Sweater Thursday - coat with toggles

I am sorry to disappoint you this week, but I didn't bring a sweater on my business trip.
I did bring a coat with toggles though. so here I am. sporting red shoes, green scarf and toggles. This is my no nonsense business hair do. It is also my, I don't have to dry my hair - hair do.
Outtakes below as usual.

Post Like You Are getting your friends to check your teeth for spinach

Ways you can contribute even if you weren't with me when I took these 1) take this them out to the bar and take pictures of you, your friends, random strangers Posing as if they Are... 2)if you have your own blog or picture display location put the pictures there and either link to my post or let me know and I will link to yours. 3) send me your pictures. 4) feel free to vote on your favorite via my comments.
PS - ever find yourself standing in line with your friends and you have run out of topics to talk about? Bust this out.

Resurrecting - Pose like you are....

That is right, I am bringing back a fan favorite: Pose like you are dot dot dot.
In the past I did - Post like you are Hot - and - Post like you are Smart
the idea is simple - you have a camera and your friends aren't doing anything good to take a picture of. You try to get them to smile, but even that is getting stale. But what else can you make them do? - tell them that they should Pose Like they are [insert a word that Tyra Banks uses on Top Model]
try it, it really jazzes things up.
and you get to find out who the lame-oids are that should be removed from your group IMMEDIATELY.

Who would I do and a scarf

I must admit to you: I have a woman friend crush on Joanna. She is so cool and I can't believe that I missed her recent visit to Madison.
One of the things that she does with her blog is a new feature: Who would I do and a Hat

I wanted to participate, but I didn't have a hat on hand. So, I present a scarf and a do:
The scarf is one I knitted myself, and is terribly soft. And yes, I totally want Jeff Goldblum. Why? I don't know. I can only tell you that I have a keen pheremone/hot sex potential detectors. Perhaps I can sense his pheremones through the screen.

Sweater Thursday - Thanksgiving style

I encouraged my entire family to participate in the Sweater Thursday festivities. Unlike W's family, seen here in the most amazing picture, my family was low on participants. But, my sister did join me.
Here is a picture of us looking nice:

Outtakes below as usual.

Thanksgiving drama continues

So, you have already read about how my Thanksgiving began. A deer to the car and a night in the Newton, IA Econolodge. But, how did it end? I will tell you, not well, not well at all.
Initially things were looking up, the Econolodge offered a hot breakfast on Thanksgiving morning. I didn't partake of any of the toast (does this really count? come on!), but I did get a big mug of coffee. And, surprisingly that coffee was delicious. really! such an unexpected surprise.
but, don't fear, the Casey's that I hit between Des Moines and KC had some rot gut stuff that ruined my delicious Econolodge coffee high.
Thursday went fine, my brother and sister didn't arrive until late, so my mother and I had frozen pizza for dinner.
Friday was to be our big meal day - so my sister and I head to the store (remember my mother's leg is brokedy broke). We get all of our dinner goodies and head out to the parking lot. I am telling her the story of the deer that hit me while I back out. I spot another car backing out across the aisle and stop my car, that car then runs into me!
My sister hops out of the car all feisty and looking for a fight. I am laughing so hard I can't even put the car in park. the man that hit me is old and driving a gold Camry. A guy in a car that was waiting for our spots pulls up yelling out of his car window, "I saw the whole thing and could see it happening! I knew it was going to happen." To which the old man responds, "Why didn't you honk then?!" My sister and random man in car simultaneously yell that he was honking.
Meanwhile I pull my car back into the spot and get out. Apparently (per my sister) I get out and flap my arms saying, "Well, you fucking hit me. I was just sitting there and you fucking hit me!" (When my sister reinacts it, it is funny) - anyhow, I am writing down the guy's info and he says, wow, you got a lot of damage, I didn't get any at all. I look at his car and point out that the bumper is torn on one side. He says, "oh, I got that delivering Meals On Wheels".
Later, my sister tells some random person in the store (we had to go back in b/c we forgot to buy stamps) that she wanted to scream at him that we don't care if Jesus loves him for doing good stuff, he just hit us, in fact, perhaps he should ask jesus to drive him around, since jesus could do a better job. It was a funny rant.
Here is a reinactment of my sister angrily popping out of the car after the man hits us.

the top picture is of the old man damage since it is hard to see in the shot with my sister. In case you are having a tough time keeping track of the damage to my car and the different accidents: the tail light and quarterpanel bit is from the deer, the door part is the old man doing.

