit which is in every single show I watch and is an acting technique called "panting to convey fear." I suppose if I was chased by a bloodthirsty vampire or woken in the night by someone with a big axe that wanted to dismember me, my breathing might change. I don't know. I don't want to be tested on that. I'm just saying that watching two actors with their back against a wall, their shoulders rising and falling with great drama while they exchange wild-eyed looks is tired and someone needs to break the mold. Convey fear by eating a sandwich or reciting Shakespeare or making a poodle jump through a hoop. The possibilities are endless.

A Few Of My Favorite Things (Products)

I'm not going to do pictures of everything because that was the part that was taking forever.

One of my favorite discoveries of all time is Hyland's Calms Forte. It is a homeopathic sleep/nervousness remedy and it is fabulous. It's not addictive (to me). There's no drowsy hangover the next morning. I like to take it right before I get on a plane if I'm feeling some travel anxiety. I take it preemptively when I know I'm going to have a hard time getting to sleep. There have been times when it didn't help. I think my world record is taking three and I still had a hard time dropping off to sleep. I have passed this on to tons of people who also love it. My favorite was one time on a trip I gave it to a friend and the next morning she said, "It didn't work. But I did fall asleep."

DHC skincare products. The first time I tried the Deep Cleansing Oil it felt like I was washing my face with salad dressing and I wasn't convinced but now I love it. I've tried a bunch of their stuff and haven't loved all of it. Some of it I think is overpriced for what it is. I also love the Rose Oil Treatment but I tried some mascara that was nothing special and cost about 3x what a tube of Mabelline costs. I also bought some foundation make up that's like clown make up. Another good thing is they give you samples with every purchase. I try new stuff but also stock up on facial scrub and shampoo that are perfect for weekend trips.

Mrs. Meyers cleaning products. Here's an example of winning by passing out samples. They were handing out dishsoap downtown and I got one in every smell and ran out to buy the product. They smell so good.

Lavender Lane essential oils. I use essential oils for all sorts of thing: tea tree oil in the laundry, skin and scalp blends, things that smell pretty. I make a holiday blend with cinnamon, orange and clove and use a diffuser.

Wool socks. I spent my first winter in Oregon very cold and I thought it was because I wasn't used to it and didn't consider that I didn't know how to dress for crap. I like Sternlien and Smartwool.

I bought my first pair of Danskos by accident when I was using an REI gift card. The salesperson said that everyone she knew that bought them loved them and she was right. Many times I stood in an elevator or waited to pay for my groceries and exchanged a look with someone wearing Danskos. The clogs are super comfortable. I've walked all over New York City with nary a pinch. I have several pairs of sandals, too.

Eco-DenT tooth powder. I started using this stuff years and years ago when I bought it at Natures, which was purchased by Wild Oats, which was purchased by Whole Foods. The store I frequented was moved to a less convenient location and I did without Eco-DenT for awhile. Then I started buying it online. I love it and I get spectacular check-ups at the dentist. The only thing is, it doesn't have fluoride so I also use a Toms of Maine toothpaste because my teeth became really sensitive and putting cold drinks in my mouth made me scream. I passed this on to some travelers who were looking for alternatives that could be brought on an airplane and both of them returned them to me and said they didn't like it. Hm.

A Few Things I've Learned in the Kitchen

Put a plate under meat that defrosts in the refrigerator.

If it tastes good, no one cares what it looks like.

Always hold down the lid on the blender. Always. Just do it.

Nothing beats a good, sharp chef's knife.

If you're doing something on a timer, carry the timer with you into the other room when you hop online for just a second. Because no one ever hops online for just a second.

Put a cookie sheet or a piece of tin foil on the lower shelf when you cook a pie.

I'm sure I have more but I consumed a large quantity of adult beverages last night and stayed up way past my bed time and I'm still moving slowly.

Discarded Chores
Last week Mrs. G did a list of her favorite things. That reminded me that I made a list of favorite things to post about this month.

Today she's got a list of people doing favorite things which I fully intended on doing today but it's taking too long so I've scrapped the idea for now.

