Psychic Departure Bunny Lounge

Quick review

Hot damn, time can get away from me. It's like a never-ending carnival ride here. Well, not really, I just wanted to say that.

Having a bit of a nostalgia trip right now, working on cds for my sister because she's in in need of music that is 1) not Hawaiian and 2) not Lite Rock (ugh). This has prompted me to rip about 10 gigs of music that I rarely listen to anymore. Technotronic, Soft Cell, Psych Furs, Gene Loves Jezebel, Bangles, B-52s, Adam & the Ants, KLF, En Vogue, Ziggy Marley, Bob & Doug McKenzie, Meco. I even re-discovered that I had a Pseudo Echo cd for some ungodly reason. All in all, it's been fairly hilarious.

I can't bear to actually put together a coherent post yet I don't want to forget that these things happened in the last three or four months. This will make no sense to anyone but me, so you might want to move along now. These aren't the droids you're looking for.

1. New camera, Panasonic Lumix DMC_FX01, in pink. So cute, so friendly. Sudden glut of photos.
2. Awhile back, to my surprise, I won two Quango cds from properlychilled.com (a site I highly recommend). I had my choice of a few of their artists (not Kraak en Smaak, alas), so I chose Bitter Sweet and Bliss. I love Bitter Sweet. Bliss, eh, not so much. It's that kind of electronica that I think of as New Age electronica. Still, can't complain, I did get one cd I love. For free.
3. Wish list for Christmas: Nintendo Wii, Slim Devices
4. Geosense online geography game. Crude interface yet still addictive.
5. The Lost commercials. I even called one of the numbers. The call was at once hilarious and freaky.
6. Favorite commercials: GoPhone horror children, Dunkin Donuts Pleather (song by TMBG), Nextel.
7. Bazin's in Vienna, VA. Good fish dishes, desserts too sweet, way way way too loud.
8. I've become quite the bird (and squirrel) watcher lately.
9. Grizlar article, because I find bears fascinating, no matter what Stephen Colbert says.

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060510.wgrizz0510/BNStory/Science/home

Grizlar a rare bear indeed

SARA MINOGUE

Canadian Press

Iqaluit, Nunavut ó Northern hunters, scientists and people with vivid imaginations have discussed the possibility for years.

But Roger Kuptana, an Inuvialuit guide from Sachs Harbour, NWT, was the first to suspect it had actually happened when he proposed that a strange-looking bear shot last month by an American sports hunter might be half polar bear, half grizzly.

Territorial officials seized the creature after noticing its white fur was scattered with brown patches and that it had the long claws and humped back of a grizzly. Now a DNA test has confirmed that it is indeed a hybrid--possibly the first documented in the wild.

"We've known it's possible, but actually most of us never thought it would happen," said Ian Stirling, a polar bear biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service in Edmonton.

Polar bears and grizzlies have been successfully paired in zoos before--Mr. Stirling could not speculate why--and their offspring are fertile.

Breeding seasons for the two species overlap, though polar bear gets started slightly earlier.

Polar bear and grizzly territory also overlap in the Western Arctic around the Beaufort Sea, where the occasional grizzly is known to head onto the sea ice looking for food after emerging from hibernation.

Some grizzly bears make it over the ice all the way to Banks Island and Victoria Island, where they have been spotted and shot before. These bears will scavenge seals left over by polar bears.

"And some hunters have told me that they think sometimes the grizzly bears actually hunt seals, which I'm quite sure they could do," Mr. Stirling said.

That might explain how a grizzly got to the region, but few can explain how it managed to get along with a polar bear mate long enough to produce offspring.

Colin Adjun, a wildlife officer in Kugluktuk on the northern mainland in western Nunavut, said he's heard stories before about an oddly coloured bear cavorting with polar bears.

"It was a light chocolate colour along with a couple of polar bears," Mr. Adjun said.

And though people have talked about the possibility of a mix, "it hasn't happened in our area," he said.

Three years ago, a research team spotted a grizzly on Melville Island, an uninhabited island about 350 kilometres north of where Idaho sport hunter Jim Martell bagged his crossbreed.

While the latest find is a surprise, it is not necessarily another sign of climate change, said John England, a geologist who was with the team that spotted the earlier grizzly.

"If we want evidence for climate change, we don't have to go to an isolated occurrence of a grizzly bear somewhere," said Dr. England, who holds a northern research chair on environmental change in the Arctic.

"The satellite imagery showing sea ice reduction over the last 30 years is proof positive of very dramatic changes in the northern hemisphere."

The DNA results were good news for Mr. Martell, who had paid $50,000 for guides and a permit to hunt polar bear. Before the tests came back, the 65-year-old hunter was facing the possibility of a $1,000 fine and up to a year in jail for shooting a bear for which he had no permit ó as well as the disappointment of an expensive hunting trip with no trophy.

The NWT Environment and Natural Resources Department now plans to return the bear to the hunter.

Warrior Princess Pilgrimage

I just found out that Lucy Lawless donated her Xena outfit. I'm giddy. I don't know why, Lucy herself didn't come to donate it, she just sent it. But I'm still giddy. I have to see if I can get a picture tomorrow.

Characters I love

God, I love Lords of the New Church. I'd forgotten how much. I never realized just how much Stiv Bators pranced around, though. It's no wonder he and Michael Monroe were friends. Prancers, the lot of them. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Sweetie doubts the existence of the Hot Cocoa Rapids Riders. He thinks I made them up, like my Numbly Bumblies (who live on the planet Crumbly) and my Sleepytime Gang Train. I admit, the Hot Cocoa Rapids Riders could very well have been from my imagination but this time, it wasn't. The adorable little marshmallow men with life vests are from the mind of Paul Frank. I still want something with their picture emblazoned on it. I caught a glimpse of someone on a tv show with a t-shirt of them. Alas, she was a little girl. All I need are a few decals!! Dammit.

So, without further ado, here are the Hot Cocoa Rapids Riders from the Julius and Friends site.

and the Hot Cocoa Rapids Riders getting mad at sweet little Clancy.

OK. So maybe someday you'll get to hear about the Numbly Bumblies. But not today.

Masters of Horror and Mineral Town Friends

Masters of Horror

So we finally got around to watching the first two Masters of Horror mini-films, Don Coscarelli's Incident On and Off a Mountain Road and Stuart Gordon's Dreams in The Witch-House.

I'm surprised that more folks on the Horror list aren't discussing the movies, but it could be that far fewer people have Showtime than HBO/Skinemax. At any rate, I haven't really watched too much horror in the past few years. Sure, a few Asian horror movies, Saw, etc. Most not bad but still more gory than horror. I think the last horror movie we watched was Audition and it was actually a bit anticlimactic. That was months ago, though, and it's my opinion that if one doesn't watch or read horror a lot, one loses the "enzyme" needed to digest it. I used to read/watch a lot more than I currently do. So it was with a lot of hesitation that I went into watching Incident On and Off a Mountain Road. And rightly so.

I think I started off already freaked out to realize that there's a Motion Picture Association rating for Rape, which then had me waiting for the inevitably horrific scene. And it was disturbing but not as horrific as the rest of the movie, amazingly. I don't think this was quite the movie to watch when easing back into the horror genre. For one thing, it wasn't easing. It was full-frontal assault. For another thing, I'm not that fond of gore films, and this was gory. So gory, in fact, that I could almost smell the decomposing flesh. Ugh. And the sound. Blech. Which made it a pretty good cinematic experience, actually. But still, ugh.