PS there has been some question of the status of the deer. I can only tell you that it was a doe, and she ran off. I am betting that she was maimed or has subsequently died.

My pledge to you - the United States of America

Once again, I am participating in Essay Tuesday just a bit late.

The topic:

share the speech you would give to try to win the Miss America pageant. It can be a free form "personal statement" sort of thing, or a response to a question that the panel of celebrity, leering judges might ask.

Here is my speech:

America, if you name me Miss America, I pledge that I will: bring joy to those around me with my smile, tackle tough issues plaguing our country like dogs in sweaters and ugly babies with vigorous discussion and criticism, share my opinions on a regular basis whether you are listening or not, and smile benevolently upon old women in lipstick and high heels.


Here is a photo of me at my desk practicing my wave and smile, picture me in a ball gown instead of the Georgia Tech jacket.

finally - a world of Lucias!

The essay topic two weeks ago was: A world composed of people just like me

I decided to frame my essay in terms of Advancements - or lack thereof - that my world would have. I got the advancements from my extensive research into the way that the world develops - playing Civilization III.

• I am not mechanically intuitive, so we are probably going to be significantly behind in mechanical advancements - no one on the moon, cars might exist, but they would be primitive, and heck, we might not have i-pods.
• I do well at science and math, so we might have modern medicine, we might have developed calculus, we would likely have all the scientific progress that we have now
• Writing and printing - I assume that I would do fine with this - we might not have printed the bible first though.
• Religion - I hope that we would have moved right through the whole religion thing, hopefully a world full of me would be atheist.
• Art - we wouldn't be doing good with art. I have no creativity, no color intelligence, and couldn't write a poem to save my life. I like two and three dimensional art, so perhaps we still might have some, but they wouldn't be near as good as the art of today. - there wouldn't be a poem and I am sure all music would suck.
• Government/Economics - I have no idea what our economy or government would be like…I would probably be a bad dictator and a bad monarch, so we would have to move to communism or democracy fairly quickly.

Overall personality of the people: I am intense, so likely everyone will be opinionated, loud, frantic at times and there will be large swings in everyone's emotional status all the time.

This is probably not a world I would want to live in... I like other people's personalities and attributes.

Lost in a holiday snowstorm

This year's Thanksgiving has been a bit crazy.

First, the planning. It was supposed to be at my house, but my mother broke her leg and we moved it to Kansas City. Then, there was much back and forth with my friend Todd about getting him to see his relatives in Indianapolis. The final plan where I didn't need to drive him to Indy for Thursday dinner wasn't solid in my mind until a drunken phone call on Sunday night.

Then, the drive. On Wednesday (this) afternoon I left for Kansas City with the two dogs in tow. Flurries accompanied me all the way to Iowa City, when they turned decidedly into snow. However, the snow was light and not sticking. I was happily cruising along, and a deer ran out of the median and into my car. uh, freakin-A! The good news is that I was calm, and the damage was just to the rear quarter panel and the tail light. Some other lady stopped after I hit the deer (I love the midwest, this is completely the most considerate place on earth) and she was all upset for me. I had to calm her down.

After the deer incident (I just jammed the tail light back in and continued on my way - full disclosure, I did have to call R so he could tell me that everything was okay) I stopped for a bathroom break in Newton, IA, and realized it was getting dark, cold and the road was dangerous. The snow was getting wetter and soon icy. These fears were confirmed when I turned on the radio and there were accidents littering the highways around Des Moines. I decided that the Econolodge was going to be good enough for me and the dogs tonight.

The only downside to the Econolodge tonight is that I have no alcohol and no one to drink with. A scrabble game with tequila shots would be fun right now.

uh, now that I think about it, I bet there is a truck driver here in Newton somewhere without someone to do shots with. Perhaps I will just stay here snuggled up in the room alone.

Coffee Cup Search -trying to tell me something?

This is a story with a somewhat sad ending. First, you need to know that my company provides all the coffee you want (good coffee to boot), but you must bring your own cup.

About two weeks ago I was going to do a blog post about all the coffee mugs that have accumulated in my office:

As a result of taking this picture and thinking about writing that post, I must have taken all of the mugs home. I know this because I went into my office and found myself without a single mug to use. egads!

