Hobby or disease?

I'm kinda crafty. Not in the sneaky sense, but in the sense that I enjoy making things as a hobby. I learned how to crochet just before I left for college - way back before it was the hip thing to do. In the years since then, I've knitted & crocheted many things, including 3 blankets, a handful of hats, and more scarves than I can recall.

And here is where we confront the problem with this hobby; When you're done with a project, you're stuck with this object. This thing that takes up space. My hobby began to make me feel restricted. I felt that either I had to make something useful for myself or for someone else. This is why so many of my loved ones now own scarves made by yours truly.

But I have developed a new hobby since moving to NC: cooking. It's fantastic! I can finish a project in one day! And other people can enjoy it with me! Indeed, I'm making something useful that everyone needs everyday: food. Why didn't I realize this before? Love it! So as you can imagine, I have been cooking a lot lately. We barely ever eat out any more. Tim definitely enjoys my little experiments in the kitchen and I love the fact that the house isn't crowded with the results of my efforts. Although I must confess that I have bought a few more kitchen tools, but I humbly argue that these are far more useful and take up much less space than all of those scarves.

My latest purchase was a rolling pin. And you would not believe the amount of research I did on rolling pins (there are a lot of opinions out there on the subject). I was compelled to buy a rolling pin because we had friends over for dinner last weekend (Tim's office mate, K, & his girlfriend) and Tim requested apple streudel for dessert. Yup, real apple streudel. Homemade. I rolled out the pastry dough on our countertop. And I gotta tell you, I have never been more happy while using a rolling pin.

Which kinda makes me concerned. I mean, what the hell is that about? Could it be that something bizarre is happening to my brain? Am I officially turning into one of those precious little stereotypical housewives? Or is it something I can blame on the brain spider? I don't know whether I should be concerned or if I should just sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labors. Is this an illness? And if so, did I catch it from The Food Network or Cooks Illustrated magazine? I don't want to give up Cooks Illustrated, though. That's a reeeeeeally good magazine. It's like Consumer Reports for cooks. You should check it out sometime. Really. It'll blow. your. miiiiiiiind, man.

See?!? Now I'm becoming a pusher! Ack!

Another American accent quiz

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Forgive me, but I find these accent quizzes to be simply fascinating. Who knew I had so much Boston in me? I have to agree, though, that I have a very dull middle-of-the-road accent. No one in this country ever asks where I'm from because my voice isn't different enough, but that really isn't a bad thing. When I was at Cambridge I met a guy with that sereotypical Boston accent and, holy god, I could barely understand a thing he said! Granted, he wasn't as bad as Brad Pitt in "Snatch", but it was still difficult.

Anywho, as you can probably tell, I'm tinkering with the color scheme on my blog. I want to make the header shorter so that you don't have to scroll down to see the top of the latest post, but I can't figure that out on my own. I'll pester Tim about it when he wakes up. As for the colors, the greens felt too dark and gloomy for me. Plus, I'm not fond of reading light-colored text on a dark background. I've still got some tinkering to do. And I'm open to suggestions if you have any. Just put 'em in Ye Olde Comment Box.

Hoffy B-day, G!

Today is george's birthday! Everybody say WOOT!
WOOT!
Here's hoping it is her first chocolate-free birthday ever.

Last night I called her just after midnight my time 'cause I figured she might as well start celebrating early, right? Right! I also thought that maybe she could open her b-day box from me whilst on the telephone, but said box was languishing at the local post office. Poopie. Here's hoping that she can make it there today, despite the blizzard-like conditions. I hear the weather is miserable in T-town, too. Ice! Sleet! And up to 2 feet of snow! Madness! Especially considering it is currently a sunny 72F in my neck of the woods.

Back to birthday stuff. There is one little thing that I could not include in george's birthday box, but I've decided to make up for it by sharing it with all of you. It's an unusal gift because it's a link. But it's a good one. It will fill your heart with gladness. Delight and good humor will flow through your veins. You'll be shvitzing joy. Truly.

Warm up the printer. Grab some scissors and crayons. And above all else, enjoy.
"I <3 The Hoff" Super Fantastic Activity Fun Book.