There were some predictable things about the movie. For instance, the freaky survivalist husband. You just knew that the skills he was teaching her were going to come in handy. And, like Coscarelli's Tall Man, Moonface, the freak that pursues the wife is freakishly tall although decidedly more inhuman. Coscarelli must have a thing for tall, menacing dudes. What I really liked about the movie was the freaky old man. He was at once annoying, frightening, and silly. Angus Scrimm was fantastic and almost scarier than Moonface. Almost. The other thing I really liked was the part after the traditional "end." It really gave the Final Girl unplumbed depth, and frighteningly so. I expected to admire/feel relief for her. I didn't. I was scared by her.

Happily, the circumstances in the movie are so far removed from my everyday life that the after effects of the movie don't bother me at all. I think. The visuals are really strong, though.

As for Dreams in The Witch-House: yawn. I know people like Lovecraft. I appreciate his work and I think the stories I have read are extremely good at creating an atmosphere of unease and that glimmering of the unseen. But I just don't think his writing can come across on film. And this one didn't work, at least not for me. I ended up laughing and thinking the people in that squalid house were fools - didn't they see it coming? Mostly laughing, because every time I saw that rat-creature, I could not stop singing Basement Jaxx's Where's Your Head At? because those human-faces-on-animals in their video were spookier than the rat-creature.

Now that I've started to build my horror enzymes back up, though, I'm looking forward to viewing the other four we have recorded.

Meanwhile, I am enjoying the second book in Jon Courtenay Grimwood's Arabesk series, Effendi. I can't decide if Grimwood is really good or just really entertaining. Whichever it is, I do find him easy to read, so I guess that's what matters. I really liked reMix, which led me to Redrobe, which I didn't really like. But I picked up Pashazade and quite liked it. That was about 5 months ago, and last week or the week before, I picked up Effendi and Felaheen. After this, I've got The Pillow-Friend by Lisa Tuttle queued* up. And now I'm torn, there's so much to keep me occupied. Do I read? Do I watch tv? Do I play Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town, which I am loving? So much to do, so little free time!

Speaking of Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town, I am so happy I picked it up. I was feeling sorry for myself because Animal Crossing is only available for Nintendo DS and I have a GBA. I heart Animal Crossing on the GameCube and would love to play it on the GBA. However, I bought Harvest Moon for the GC and found it much more stressful than AC, so I stopped playing it. Too much to do! But I was tired of Tetris and Hamtaro, so I thought I'd give Mineral Town a chance. I wonder if the GBA version will get stressful after awhile? I'll have to wait and see, but so far, it doesn't seem like I have to do as much in a day as on the GC version.

Lastly, but not least important: I received my Max Eider cds yesterday and so have my fix. He's a great man, that Max. I also picked up Peter Murphy's Unshattered, finally. It's a damn hard cd to find - and expensive. But I had a coupon for 30% off, so the cd was mine. I also finally re-visited my half.com wish list from eons back and ordered Tosca's Delhi 9, Ken Nordine's Wink, Cheb i Sabbeh's La Kahena (which I have been putting off for months but I don't know, I have always had a thing for any song with Im Nin Alu in it, ever since Ofra Haza's 1980s club mix), and Anoushka Shankar's Rise.

Things high on the want list right now:

Rotten Soul - JBC
Morningwood - Morningwood (I know, I already have it but I want the official release which is out today)
Cinder - Dirty Three
Evocations - Three
onethreeseven - Zohar
Swinging Mademoiselles: Groovy French Sounds from the 60s - Various
Midival Punditz - Midival Times

*queued. That looks so weird typed out but I know it's correct.

Test

Just upgraded MT and testing.

Beauteous.

I'm putting comments back on but may be forced to take them off again. Alas.

Mick Karn just wished me a Happy Christmas

Me and 10000 of his other best friends, that is.

I am addicted

to Gorillaz mahjong.

Bittersweet

One of my closest friends, S, is leaving his job. His last day is on Friday, but I'll be off for the holidays on Thursday, so the last day I get to see him here is tomorrow. He's moving to a better job, which is wonderful, 'cause his current boss is less than sub-par and his work situation has been horrible for years (I can't even begin to tell you how awful). But I don't know what it's like to work here without S. I met him (through L) less than a month into my internship here in 1990 and we were almost immediately friends. He'll still be working for the same institute but he'll be in a different building in a different area of the city. No longer will he or I be able to stop by each others' offices for a chat. Or venting. Or to show each other the coolest thing on eBay. I'm getting a little sad, thinking about it. On the not-so-sad hand, the area he'll be working in for the next year (before they move the office to SW DC) is in Chinatown (ha - Chinatown in DC, what a joke!), so this will force me to get up there for lunch now and then.

Still, his leaving is so bittersweet. I actively encouraged him to look elsewhere (even pretty much wrote his resume) and was so happy when he got the job, but now I'm missing him already. And he isn't even gone yet. I am proud of him, though, for finally saying that he's had it and moving on to a new situation. Who knows? With luck, he might do so well that he ends up back here in place of his current boss. And that would be sweet, sweet, sweet justice.

Top 20 search terms from the past month

I don't know about you, but I think a LOT of people wanted that Bad Robot sound!

1 scary dolls
2 goth girl
3 harley davidson
4 spinto band sears
5 butt grab
6 industrial piercing
7 loungebunny lnr
8 loungebunny
9 bad robot soundbyte
10 bunny lounge
11 crafty bastards
12 gothic butterflies
13 lisa petrucci
14 reema duran
15 ann coulter
16 bad robot and sound
17 bad robot productions sounds
18 bad robot sound byte
19 bunny
20 bunny avatar

Arrr

Avast! Hand me some grog.

It seems strange that it's so dark at 8:00 pm

I've gotten so used to it being light until at least 10:00 pm at night. Alaska was fun, of course. Aside from Anchorage, I don't think we stayed a town with a population of more than 6400 people. Or more than a few paved roads. Pictures will follow soon enough. I have to wait for copies of my dad's pictures to put up the entire album, but I'll put some up in the meantime.

Is it just me?

Actually, I know it's not just me.

When was it that Liam Neeson stopped acting and started dusting off the same old Jedi character for every single role he's been in lately?

Me: wimp

I went to the Virginia Plant Swap @ Ticonderoga Farms this morning with a trunk full of tomato and sweet pea and mini sunflower seedlings and signs and popsicle sticks and markers, all prepared and everything. Except, when I got there, the swapping area was full of SUVs and I had to park in the regular lot, which meant I couldn't show what I had to anyone and it was so rainy and muddy and I didn't see anything I could identify that I wanted and my stuff was so inferior that I felt like I couldn't even offer it as a trade and everyone seemed to know everyone else and I didn't know anyone or speak to anyone (except to ask where the bathroom was - and there wasn't) and I ended up one hour later just going back home with no trades, no purchases, and having to pee really badly all of the 40 minute drive home.

I should know better. I keep thinking that things like this will force me to be more outgoing, but it doesn't. Next time, I will bring less plants and at least make contact with some of the message board folks so that I might know someone.

I have tomatos (Black Krim, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Green Zebra), sweet pea "Captain of the Blues" and three mini sunflowers. If anyone wants any.

