"I drive a 1998 Toyota Camry. To be
completely honest, it's the nicest car I've ever had the pleasure
of owning, though I sometimes wax nostalgic about the 1981 Chevy
Malibu station wagon I used to drive. The Camry even came with a
CD player! So I have yet to say I've really experienced any problems
with it, because I really haven't. However, I do have a complaint.
While this car was manufactured in 1997, it appears that the CD
player technology used was circa ten years earlier."
"Any one looking at the unemployment
report this morning has to be wondering what it’ll take to
get job growth humming again. No matter the statistic you consider,
without a substantial reduction in unemployment from current levels,
making the case that there’s an economic recovery afoot will
be an uphill battle."
"so every other year, we spend a week
at christmas with charles' family. the year before last, we stayed
at a cabin in ouray, colorado. this year, charles' brother and wife
are in charge of planning the trip. they want to go to napa, so
we'll be in northern california from dec 25th - jan 4th. we're putting
our own twist on it though."
"I'm getting to that point again where
I don't have a whole lot to say. Wait. That's not exactly true.
I do have things I want to talk about, but they're of a personal
nature. "What's that?" you say. "Isn't talking about
mechanical boyfriends something of a very personal nature?!"
you ask. Well, sure. But what I have on my mind right now... what's
going through my head... what I can't seem to stop thinking about...
all of it... everything... I'm not so sure I want to share it."
"I can't help it.
It's a woman's prerogative to change her mind and I don't see why
I shouldn't do anything but follow the job description of a woman.
Having said that Mark's changed his mind too and he's not a woman.
Well, he's in touch with his feminine side as much as he's able
to without having had a sex change but apart from that he's all
man. And if you want proof...well I checked. In fact I check regularly
when it's on my "to do" list."
"I'm in the midst of reading the complete
Canon of Sherlock Holmes short stories and novellas by Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle via the two volume Annotated Sherlock Holmes edited
by William Baring-Gould. This week I received two dvds from the
Sherlock Holmes series of the mid 80s, The Sign of Four and The
Hound of the Baskervilles, featuring the incomparable Jeremy Brett
as Holmes and Edward Hardwicke as Doctor Watson. For a Holmesian,
this week has been sheer bliss."
"Skatemom was in fine form today, let
me tell you! The team had a fundraiser at our local Sonic Drive-In
(right in front of our rink) to raise money for the skaters' accounts
today. Of course, today is a practice day, so while the kids were
in skating, we parents were out at the Sonic carhopping. Of all
the jobs I've had in my life, I've never done retail or food service.
I did a few summers behind a cash register at the grocery store
(pre-scanning days, thank you very much! "I'm sorry ma'am,
this is an express lane. Ten items or less. They can help you over
on register 7. Thanks!"), but nothing like what I did today."
"Vandaag heeft het gesneeuwd. Meen
je dat nou? Ja ja, werkelijk waar. Niet een beetje sneeuw, nee een
echt dik pak sneeuw waar je wat mee kan. Dus webcamera, hond en
vriend mee naar buiten, leuk doen in de sneeuw! Niet te ver, hondje
is bejaard namelijk en het moet wel leuk blijven."
"Let the holiday season begin! Jack
brought me home a present yesterday: two adorable moose on ice skates.
The mommy moose is holding a baby moose and the daddy moose is holding
a sign that says, "Merry Chrismoose!" (Yes, Cheryl, I
immediately thought of you!) Soooooo cute. I have them up in the
living room right now, and it's making me all holiday-giddy."
"I've traded the less than delightful
environment of living in the city for some measure of convenience
in getting to work and school. We've been looking forward to finally
completing degree requirements and graduation next spring and getting
the house in shape for dumping on some unsuspecting fool
marketing it to a discerning new home owner in the fall."
"I have a couple of errands to run,
a couple of meetings at T's school (one with the director of development
about a logo, a conference with his teacher and a
casual meeting with the woman who heads the technology committee),
but other than that, the day is mine! I think I'm going to make
sure that I get to Barnes and Noble. I swear there is nothing more
nourishing to me than going there, getting a Cafe Breve and just
browsing the books. I love that store. Books A Million is cheaper,
sure, but it just doesn't feel like B&N."
"Someone like George Steiner can casually
dismiss science as the measure of human achievement, but now that
racism can no longer cling to Christ or Biology, it is reduced to
hugging up on the history of science. I rather feel I've graduated
from earnest response to eye-rolling dismissal, but I have a soft
spot for the list-making young, and thought it worthwhile to edit
and preserve this list that I found splayed on a message board."