What's that, you say? You'd rather not hassel with The Hoff? Prefer your arts & crafts to have a more punk edge to it? Fine. For the hipsters out there, I also bequeath unto you, the Dead Milkmen's Punk Rock Girl paper doll

Happy George's Birthday to everyone!

Visitors, past & future

Hey, gang! Check out these hot chicks! Does it get any cuter than that? I think not. As I said yesterday, it was sooooooo so good to see Kris & talk with her & just hang out with a friend who has known me for ages. Very fun, and also comforting in a way. Yay!

And it sounds like another pal will be visiting the area in April. This is an internet pal (I have quite a few. No shame in that!), so although I've been aquainted with her for about 6 years & we've chatted & mailed stuff to one another, we've never met in person. Her name is Janice. She's a writer. You can learn all about her at Girlbomb.com. I am so thrilled that we'll finally get to meet!

By the by, Janice finished the final draft of her second book this week & she sent the first chapter to me today.
Oh.
My.
Heavy stuff, as I was expecting. But sooooo good. Can't wait to flip the pages & read the rest. But knowing the publishing biz, it might be another year before I can pick it up at the local Borders. Oh, the anticipation!

Thanksgiving weekend

From a recent phone conversation ...
George: How was your Thanksgiving?
Me: Well, we have a 20-pound concrete chicken sitting on our dining table. I think that about sums it up.

Thanksgiving was SOOOOOO fun! This was quite a surprise, seeing as we were surrounded by people we'd never seen before, but no matter. We had a blast. That's what counts. As you probably know, Tim and I met on the internet on a message board. Another person on that message board ("Tes") invited us to her house for Thanksgiving. Tes is a hilarious lady and I was flattered that she invited us (and relieved, as well!). There were about 20 other people there, all of them very sweet and welcoming and funny and interesting. Tes was an excellent host and really helped us all feel comfortable, which lead to some great conversation. I had a great time!

There was also a concrete chicken in attendance. Apparently, this chicken is very well traveled. Tes and her husband bought the chicken a number of years ago as a prank. Since then, the chicken has periodically disappeared, always returning accompanied by photographs from its journey. With help and encouragement from Tes' niece, we decided that the chicken should see Oral Roberts University. So we are now in posession of said chicken. I wonder if Tes has figured that out yet. Tee hee!

On the day after Thanksgiving, we got together with Kris! She and Josh were in town visiting family for Turkey Day. It was soooooo nice to see her and talk with her! We did a little shopping, ate a little lunch, & even brought her out to the hizzouse, peeps. So she can confirm that, indeed, we live in a cute little corner of the world. We played on the Wii with her (and took pics just to make Josh jealous), then spent a couple hours hanging out with Josh's family. Good times.

But here's the problem. Two days of solid socializing has totally spoiled me. Now I feel like Tim and I need to GET OUT! And SEE PEOPLE!!! What a concept!

Whut kinda 'merican do youinz talk like?

Your Linguistic Profile:

60% General American English

20% Dixie

15% Yankee

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Wii! Stuff I like from the last week

1. Cinnamon ice cream. Our local dairy is making it as a seasonal flavor. Nummy. Not as good as sticky toffee pudding ice cream, but still loverly.

2. I can tell that I liked the new James Bond movie because I didn't finish my bag of candy ... and the movie was about 2 & 1/2 hours long. A good sign for me.

3a. Sounds like out darling Love Gunn has pierced many a heart out there! Tim Gunn is featured in the People sexiest-men-blah-blah issue. Haven't seen the issue, but I'm thrilled for him anyway! Yay! You can watch a video of Tim here. Who knew he prefers boxer briefs! Niiiiice.

3b. Mr. Gunn on the Colbert Report! Check it out here. Tim shows up around Minute #1. My vote is for Jefferson #2.

4. Here's where the geekiness begins. You've been warned.

I like the Wii! I actually like playing video games. Who knew this could happen?! Astounding. We got ours late last week, a few days before they hit the shelves. It's smaller than I thought it would be and certainly more fun than I expected, too. I wish you all could go to a store and try it out, but that's kinda impossible because ... well, the handset is wireless & I guess they don't want to risk anyone wandering off with it. Sorry. Such a shame because the handset is the BEST part of the system. That and the cute kawaii-esque interactive menu thingy. But the handset (they call it a "Wii-mote") is so fun! For those who don't know, it senses movement. So you play games by moving the handset. So, for example, when you're playing tennis, you just swing the handset as if it were a tennis racket. Super cool!

