Here's Sparky 8 days After Coming Out of the Water



Here's Sparky 10 days after Going Into the Water

Sparky was a toy I bought for Kira. You put him in water and he expands. You take him out and he shrinks. There's not much to recommend here.

The directions said that putting it in a bigger container would make it grow bigger so we put it in the most gigantic mixing bowl I had. He didn't get that big. And now he's shrinking and looks like a little dog three times his age.

I had a super busy weekend of doing stuff and when I wasn't doing stuff I was writing like a madwoman.

If all goes well I'll submit the thing I'm 98% done with this week.

Then I can catch up on email, blog post reading, comments, phone calls, linen closet organizing, garden planting and the ten trillion other things I've completely ignored for the last month or so.

To be truthful, I'm pretty grumpy right now. And it's time to make dinner.

Free Ham from Office Despot!

Crazy Scooter Guy
I made a fantastic scan from this week's Office Despot catalog but forgot to upload it before I left for work. You'll have to wait for tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I'll tell you about crazy scooter guy.

There's a guy who lives somewhere near me and who leaves for work at around the same time. He drives like a maniac. On a scooter. In the dark hours of early morning, even when it's pouring rain.

He likes to ride about three inches from my bumper, because rear-ending a car when you're driving a scooter would be fun. Sometimes, my insistence on driving the actual speed-limit gets him into a lather and he has to zoom around me using the oncoming lane. It's early. Probably no cars coming.

And it's not like he gets anywhere. I always catch up to him at the next stoplight.

Some mornings I enjoy this little game but this morning when I saw him in my rearview mirror I pulled over. You win today, crazy scooter guy.

Bookswap photo courtesy of Eilonwy Anne

300

I've been wanting to see the movie 300 since it came out.

I finally DVR'd it and I only watched the first half. I don't think it's a bad movie, but it's not really my thing and since my DVR is 41% full which is keeping me awake at night PLUS my magazine drawer is too full to close all the way PLUS I went to a book swap on Saturday. "Yay, getting rid of some books." Except I left with more books than I brought. Damn!

I can't be watching any non-essential TV at the moment.

But back to 300, I will say this. The minute they invent a time machine, I'm traveling back to Spartan times and my job is going to be fitting and making those tiny leather pants.

That was 90% of my reason for sticking with the first hour. Oh. My.

And when Faromir came out with his David Cassidy haircut and his leather pants and washboard abs — it was like Christmas, birthday and winning the lottery all on the same day.

When I'm in charge of the world, soccer will be played wearing tiny leather pants.

Finally!

Running out the door. Time for a few quick notes.

Already today I wrote, exercised, made a dish for a potluck and burned my arm because I can't seem to cook without injuring myself.



Sparky, Day 10. Removed from water.

Like many, I also spent part of the day mourning the fairly doody Battlestar Galactica series finale.

No time for a personal analysis but you can catch an earful at Tor, Crushing Krisis and Television w/o Pity.

Yikes. And I thought I was disappointed.

Did Starbuck actually utter the line: "There must be some way out of here?"

Long Busy Week, Busy Weekend



Kira, An, and I enjoy our reunion by hanging out with our laptops. That's how Clarion West love works.

I'm going to quickly touch on all the things I never got around to blogging about in the last week or two.

Did you see Sandra Day O'Connor on the Daily Show? I'd link to the Hulu clips but there's already enough going on here. She has got to be the coolest Supreme Court justice ever. *So cute.* As we were watching I told Bob I was going to go work on Monday and ready my favorite Justice O'Connor opinions. He said, "Sure thing, Lisa Simpson."



An does finishing touches on Chocolate Disaster cake. I tried to impress upon Bob just how lucky he was that An made his birthday cake. I think he got it.

We had a fire drill at the office. I'm the safety officer of my business and a couple weeks ago, José from the business next door informed me he was the floor warden and gave me my orange safety vest. I said, "So, if something bad happens you'll tell us what to do?" He said, "If something bad happens, grab your shit and get out of here."

The alarm went off and co-worker and I said, "Huh, wonder what we should do?"

Someone told us we had to evacuate. I said, "I wonder if I should wear my orange safety vest?" Since I already couldn't remember where it was, I grabbed my purse and An's and Kira's laptops and carried them down 10 flights of stairs. An and Kira were out and about enjoying downtown and just in case it wasn't a drill, I didn't want their laptops to fry. Take note Clarionites. I have your back.



Bob's birthday celebration with his new Clarion West friends.

I keep putting my giant coat away in hopes that I'm done with it. Much as I love it when it's cold and awful outside, it triples my size and is just one more thing to lug around. I keep hanging it up and then pulling it back out again. I'm hoping to take it to the cleaners and pack it away until November. Soon.



Now we have a giant Clarion West reunion and we celebrate by getting out our laptops. I don't think "geek" covers it. From the left, clockwise: An, Eden, Caren, me and Kira.

The State of Washington just made me replace my license plates. I'm not sure why. I guess it's been 5 years? For $20 more I could keep my same plates. Screw that. In the long run it's probably a good idea because when parking I often stop when the front bumper hits something and that front license plate was looking pretty ratty.



Food! I include this photos so my other classmates will see that I will cook excellent food if they visit. We had sweet potato enchiladas with chicken, no cheese and another batch with black beans and cheese. Here's the recipe we adapted from. Also fruit salad and sausages and snacky stuff. Also this photo includes Kyle who I don't have a URL for.