Being both a caffeine addict and forgetful, I have done this before. Therefore I know that sometimes people leave mugs in the breakrooms, and if I just wash the mug and then return it when I am done no one will be the wiser. This is how I got my favorite mug, but without the return of the mug. (karmatic post script to that story, I have since lost that mug. Every day is a little empty without it.)

So, I peruse the breakrooms. nothing. not even a ceramic mug.

Then, I remember that I often leave mugs in the meeting/conference rooms, so I check a few of those. nada.

As my desperation was growing I thought to myself... wonder if someone has one that I could just borrow for the day? What a great idea! - except as I wandered about the cubeland, I realized some things:

1) I don't know any of these people

2) that girl in the cube by the boy who I think is cute's office is very blonde, very cute, and looks very 21. I hope he hasn't noticed any of these things...

3) I don't have any friends. Even the people who I know, aren't close enough to share their coffee mugs with me.

This puts me into a melancholy mood (enhanced by the lack of coffee in my system at this point) and I return to my office to take my nalgene bottle, fill it with coffee and then use a wax paper cup to relay between nalgene and my mouth. all of this was far less than a pleasing experience.

plus that cute blonde girl keeps popping up in my mind. gnrr.

Sweaters at Work

This week's sweater was a work sweater. Another boring black cardigan. This one is unique in that it is summer weight and short sleeved. It turns fall possible with a long sleeved shirt underneath.

This picture is with my project manager, Tami. She is my favorite person at my customer. The office has a wall of windows with a view of downtown Dayton. Fancy.

Acceptable excuses for a late essay

I still don't have my essay done. This week was a bit too hard for a quicky essay. I feel that you, as my loyal readers, deserve a high quality vision of a world full of me.

Disturbing Halloween Scene

This was an old post that I just found in my unpublished section. Better late than never.

from Halloween night:
I just walked my mother's garbage to the curb. I saw the most disturbing thing.


First, I must tell you that my mother lives in one of those developments, with cul-de-sacs, and community organizations and rules. The houses are all pretty much alike and all the trees are the same age/size.

Anyhow, there was line of SUVs and then groups of kids running to the house across the street and then back to their SUV, which then drove to the next house with a light on.

I remember my dad driving us around one Halloween, but he lived out in the country and it was miles and miles between houses with lights on. This is the only acceptable excuse in my opinion for driving your child from house to house. Perhaps, if you are forced to trick or treat in a bad neighborhood, and only wanted to go to houses of people you knew, this would be okay by me too.
Neither of these were the case in my mother's neighborhood and I found the SUV line to be the scariest sight of the entire evening.

Dogs Snuggling

What a weird thing for them to do...

Sweater Thursday -Spaghetti with Meatballs

As I stated when I began the entire sweater Thursday process, I don't have a big pile of great sweaters. I have a great big pile of boring black work sweaters. In an effort to save the excitement of the few interesting sweaters that I do have, this week was a boring black number.
However, I am jazzing it all up by showing the sweater at work making dinner. I had spaghetti with meatballs. The spaghetti sauce was some that I put up this summer.
Hot shot, I know! But that brings up a good point, the sauce was hot. My memory of the day was bit sketchy after spending 8 hours in the kitchen, but I think that R put some of his HOTTY into the sauce.

Below are some pictures that were taken that didn't make it in. But I know that the outtakes are often the most fun. enjoy.

Borat - movie review

Last night (I have been in a weird funk all week) I watched the Borat movie. I realize that I am a year behind, but I don't watch movies, so the fact that I saw it at all is pretty good.
here are my thoughts, because I am sure you really give a crap what I think about a movie released a year ago.
1) more nudity and ass-face contact than I expected.
2) the frat boys - did everyone get the crazy sense that they knew those guys in college? How many of those kinds of boys are out there? scary.
3) the rodeo and the frat boys - I heard an interview with Sacha on NPR (which I told 11 Frogs does not count as uncool if you live in Madison, WI - and honestly I am a bit on the fence about the NYT. Although W's love for the crosswords, reading every Time magazine sent to him when he gets behind, and the fact that he brought at least two copies of the NYT with him on a trip and proceeded to carry them with him from car to car to room to car etc all conspire to earn the same number of uncool points as was assigned to the NYT, so it comes out even) back to Sacha on NPR- and I think that Terry Gross assigned a bit too much significance in the interview to the two scenes. Perhaps he did almost get lynched at the rodeo, but I don't know.
4) I am left with questions - how did he not end up in jail? Was Pam Anderson in on it? Where the mortgage bankers in on it?
5) How funny is this info that I found on the Borat Wikipedia entry:

WAPT (Jackson,
Mississippi) TV news producer Dharma Arthur
states in Newsweek she lost her job as a
result of her booking Borat on a local afternoon news program. At the time of
the appearance, she was unaware of Cohen's act. During an interview with anchor Brad McMullan,
Borat made sexual and scatological references,
kissed McMullan, and later disrupted a live weather report.[32] She said:
"Because of him, my boss lost faith in my abilities and second-guessed
everything I did... I spiralled into depression, and... was released from my
contract... It took me three months to find another job, and now I'm thousands
of dollars in debt and struggling to keep my house out of foreclosure... How
upsetting that a man who leaves so much harm in his path is lauded as a comedic
genius."

6) I was disappointed that the Throw the Jew Down the well song wasn't in the movie. Terry referenced this song in her interview and perhaps it was this segment missing from the movie that made me feel like Terry misled me.

Overall, good movie and worth my time. I only wandered out of the room twice, so that was good.

Essay Tuesday - Prove how uncool you are

This is the latest of the series - Essay Tuesdays. This week's topic: Prove how uncool you are.

There have got to be plenty of things that prove how uncool I am. But, I am uncool in a way that makes me think that the uncool things I do make me cool in a "I don't care what other people think of me" sort of way.
This is likely not true. I imagine watching someone that looks like me doing the things that I do and it is then that I realize that I look like an unattractive buffoon most of the time.

Things I do that are uncool:
1) I don't get facebook. It makes me uncomfortable that these people are asking to be my friend that I barely ever talk to (J - this is not you, I am talking about some work people), and I don't like asking people to be my friend. I find it all very creepy.
2) I knit, can, garden, clean my house, and cook as recreational activities. Sometimes I think that I would have made a rockin good frontier wife.
3) I listen to uncool music. This includes random singer-songwriters, country music, and a bunch of CDs that my mother likes (Carole King, James Taylor, Jim Croce, Bread, John Denver, Eagles GH1, and Carly Simon) No one likes Bread. except me.
4) I have this dance I do. It is crazy, but somehow it releases endorphins in my body and it just makes me gleeful. I look like an idiot doing it, but I will demo it for nearly anyone.
5) I am constantly covered in dog hair, and don't make much of an attempt to remove it. or apologize for it.

Things that I do that I *think* are cool, but are likely very uncool
1) I write this blog.
2) I have two dogs.
3) I once had a dog, a fish and a pumpkin named George at the same time.
4) I like my job. even if it is hard and it drives me nuts.
5) I have worms in my basement
6) I think in lists. I bullet or diagram all of my thoughts, even on things like designs for my living room decor, or vacation planning.
7) I drink bourbon on the rocks.

I got to here on writing this essay and I felt like there was more to say. On the nature of the word "cool", on who judges this, on how something that makes one person cool can come off distinctly uncool on another, etc. However, rather than really thinking all of this out, jotting notes down on a piece of paper and sorting them into a really cohesive and structured essay, I searched the internet for: What makes you cool?
The result was a bit disturbing. I got a list on some x-box internet site from teenage boys (it includes many many many references to their genitals), sunglasses, a good cell phone, listening to cool music, a MySpace group that forces you to prove how cool you are, and then a discussion of some book called The Tipping Point on how new ideas become widely accepted.

I don't know what this all means, except that the internet doesn't have a good criteria list of cool things that I could check off.

Snowing!

The first snow of the year! This picture taken outside of my office window, and the snow was fleeting. Nevertheless I am very excited that I captured the exact moment that snow joined us this season.

I am tired and ready for the rest that winter brings.

except that I have stuff to do outside and I should have gotten more of it done yesterday when it was nice. darn.

oh! and my starter worms are going to freeze to death! I must go home early and save them.

worm bin progress check

Some good news on the worm bin front -
A) I got a bin - Menards (the place where I am sure I will find my first ex-husband) had a sale. I got orange and black 25 gallon bins for 3.99. What do I care if my worm bin is black with an orange top? It will always remind me of the time of year that I started my first bin.