The machine came with Wii Sports (the sports consisting of golf, bowling, tennis, baseball, and boxing). Good times! The golf game takes a bit of practice (especially the putter). But the bowling! Oh, the bowling. I scored a 147!!! Coming from a gal who usually scores around 40 during real-life bowling, I couldn't be more thrilled with my Wii bowling score. Oddly enough, Tim's Wii bowling score was pretty similar to what he gets in real life. Interesting, that. I think it's because he's putting more spin on the ball than I am. And yes, you can put spin on the ball simply by twisting your wrist a bit. It's so cool the way that the handset works! Tim said that at work they were playing doubles tennis & it was fan-damn-tastic. Sadly, that won't be happening in our home for some time because we only have one full handset (in gamer's terms, that's 1 Wiimote and 1 nunchuck). We will bring it with us to T-Town for Xmas. Should make my brothers happy.

Top 10 - or Shot Through the Heart by a Love Gunn

I am convinced that there is some sort of evil blog-eating monster out there that goes around, eating blog entries. I suspect this because not only did George lose a post recently, but so did I! I just know that I posted in here more recently than the 3rd. Hmmm.

Well, here are the top 10 events of my life since my last post.
1. We went to a post-Halloween party and met some more of Tim's co-workers. They're actually really cool! And the guy who was hosting the party has converted his basement into this amazing video arcade. I think there were 15 old-school video games down there! Soooooooo kick ass! Tim and I also played pool and a lot of people sang karaoke. A nice time was had by all.
2. I finally finally saw an entire play here. It was The Exonerated, performed by a company that Byron recommended to me. I saw it with Tim and Pam. It was good, but it kinda shook me up because it made me think of Richard. Sigh. George and I need to start having theatrical-viewing experiences that do not bring us to tears.
3. We ended up seeing the play on the afternoon before Guy Fawkes Night. How bizarre is it that we saw a play about death row inmates on a day that is named after a man who was publicly executed? Very odd. At any rate, we ate bakes potatoes and hot dogs, so we kinda sorta kept up with tradition.
4. The election! Yay! I know that not everyone who reads my blog is a Democrat, but I hope that a part of them will appreciate the idea of having a more balanced system of checks and balances. Yay!
5. Britney left her skanky sperm factory! And yes, I know it sound ridiculous to be happy about this, but I am.
6. Tim's company had a fancy surprise breakfast catered for the employees ... just because. Chefs were available to make omelets & everything. How cool!
7. My favorite thing: George met Tim Gunn!!!!!! TIM GUNN!!!! From Project Runway! My FAVORITE person on television! He just walked into her workplace of his own free will and stood around and chatted with her for a few minutes! And she told him about the fact that my cable system is trying to come between me and my love of PR. And he told her to thank me for remaining a fan! Tim Gunn THANKED me, people! Tim Gunn appreciates my love! Can you say eeeeeeeeee?! I know I can! EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!
8. Lots of happy foodie things are happening around here. We have a genuine French patisserie right here in this tiny town in which I live. Yay! And we went out to a pub in this widdle town for dinner, where I ate quail for the first time (New foods! Yay!). And we went to our favorite gourmet foodie place, where we met someone from Joseph Schmidt Confections and ate free chocolate truffles and bought even more truffles.
9. I finally saw Flushed Away. It was okay. The characters are not nearly as endearing as the ones in other Aardman films, but it was okay. I wish it were doing better at the box office, though, because that would translate into more sales of the video game! ;)
10. The only down side: I hurt my foot. Basically, my foot was asleep and I tried to walk on it, but instead of putting my weight onto the sole of my foot, I ended up stepping down on the top of my foot. There was a popping sound. And pain. But since my foot was still kind asleep, the pain just got worse and worse as my foot continued to awaken! Ouch! It's okay now, though. After 4 days, I'm now walking normally.

Ummmm ... I think that's about it. Random happenings. Yay. :)

Happy things

The internet is bothering me a bit lately. So negative! So much bitchery! I'm weary from it all. Let's focus on things that make us happy, shall we?