So after my sopping and muddy morning (in effect, taking my plants for a drive out into the country), I came home and sweetie and I went off to Coggins for lunch (I think I've found my favorite new sandwich place!) and then to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I adored. Such a silly movie, resurrected me from my earlier moodiness. I love silly. I do I do I do.

Then it was off to Tower where I surprisingly did not purchase any music but did pick up Emily sticky notes, a picture book on futuristic design and the new issue of Ready Made, and I'm going to curl up with that and a cuppa tea and be snug at home.

But I would love a slew of donuts, too. If only.

Speaking of movies, we watched the following DVDs this past week:

Woodsman
I Heart Huckabees
Station Agent
Saw

I loved Station Agent and Woodsman. Station Agent especially but both were great. I Heart Huckabees was all a mess but I thought the ending was good (and the mess was most likely the point of the whole thing) and Saw, well, I'm just not sure whether I thought it was worth its time or if it was good. Creepy little V for Vendetta puppet, though.

Questions that bother me

1. What is going in where the old Franks used to be (10930 Lee Highway)?
2. Why does the Fair Oaks Dodge dealership (10407 Lee Highway) always have a small floral memorial/wreath on its front lawn? Always replaced, for years. What's the story behind that one?
3. Whatever happened to Checkers & Pogo?
4. Where can I get an mp3 of The Exchange Song*?

* The Exchange Orangeade Song

The exchange goes round round round
and down down down
in your glass glass glass
makes your mind
think yum yum yum
It's that Orangeade called Exchange

The exchange goes round round round
and down down down
in your tum tum tum
makes your mind
think yum yum yum
It's that Orangeade called Exchange

Blackout and board games anyone?

So last night, as dinner was in the oven and veggies were awaiting microwaving, we lost all power. This happens occasionally and it's the most annoying thing because when we lose power, we are one of maybe 15 houses that do. Everyone else around us on a different part of the grid and so we are low low low priority.

It's a good thing the cod was almost done. We dumped the veggies in oven-safe dishes and removed the fish and placed the veggies in the oven to heat up and the oven cooled. Worked nicely.

But we were bored. According to Dominion Power, the underground cable had been cut and we'd be without power (and heat) for 4 hours. It was dark, sweetie's plans of watching RU men's basketball game was thrown out the window, and we resorted to asking each other questions from the Whad'ya Know game by candle & flashlight. Then we just got sleepy and both of us lazed about on the sofas, dozing until the power came back on around 10:20. I think.

While waiting for power to be restored, I tried to get sweetie to play Trivial Pursuit Lord of the Rings trilogy edition but he refused (on the basis that I'd win - thus our game languishes, unopened). And this is where I get a bit sad. See, we like good board games but don't know enough people who like to play them. I feel like such a geek when I think to myself "self, wouldn't it be great if we had a weekly or monthly game night?"

No, I don't really address myself as self.

Sadly, we only know one person for a game night - S, who taught us all about the "German" games - they're really fun! We've played two of them, one in German. Die Siedler von Catan seems to have an English version called The Settlers of Catan. The other was much more fun, at least to me. It was called India Rails. We had to build rails all over India and transport good to make money to build more rails. It was both educational (geography of India and Pakistan) and frustrating (I could not make enough money running a tourist pilgrimage line in Pakistan/Nepal to build other lines). Of course, we love Cranium, but 4 people are needed for that so we never get to play it. We also have Kuduuk, which we have yet to play. At least we managed to play Wise or Otherwise last weekend with S (who gave us the game). Wise or Otherwise is a nifty little game where you finish ancient quotes. Or try to. It's quite funny.

As we played the game, though, we bemoaned our lack of game friends and now I ask: friends, do you like to play board games?

Ironically, just this week, C asked me if I'd ever played "resource games." Confused, I asked him what these board games were, thinking of Diplomacy or something. Turns out the game he was describing was Settlers. Small world. Anyway, he's looking for people in DC who play German games. If you're a German gamer looking for game buddies, I can hook you up. Otherwise, we're still looking for VA buddies. And if you have Ubi, you rock. That is a difficult but fun game.

Wondering

What do you do if you're a practicing Catholic who also happens to be of Chinese heritage on this Ash Wednesday & Chinese New Year? Did you still eat jiaozi right after midnight or did you refrain because it's Ash Wednesday and you can't eat more than one non-meat meal* today?

Not my quandry, mind you. Just wondering.

* I always wonder just how fish doesn't count as meat...

I am the mighty Frosta

You scored as Frosta. You are the ice princess. You rule the Northern lands. You like snowflakes and ice frozen lakes. You freeze your enemies with your ice powers. Everything's cool.:) Frosta 80% Mermista 73% Shadow Weaver 60% Castaspella 60% Entrapta 60% She-ra 57% Catra 57% Scorpia 53% Glimmer 37% Which She-ra character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Art-o-matic

Last Friday, sweetie and I went to the Art-o-matic opening event. It was a wet, soaking, rainy day but we went anyway. It was a great giant mess of random art (and non-art) and commercial art and great art and poor art and everything in between. We didn't make it to the 4th or 5th floors because I tired out from all the people, the heat, the sheer amount of stuff to look at. The rooms were so randomly patterened and connected that I began to think that the building (the old Children's Museum soon to become a spa or condos or something) was an old insane asylumn. It wasn't, but it was an old Sisters of Emphatic and Stern Mercy hospital (or something like it). There were tons of bathrooms, some with the best old porcelain fixtures.

We finally ran into skarlet and Eric when we were on our way out the door. We also ran into a woman I work with and her husband. It turns out her son (whom a friend and I tried to befriend for awhile in 1996 until it became apparant he had no social skills) had pieces in the show. He was on the 4th floor, though, so we didn't see his stuff. If the paintings were anything like the ones I'd seen at his parents' house, I shudder. I really hope he's improved. I also heard that another person I work with has art in the show.

There was way too much to see. A few of my favorite pieces were by the following artists (if they made cards or flyers available):

Jennifer Morgan Brill's site is supposed to be at this address but I can't seem to find it.

Ruza Spak's paintings with sky blue backgrounds were really nice. The one with the snarling dog in the corner was my favorite, I think.

Lindsay Bishop had the cutest little shadow boxes that incorporated her jewelry. Her Sputnik piece was the best!

An installation that I liked a lot was a sort of ephemeral video capture and loop piece. Don't remember the artist.

Another installation that wasn't original (I've seen it done before) but can be fun was postsecret.com.

Finally, of what I remember, the natural wood carved into partial sculptures was quite nice. I'm not much of a female torso sculpture person but I did like that work (and the space - very calm in the midst of chaos).

More burning questions

Will someone give me $2300.00?

Whatever happened to cutiepie Dave Foley (you'll have to do a search for Dave Foley)? Whatever happened to the cutest little Kid? He just isn't aging well. He's still kind of funny on Celebrity Poker reruns but he's looking kinda middle-aged scary, like Bruce's "I'm Hip! I'm Cool! I'm 40" routine. Dave's wife is cute, though, and she has aged well.

Why do folks at cockeyed.com get to do all the fun stuff?

Who the hell is Courtney Peldon and why do people care so much? She's done nothing interesting ever. Just another socialite celebrity of no worth, I guess.

Meme

Alpha URL meme via Skatemom. I cheated a bit and screened out all the ones that popped up with my online bill pay sites or webmail, etc.

