When there is no wind, row.
your moment of ...
DaisypathNext Anniversary Ticker

Saturday, December 6, 2003

oh, happy happy fribjilous joy!

leslie harpold is creating another fantabulous online Advent calendar. every day is a wonderful treat - some beautiful picture, or fun animated thing, and a story, and a link. i've loved her creations the last few years, and am thrilled that she's doing it again this year.

it was an especially lovely treat to find in my email box tonight, as this has been a rather hard day all the way around. snow was rough to navigate (although excellently pretty), the handle snapped off my emergency shovel, so shovelling out my car was rather like excavating the Grand Canyon with a beach shovel, and the tree decorating that i had imagined being a lovely bonding moment for us all was a lot of 'mom does it differently!'. legit comment, but sort of hard to listen to for more than 4 or 5 minutes.

on the up side: we're all warm and safe, cars are running, Ricky (as always) sold us a fabulous tree, and it does look pretty with all the lights and ornaments. and there's an Advent calendar to enjoy. i think i'll warm up my mug of chai and go play with the treats in the calendar. and if you're around here where the snow is dumping down, keep warm and safe, too!



:: scribbled at 11:40 PM ... ... o


Friday, December 5, 2003

oh, my god.

as if the Cat Debacle were not enough? she's getting him a hamster.

honestly, i don't know how to stop thinking about this. it's so absurd, on the one hand, and selfish/manipulative/hurtful on the other. people i love are getting hurt, and that makes me mad. and yet, what can i do? it's immensely frustrating, i'll tell you that.

grrrrrrrr.



:: scribbled at 6:39 PM ... ... o




Blinding Flash of the Obvious for today:

it's always easier to see thru your windshield if it's clean.



:: scribbled at 11:58 AM ... ... o


Thursday, December 4, 2003

on a related cat note, i got to thinking about my white cat on the way home last night.

he'd spent the last day or so alone, because sleepovers are not for him. and while he's had sufficient food and water, i knew he'd be happy to have company again. so there i am, driving along, thinking about a happy little cat and what we were going to do (he likes watching TV with me, and has his own agenda of Things To Do in the Kitchen while i'm cooking). and then it hit me: what does he do when he's alone?

seriously - what sorts of things run thru that furry little head of his? what does he think about? does he watch soap operas when i'm not around? drink tea? play Parcheesi?

i did inquire when i returned home, but he seemed rather preoccupied with wrapping himself around my ankles. ;)

still hoping to find resources to head further animal adoptions off at the pass; exploring the SPCA site turned up ways to report active abuse, but not a way to prevent other animals from a similar fate. if worse comes to worst, it's good to know that i can call the animal protective services.

and kitty got loads of extra loving last night, because i just couldn't stop thinking about the other cats. i wanted him to feel appreciated, and somehow thought that would make up for what the others missed. not sure how that works, but kitty and i both felt better about it.



:: scribbled at 5:21 PM ... ... o


Wednesday, December 3, 2003

question for you, my ever helpful readers:

how does one go about putting someone on a black list* for the SPCA? or, really, for any animal shelter? does such a thing exist?

thanks in advance, all.

*details in the comments, if you're curious.



:: scribbled at 12:45 PM ... ... o


Tuesday, December 2, 2003

oh, and just for the record? what was up with everyone this morning? have we not seen snow before, people?

i mean, this is New England, not Houston, right? (no offense, Texans. i just don't think that snow is on the list of regular events down there.)

everyone seems to have had a singularly crappy commute, except for those who opted out. if i had known it was going to take two and a half hours to drive seven miles, i might have opted out as well. but once you're halfway to hell, you may as well keep slogging. or sliding - was that the issue? i didn't run into all that much ice, just a buttload of traffic. but i've heard from others that they figured their bus was going to wipe out every car parked on Mass Ave. how was it in your area? and did you have enough coffee to persevere? ;)

on a related note: there's a Dunkin' Donuts that i go by a lot of mornings now. it's just around a corner at an intersection, relative to my travel path, and in a strip mall. now, i have been known to be a tad cranky without my morning caffeine. (hush, you.) shortest path to caffeine wins, for everyone. so imagine my delight when, as i approached the intersection in question, i saw a big pink and orange sign with an arrow pointing right. 'aha!', i thought, 'a secret hidey back way to the drive thru! i am ecstatic!' ... or mumbles to that effect.

only there was a small catch: two jersey barriers. yeah. turns out that the sign is actually in advance of the turn that you need to take (at the intersection). however, enough people must have processed as i did - coffee! arrow! turn! now! here! except when the here and now is along the railroad tracks, on the other side of the fence from the strip mall and nowhere near the coffee, things will not turn out well. they must have one too many people drive down the tracks, and rather than move or modify the sign, they modified the access path. heh.



:: scribbled at 6:29 PM ... ... o




and in keeping with the whole 'running a little late' theme, i've been thinking about the things for which i am thankful lately.