Happy thing #1: I bought a sweater shaver. And I am in love. Laugh all you like, but this thing kicks serious ass. I have a teal-blue sweater that was covered in ugly pilly bits & was looking tired and old. But now that baby looks brand new and feels sooooo smooooth. I feel compelled to shave all the woolens in the house. So far I have merely shaved 3 sweaters, but I need another fix. By the by, the image here is not of the shaver I got. I simply purchased the cheapy $5 version at Target. But that baby on the right is the fancy-schmancy Alessi sweater shaver. It has 3 different settings and costs almost $40. It may be a bit more shaver than I need, but I may buy it in a moment of weakness just because it's so freakin' cute.

Happy thing #2: Trick-or-treaters. I stayed home on Halloween this year for various reasons. But I'm glad I did. I enjoyed going door-to-door for candy as a kid & I'm glad to be keeping the tradition alive for the next generation. So I saw princesses and pirates and even a little frog that was so captivated by our aquarium that he ran into the house to look at the fish!

Happy thing #3: Leftover Halloween candy. Mmmmmm ... Junior Miiiiiiints ...

Happy thing #4: I saw a play with Pam and her friend Byron last week (I will probably write about that later). And this weekend Pam and I are hoping to hang out again. And on Saturday night Tim and I are going to a party with his friends at work. So we are slowly developing a social life! Wee!

Happy thing #5: A fluffy duvet on a cold night.

Happy thing #6: Bjork singing "Cry Me A River" (Click here to hear it). Not a happy song, I know, but she sounds great singing it. It also somehow got me to wondering what it would have been like if Bjork had married Robert Smith and they made babies together. Wouldn't that have been fantastic?

Happy thing #7: The soft ginger cookies I'm going to bake now. Yum!

Happy thing#8: Shoes. Shoes. Shoes. Omigawd! Shoes.
(Just watch this. My favorite part starts at the 3 minute mark.)

Happy Halloween

Apparently, there is some old wives tale that says that if you look in a mirror by candlelight before midnight on Halloween, you will see your true love/future spouse standing behind you in the mirror's image.

This creeps me out even more than the traditional ghost stories. Eep!

Mail and love and such.

This week I got the BEST piece of mail EVER. I really wish I knew how to take photos from my phone and put them on the internet because the world deserves to see this thing. I'll try to describe it to you. You know those squishy sponge-like "stress-reliver" squeezable thingies? Well, imagine one of those in the shape of the continental USA. And put the American flag on it. Like this.
Then draw a dot and the word "me" over the approximate location of Seattle. Then imagine another dot and the word "you" on top of the Chapel Hill area. And write "I Miss Mary" and a little red heart over the plains states.

That's what I got in the mail this week. It was the sweetest and saddest thing I've seen in years. And I LOVE it! It is the mail-equivalent of a sleepy little kitten that is struggling to stay awake but keeps nodding off despite its efforts. Adorable. I've considered putting it in my purse and taking it with me wherever I go. At the moment my talisman is a 2-inch-long rubber chicken. The chicken is more portable, but not as cute. Hmmm. Decisions.

At any rate, many many thanks to george for the amazing mail. I will be bragging about it to others for quite some time. When people eventually come over to the house, I will proudly display it on the coffee table and when they ask about it I'll do the Oh-this-old-thing? routine. And they will know that somebody - somebody in the northwestern corner of the country - loves me. And they will wish that somebody out there sent them kick-ass mail, too. And then they will think "Anybody who gets mail as rad as this must be pretty friggin' cool. I want to be closer to that coolness. I want her to be my friend. Oh yes."

Then someday they'll find this post in my blog and it will all be ruined. But that's okay. 'Cause I love my georgie. EEEEE!!!

I said Brr! It's cold in here!

There may not be Toros in the atmosphere, but there certainly is a cold front. Brr! It's chilly! We actually had to turn on the heater. How crazy is that? But it is beeeee-yoooo-tiful 'round these parts. The colors of the leaves are quite vivid! I thought we'd have to drive to the mountains to enjoy such lovely colors, so it's nice to see them outside our front door.