It seems like the more I try to simplify and get things off my plate, the more things that rush in to take their place.

Tonight we're going to a function and yesterday I talked myself into going out and buying a nice dress since it's been years since I had a nice dress and here I could wear it tonight and to the firm holiday party and maybe some other thing might come up and I'd have a nice dress. But I've lived without one for years and it's raining sideways and I don't really want to leave the house. Plus somehow it's 1pm.

Here's one of our favorite things: tomorrow we're going to Bob's Red Mill. Bob (mine, not the one with the Red Mill) loves the breakfast sampler with every kind of pancake and I stock up on beans and grains and get stuff for holiday gifts.

This isn't my real post for today but for anyone interested, Jezebel is doing a poll for sexiest man alive.

Too many choices! I narrowed it Ryan Gosling, Clive Owen, Christian Bale, Bret and Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords and Johnny Depp.

(I picked Johnny. I once told my husband if Johnny wanted me I was leaving. I wouldn't even bring my purse.)

Vote here.

Before I start my regular post, my webhosting has again informed me that I can't update any content in my account during this upgrade. I haven't had any problems but just in case I disappear, look for me here.

The Wonderful World of TV
Several years ago, when I was writing, I was very strict about how many TV shows I could have. TV is a terrible time waster.

Then I quit writing and when the new fall season started I tried every single show I was remotely interested in. Since then I've been trying to reel it back in and now that I'm writing again, I'm cutting back. But after a long day at the office all I'm good for is a glass of wine, a plate of tacos and TV.

From last year I lost Veronica Mars (boo!) and I gave up on Grey's Anatomy. Lost and Battlestar Galactica don't start until January. I hope. If the writers strike ruins Battlestar Galactica I will be one very unhappy camper.

These are my current shows:

Bones. I started watching Bones because Angel is on it and it's turned out to be one of my favorites. The crime solving part is pretty mundane but the characters are fabulous.

Supernatural. This is my favorite guilty pleasure. My ultimate fantasy would be to have Sam and Dean come over and clean my house and then make a Pam sandwich.

Torchwood. This is my favorite of my news shows this season. I never watched Doctor Who (netflix-ing, in progress) but I added this on a whim and LOVE it. Captain Jack is my hero.

Bionic Woman. Every time I mention this show to someone they talk about the 1970's series, which I did watch, but this show has zero to do with the 1970's series other than the idea. I don't love the show but I like it enough to keep watching. It's like Alias with bionics.

Moonlight. I started watching this show because it's about vampires and the only thing I love more than vampires is pumpkins. It's actually pretty lame but I like the main character (vampire) and I can't stop watching.

Heroes. Heroes is on the bubble for me. I don't think I'd miss it if I quit but I'm still just interested enough to tune in one more time. One thing I don't like about this show is it takes itself way too seriously. I also don't think Peter Petrelli is all that and I can't stand Niki. I am very curious to see what the David Anders character is up to.

Pushing Daisies. I started watching this show because of the Wonderfalls connection. I was undecided after the first episode but it's grown on me. I love the characters and the loopy tone.

Weeds. This is one of the few shows Bob and I watch together and we LOVE it. Great characters and insane story twists.

Other regular shows not reviewed: The 4400, Psych, Simpsons, The Daily Show and At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper.

Things I Don't Wear
Fleece – I can't explain what my thing is about fleece. Why wouldn't I like fleece? I was looking at some cute stuff in a catalog last night and then read the description and wrinkled my nose and muttered, "fleece."

Heels – I gave up heels a long time ago purely as a comfort thing. I'd much rather my feet be happy than fashionable. Lately I've been thinking I might like to buy a nice dress that I can wear to holiday parties for the next 10 years and if I get a nice dress, perhaps I should get some heels. The most comfortable heels on the market. Is there such a thing?

Things Around My Neck – I don't like turtlenecks, mock turtlenecks or any kind of shirt or sweater that goes right up around my neck. I don't mind scarves to keep my neck warm in winter.