"I slipped on a pretty, and tight,
angora sweater and my jeans and then went for a walk. A nice, cool
West Coast winter's day. The corset gently adjusted itself as I
moved and, while I was delighted to take it off a few minutes ago
- and switch into my pretty white waspie - I am absolutely certain
this corset will be worn a lot."
"My wife is hungover, and I would like
to blame the following people: Cheyenne, Cheyenne, and Cheyenne.
Hoopty and I were innocent bystanders. We don't believe in imbibing
the booze to have a good time. Nay, we'd much rather geek out in
front of the screen. I showed him Knoppix and he was muy impressed.
I tried to put make-up on him, too - but he wasn't about to do that
without his matching handbag (which he conveniently forgot to bring)."
"Seems to me we need to have a national
"Kick the bums out of office" day at least a couple of
times a year or more.
Seems to me that instead of worrying about
who we ought to invade next our president and his cabinet ought
to be worrying about how to bring our industry back home and make
America the great industial nation it once was.
And he ought to be worrying about how to
make America the technological center of the world instead of how
to make America conquer of the world."
"The wife moaned today that she really
shouldn't read my blog. I didn't realise she still did. Whoops.
Now I'm in for it. She hasn't instant messaged me since she said
it. This means trouble.
I am expecting full blown war when I get home tonight - which isn't
good for 2 reasons:
1) girlfriend is a brown belt in karate whereas I don't even know
how to tie my belt properly yet
2) Buffy is on tonight and I'm hoping it's the Willow and Kennedy
snog - if we fight, chances are I'm gonna miss it.
Arse."
"It was 11.00 am and my stomach had
been hurting something awful all day from something bad I ate for
breakfast, and as much as I loathed doing No. 2s in public places,
I know we don’t always get to do the things we like. So I sat
myself down on the cold toilet seat and who should come into the
work loos while I was making wartime noises in the porcelain--but
a fellow employee. I sit quietly hoping she’ll do her business
quickly and then go away to leave me alone with my business, but
no...it seems another war had also broken out in the other cubicle
with apparently bigger guns and grenades. While I marvel at the
idea of synchronised dumping schedules in the workplace, I hear
a voice speak out from the next cubicle and it echoes throughout
the otherwise empty lavatory:
“Hello! What’s your name again?” "
"Those Brits sure know how to have
fun! The results of the latest census count turn up some 390,000
royal subjects citing Jedi as their religion of choice. Yes, that's
"Jedi" as in Star Wars/Luke Skywalker/Darth Vader etc.
The big showing was thanks to an Internet campaign, and was done
very much tongue-in-cheek. (A somewhat more complete look at the
census results shows that these fledgling Jedi knights are very
much a minority, as Christianity still holds sway with the vast
majority of Britons.)"
the Crucible Of My Heart
"the other day when we got to pray
for some friends who are pastors, they both started praying in tounges,
it was great to hear an anglican vicar. . . i remember thinking
ahhh, that sounds so beautiful to hear him speaking in tounges.
. .. it was such a gift, it was wonderful, sort of his way of response,
his way of getting his attenna up to listen to the spirirt. it was
encouraging to see and a powerful reminder of the spirit we all
have access to"
"Right now, this minute, I'm in a training
session, and am being forced to listen to disco music. Ack!!!!!
The frightening bit, is that I know the words and the artists on
waaaaay too many of these songs. Heaven help me.
-----------
Update: I knew so many songs, that I won a T-shirt. I'm afraid of
myself. Ha."
"Every now and then a song hits me
in just the right way, at the right time. The CSI soundtrack is
really doing it for me, in particular Curve's Hell Above Water.
The drums and guitars - oh yes, very good, definitely. Very good
to play loudly and drive fast over dark roads. Sometimes I have
a need for loud. With lots of drums."
""Domestic terrorism"
This is a term that realy bothers me. This is a new term that the
law and anti-AR people are using to justify stepped-up campaigns
against groups of people who are trying to promote changes in society."
"Damn! Now that's what I call good
television. Last night was the first episode of "Gold Diggin'
Whores" on Fox. Oh wait sorry, I see it's actually called "Joe
Millionaire" but it is on Fox. I've never watched a reality
TV show before because I have nothing but contempt for stupid TV
and people trying to find "true love" on a game show.
This one is awesome though."