Events in recent history:
1. I have officially been in NC for 6 months. Half a year! Wowza!
2. Jeffrey won Project Runway. Yawn. Is it weird that a part of me really doesn't care who wins this show anymore?
3. Mom had surgery on her other eye and it's looking great! Woot!
4. We got a new TV. It's pretty! Me likey!
5. I've been sick for a week straight. But so far I managed to eat twice today without becoming ill immediately afterwards, so my hopes are high that I'll be over it soon. And no, I'm not pregnant. Promise.
6. The F1 season is over and Michael Schumacher is OUT! I feel oddly conflicted about this. A tiny little part of my heart wishes that Mike had at least made the podium for his final race ever. But mainly I'm just happy for Kimi. Because next year he'll be in a decent car and he might actually WIN something for a change.

Which reminds me ... During the pre-show I noticed that Kimi was smiling before the race. SMILING! I thought it was just because the albatros known as Maclaren was finally being removed from his neck. But there may have been more to it than that.

"Okay. Thanks for that."
Tee hee.
Now do you understand why the UK coverage of F1 is better than the Speed Channel? Do ya?

In other news, I've been thinking about getting crafty again. This urge usually hits people when the weather turns colder. When it's less humid. Frankly, when the idea of laying a warm, woolen project in one's lap sounds appealing rather than oppresive. But I am in no way as crafty as Lauren Porter. The woman knitted a full-sized Ferrari. She used 12 miles worth of yarn to make it. Don't ask me why. She says humor is an important aspect of her work, so maybe she isn't completely insane, afterall.

But oddly, my desire to knit/crochet/embroider has lessened this year. Instead, I am drawn more towards cooking. I have a long list of cooking blogs that I check. I read cookbooks as if they were novels. Kinda creepy! But good. And there's a definite satisfaction to be felt when one makes a fancy, lump-less sauce from scratch. What's odd is hearing that george, too, has discovered cooking as a new hobby. What is wrong with us?!?!? Why weren't we so excited about cooking back when we could have cooked for one another?!? Oh, the unfairness of it all! Oh well. Knitting is soooooooo 2002, anyway. And crochet is too 2005. I think cooking is the next wave, kids. Depend on it.

It's just a shame that a good afghan is better at keeping me warm than a loaf of pumpkin bread.

Oh-Ee-Oh-Ee-Oh!
Ice Ice Ice!

Wal-Marketing

I'm ticked off with Wal-Mart. Or more specifically, I'm ticked off with their marketing/PR firm, Edelman.

A while back I heard about a website called Working Families for Wal-Mart. If you go to the site (and I honestly hope you DON'T because I don't think we should encourage them), you get the impression that the site was set up by independent consumers - Wal-Mart lovers who think that Wal-Mart is marvelous for communities, the environment, blahblahblah. There's even an "About Us" page that gives you the distinct impression that the so-called blog is run by a bunch of ordinary people who simply want to offer support to this enormous big-box store. In addition to this, a new "blog" was created that is tied to the "Working Families For Wal-Mart" campaign. The blog is called "Wal-Marting Across America". The point of this blog was that a couple of people were going to travel across the USA in an RV, spending their nights in Wal-Mart parking lots.

Sounds pretty damn suspicious, doesn't it. And for good reason. Within the last week it was discovered that this grassroots campaign was nothing more than astroturf. It's all a PR gimmick. The head of the PR firm finally admitted this on his own blog (after flatly ignoring all questions on the subject for many days).

But guess what. The website for "Working Families for Wal-Mart" still looks the same!!! There is NOTHING on the website identifying itself as advertising. The "About Us" page remains a lie. Anybody who does not frequent advertising and marketing blogs would not have a clue that Wal-Mart is funding that website. Gullible people might get sucked into the lie. It's disgusting, underhanded, and lacks any credibility.

Oddly enough, the final post on the "Wal-Marting Across America" blog is a rant from one of the authors, wondering what was so wrong about them taking money from Wal-Mart & their PR firm to sponsor their vacation. Ummm ... honey, there is a HELL of a lot wrong with that when you aren't honest and transparent about it. They were working for Wal-Mart - paid in free transportation, accomodation, and lord knows what else - but even they seem too stupid to realize that their sposored trip was a form of payment. The problem is not that they "dared to write positive things about Wal-Mart". The problem is that they were paid to do it, but never revealed that fact. Hence, the fury.