Capris – I hate Capri pants. To me, they look like a mistake. I do wear Capri yoga pants because my legs are freakishly short and if I bought regular yoga pants I would have to hem them and I don't want to hem yoga pants. I know this makes little sense but it's my list and I don't wear Capri pants.

Pastels – almost every year my folks give me a clothing gift certificate for Christmas and sometimes I sit on it for awhile so that by the time I finally venture out into shopping land, the Spring stuff is out and it's all ooky pastels. I'm not a pastel person. I don't even wear many colors. I have the black/gray/brown wardrobe. Lately I've gotten crazy and branched out into some burgundy and I bought a shirt that's light blue. Watch out.

Flip-flops – which were called "thongs" when I was a girl. I wore flip-flops a lot in my younger days and I can't explain why at this point in my life, the thought of wearing a shoe with a thing between my toes, skeeves me out. Also, I think that some flip-flops look sloppy which is fine for the beach or the mall but maybe not the best for the office or a nice restaurant. This is one of those things where I can tell I'm getting to be an old lady because while in principle, I think the world should be free of fashion police, I also think people should want to look halfway decent when they're out in public. There's a nice restaurant that we like to go to to celebrate birthdays, etc. and last time we were there I noticed about 99% of the patrons were wearing jeans and sweatshirts and I was thinking, "Jesus Christ Vancouver, would it kill you to put on a pair of slacks and a shirt with buttons now and then?"

Thongs – the underwear. Flossing my ass all day is not my idea of a good time.

Strapless – The idea of stepping out of the house with a top on that has no straps terrifies me. I think this goes back to a story my Mom told me about a middle school graduation that I did not attend but some poor girl wore a strapless long dress – remember those ones that were like a tubetop with a skirt attached? And she stepped on the dress and pulled her dress down in front of everyone. How do those strapless things stay up? It just seems like an accident waiting to happen.

Vests – I have one vest that was a gift from my mother-in-law that I wear sometimes but in general I don't get the idea. If I want to be warm, I want my arms covered. If I don't want to be warm, I'll wear a tanktop. I was once considering developing an innocent crush on this guy and then I saw him wearing a sweater vest. I took my innocent crushing elsewhere.

Safety is Our Goal
Back at the office. It's always a little surreal to return to the desk after having been gone a few days. I had a phone message that I first heard, "Hello Pam" and went on to say that she'd seen my gospel play on TV and wanted copies of it for her family and left me her name, phone number and address in Florida. I sat here, agog, trying to figure out why this message came to me, gave it some practical joke consideration and generally tried to figure out a logical explanation for the mistake.

When I listened the second time I realized she said, "Hello ma'am." Must have inverted some digits and got my direct line by mistake.

Then there's some weird and greatly entertaining mail here which I would love to share but I don't think that's cool. You have no idea how hard it is, sometimes, to resist the urge to talk about work stuff.

The other day when I was rushing around doing errands I had to do a quick brake and my right arm shot out to protect that stuff on the passenger seat from flying off.

Remember back in the days before seatbelts when that was how Mom kept us on front seat when she had to punch the brakes in a hurry? That was the exact image that came into my head. I have a very distinct memory of riding in the car, probably on the way home from preschool, with Scotty and Stacy's Mom. I was in the backseat. In those days the front seat was a bench and there were probably 2 or 3 kids sitting there and as we made the left turn from Balboa onto Burbank, one of the kids opened the car door.

Joyce had to hold kids in the car (because we didn't have to wear seatbelts!) AND close the car door and bitch the kid out all while making a left turn. Ah, those were the good old days.

Yamhill and Taylor
Bob had a little medical procedure this morning. We left the house at 6:30a. He was the one with the preparation work but I was the one that couldn't sleep most of the night. And now, after all these years, I've finally seen the inside of his colon. Via photos. I didn't witness the procedure. So nice to have this level of intimacy with a fellow human being.

Everything looked good. Another good day for preventative health care.

On the way home we had to stop and buy a new shower-head. This isn't the first time I tried some plumbing thing and made it worse when I tried to fix it. We'll omit the details but there was no saving the old thing. Plastic piece broken. I gamely reattached it anyway and showered my entire bathroom. It was finished.