A americanhistory.si.edu
B www.baking911.com/custard101.htm
C www.cupandsaucer.com/blog
D dictionary.reference.com
E www.electoral-vote.com
F www.flickr.com/photos/bunnylounge
G gmail.google.com
H houseogroove.com/cuppa
I www.ipodlounge.com
J www.jonsullivan.com
K www.kzwp.com/lyons2/violetcake.htm
L www.livejournal.com/users/cyntergomes
M meanlouise.com/sound
N www.nationalamusements.com/movietimes.asp
O www.oddiooverplay.com/ears/hallowseve/fullhouse.html
P pdl.loungebunny.net
Q
R www.redrockcanyongrill.com
S www.silvercross.co.uk/index.htm
T topazs_herbgarden.tripod.com/cul_violet.htm
U www.usps.com
V veryvera.com/miva/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=vv&Category_Code=PC
W www.wheresgeorge.com
X www.xmission.com/pub/lists/exotica/archive
Y www.yahoo.com
Z www.zogby.com

Hmm. Baking recipes, blogs and elections. Odd music, iPod and money tracking. Food and movies. Yep. Sounds like me. :) I wonder what my work browser says?

Edited 11.17.04 to add:

A www.addreviews.com/readreview.php?rev=1571
B www.basichip.com
C www.caesars.com/Paris/LasVegas
D www.dailyceleb.com
E www.earthwormherbals.com
F thatsjustnotright.com/board/index.php?act=home (f.u.b.a.r.)
G www.gameroomwarehouse.com/videogame/videogame_bally_midway.html
H www.henribendel.com
I www.ieee.org
J www.jamminjava.com
K www.kaleo.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/02/26/403d8ada33396
L www.labsafety.com/store/product_group.asp?dept_id=35614&parent_id=35612
M www.macskinz.com
N www.namco.com/games/namcomuseum
O www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org
P www.psysheep.com/index.php
Q query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0C10FA3C590C758EDDA90994DC404482
R www.ricetoriches.com
S www.sabreairlinesolutions.com/about/history.htm
T www.tackytreasures.com/tackyhtml/places.html
U www.ubu.com/outsiders/365
V www.vacuumtube.com
W www.washingtonpost.com
X
Y www.yat-kha.com/html/help/help.php
Z www.zanadia.com

The Glove Compartment Is Inaccurately Named

I'm sick yet again. Thanks to dad, who brought me the cold when he and mom visited last week. At least we ate well, checking out Coastal Flats, Carraba's Italian Grill, and also visiting favorites Minerva, Chutzpah and Copeland's. Last Friday, sweetie and I headed up to NYC to see Death Cab for Cutie (with opening band Pretty Girls Make Graves) at Roseland Ballroom. The show was good but first, we were mistaken as parents who brought our kids to the show (yes, we were pretty old compared to the crowd), then, by the time Death Cab hit the stage, I was exhausted and really really sick so I had a hard time concentrating on the show. Luckily, we had driven in to the city and parked in the lot right next to Roseland. Unluckily, when we were leaving, there was a car stuck in the Lincoln tunnel and a horrific merge which backed up traffic for a long time. Before the show, we went to the Spring St. area and ate slices of pizza at Pomodoro, then headed over to Rice To Riches, the rice pudding place that we've wanted to try for a long time. I had the Secret Life of Pumpkin and Man-Made Marscapone puddings. Sweetie had the Hazelnut Chocolate Bear Hug and Butterscotch Boulevard ones. Very tasty! They were all decorated for Halloween, which was nice, and they had what I think of as a very NYC menu: the flat LCD screen. Three, in fact. These screens are so prevalent everywhere in NYC, it's kind of amazing and kind of Bladerunner-in-a-bad-way. The most interesting one I saw was some building on 6th? 7th? Ave. All panels on the first 5 or 6 floors were screens, except for the windows. Each displayed a part of a whole picture (moving picture, earth fire water scenes). If it hadn't been advertising for a bank or financial or insurance institution (can't remember, it was so boring), it might have actually been interesting.

Alas, it wasn't.

Seeing Target in Times Square was weird. I always associate Target with suburbs. Don't you? I guess this one is only open for the month of October (Breast Cancer Awareness month). Oh, here's an article with a photograph of the huge Lava Lamp and other information about the LCD/LED screens at Times Square.

The real reason we were up in that area was for sweetie's parents' 40th anniversary party on Saturday. Since I was in full-blown sick mode, I really petered out by the time the party started. Honestly, I don't know how I managed to stay 1) awake and 2) fairly polite. I felt like crap, couldn't breathe, and ran a fever. The fever, thank god, was gone by Sunday, so I spent the day mostly vegging out in the passenger seat or on the sofa, watching Mythbusters, Desperate Housewives, last week's Joan of Arcadia and videos.

Then I came in to work.

Luckily, they told me to reschedule my meetings and go home. Might stay home tomorrow, too, since tonight is Hanzel und Gretyl, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult and Ministry. I'm most excited to see HuG, sadly. I haven't heard their latest, Scheissmessiah, and I hear it's even more metal-ish than their last, Uber Alles, but I like the idea of it - a mixture of Dante's Inferno and Hanel's Messiah. Uber Alles didn't move me, but I really liked Ausgeflippt and especially Transmissions from Uranus, so I hope they play some of those. Of course, I'm enjoying the little clip of Disko Fire Scheiss Messiah at Metropolis, so the new album does have promise...

Speaking of scary music, here are some links:

Ghouls With Attitude

Oddio Overplay

Monster Mashup

Land of 999 Dances

And, finally, the Ring 2 teaser/trailer. I know you want to see it.

Just some silly hooha

Edwards' tongue thing

I was happy to note this morning that I am not the only one who wonders just what the hell is up with Edwards' tongue thing when he speaks. It's very weird. The WPE printed a comment from Gene Weingarten who said: "Am I the only one who is really, really annoyed by that thing he does with his tongue?" No, no, Gene, you are not.

Also in today's WPE, a review of the new Duran Duran album. Makes me want half of it - but only half. The other half - the one that supposedly sounds like Jamiroqui or Backstreet Boys - um, JUST SAY NO.

On the subject of Kirstie Alley

I haven't read much about Fat Actress but I do plan on watching a bit of it. I don't care one bit that she's fat. In fact, I admire her for embracing it in the complicated way that all women do. There's nothing simple about it and I hope that comes across. Whether the show is a success or not, it is a good thing for more people of all sizes to be on screen. It may just help change unrealistic expectations that the general public seems to have. I love that Gilmore Girls has people who look more realistic (well, aside from the main characters). If only other shows would follow suit.

So back to Kirstie.

I am hoping that the show doesn't turn into a stereotypical "I'm fat so I must be jolly let's make fun of myself because everyone likes fat jokes" show. If it is, I take it all back. But it has some promise. Too bad it's only on Showtime.

We saw PJ last night at the 9:30 Club. She was good but as usual, I couldn't see shit for all the people. Before the show, sweetie and I ate at Matchbox. We shared the 6 miniburgers (absolute heaven!) then I had a salad while sweetie had a spicy pizza. I would go back there in a heartbeat.

Is it just me or do all the hotels in Vegas look the same?

Engrish Silliness

It's been a long week at work so I couldn't stop giggling when I did a search for asian lace dress fabric and it led me here.