Grrrrrrrr. You see, THIS is part of the reason why I've stopped shopping at Wal-Mart. I have other reasons, but this little incident is certainly reaffirming my choice to shop elsewhere whenever possible.

Links to more info:
MediaPostPublications
What'sNextBlog
Mark Evans
Shel Holtz

24 Hours From Tulsa

Let's say that this old movie poster represents a dramatic interpretation of the last 7 days. Oddly enough, Robert Preston is portraying my mom. Just kinda try to imagine my mother's face there, but make sure you cover half of her head with lots of bandages & a strange mesh eyepatch-like thingamy. As for Susan Hayward? She's playing me, the ever-loving and doting daughter.

Last Tuesday I got on a plane and went to Tulsa to tend to my mother. She had eye surgery to remove a cataract & implant a new lens. The poor woman was nervous. And who wouldn't be?! I mean, EYE SURGERY! Few things make people wince as dramatically as the thought of sharp objects near eyes. The same people who guffaw at the sight of a guy getting a swift kick to the nads will shriek with horror at film fotage of eye surgery. So. I went to Tulsa to look after Mom and lift things for her (since she couldn't lift anything) and pick up things for her (since she wasn't allowed to bend down) and drive her around (since ... you know).

The good news is that the surgery went very well! Mom only had to wear the bandages for 1 day (I said the poster was a dramatic interpretation, people!). And although she suffered from some discomfort and pain, she is happy with the results. So yay! And we did sooooooo much together. We watched a Project Runway marathon and ate at The Polo Grill and saw the opera of "The Little Prince" and visited Rhiannon & baby Max and bought shoes and stopped by Merritt's for some lovely baked goods and much much more. It was a great week! And it certainly reminded me why I enjoy Tulsa (and why I miss it).

The problem, of course, is that I had very little time to see anyone other than family. So for those of you who I missed, I hope you'll forgive me! Tim and I will be back at Christmas time, so we'll have to get together then.

In the mean time, I better get cracking on the dirty dishes and laundry that has piled up in my absence. And maybe find out how much it costs to fly to Seattle!

Seattle or bust

Just got a phone call from Derek informing me that he and george have officially left California! Woo hoo! They are enjoying the mountains, clouds, and coniferous trees of Oregon. Can't you just imagine them taking deep, cleansing breaths of fresh Oregonian air? Sounds marvelous! As I'm sure you'll read on their own blogs, their escape from LA has not been easy. But thank goodness they are on their way. I'm sure they'll be much happier in Seattle. This week I watched part of a special on the Travel Channel about Seattle & I'm already excited about visiting the town. I also feel a strange urge to watch Sleepless In Seattle now just to see snippets of the town.

By the by, there isn't a whole lot happening here. I got some new luggage. And tried on some expensive shoes just to say that I did (Jimmy Choo's! Eep!). And the usual other things (baking, cleaning, tending to the yard, etc). And by the way, it is turning very autumnal here and it is simply gorgeous! I actually wore a sweater when we went out last night. Wee!

Or should I say "Wii"? As in the Nintendo Wii. It seems that we will be getting one of these newfangled machines. Note that we will not be purchasing it, though, as Tim is not really a console gamer. But his company is giving us a machine, so I suppose I'll start playing Super Duper Mario Cart - Now with more Super-duper-ness!

Personally, I'd rather have a fancy new TV. We visited some friends last night just so we could christen their new television (A TV-warming party, if you will). Oh my cod, people. It is a thing of beauty. Flat, LCD, widescreen. I'm guessing it's about 40 inches. Jennifer said that when they first turned it on, she wept tears of joy. I must say, I think I would do the same.

"I'm Down with T-Town"

You know what it's like when you go out of town for a week? And your pets are left on their own? And you know that one of your friends or siblings will be stopping by to feed your pets, but ya still kinda worry about them anyway? Well, that's kinda the way I've felt about Tulsa since we moved. And now I feel that I have even more reason to be concerned. Check this out.

TulsaChannels.com

And no, that is not "channels" as in television stations. These people are proposing that islands be built in the Arkansas River. For some reason, this idea makes my nose wrinkle (probably because it sounds expensive). I mean, it could be good, but it feels a little gimmicky. What do you think?