We didn't go to World of Plumbing store. We went to the hardware store on our way home and it had a wide array (about 5 options) of cheap plastic shower-heads to choose from. I opted for their most luxury model which cost a whopping $13.99. The packaging said a lot about how much water it would save and to be honest, this isn't my goal. I hate stepping into a hotel shower with a shower-head that delivers a fine mist so that you go home with shampoo still glistening in your hair.

I save water by only showering every other day. On shower day, I want to feel the hot water drumming into my head. We'll see how this thing works. At least I can take a real shower again and not stand under a spout like a garden hose.

No Fiber Diet
Without giving all the gory details, I will mention that my sweetheart has to do a little medical procedure and has been on a restricted diet. For two days he couldn't have anything with fiber and since he loves meat, sauce, white rice and noodles, this was only a minimal hardship. I baked a loaf of regular old sandwich bread from Cooks Illustrated. Look how pretty it turned out. Tasted good, too.

Today he has to fast. I've known this man for 12 years and I've NEVER seen him go 24 hours without solid food. Pray for us. He was already grouchy this morning. He went to a movie about Joe Strummer and hopefully he has a movie to watch when he comes home. Or I think he was going to stop by his office and clear a few things off his desk. Keep him occupied until bed time.

Today was supposed to be my lazy day and I seem to be chasing my tail. I'm going to have to re-read that thing about big rocks first and then figure out what my big rocks are.

If it's not raining I'm going to go do a bit of raking. You rarely want to wish for rain in this part of the world but since I have a hard time sitting around in the house when it's nice outside, I've been kind of hoping it would get started.

I'm going to put on my work clothes and see if I can get it to start.

Wordstock III
Today Bob and I went to Wordstock III a giant book fair /literary event in Portland. We didn't intend to spend all day there but left the house around 9:30a and didn't get home until 7p. It was fabulous.

We saw authors talking about food and some local restaurant biz dirt. We listened to Wesley Stace read from his book. We saw Lauren Weedman who Bob has a major crush on since the Daily Show days. We saw Harry Shearer read and as soon as he started I looked at Bob and said, "Principal Skinner?" and we giggled for the next 10 minutes.

During the Q&A a really cute kid, wearing a fez, got up and said, "I know you must get this question a billion times a day, but could you do the voices from the Simpsons?" and you could hear a quick rush through the audience because we all were thinking the same thing. "Smithers, let out the hounds," he said in his Mr. Burns voice. It was awesome.

The last talk we saw was Lisa Lednicer and Dan Huntly who wrote a book called Extreme Barbecue. What actually happened was we sat down and put our stuff down in the reading area because we were trying to regroup before heading home. Bob headed for the bathroom when they started. On his way out he saw the library free book table and lingered so that by the time he got back to where our stuff was, they had started their talk and he said, "This sounds interesting." We ended up listening to the whole thing and buying a book and visiting with them after their talk. An excerpt:

Twenty whole chickens bathed in garlic on a rig that resembles a cast-iron satellite dish . . . this is Extreme Barbecue, a tribute to the derring-do behind the craziest grilling contraptions in the country.

The main reason we were at the Festival was the writing contest which I entered in July.

While it would be tempting to write a long story about my writing career (ahem) I will post some links in case anyone is interested. I wrote a novel about 80's hairbands and had a miserable time trying to sell it..

I took some screen writing classes and had a miserable time trying to market those.

In July of 05 I quit writing altogether.

If you've ever been drawn to something like writing, which for me started around the 2nd grade, you'll know that it was sort of like trying to cut off my arm. It didn't take long before I wanted to get back into it.

I started writing stories again and decided to enter the contest as a way of having a goal and a deadline. I actually thought to myself, 'If I get even the tiniest bit of recognition for this, it's a sign to keep at it.' Because after 100 years, writing to zero recognition gets old and you start to wonder about all this time you spend locked up by yourself hitting your head against the monitor and whether your personal satisfication (ahem) is worth it.

I found out last month that I made the top 10 which was already huge. I bounced around the house for days. The top ten were published into a book sold at the festival and online. There were additional prizes for the top three which were going to be announced at the Festival.