My favorite descriptions have to be:

¡¡¡¡¡¡CRACEFUL DECORATIVE BORDER BEAUTIFUL ADORN
Lace is the symbol of great elegance and delicacy, so countless women have been adoring to it for a long time. Mint wine like colors resembles the most refrigerant green shadow in summer. All the big and small petals are the excellent edge tool representing a woman's femininity.
If you wanna manifest your graceful and restrained temperament in a seductive season, you'd better choose a lingerie with superior laces. Lace created by our company can help women realize their most desirous wish.
¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

and

¡¡¡¡¡¡TRENDS OF LINGERIE IN THE NEW CENTURY

Distinctive lingerie is doomed to become the mainstream of future underwear. Core competitiveness will focus on the features of fabrics, colors and styles. They are:
Classical curve
Oriental verve
Soft and graceful
Few women say no to lace because lace makes the finishing point.

Doomed! Doomed to drink mint wine, I tell ya!

Can we say "ran through translation tool?"

Oh, oh, oh. I just can't stop. Every new page brings more gems.

Rarity, love, romance, elegance, delicacy coexists with its fanciful, sexy, luxurious quality for the simple reason that you can see through it, especially to French and British ladies where they see it more as a lure.

Oh, my, is that music so annoying.

A whole slew o' stuff

I am playing catch up this morning. I've had all these things noted to blog about and some of them are just random bits. Here goes.

Tornados
Friday evening was quite exciting at the Bunny Lounge. We were under tornado warnings for a few hours and, in fact, tornados did hit in our area - the next town over, Chantilly. It also threated the Dulles area. Dulles pulled people off planes on the tarmac and the National Weather Service offices in Sterling had to evacuate because the tornado was headed their way. Tornados also headed up Rte. 28 towards the Leesburg area. Kinda scary that they were so close - they showed footage of the Chantilly tornado taken from near Jane's house in Centreville. In the foreground was the strip mall with the Jo-Ann's I like (as opposed to the other ones, which I don't like).

Our tornado warning expired around 6:30 so we went to Outback for dinner but with the weird, unpredictable weather, we decided to put off the trip to Tower until Saturday (after we saw Resident Evil: Apocalypse).

I heard there were over 30 tornados confirmed in VA on Friday night. That was just VA. By 7 pm, there were over 50 in the region. The line extended from PA through part of SC. That was pretty large.

Chowhound

I've become fond of the Chowhound DC board. Recently, we discussed our favorite desserts in the area and I think I narrowed mine down to:

Banana pudding at Arties
Tres Leche cake (at either Guapos location)
Any of the sweets at Saran
Baked pear dessert at Nizam
Ashta at Lebanese Taverna
Fruit Bavarian cake at Amphora
Chunky Chocolate Mousse at Amphora
and standbys, Milwaukee or Nielsen's Frozen Custard (the Neilsen's pineapple concrete was pure heaven!)

Of course, anything at Pastries by Randolf and Amphora are delicious and the one time I went to Macaroni Grill, they had a special dessert that was simply lovely. It was basically a lilikoi and lemon version of the tres leche cake. Yum.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse

I'm sure someone has thought of this before, but I think an album named Apocalypso would be great.

Anyway. RE:A. More of the same thing only not as exciting. Pretty close to being the best video-game-like movie. Predictable but pretty to look at. Cotton candy. It's there and then it's gone. And that's about all I have to say on it. (I did like it but it's nothing special)

New music

From our recent visit to Tower. I am really enjoying them all:

Federico Aubele - Gran Hotel Buenos Aires
Various - Frequent Flyer: Rio de Janiero (ooh, I want Bombay now)
Björk - Medúlla
Faithless - No Roots
Crüxshadows - Fortress in Flames (hey, it was only 7.99 so I took a chance)

Other bits

Two weeks ago, I had to drop $1300 to fix my car. Ouch. I had to replace one entire axel and the other CV boot, a pipe to the muffler and the muffler, and I forget the other stuff. Lots. At least I shouldn't have to replace anything major before I trade the car in for a new car, though. Someday.

I think it's funny that I went to Reno/Sparks/Carson City/Tahoe last month and will now be headed to Vegas next month. I feel like a complete lounger. Ironically, I don't/won't go to gamble. Seeing family or adopted family is really the main reason for both. Haven't been to LV since I was 11 and had a raging flu at the start of a 5-week family vacation (we all got the flu but kept pressing on). We knew something was wrong when we drove from San Diego to LV with the windows wide open and it felt good. Anyway, except for a layover in the airport one year, I haven't set foot in LV since, oh, 1979, I think. It should be unrecognizable.

A coworker said I look very rive gauche today. Huh. I think she meant I look very Southampton. I think it's the striped pants and tailored sneakers. Ack. She's right! I look like I should be carrying a Kate Spade bag. Oh, the horror.

I have discovered Home Goods (one recently opened here). This is a bad bad thing. It's TJ Maxx just for home stuff. It's evil.

Mira Nair may direct Harry Potter V. I hope so!

I am allergic to some shoe leathers. I think it's the chrome tanning process. Drives me crazy but I can't tell if the shoe is going to cause me problems until I wear it for awhile. By then, it's too late to take back. Grr. I need to find a way to seal the leather to keep my body from heating up that potassium dichromate. Any ideas?

It's morning. It's random. It's time for a meeting.

Damn that Websense. Thanks to that software, we no longer have access to livejournal or bulletin boards. Ironically, I go to the company's site and get the "The page cannot be displayed" notice. A real one. Not like Jon's hilarious one. Had me fooled for a moment, after all these blocked pages.

I wish I had some Stalinist coffee. I could use that right now. I have regular coffee but I think showing up with Stalinist coffee at my meeting might be amusing.

Entire Suntory Boss coffee line

I liked the Bush in 30 seconds winners. Very funny.

I've been on an Asian horror movie kick lately. Not that I've watched any yet, I am just obsessed with wanting to watch a bunch in a row. Awhile ago, I picked up The Eye but recently, I picked up Uzumaki, A Tale of Two Sisters, Memento Mori, and I'm waiting for Ju-On 1 & 2. Yes yes, it will be some good times at our house (well, at least for me).

Anyone want to send me Federico Aubele's Gran Hotel Buenos Aires? It's on ESL, if that helps.

I want to make a local-style chantilly cake this weekend. I wish we had a Hawaiian bakery here. Hey, I've got it! Anyone want to send me a truckful of money so I can start my own bakery? Probably leaning heavily on the Portuguese side, as there are ZERO in this metropolis and those are the bakeries I grew up with. My paypal account is...just kidding.

But I'm serious. I want a bakery/cafe/arthouse/cool gift shop in my city. Doesn't anyone want to fund me? ;)

Sweet & Sassy

Mmmm. Lisa Petrucci stickers! I want the Freaky Tikis, too.

Just more random junk

Apparantly, nephew's name is now Max.

If you are in the market for a violet colored Kitchen Aid stand mixer, be advised that it is now on sale for $198 at Williams-Sonoma.com.

I am now beginning to suspect that kitty has a weak bladder and bowels. Last night, as I was preparing dinner and sweetie was outside grilling, kitty meandered into the kitchen and drank a lot of water, then made a b-line for the kitchen rug and laid down. Since he was laying down, I didn't suspect anything and kept on preparing...until I heard the unmistakable sound of A KITTY PEEING ON THE RUG! I turned around and thought this could not be, 'cause he was laying down. But as I watched, he was, indeed, laying down and PEEING. Into the bathroom he went until this morning. And the nice new kitchen rug on which he loves to loll about? Outside until I can neutralize the cat pee. It's not going back down anywhere that he can get to. He's lost his rug. Actually, he's lost all his rugs as one by one, he keeps peeing on them. All that are left are the big rugs and he doesn't seem to have an interest in peeing on them. Yet. Somewhere in that little cat brain, something is just off.