In other news, I found a couple of L.A. citizens (who are not george or Derek or even Tara) who like Tulsa just fine as-is. Granted, they were only there for one night, but it's still nice that they had such positive things to say.

Movin' on up!

Just wanted to say congratulations again to george an Derek! They finally get to leave Hell-Ay and move on up to Seattle. Marvelous! Granted, I hear that Seattle has its own bunch of freaks, but hopefully they will be freaks that seem more, uh, normal(?) compared to what they've faced in LA.

What's funny is that in the last couple of weeks since george told me they were going to move, I have seen sooooo many things that make fun of the shallowness of the LA Lifestyle. The ads for the county fair in LA are hilarious, but I think I like the elegant simplicity of the above graph better than anything else.

So how have you all been? I'm getting by okay. Somebody on my favorite message board is vomiting hateful, racist comments all over the place. And I read that LonelyGirl15 on YouTube was all a big hoax. And, as you can probably tell from my post earlier this week, I was pretty emotional over the whole 9/11 anniversary. So it has been an odd couple of days.

But!
But but but!
I went out with my New Friend last night. Eeeeee!!!! We had drinks again and talked and talked and talked. Have I mentioned before that this woman kicks ass? Because she does. Here's some proof.
1) She loves Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series.
2) She likes Jane Austen stories, so she can easily tolerate my girly tendencies.
3) She has a weakness for cheesy movies like "Bring It On".
4) She thinks we need to have a charades party.
And we have similar political views and we tend to hang out with crazy artsy people and and and and. I told her that george already suspects that I'm going to suck friendships off of her like the pathetic, lonely person I am. Luckily, she said that she is happy to be the host for this sad little parasite. So it's all good.

In other news, my parents are in Hawaii! Wee! And it feels like autumn has arrived in our area. Which means it will soon be pumpkin season! And I looooooooves me some pumpkins!

Five years later

My life on September 10, 2001: I had recently returned from my study-abroad trip to Cambridge. I was preparing to apply to grad schools. I felt strong and inspired. My mind was full of creative ideas. My heart was full of hope. I knew that my life would never be the same.

My life on September 11, 2001: Horror. Crippling terror. I couldn't tear myself away from the news for weeks. I was afraid to leave the house. I knew that my life would never be the same.

The Science of Sleep

I'm still thinking about this template. I kinda like it. And it was such a nightmare to set it up that I'm reluctant to change it for a while. Feel free to comment on it, though. I appreciate the opinions of all of my readers. Even the few strangers out there. Hi, strangers!

I found a movie that I really want to see. It's called "The Science of Sleep" (or La Science des Reves which actually translates to "The Science of Dreams", yes?). I saw a trailer for it tonight and it looks goooooood. Kinda weird and quirky and magical and all that good stuff. It's from the director of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", so if you didn't like that movie, you may be out of luck (Derek).
See the trailer in Quicktime or on YouTube.

In other sleep related news, Tim did not get up until around 1pm today. And then he went back up to bed at 9pm because he was falling asleep while watching poker. A bit concerning, no? I suppose it's just as well since we have to wake up early for the F1 race tomorrow.

And in completely unrelated news, I decided that kittens are cuter than babies. Tim agrees. So maybe we aren't cut out to be parents afterall.

Do not be alarmed!

Today I decided that I might need a new template for my blog. I'll probably be trying out different things for a while, so don't be surprised if things look different, mkay? Mkay!

So here's my week thus far.

Monday: Went on a mini road trip with Tim. We drove up to Virginia for no particular reason. On the way home we stopped at a Sonic (Sonic!!!) and had happy beverages and tater tots. Yum.

Tuesday: Tim got off of work early. And he brought me flowers. Just because. Aaaaaww!!

Wednesday: Mom announced that we will be going to Florida in June next year (more on that later). I met my new friend, Pam, for dinner. We had the best time! And Vincent finally got kicked off of Project Runway. Glorious!

Thursday: Went out for Indian food for dinner. Lamb Biryani. Yum!

Friday: I decided that my blog might need a new template.

So I guess we're all caught up now. Tell me what you think of the new looks!

Edited to add ...
Here are a few more that I really like.
Tub Time
Happy forest
Lacey
Daisies (which feels a bit too prissy)
Blue flowery things