This morning when we got to the event I saw the book on a display table and I told Bob to go look at it. Incredulous, he said, "You're making me look?" "Yes," I said, but I followed behind and looked over his shoulder.

2nd place. whoo-hoo!

(If you'd like to read it send me email at pam(at)pamrentz.com and I'll send you a .pdf.)

Temporary Relocation
If I understand the notice I just received from my webhosting, they're going to be upgrading or migrating or whatever the entire system starting today (?) and I won't be permitted to make any content changes for one week. I find this a little hard to believe because don't a lot of people run businesses with their websites? A whole week? Now?

Just in case I've started a new blog at http://pamrentz.blogspot.com so if this site doesn't change, maybe my three loyal readers could follow me over there for a week.

When Gift Cards Don't Work
Last year I recieved a gift card for a store with a single location in the metro-area and not terribly convenient for me and not a place I love to shop so I've been sitting on it. Over the past year this company acquired another company with a couple more stores in the metro-area with some locations slightly more convenient but still, not places I love to shop.

I need a large quantity of an expensive item so I figured I'd drive across town and get it at one of the recently acquired stores and while I was there burn through the entire gift card.

But first I thought I'd check and make sure they would accept the card. I phoned the gift card helpline and had my first experience with outsourced India call center. I explained my question and this very nice and polite person didn't have the slightest idea what I was talking about.

I planned out all my errands and I phoned the store and asked about the gift card. I was assured without hestation that there would be no problem. So I drove across town show up at the store and they don't even have the expensive item I need. An item that I can get at Safeway, about 1 mile from my house. So now I'm there, I want to use the gift card up so I cruise the aisles grabbing random stuff that I'd ordinarily never buy and I get to check out and guess what? The gift card won't work in their system.

"I called before I came out here."

"Did you call this store?"

"Yes. I called this store."

"Do you know who you talked to?"

Really, because how does that help? They were actually nice and apologetic and tried to work around the system to take the card but they couldn't make it work. Meanwhile, the line is stretching across the store.

So I took one item that I actually wanted. They had to credit back all the other crap. I still have a gift card plus they gave me a gift card for my trouble.

Partisan Exits
Today I got rid of an entire trunkload (TRUNKLOAD!) of crap. I'm giddy. I keep running out to the garage and looking at the huge empty space where that worthless junk used to be and then rubbing my hands together and giggling. I love getting rid of things.

I've had a giant box that was once the home of a brand new eMac (not one of my better computers). I've been throwing Goodwill stuff into it plus I had two giant bags of clothes. All this stuff has been sitting here forever. Plus I had a big stack of books for the Friends of the Library (I'd link to it but they still address their mailings by hand, I'm not even going to look for a website) that I dropped off for donation and I had a small stack of books to trade in. So I did bring some books home, but not as many as I got rid of.

Oh. I forgot to tell the part about how the giant box wouldn't fit into the trunk or the backseat. Not even close and I tried and many bad words were said. I stomped back into the garage and found a giant box cutter that I bought during the whole home improvement project (It starts at May 7 and goes on forever.) Violently cut the box down to size. Tossed the trimmings into recycling. Cut new "handles" into the new box and chucked it into the trunk.

Of course the entire area around Goodwill was a sea of orange cones and people in orange vests with signs that said "Stop" or Slow" and then when it was finally your turn, they waved at your urgently, as though you were competing for fabulous cash and prizes.

But I got it all done. Now I'm apparently going to some sort of art lecture. When I said, "Sure that sounds fun," I thought I was agreeing to an art exhibit. The driver is waiting ... .

What A Way to Make A Living
I feel like I'm more tired than I ought to be. Huge pile of work is stacked up here. After our meetings yesterday I said, "For everything we did, we have about 100 new things." That's not complaining. I like these clients a lot and I like the work we do, it was just funny how so many new things came up.

Last night the plane got in around 7:50pm and I took the shuttle bus out to economy parking. My car was covered in mist (or whatever you call it) and I couldn't find my little towel I used to keep in there for just such occasions. Knowing me I probably took it out to wash it.