(why didn't i post this on Thanksgiving, you might ask? well. it's like this. Verizon decided to bone me, and take away my phone line. not my DSL line, mind you. just phone. which means that technically i could have been posting, because i could connect, but the thought of having one service and not the other drove me batshit, as did the service rep who blithely decided that all my phones must have mysteriously broken overnight and could they charge me a bazillion dollars to fix my (not broken) phones?. eh. so i just stayed away from the whole telecom thing for a while.)

so where was i? oh, yeah. thankful. ;)

there are a myriad of things going on in my life that are good. i have the great good fortune of a wonderful partner, a fabulous and funny family, equally fabulous friends, a steady income, a roof over my head, an endearingly wacky cat, good health (knock on wood), the luxury of being able to live my life the way i want - all in all, life is pretty damn fine.

i had the chance to celebrate Thanksgiving with many of my favorite people this year; in what may be developing as a trend, i had two entire celebratory meals. (same as last year, which i thought might be a fluke, but two years points to a trend, yes?) The Dane and i headed down to my parents for a mid day meal, and had a chance to spend time with my parents and my grandmother. the only real hitch was the traffic, which was a surprise - last 6 or 7 years, there hasn't been anyone on the road. my dad, in his inimitable logic, tried to motivate us with garlic crostini and shrimp when i called to update him on our progress. nice try, and motivational for us, but it wasn't going to do much for the guy in front of us. ;)

after a lovely meal with my family, we trundled back into the car and back up to the city to have a second round with Chica Bean and Chef. whoofdy. a note of advice: if a recent culinary grad invites you for a holiday meal, eat lightly beforehand, and dress loosely. a good thing there was room on the couch to stretch out afterwards. i think we were all fairly inert after that one.

we did all have enough energy for several rounds of Fictionary, which was a blast. if you haven't played before, here's the basic premise: one person picks a word, everyone writes a definition and hands it in, and the person leading the round reads all the definitions. then everyone votes as to which one is the real definition. take a roomful of literate, creative, and silly people, add wine and a dictionary, and let the silliness start. man, oh man... i'll just say this: masaranduba, jinniwink, mastiphobic, gaberlungie. discuss. :)



:: scribbled at 5:39 PM ... ... o




unconscious mutterings:

Scrooge:: McDuck
Ribbon:: typewriter
Physical:: extertion
Income:: tax
Dream:: book
Notebook:: computer
Disney:: commercial
Combo:: plate
Booty:: licious
Skin:: tight

well, that was sort of all over the place...



:: scribbled at 3:22 PM ... ... o




the friday five*:

1. Do you like to shop? Why or why not?

not especially, if you mean 'shop' as in 'browse'. i never got into the whole hanging out in the mall and perusing stores just to peruse. and i don't see much point in trying to get to a store if you're not going to get something. if i'm going to obtain a particular item, i want to get in, get it, and go home.

the exception to this is when i'm mulling over a new project. for example, when i got into beading last year (and i'm still interested, just don't have the patience for it right now), i went out of my way to find new stores for beading supplies. or the whole new apartment and nesting thing** with The Dane? hours at the home supply places. hours. that's more a case of looking for inspiration, tho, than shopping. at least in my universe.

2. What was the last thing you purchased?

lunch. no, seriously - black bean and cheese burrito at Anna's Taqueria. before that, a boatload of craft supplies at Michaels, because i'm trying to encourage a young Picasso.

3. Do you prefer shopping online or at an actual store? Why?

depends on what i want to buy. books come pretty much the same no matter where you buy them, as do, say, small appliances. clothes, on the other hand, sort of need the 'touch and feel' test. imagine trying to buy a bra online. yeah. i thought so. not gonna happen.

4. Did you get an allowance as a child? How much was it?

yes, i did, and i have no idea how much it was. a dollar or two? weekly? not really sure. i more accurately remember getting lunch money from mom's purse and thinking she would *never* notice if i took an extra 35 cents for chips. ha. as if. i'm sure she knew where every penny went.

i have been thinking about allowances, and chores, lately, and when might be a good time to start Little Monkey Boy on both of them. not that they should be tied together, as i don't think that paying your kid to take out the trash teaches how to be responsible and respectful around the house. but each of them teaches a certain kind of responsibility, and i do think that the earlier you let a kid handle their own money, the better chance they will have of not spending themselves into debt by accident later. (i have a hate-hate relationship with credit cards, as you may have gathered from the previous sentence. this is why i choose not to have any anymore.)

5. What was the last thing you regret purchasing?

see #2. while i personally don't regret the burrito (which i just mistyped as buttito, and cracked myself up), my coworkers may.

* yes, i know it's not Friday anymore. so i'm a little behind. :)
** as in, his new apartment which he's asked me to help organize.


:: scribbled at 3:18 PM ... ... o


Monday, December 1, 2003

today is World AIDS Day.

a lot of good people are participating in World AIDS Day: Link and Think as a way of making a difference, by sharing stories and information.

it never ceases to amaze me, the reach of this disease and the apocalyptic effect it has had around the world. i've been fortunate enough to not have any direct experience - which makes it altogether too easy to lose track of how many people do. when i participated in Link and Think last year, i sat for a long time staring at a paragraph that explained how entire countries are being destabilized by AIDS. looking at the statistics for sub-Saharan countries, seeing that one in every four people has AIDS, really puts a new face on the disease.

i will point to what i hope is news that progress can be made: from Voice of America News, a story about working towards making retrovirals more accessible internationally by 2005.

"I keep on saying that the cost of ARVs now is just about the cost of cigarettes, for those people who smoke, in a month," [Ms. Ngilu] said.


if we have effective medicines, reasonably priced, and can work to make them available where they are needed, perhaps in 10 years we won't need to have a day like this.


:: scribbled at 4:08 PM ... ... o


home