Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Estrogen...good

This past weekend, I was in the presence of most of my very favorite girlfriends. There is something very rejuvenating and inspiring about being around strong, intelligent, funny women and a girls' night only makes me realize that we don't do it enough. Some things I found/remembered/thought about this weekend:

*3-year-olds are bossy
*late-20, early-30 somethings enjoy being bossed around by 3-year-olds
*Sangria is tasty
*Sangria with Mexican food is even tastier
*only Mexican women should wear Mexican dresses (especially when there's a video camera in the room)
*Andre should be invited to all parties
*I can't believe I'm writing this, but there should've been more dancing and less board game playing
*when you have all your best buds in a room, time goes by too quickly

One month 'til go time.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Thank you

to Chris. You rock. I had a huge smile on my face this morning as I munched my yogurty Grape Nuts and felt loved.

And thank you to Hollywood for calling Tom Cruise out for the weirdo that he is. Believe what you want to believe, Tom, but for the love of aliens everywhere, keep your mouth shut about it.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Happy Spring?

A quote about the St. Patrick's Day parade: "it felt colder than the Christmas parade." First of all, there's a Christmas parade in Boston? Second of all, ef you, Spring. I do like that it's sunny out, but sun without warm is like bran-flavored ice cream. Speaking of bran, Bryan took pity on me and bought me a box of Grape Nuts. They kick Bran Nub ass. Mmmmm..crunchy.

Things wedding are progressing nicely. Only 39 days left. We've met with the florist and firmed up all necessary flowers. We've decided to go with tulips - purple and orange. I couldn't love this more. I wanted to find a picture of the two together, but I could only find some of each, so you'll have to use your imagination to put them together:




We've figured out food, given our Motown-heavy, 80s-light, zero-disco playlist to the dj, written our vows and picked our readings. The rings have been engraved, our attire has been selected and appropriately altered, and, our plane tickets are bought and hotel reserved. Most importantly, we have first base tickets at Petco Park for a Saturday night game against the Cubs. Get this, we bought them online, with ease, several days after they went on sale.

In case you were wondering, all seven fishies are still alive.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Just confirming what I already knew

Chris loves online quizzes of all kinds. He knows what kind of superhero/rock star/emperor/disney character he'd be, how normal he is (or isn't), what his astrological sign tells him about dreams, whatever. Sometimes, I take the tests to which he links. More often, I read what he is (or isn't) and smile and move on. Today, I was sucked in by the best title - How Evil Are You? Believing myself to have more dark in me than light, I took this little test. Just to confirm, I'm 74% evil. Mwah hahaha mwah hahaha.

Now, if I could only get my hair to do this...
You Are 74% Evil

You are very evil. And you're too evil to care.
Those who love you probably also fear you. A lot.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Oh, and one more thing...

of which I was just reminded at lunch. I was grocery shopping last night and, in an attempt to eat healthier, decided to be better about eating breakfast. Toward this end, I placed a large container of vanilla yogurt in my cart and proceeded to the cereal aisle to find Grape Nuts, cause I'm really not a huge fan of yogurt but it is palatable with crunchy Grape Nuts mixed in.

Aisle 4: Cereal. I slowly and carefully make my way down the aisle, scanning for the familiar box, red "grape", purple "nuts" (heehee). Nothing. Grape Nut Flakes are in abundance, but that's not going to cut it. So, I look to see if I can substitute for my favorite gravel-like, yet tasty, cereal. I stop at All-Bran. I see a picture on one of the boxes that looks like Grape Nuts - they are called All-Bran Bran Nubs. They cost $2. I throw them in my cart.

Today: I pour some Bran Nubs onto my bowl of yogurt. I kid you not that these ungodly things looked like rabbit pellets. They smell faintly of sawdust and taste like the farts of a mummy. I mashed them up into the yogurt and pretended to be somewhere happy in my mind while I swallowed them down. I'd better have one appreciative colon. Healthy sucks.

What I wanted:
What I got:
Grrrr.

Know what pisses me off?

Well, a lot of things, but what pisses me off today? Range Rovers and/or Hummers or SUVs in general with either a)American flag license plates, b)American flags flying from the antenna or in any form of bumper sticker, c)Support our Troops yellow ribbon magnets or stickers, or d)an entire body paintjob that IS the American flag. Hello, dumbass, you're driving a 2 ton off-road vehicle on a tiny two lane route getting all of 13 miles per gallon from your 24 gallon tank. VERY fuckin' American. Man, I wish I had my "the troops are over there because of Oil" sign to hold up.

Also high on the raise-the-bloodpressure list: my neighbor across the street. He has parked his rusty old pickup truck in front of his house, smack in the middle of the curb. Since it is winter and there is a parking ban in effect, we can only park on one side of the street, the odd-numbered side, where his house is located. He doesn't want people parking in front of his house, so he has used his beat-up eyesore of a truck to keep it that way. All this while, he has a 2-car garage and a full driveway, and only his own new pickup truck to drive. Last night, I was forced to park 6 houses down (2 past his). This morning I made that trip again. I am contemplating writing him a letter giving him my "opinion" of how unneighborly and curmudgeonly this behavior is (I might choose other words, who knows). What's that you say? Alert the local authorities about this selfish, seemingly lawfully wrong practice? Nope. As long as the hunk of metal is registered, it can reside in that spot for as long as it wants. My neighbor's name? Dick. Go figure.