I sat in the car with the engine running, wondering what to do. I don't enjoy driving when I can't see anything. I went through a mental check list of what was in my bags that I could use and finally decided to use my pajama bottoms, which need replacing anyway, and I swabbed the windows clear and was on my way.

Last time I was in the economy lot they had just installed self-serve ticket payment that you do with your debit card. That time it was a Sunday night and it was a major clusterfork gridlock and I think it took over a half hour to get out of the lot.

When I pulled in this time I had this in mind so I was looking for a spot: near a bus shelter, near an overhead light and that would be easy to jump into the payment line. And miraculously succeeded. Of course there was no line last night and twenty minutes after I got in my car I was at home with a glass of wine and my Google Reader.

I have 88 posts left. I kept choosing items and thinking, "Hey, I can probably clear through these quickly," and then there would be something I wanted to comment on or read more closely so plenty left for later.

View from my room, Kootenai River Inn, Bonners Ferry, Idaho

Home Sweet Home
I think the legality of yesterday's post is in question. Co-worker handed over his laptop and I was logged-in to the wireless network for at least 3 minutes before it spit me out. I assumed this was a random glitch and I could jump back on.

I was wrong.

I wrestled with the thing for about 15 minutes and then typed my post out into WordPad so I could quickly cut, paste and publish once I got on again. I couldn't get back on the wireless network to save my life. I'm not a Windoze person and my usual wireless connection is at home where I just turn on the computer and it's there. I don't know how to troubleshoot (or troubleshat as I was thinking of it) a wireless connection but none of my best guesses would work. My popup window said, "We see tons of wireless connections, pick the one you want." And I'd pick one and then we'd grind awhile and then it would say, "Oh, we couldn't connect." Then the entire process would repeat itself.

The hotel directions were worthless which I could have figured out when I saw that Macintosh looked like "MacIntosh" (serif typeface in italics with capital I?). I read it about 5 times before I figured out what that was supposed to mean. I fought with it another half hour before calling my husband in a snit.

"Log on to blogger. Here, I'll dictate." So he was to publish my post which for some reason didn't work right.

When I got home it was sitting there and I published again and I think it's up. I don't care whether it counts or not, my intention was there and I'm not doing this for a prize.

In other news, I have 303 posts in my reader. I hope there's a bunch of stuff I can easily "mark as read" with minimal guilt.

The trip was fabulous but super busy. My one chunk of non-scheduled time was used up on the wireless problem.

Many more photos to come.

Idaho beautiful.

Co-worker piece of crap Dell laptop and hotel wireless not.

Home tomorrow night.

Delayed Gratification
We don't have a huge house and I am fine with that. It's just two of us and we have plenty of room for what we need.

We have two linen closets. One is small and well suited for towels, washcloths and my small collection of holiday linens.

This is the bigger one with both lower and upper section. The lower section has the bed linens. The upper section has two shelves of Bob's sweaters. We will not be discussing Bob's sweater collection in this post.

A couple of weeks ago I cleaned out the entire cupboard and I convinced Bob that the bed stuff we had on the top shelf, that we've never touched since we moved into this house back in the Eisenhower administration (slight exaggeration), could probably go. When I told him we could donate it to the local women's shelter, he reluctantly agreed.

Now I have this whole huge empty shelf to use for something else. But I haven't put anything there, yet, because then I won't have it anymore.

And I told both Bob and a friend this and they laughed at me. Mocking laughter.

I compared it to when I have some money set aside that I'm saving for something special. Then I can look around at everything I want and think, ooh, maybe I could get that. New shoes. Take a class. Buy software. I'm not one of those people who buys whatever I want anytime I want it and thus, am bad for our nation's economy. I like to hang on to my fun money and study my options because, once I spend the money, the choice is gone. So I put it off as long as I can.

My friend said, "When you said that I thought, 'I must be more hungover than I thought because what she's saying makes no sense.'"

Me and my monklike appreciation for contemplation.

I'm off to Idaho for a couple days for work stuff. I do not travel with advanced technology and will have to depend on the generosity of others for my posts. Photos when I return.