Meanwhile, new (to me, at least) music purchased:

Rachael Yamagata - Happenstance
Collide - Vortex/Xetrov
Rajna - Hidden Temple/From the Ashes
Stoa - Zal

Weird Bugs

We saw the strangest bugs yesterday, crawling on the roof of the car. They looked a bit like tiny horseshoe crabs. Turns out they're ladybug larvae. They sure look strange (and nasty, although I know they aren't).

Managed to get quite a few plants in the ground yesterday morning. Yay me.

Weekend wrap-up

Busy weekend. The weather sucked on Friday - 90 degrees with terribly high humidity. I had many errands to run but I have no AC in the car so I limited the errands to those most necessary (and close). First stop was Borders, where I got a yummy iced tea and looked over the DVDs. They didn't have either Sirens or Persuasion but I did find Duran Duran's Sing Blue Silver and Arena/Making of Arena were finally out on DVD. After all these years! I decided that I needed SBS. I also procured a cheap and cheesy horror film for $3.99. I hope it's good. I also picked up the HP3 soundtrack just for the "Double Trouble" track. It was cheap. Cheaper than the new Cowboy Junkies, which I wanted, too, but did not buy.

Then it was off to Petco to get another fish tank and some new fish* and then to Safeway for ingredients to make marshmallows and a cherry tart for a birthday party. The party (on Saturday) was for sweetie's friend's wife (it was her birthday). As a surprise, her husband had arranged for her mother and sisters to fly in from England. She knew about her mother coming but not her sisters, so she was ecstatic when she saw them (I gather).

Dennis and Susan have come to our parties and Susan had mentioned a few times that she thought we'd get along with their neighbors because of the whole Gorey/horror/kitsch etc. thing she saw going on at our house. Well, we finally met them (Kari, Chris & their 8.5 month old, Madchen) and I must say that Susan was pretty right on. I figured Kari was the one immediately, as she had Bettie Page hair. What I didn't expect was what she pointed out: we both had on black crop pants and pink tops - and not only that, but I had on mary janes and Kari said she would have been wearing mjs too if the buckle hadn't broken when they were getting ready for the party. Her daughter was also dressed in the same manner - it was very funny. I was glad I hadn't gotten my bangs cut in the last two weeks (although I'd decided that the bangs are coming back) or it would have been a bit eerie.

But while I think Kari and Chris would be great people to know, I feel like it's a weird situation. They live about 40 minutes away and have a small child - just how does one go about pursuing a friendship with another couple (or at least another person)? If we just leave it up to seeing them at the next party, it could be years. But since we just met them and don't really know if we'd get along, it seems too soon to really do anything. Ah well. I guess I'll just forget about it for now.

Oh, on the way to the party (they have a very cool house), we came across a road named Loth Lorien. I had to laugh.

Yesterday, I actually got out into the garden and ripped up all the grass that had taken over during cicada season. The grass had overtaken the roses and was full of mosquitos and daddy long legs. Ick. But it's all cleared out and mostly mulched. I also cut down the honeysuckle bush because it was supposed to be native but is, in fact, not native to this area and a weed. I'll consider another bush for that area eventually, I guess. Sweetie took the weed whacker to the area behind the fence and cut down all those nasty weeds and vines that keep creeping into my fence bed. Yay! The weed vines keep crawling up the trellises. It's very annoying. The jessamine and clematis are supposed to be doing that. Speaking of the clematis, I don't know what happened to the multi blue. It's just gone - never bloomed, I guess. The blue and white balloon flowers are doing really well, though. Very vigorous growth. The cilantro is not doing well, though, and the mallow are still weeny. Too weeny to put in the ground but maybe I'll do that next weekend anyway. Unfortunately, I exacerbated my usual bad back muscle doing all that gardening. Sigh.

* See, I had 5 fish: male and female Siamese Fighting Fish/Betta and three albino cory cats. When the bettas seemed to be having an ick problem, I promptly dosed them with the correct medication (just noticed last night that it also has salt) and a bit of salt. However, what I didn't know was cory cats cannot deal with salt at all, so they suffered and despite water changes and correct ph, hardness, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates and no ammonia, they continued to get sicker. One finally died. Knowing that the salt in the aquarium was gone and the water was safe, I purchased three more albinos and two panda cory cats and bought a 3 gal for the male betta (so I could remove the divider in the 10 gal and let the cats swim free). Well, the male betta is as happy as a clam in his new home although I think he's a bit lonely. He's used to flaring at the female (who is gravid - majorly - but they just never actually mate when I put them together. I just don't know what to do with her - what does one do when a female is full of eggs but doesn't mate?).

Anyway, the new cats looked good in the store and seemed happy in their new environment. 24 hours later, though, I found one of the pandas dead. Not only dead but decayed and falling apart as if he'd been dead a long time (it was less than 12 hours) and his entire belly area was full of blood. Uh-oh. I hadn't quarantined the fish (not having a separate tank for that). I got my money back but I felt incredibly guilty about killing the panda (they're so cute) until I did more research and realized that the pandas were sick. Really sick. The symptoms point exactly to haemorrhagic septicaemia (apparantly, cory cats are known carriers of this disease). The other panda is showing signs of the same thing although he (she?) is quite lively. I'm dosing the whole tank with the recommended medicine and that's about all I can do.

In the middle of the all this, I decided to change the water because if I had to keep the carbon out of the filter, I figured I'd better start with a fresh tank to keep ammonia levels down. I didn't realize it at the time, but changing the water stimulated the new corys into spawning. Whee. I now have eggs in the breeding net (I bought it in case the bettas had any success, not that I plan on breeding fish and/or I needed to quarantine a fish quickly) and it seems like the medicine I am using to nurse the tank is exactly the medicine to use to keep the eggs healthy. I wonder if they'll hatch? And if so, if some will survive. We shall see.

And now for some Haiku

Dead president Ron
We get one day and three hours
off from work. So sweet.

Confusion is mine
Old publications crumble
I research FORTRAN.

O Joy! O Rapture!
Sun Microsystems answers
I must send FedEx.

Give Me The Name Of A Boy

Tidbits

Update on the last post:

Bushisms has the quote. So does skarlet. And remember, Cooper rules.

Meanwhile, today is the grand opening of the new Ashley Home Store in Reno, NV. Like the HI one, my parents and sis managed the whole thing. Next up: Eastern Washington. Maybe.

And in another non-sequitur, Vertical Horizon and "funky rockers" (their words, not mine) Presidents of the United States of America are both playing at the local county fair. Ah, how fast they fade...

Mmm, government propaganda is everywhere

This little gem was printed in the comments section of my latest paystub:

Terrorism forces us to make a choice. We can be afraid or we can be ready. Choose to be ready. Visit http://www.ready.gov or call 1-800-BE-READY for a free brochure.

Meanwhile, not only are we invaded by cicadas but I nearly stepped on this guy. Barefoot. It was moseying across the carpet this morning. I'm glad I saw it in time because, thanks to the lovely and knowlegeable folks at GardenWeb, it turns out the bug is a blister beetle. I could have spent the day in much pain and not be able to walk right now.

