Blog

I knew I should have written today’s post last night, but I got distracted by the TV.  However, I’m still happy to share the fruits of my recent surfing with you.  Here’s some more link-y goodness for your enjoyment:

• Ze Frank has started posting humorous current events videoblog entries on weekdays.  They’re just mixed in with his other blog entries, but they’re well worth picking out and watching.
• SocialCookBook.com is aiming to be a social networked version of AllRecipes.  I’ve posted a couple of recipes there already.  It just launched last week, but it looks like it has promise.
• I Was So Eighties is a "hot or not" for those of us who inflicted the hairstyles and fashions of the 1980s upon ourselves.  Upload your photo to be rated for eighties-ness.  I have a few great examples, but I don’t know if I can bring myself to share them with the ‘net.

Back tomorrow with a post about my actual life.

I’d hardly noticed because of the gloomy weather, but it’s actually spring now.  Last week I brought a vase of daffodils into work and put them on my desk.  I’d have done the same this week, but they were all bent over and frozen.

Still, I’m feeling optimistic that I’ll soon be able to get to my spring goal list:

• Take down the outdoor Christmas lights and wreath (heh, heh)
• Plant annuals in the front flower bed and pots
• Clean out the second half of the garage I started on a couple of weeks ago
• Spring clean the house, particularly our office and guest room where all the junk collects
• Thoroughly brush all three cats
• Rearrange all kitchen cupboards
• Get on a workout schedule and stick with it

Wow, that sounds like a lot of work.  I suppose I should think about spending some time at home now and then if I’m ever going to accomplish all of those things.  Then again, it IS awfully tempting to take advantage of the spring weather and play outside (or hang out on coffee shop, restaurant and bar patios) every weekend. 

I’ll let you know which impulse wins.

I’m pressed for time today, so here are a few of the sites I’ve added to my del.icio.us bookmarks lately:

• Yogabeans – From Mrs. Kennedy of Fussy, a hilarious new blog featuring plastic action figures doing yoga poses.
• The Iron Maidens – The world’s only all-female Iron Maiden tribute band.
• The Imaginary Foundation – Surreal, colorful t-shirt designs.  I definitely want a couple of them the next time I have some extra spending money.
• All Kinds of Stuff – John Kricfalusi of Ren and Stimpy fame discusses animation, music, and anything else that piques his interest.

That’ll have to do for today, folks.  Have a great Thursday!

Yesterday I received a copy of Alex Boese’s Hippo Eats Dwarf in the mail.  It’s about modern hoaxes and tall tales.  I’d requested it on his blog, Museum of Hoaxes, but forgotten about it until it arrived.

I’m part of The Traveling Hippo Experiment:

"…since I have a few extra copies, an idea occurred to me. Why
not give them away? But not as prizes. Instead, give them away to
volunteers on the condition that, once read, they’re passed along to
someone else. Each person who gets the book will write a note in it
saying where it’s been and also try to send a picture of the book back
to me. This way I can create a visual diary of the adventures the books
have as they (hopefully) travel around the world. I imagine it as a
book version of the traveling gnome prank. The experiment will be to see how far the books can travel, and for how long."

I’ll probably register my copy on BookCrossing just as a backup, but I’m interested in passing the book along on its author’s terms.  I’m too busy reading it right now to take the photo yet, but I should have it finished by tomorrow or Wednesday.  It’s very entertaining – fully as good as his first book.

If you’d like to read it next and are willing to follow the terms of the original offer, e-mail me (using the link on my About page) your name and address.  If more than one person wants the book, I’ll compile a list and include it with the book so it can be passed along in sequence until the last person on the list gets it and sends it on a new path.  This should be fun!

My husband and I have fallen into a fairly regular weekend breakfast routine.  On Saturday morning (or early afternoon, as the case may be), we go to our favorite breakfast restaurant.  On Sunday, we go to a bagel place just down the street.

It seems we’re not the only regulars at the bagel shop.  Twice now, we’ve ended up seated near a guy who is clearly in it for the long haul.  He has a big stack of newspapers on his table and a refillable thermal coffee mug.  Any signs of his own breakfast are already gone when we arrive.

His contribution to the restaurant’s ambiance is to noisily hork up phlegm while we’re trying to eat.  He has an astounding repertoire of hideous snot-clearing sounds that are guaranteed to make anyone’s egg sandwich 86.8% less appetizing.

Of course, my husband can read my mind.  He knows I’m *this* close to leaping to my feet, going to the guy’s table, and screaming, "Good God, man!  Hack up your goobers at home and let us all eat in peace!"

I don’t do that.  My husband still eyes me warily until I’ve finished eating.

Until the weather gets nice and we can eat on the patio, I think we may be forced to take our bagel sandwiches to go.  I don’t think I can handle another meal in the vicinity of the mucous snorker.

Or maybe it’s time I started cooking breakfast at home again.

I really should have packed a lunch today because there’s a St. Patrick’s Day parade a few blocks from my office that starts at 11.  I should have learned my lesson last year, but I’m not big on the whole lesson learning thing (as yesterday’s post also illustrates).

I don’t think anyone in my geneaology is Irish, but I’m still willing to jump in and celebrate a bit today.  I’m wearing a green shirt.  We’re going out with another couple to see a band play tonight.  And on Sunday, I’m making Beef and Irish Stout Stew to take to our local Ronald McDonald House for an Irish-themed dinner.

Anyone else have fun St. Patrick’s Day plans?

Yesterday was a day-long reminder of why I ordinarily make no attempt to be fashionable.  I wore a suit with my cutest shoes:  pointy-toed slingbacks with a heel.  Oh, the discomfort!

Suddenly, the walks I take for granted every day became miserable endurance challenges.  The two-block, uphill walk from my parking lot to the office and our lunchtime jaunt to the restaurant "just down the street" were excrutiating.  By the time I picked my way back down to the parking lot after work, I was losing my will to live.

I can’t imagine how some of my co-workers can wear high-fashion shoes every day and survive.  I felt like the weak member of the herd, ready to be picked off by predators at any time.

Today I’m back to my plain, old Keds and jeans.  Let’s hope I’ve learned a lesson that’ll stick with me for a while.

As much as I love wearing jeans, t-shirts and athletic shoes to work every day, it makes the contrast that much more pronounced when I have to dress like a grown-up. 

Tonight we’re having a Soroptimist Club awards dinner and presenting our local Violet Richardson Awards and Women’s Opportunity Awards.  I won’t have time to go home before the meeting, so I’ll end up wearing a suit or dress all day at work.

It’s been so long since I had a job that demanded business attire that I’ve almost run out of decent clothes.  I have one nice suit that I’m pretty sure I wore to last year’s awards function, but may still wear again.  I have a few skirts and tops, but nothing that’s really nice enough for this.  All my older suits have either been retired already, or should be.

The only good news is that I have the option of wearing open-toed shoes because I got a pedicure last weekend before it turned cold again.  Oh, but it’s cold now, so nevermind.

I guess I’d better start getting ready.  This is going to take some thought…

Yes, this week is going to be pretty much all work and no play – at least until the weekend.

Highlights so far:

• Yesterday I received the Mozart and Good Grammar Costs Nothing shirts I’d ordered from Glarkware.  I’m saving the latter for St. Patrick’s Day because it’s green.
• Today is house cleaning day!  Sure, I’m spending the morning tidying up, but it will be worth it to step into pine-scented cleanliness when I get home this evening.
• I watched the season premiere of The Sopranos yesterday.  It should be an interesting season.

Now I’d better make myself presentable and head out for my dentist appointment.  It’s going to be a busy day.