Delayed Gratification Delayed
There's no better way to lose interest in writing a post than to mention the day before that you're going to do it later. It happens every time. I'm not writing about delayed gratification today. I think there's a joke in there somewhere but I'm still too brain dead to figure it out.

I got home from work yesterday at 5:30pm and found my absentee ballot for the tribal election. It's post dated Tuesday 10-30. It's due in the tribal office by 5pm on Monday. At least they have the candidate statements online. We mailed it at the post office last night anyway and I may or may not write the election committee and suggest this could be improved.

Historically, I always have one big energy weekend around this time. As if biologically I know this decent weather is it until July so better sweep out the garage or whatever. Today was going to be my lazy day and the lazy part was I didn't get out of bed until I finished my book (#35)

Since then I've been doing housework and for some reason, I decided to clean out my spices. I need to put in a Penzey's order because I desperately need cocoa for the hot cocoa ceremony. And if I'm going to put an order in, might as well stock up on taco seasoning and finally get that Spanish paprika because I am going to become the queen of all things paella this winter.

This week fried my brain. I can't do anything that involves thinking. I think I'll go rake some leaves in the sunshine until Bob gets home.

Because Life is Epic
That's a replica of the Voodoo Donut that hurt me on Wednesday. There was a leftover one and a couple people were coaxing me to try it. "I ate one yesterday," I said, "And it was good, but for the rest of the day, I felt wrong."

Yesterday we left the house at about 6:40a and pulled back in at 11pm. And I am about to leave for work today because I am the queen of delayed gratification which I have a story about that I will try to get to tomorrow.

I normally do a 4-day work week with Friday off. I would rather work extra during the week than come in on a Friday. But, I have a couple of major projects that need to be finished and I talked myself into it by thinking that next week I can take Thursday off and have a super long weekend.

Last night we went to Henry Rollins and he was fabulous. He's funny and smart and crazy. I love Henry. His show is just him talking. No music. No props. All Henry. The show was scheduled to start at 8pm and I figured, how long can a guy talk? I thought I'd be in bed by 10:30p. I was wrong.

I was totally into the show but my butt started to hurt in the seat and my attention wandered a bit and it seemed like we were not even close to wrapping up. Finally I checked the time and it was 10:30! Bob was restless, too and I said, "Do you want to leave?" and he said he was still into it. So I put my purse on my lap and gathered my coat around me and he said, "Oh. Do you want to leave?"

And we were out of there. Bye, Henry. As we drove by it looked like people were in the lobby so I guess we just missed the very end.

Now we're off for another day and we have Joe and Rosa's annual Day of the Dead party tonight.

Sugar Hangover
Yesterday various people brought treats to the office.

There were store bought cookies including some orange ones shaped like pumpkins that for some reason I had to try because what would an orange pumpkin-shaped cookie taste like? It's been decades since I ate crayon, but that's the flavor that came to mind. There were also cupcakes and Voodoo Doughnuts.

Since we got to this office (starts around Feb 23) I've made a point of not getting in the habit of eating the candy and other crap that's always around so normally I wouldn't have looked twice except there was a neon orange donut with Cap'n Crunch sprinkled on top. Who could resist that?

I only ate half, and it was fabulous, but it was my annual allowance of refined sugar in about 15 minutes and I felt like my heart was going to explode and I had to keep pushing my eyeballs back in my head. Also I started talking really fast and then I got a bit of a headache and I never really felt normal for the rest of the day. If I could do it over, I'd only eat one bite.

I still feel a tad off this morning and timing couldn't be better because I have a marathon day. We're leaving early so I can get to work earlier because I am desperate to get a couple time-sensitive projects finished so I don't have to go in tomorrow. No randomizer for me today.

After work Bob is going to meet me downtown so we can check out a friend's art show and then we have tickets to see Henry Rollins. Yay.

Lucky I have my nerd adrenaline to keep me going. Two huge stories: X-Files movie is on AND Joss Weadon is coming back to TV. (Although, I'm not a big Eliza Dushku fan.)