In other news, there's a severe thunder storm coming (here, actually). We're ordering pizza.

Oh, it's HAILING! Back later!

Later:

Well, the plants survived the hail, thunderstorm and tornado warning, but it was kind of, well, yellow out there.

Meanwhile, I finally downloaded photos from my camera (no longer an easy task since the multiflash card reader died).

Cicadas

Stuff

It's nice to see it in the animal kingdom, too

Pandas @ work

Tee hee - I'm going straight to hell!

The Afterlife Test

Your score is 44.

You are going straight to Hell! You appear to have the courage and conviction to live as an individual in a world that pressures you to become a conformist. You are a seeker of knowledge and an artist of life. Your future will never be peaceful, but you will be alive.

I forgot

When we were at the Sleater-Kinney show all those weeks ago, who did we see? Matthew Lesko with his wife. How did we manage to spot him in a seething crowd of youngsters at the nearly sold out show? If you have to ask, you obviously don't know Matthew Lesko.

Also, snatched from LJ: Vending Machines of Japan.

Follower

Book Meme via sixdifferentways

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

Oh, it could have been good. But it wasn't, alas. Book: Pattern Recognition - William Gibson (it was the closest after all).

"Lifts her cup of black unsweetened coffee."

See. I should have grabbed another book. But I checked three others and they were so boring (about digital technology, if you must know).

Minutiae

I got my luggage (in cobalt). Nice and sturdy. I opted for the 29 inch bag as when I use it, I'm usually gone two weeks at a time. The 22 and 26 inch versions were cuter, though. Batgrl, you might want to check out the Samsonite site. They make some very nice rolling carryons.

Tower Records may have declared reorganization/bankrupcy, but they're still one of the best places to find fun things. I found me a Lenore keychain fob, some cute stickers for my lp carriers, a Selene figure (from Underworld) for $3, and lusted after other figures (but didn't buy). I also picked up Eisley and Stellastarr* for me and Electrelane for my sweetie. Liking all of them, especially Eisley. The lead singer in Stellastarr* reminds me so so so so so much of Dave Vanian. I can't get over that when I hear them.

Damn, too much to do. Must dash.

Downy downy down down (and some feathers)

Poor Cooper's been feeling ill lately, drooling and foamy at the mouth. Might need special food. And last night, I am sure that he probably would have loved to join us in bed. I decided last night was the night to open up the king-size down and feather comforter and put the cover on (from Ikea)...and it was so comfy, I slept 1/2 hour longer than I should have.

I wish I could make a small wee comforter for the Coopster. His old bones need some warmth and for some reason he's not fond of his basket right now. Anyone know where to get a good amount of down?

Bollocks! Vote for Voldemort!

If the California election/farce has you saying Bollocks!, perhaps you would like to express your right to vote for someone more unsavory but without a hidden agenda.

[thanks to Karon for the second link]

Appliance heaven

Last week, while waiting to see the physician's assistant, I browsed through a French design magazine. Don't ask me what a French design magazine was doing at the doctor's office, but it saved me from trying to find something to read amongst the Reader's Digests and Golf magazines (who knew there were so many golf magazines?).

I came across the sweetest looking fridge, made by a company with the unfortunate name Smeg. The fridge I fell in love with is this one. So cute!

Good thing they aren't available in the US.

Not to cause anyone else kitchen lust, but a colleague told me all about the Aga stove that she used last week when she was house sitting. It sounds soooo neat. Unfortunately, these stoves are available here. Luckily, they are too expensive to consider.

Bunnicula!

How much do I want this for my car? I wish that the fit was verified for my model, though. I don't want to buy it and have it not fit.

I am nothing if not predictable

Thanks to Jen-whose-blog-server-is-back-up, I have been trying out the Gender Genie. I used 6 of the reviews that I had written for Swizzle-Stick-whose-server-is-still-down. I only fooled the Gender Genie once, with my latest review. I write like a girl. :p

All About Me

Stolen shamelessly from my sister's site, I give you What makes a Lounge Bunny? It's only there for 30 days, so be quick! :)

BTW, it does trigger two or three pop up ads, but nothing you can't close.

AND I would recommend that you do not use your real email address.

When it rains...

Not only are we getting our long-awaited sofas, we're also having our doors and some windows replaced this week. Argh. I am tired just thinking about it.

Party time!

We had our barbeque on Saturday - turned out to be a nice success. Many people came and ate and imbibed and conversations were thick. I had made orzo with roasted vegetables, shoyu chicken, tandoori-marinated chicken (not quite tandoori, 'cause we don't have a tandoor), teri burgers, butter mochi, clam dip, and dill-garlic dip. We also had Costco key lime pie, baba ganouj, veggies, chips, fresh feta cheese dip, various Asian sweets, wasabi peas, and cookies brought by Greg and Kathy and David. Yummy!

Apparantly, some people were a bit surprised by my love of skull decor.

Sweetie and I had a great time. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing everyone, especially folks I hadn't seen in awhile, like Karon and Andy and Greg. Too bad Cynthia had the cold/flu and couldn't show up. Our neighbors across the street also came by and stayed for a long time. Sweetie's boss and his wife arrived later and stayed for a good while, too. Our last guests left at around 1 am. Given that most people showed up around 5:30 or 6, it was a long long night.

Once the food was put away and things were cleaned up, it was after 2 am and we crashed into bed.

I woke up around 9 am and decided to struggle out of bed and watch the Friday episode of big brother before sweetie awoke. I had finished watching that and started watching the last of the Klondike special when sweetie woke up. We both sat like loggy bumps for much of the afternoon. Neither of us ate much and I ended up falling asleep shortly after the Klondike special.

Did I mention that I was wiped out? I was. Yesterday, for the first time, I realized that I probably understood what it might mean to have CFS. I have never been so exhausted in my life, and I had had no alcohol. Well, three sips of a beer I didn't like - that was it. I did nothing but sit on the futon from 9 am to 3 pm, mostly snoozing in a sitting position. Sweetie tried to wake me a few times, but when I'm that tired, I cannot move or stay awake. I should have just slept in. I can't believe how tired I was, although I had been having terrible sinus headaches for a few days in a row and when walking to the metro and to the car on Friday, I was dog-tired. Completely burned out. Wall of exhaustion. Then I proceeded to force myself to get stuff ready for the party. I really was quite exhausted before the party, but the energy of our guests kept me up! So I guess it was only fitting that I crashed the whole next day. Sweetie crashed with me, except he was too late for morning mass so had to go @ 5 pm.

Even now, I have such a killer headache despite 3 advils and some sugar. I'm blaming it on after effects and might head home at 4pm if the meeting I have at 2 pm lets out early. I just don't know how to recouperate - walking from the car to the metro and then to the building this morning was almost more than I could handle. I just hit the energy wall again - it was only with great effort that I made it. It was so ungodly hot in our bedroom last night that I slept very badly - which must be the reason. All play and no rest make bunny a dull person. I had to turn the thermostat down to 72 degrees to get the A/C to start - at 3:20 am.

I must recoup, though, soon. On Thursday, not only do our new sofas arrive, but we start our mini-vacation, and I need to be alert and ready to go. What timing, eh? I have been looking forward to seeing Kristin and Tanya perform for months and now that it's almost here, I am so so so tired. I need enough energy to walk around the town and stay at all-day concerts.