And finally, though not pissing me off, it is the Ides of March and it sure was a bad day for Caesar. Be careful out there today.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Check out a book

There is an article in today's Globe about libraries working to keep up with technological changes and patron whimsy. At several points in the article there are quotes that seem to imply that if libraries don't offer everything that a patron is looking for, they will become obsolete (the libraries, not the patrons - heh). I work in a library that helps K-12 teachers get materials for their classrooms and I am constantly being asked for print resources, things that teachers can show students. I am also increasingly asked for DVDs and videos for the classroom and, of course, for electronic resources to help kids interact with history a little more. I HATE being asked if being a librarian was a wise career choice. If anything, there is TOO MUCH information out there and no one has the time to assess all of it. Librarians do that on a daily basis and without people working in this field, I have this vision of people wandering around glassy-eyed and confused about where to start looking for the tools they need to get a job, log onto the Internet, find a primary source about the American Civil War, whatever. Libraries are becoming aggregators of all of the best tools available to info-seekers. And, it's all free (and don't give me the tax-payer line - you pay more in federal taxes to support the war in Iraq, and more in state taxes to support just about everything else going on in your city/town from pothole-filling to traffic cops to the salaries of the Oh-so-helpful town workers). So, for the love of freedom and the american way, go check out a book or hug a librarian.

Odds & Ends

*Librarians trump nuns! Not that I had any doubt:
"Thursday's competition went 12 rounds and, as expected, came down to the nuns and Boone County librarians, with a Kenton County Public Library team finishing third.

The sisters bowed out when they couldn't spell "chimopelagic," a word that describes organisms that live deep in the sea and come up once in a while for light.

The Boone County librarians spelled that word correctly, then spelled one more word correctly for the win - "trinitrotoluene" - otherwise known as TNT." Now that's explosive.


*How much is your blog worth? Mine is worth a measly 3 grand.


*This past weekend involved 9 hours in the car, lots of hanging with adorable children (all related), Irish carbombs, which did indeed cause my head to explode, catching up with good friends, and eating several meals of deliciously prepared meat. Oh, and basketball. I feel more prepared than ever to fill in my bracket though I think I read too many articles today and now I'm second-guessing myself. You should all enter Bryan's pool - it's stats-filled and delightful. And, you can honestly say that you care when Murray State wins a basketball game (not that I'm saying I picked that).

Congrats to the Thomases - that's one lucky baby. I meant to ask, are you already reciting pi to it?

Friday, March 10, 2006

Starting St. Patty's celebration early

I have a crazy weekend in store, first Newport, RI for some Irish food and dangerous and delicious carbombs (a shot of Baileys in a 3/4-full Guinness that is ingested as quickly as possible), then off to Saratoga, NY on Saturday afternoon to hang with Bryan's best man, then home on Sunday to get ready for another packed week. I don't like to think too many weekends ahead since most of the next 6 or 7 are loaded with to-dos and gatherings and, um, a wedding.

Bryan and I watched the complete run of The Office, the British version, and I've had the theme song stuck in my head almost every day this week. I am completely in love with this show, both British and American iterations. The characters are excellent, the writing is spot on, and what Ricky Gervais can do with a guitar - Woo! I urge people to get the complete DVD set with seasons 1 & 2 and the 2-part specials and watch those and all of the extra features. And, as for the American version, Steve Carell is amazing and so far they haven't ruined the subtlety and undercurrent of humanity that kept me watching the British version. Even through the bumblings and inappropriateness of the things that come out of his mouth, Michael Scott is on par with David Brent. And what's become of the handbags and the gladrags that your grandad had to sweat so you could buy? What indeed.

Eat books, Jesus

Librarians vs. nuns! My kind will so kick their kind's asses!!!

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

You think you know madness...

but until you have a bracket for things other than basketball, you really don't. This bracket is for the Tournament of Books going on at the online magazine The Morning News. The tournament is a competition between 16 acclaimed novels, not necessarily the best or most beloved, but acclaimed nonetheless. Don't worry, I'm not totally nerding out. I have been watching more basketball than the average librarian and will certainly participate in my honey's annual Madness pool. But, I love games and this just feels like another way to bring some gameplaying into a field I like very much: the "reading books field".

Unlike the rest of the world, I haven't yet weighed in about the Oscar "best-movie debacle". Having only seen Brokeback Mountain and therefore having no knowledge or authority regarding the other nominees, it did seem like Brokeback got the shaft (no pun intended). I have been reading articles all week that have pointed to the insipid, de facto homophobia running rampant in Hollywood. Though the industry is probably one of the most gay-friendly, when it counts, when an award is at stake that would make a statement, just like a good red-stated, middle American, an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voter cast his vote for the socially conscious film rather than the truly daring, emotionally gripping possibility. Again, not having seen the other candidates, my opinion is worth diddly, but I was blown away by Brokeback Mountain and would've liked to see it win the big award. I really couldn't complain that much because "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" did win and that was satisfying for some reason. I did see Hustle and Flow and that song was pretty central to the plot. Would I have nominated it for Best Song, probably not, but it was nominated, and I like that it won. 'Nough said.

Happy belated bday to Melisa - Bryan and I raised a glass to you and to Steve and that memorable bday we spent at Tir Na Nog 2 years ago!

Friday, March 03, 2006

Literary...Porn?

Yes, PORN. This is a hilarious bit about the transformation of one of the world's most popular (though terribly written and ridiculously easy to figure out) fiction books into...porn. Yee haw.

Happy Friday everyone.