B) I found myself some worms and some dirt in the backyard. I realize that these are just average earthworms, but they are a starter set and I will get some redworms the next time I pass a bait shop.

I haven't put it all together yet, but possibly tonight.

Good news on my permanent compost pile - I was going to wait for spring, but I was doing yard clean up yesterday and there is a lot of good brown and green stuff in my yard. I figure that I better do it now. So, at Menards, I bought posts and lathe to make a box. R has volunteered to help out as I am having a few design challenges. And, I think that my spot is too shady. But I already have so much piled in there. Do you think that sunshine is vital? I must do more research. Will it do it if I just cover the whole thing with a black tarp?

Other wonderfulness from Menards -
1) a Yard Cart. Like a wheelbarrow but more capacity, less likely to tip and spill all the sticks down the hill (not that that happens to me every time I use is or anything) AND it has clippies for rakes and other long handled tools that you need to haul from the bottom of the hill to the back yard.
2) Something else that was super fabulous, but I am keeping it a secret until I get it all set up and I can take a picture.
3) Primer for the bedrooms - I am painting this week
4) copies of keys! yippee! 11Frogs, I have a set for you all ready with that freakin book that I need to return to you.

My new thing - Worms

I am all fired up and excited. I have been getting progressively (pun intended) more earthy-crunchy and now I am taking a big step...

I am going to get a worm bin.

I have nearly all of the requirements - an out of the way location that will stay warmish in the winter, plastic bin, compostable materials, soil, and newspaper.

Now I just need worms! (for your information, it costs 28 dollars/lb of red worms plus 9.95 shipping! I am buying mine locally.)

did you know that they aren't nightcrawlers, but rather redworms.

Once I get my worm bin going I will have enough worms to get one of you started in 6 months! So, start planning, who is starting a worm bin of their own in May?

Sweater Thursday - coffee cup in front of fireplace

This is me and a coffeecup in front of my mother's kitchen fireplace. That is right, the kitchen has a fireplace of it's own. She calls the little sitting area "the hearth room". Oh la, la, sophisticated...
You may notice I am rocking a t-shirt under the sweater. This is because I once wore this sweater with a white shirt underneath to a customer meeting. One lady, whose stylishness is K-Mart business wear, told me that she had that exact shirt, and wasn't it great that the shirt was just the cuffs and collar of a dress shirt with a sweater body. I smiled and nodded, but this guy has not made it into a work outfit since. It is better as a casual, thrown on because there is a chill sort of sweater I guess.

Daylight Savings Time - Friend or Foe?

First, I have to tell you that Google Reader is my new best friend. Props to 11 Frogs. This isn't because I get to keep up on my blogs better, I still check them just for the brief respite from my work life. Rather, it is because I am using it to keep up on news and websites with info that I might need.

One of the things that I spotted that got me thinking:

http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2007/10/daylight_savings_time_worse_th.php



How do I feel about Daylight Savings Time? Why do we still have it? Why can't it be year round?

Thinking about DST sort of drives you into deeper thoughts about the nature of a clock, societal rules about time versus nature's role in time, and government's role in something as fundamental as the time of day.

wild, eh?

Are you for or against DST?

Is it a fundamental property of society that we have a standardized time system? Does every country in the world designate a time they are going to go with? what about places with loose central government or a government that is not recognized by the rest of the world? Have any of them ever decided to just go with something completely different?

This is a pretty good map with each country's time on it. Interestingly, some countries bucked the system by going with 1/2 hour deviations. India, Burma, Iran, and Afghanistan among the biggies. Australia went with three time zones but the middle one is just a 1/2 hour difference between the other two. nice compromise.

Another interesting thing -most of the wide countries (Canada, US, former Soviet Union) have gone with multiple time zones. Not China. The entire, very wide, country is a single time zone. Something makes me want to blame this on communism, which is a disturbing knee jerk reaction.

Something else interesting - countries that share an island - Hispaniola is shared between Haiti and Dominican Republic, and yet they are in two different time zones. Same with New Guinea island, the Western side is an Indonesian province and the Eastern side is Papau New Guinea. Now I can sort of understand this one somewhat b/c Indonesia is more west, so you would want to go with an "earlier" time if you were on the Indonesian side. But they still aren't in the same timezone as Jakarta.



anyhow, what do you think about timezones/DST/the role of government in the concept of time?