Escape from Witch Mountain was one of my favorite movies and books when I was a kid way back in the 70's or whenever the first version came out. I was moderately excited about the re-do except I saw the trailer and hated it. I don't out of hand, hate The Rock, but the trailer made this look extra-ordinarily stupid and unless a reliable source tells me otherwise, I will not see this movie.



Clarion West 08 classmates — if you visit me, you can use my fancy wine opener and feel like a rock star while everyone takes your picture.

I'm surprised Office Despot can stay in business. EVERY single week we get a new catalog and coupon from them for our business plus another from the business that was in the space before us. Our company has an account with an office supply company and I dread using them because their prices are 50-70% higher. I don't understand how that even works.



Oh look, Clarion geeks and laptops. This photo includes the same suspects plus Rose and Carlton

Now we're all caught up. I'm going to get something to eat and sit here biting my nails until the Battlestar Galactica Finale starts.

Welcome people entering the following search string to find me:

"woman arguing about turd in the trunk of her rental car"

Me, Kira, An, Eden, Rose, Caren and Carlton in the world's best shower.

We had a Clarion West 08 get together over the weekend which was super fun and I have photos and tales to tell but as per always, no time to tell the story at the moment. More to come, probably this weekend as I have another busy week.

Here's a very short story that has nothing to do with the weekend: this morning on the way to work our bus passed a bus pulled over on the shoulder. I thought to myself, "Gee, I'm glad I've never been a bus that broke down."

Ha ha because about five minutes later our bus broke down.

The best part of the story is that it wasn't a big deal. People barely looked up from their books and newspapers. No one fussed or got ornery.

Ten minutes later the bus after us parked in front of us. We got off our bus and tiptoed along the side of the freeway and loaded onto the other bus. Lots of people laughed and made jokes. And another five minutes and we were on our way. A C-Tran miracle.

Voodoo Doughnut



Kira and An made the trek to Voodoo Doughnut this afternoon. Kira samples the frootloop while An tries a Tang. Shane looks on.



I have no idea why I look so insincere.



Doughnut buffet which we just started and now Bob is coming to pick us up for dinner. oops.

They're here!

Look, we have a canoe now. Too bad we have no way to transport it to water.

If there's a catastrophic tidal wave, all we have to do is remember to run out there and hold on for dear life.



The time change isn't my favorite. More light at night is nice but more dark in the morning is not. Also that missing hour. It's already 6 o'clock.

Got a lot of writing (revising, actually) and chores done this weekend.

Company arrives on Tues, Weds and Fri and also Fri. woo!

I used this photo to help me on a writing project today. It's the Trinity Alps Wilderness in July 07. I can't wait to go back.

Is Flickr on crack today?

I have a quick 15 minutes while the rice is still cooking so I thought I'd run in here and throw together another half-assed post.

When you make writing the first priority everything else is half-assed.

Flickr kept telling me I needed to sign in. Then I'd sign in and it it would say, "Oh no, you need to go back and sign in."

After we did this awhile I went to the h'ep menu and said my password wouldn't work.

I did the "WTF I can't login wizard" and it told me to check my email for some magical something that would help me login.

Then I did that and it said it expired and to try again later. Damn Flickr doing drugs on a Saturday night.



My sweetheart disappeared this morning to go buy his favorite muffins. After he left the store closed for the day. Gluten free, Eden. You can't leave until these muffins are gone.

My old health care just last week sent me a notice about how Cobra works. This is fantastic news seeing as how I went on Cobra back in October and actually switched to a new health care plan on January 1st. Which I've already used. And I can already tell has its act together 200% better than Healthnet.

I would say more but it seems terrible to complain about having bad shoes when 10% of my neighbors have no feet so we'll leave it at that.



Crow, watching the storm and waiting for Kira

I think I'm going to have at least a couple of daffodils when company shows up. I hope so.

I can hear the rice cooker beeping so I guess my time is up.

Hara hatchi bu, the Okinawan people’s habit of eating only till they are 80 percent full, is thought to be one of the secrets of their extraordinary health and longevity.

Via Scientific American

I think the real question here is how the Okinawans know they're 80 percent full. Do they ever err and eat until they're 85 percent full? Does it mix things up on the days they accidentally eat until they are only 73% full? Are children punished if they eat until they're 97% full?

Shadow Licking His Chops

Here's the part where you all get to laugh at me and my horrible taste in music.

Whatever. I've never tried to pretend I was cool. At least not on this blog.

I heard this song on the radio that I liked so I remembered some of the lyrics and looked it up on iTunes and it turns out the band is called Airborne Toxic Event and the song is called "Somewhere Around Midnight."

When I was a girl, bands had names like Mötley Crüe, Dëf Leppärd and Güns n' Röses.

WTF kind of name is Airborne Toxic Event? Oh, excuse me. The Airborne Toxic Event.

Here are some of my ideas for some band names:

Taco Eating Frenzy

Bloody Festering Wound

Shiny Hubcap Party

I'd think of more but I'm hungry and need dinner. Three loyal readers, please leave your ideas in the comments.

In the middle of the day Bob called from the other room, "Honey, come here. You have to see this."

It was this sandwich.

I thought I should share the moment.

Like every weekend, I didn't accomplish as much as I wanted. I think next weekend my goal is going to be one thing. Like, empty the dishwasher. Then I can marvel about all the things I do that I didn't have on my list.

Last night I woke up at 1am and couldn't fall back asleep. Bob was downstairs watching movies and heard me bumping around and came upstairs. Then I got the giggles and it took another couple hours before I fell back asleep. But I was glad that we were grown-ups and there was no one yelling at us from the other room to knock it off and go to sleep.