If only this damn headache would go away!

*yawn*

After work yesterday, we stopped by to see Smita's newly purchased house. It's huge! Loads of windows and doors. Needs lots of work, but it's huge! Every room has crown molding! Did I mention it's huge? Seriously, it's going to be a really really lovely house once the floor people come to rip out the carpet and two layers of linoleum over the hardwood floors (why do people do that?) and then finish the floors. Then she will have all new doors (4!) installed and one more room to paint and she'll be set for a good while and not have to anything else immediately.

For good luck, I gave her a Hindu goddess (Laxsmi? Parvati? Saraswati? Durga?) icon for the wall, since I know she only has one Kali and one other female. I was hoping to get her a Bodhisattva or Ganesha for some male influence but couldn't find one. Smita's mother was so amazed that I found one for Smita (her words: "this is what she needs - she has too few!") and had the added bonus of being made in papier mache made from a newspaper from Smita's mother's part of India (language: Urdu? Tamil? Gujarati? Punjabi?). They were both quite happy with the gift. I didn't realize that my purchase would make them so happy.

Although we hit another huge pothole driving through DC, this one did not put out a tire, much less two like the time we were visiting Smita and got two flats.

After admiring and discussing things that could be done with the house, sweetie and I made our way to Burrito Brothers to grab some of their yummy burritos (I love their burritos) and then home. I managed to fall asleep about an hour and a half after getting home, I was so tired. I always am, though, so nothing new there.

Tumultuous 50s

Had a dream that I was wandering an exhibit on the Fabulous/ Tumultuous/ Fantastic Plastic 50s this morning, taking elevators, getting lost with all the funny aqua blue angled walls. I guess that's what made me wake up an hour later than I usually do! Yes, it was quick quick off to work, no time to make lunch or breakfast so must stop off at the Au Bon Pain and grab some coffee and a cheese danish and quick quick walk the 20 minutes to work from there with a scalding hot coffee in my hand and the muggy yet still cool morning air avoiding the ultra-heavy machinery in front of the EPA, the equipment that has torn up the newly planted hedges and broken the sidewalks and bricks that they just replaced three months ago after finally removing the heavy equipment needed for cleaning out the asbestos ceilings and retrofitting the building and painting the extra large lamps in rustoleum and then shiny black lacquer and gold leaf and installing the many security cameras disguised as lamps.

And I get to work and there's an email regarding an upcoming exhibit on Tumultuous 50s (which I saw the plans for yesterday and knew nothing about it before then) and it reminds me that yes, that's what I dreamed this morning.

And yes, I just finished my coffee.

Random Days in BunnyLand

This morning, I was settled into the Metro seat, reading Lucy Crocker 2.0 when I caught a whiff of something. Something not quite right. At 6:50 am, it smelled like there was a drunk person next to me. So I glanced to my left, at the woman who had just sat in the seat next to me. She had a ruby red nose and glassy eyes. A few more whiffs assured me that she was an alcoholic. I will never understand what it is that compels someone to drink just to get through the day. She got off on my Metro stop, too. She was dressed in a classy black dress, ironed impeccably, trainers with socks (which ruined the elegant look she had going, besides that red schnoz), and carried a handbag. She also wore the classic gov't employee standard issue ID tag and seemed to be having a tough time reading her book. I think she read maybe 6 pages, but she sure was intense about it! I feel bad for her although I know she doesn't want/need my pity.

While exiting the Metro, I ran into Pipe Guy. I call him this because he's always smoking a pipe (vanilla scented tobakky). I ask you, why? Why is he so clueless? He's never been the snappy dresser, but I was treated to a sight this morning, you bet! He wore a white cotton long sleeve button down dress shirt.

With black shorts. Not just black shorts, but mid-thigh, faded shorts. Too short for work! What was he thinking!?

And now it's time for some Phone photos:

Ooo-wee, can we have enough crap to interfere with your driving?

Lamps we wouldn't mind for our dining room - if they were all together in one base/track!

These light fixtures looked a lot like one of the early processors in our solid state collection.

Finally, my absolute favorite thing this week: I give you the BigAz Chicken sandwich! No joke. You can see the BigAz line here.

Gonna get me a kilt

Tartans of Scotland!

Housecleaning

Just a bunch of stuff that I had left over this week.

From links provided by linkmeister & JeanNINE, I read this speech that Senator Jim Jeffords gave recently. Is there a Republican response? I'm curious, although I do have to say that I agree with a lot of what Jeffords says is ridiculous (i.e. those weird tax cuts that don't help those who really need it, spending half a million dollars on a pr campaign to cover up the worsening state of public education and not on education itself, worsening environment controls). I know it's just me, but when i read the article/speech, I kept singing "Use Your Fist and Not Your Mouth" over and over in my mind...

[for the record, I'm registered as an Independent, not that it means anything (because "Independent" is really the "Everything Else" category).]

In keeping with the political theme, here are some liberal remakes of old war posters. (link via sixdifferentways)

Getting away from politics, I was excited to hear about the Alan Moore tribute (from the Horror in Film and Literature list):

ALAN MOORE: PORTRAIT OF AN EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMAN
edited by Gary Spencer Millidge and smoky man.
Abiogenesis Press. $14.95

The occasion for this 350-plus page tribute is the upcoming event of Alan Moore's 50th birthday, and there are other volumes coming from other publishers. I'll sure be checking those out as well, but it's safe to say we already have a truly essential companion to the work of the greatest comics writer of the past thirty years.

Millidge and "smoky man" (Italian Moore website owner) have joined forces to produce not merely a book full of well-meaning toasts to Moore interspersed with pin-ups, though there is a fair amount of that. No, like Moore's best work they provide other layers, other access points. Millidge himself creates a wonderful sequential art biography of Moore (a "biographic") that sums up the man's life and career as well as it could be in the format, and the art is incredible besides. A number of essayists discuss Moore masterworks such as FROM HELL, WATCHMEN and PROMETHEA in illuminating fashion, while some readers may just take some amusement to note Europeans still like WATCHMEN best. SWAMP THING and A SMALL KILLING also receive a good deal of discussion, and even Moore's musical adventures are treated as another essential facet of the man, which is appropriate, as he takes it just as seriously as comics, if not moreso.

There are hours and hours of material here, and much of it is worth reading a few times to learn more about Moore and his creative process, but there are two pieces that, for me, are worth the price of the book, the Stephen Bissette letter and the Dave Sim/Moore correspondence. The former is one of the saddest love letters one will ever read, a poignant affirmation by Bissette of Moore's talent and the honor it was to create with him, even if their personal relationship is now irrevocably severed. The latter is a series of letters between Moore and Sim about FROM HELL that would be important enough for fans of it if it didn't also become a discussion of the two creator's personal faiths. It's mind-expanding, heady talk from an interesting period where Sim was admittedly "pretending" to be normal, a time long past. Moore, for his part, is tremendously engaging, self-deprecating ("Dave, you do realize you're talking to a guy who worships a snake god, right?") even while he's explaining a complex philosophy with conviction.

Millidge and smoky man are to be commended for assembling a massive volume that will be meaningful for a wide variety of readers, from the casual fan to the committed Moore scholar.

And finally, sweetie just called me with this tidbit: My sister-in-law's husband's picture made the front page of the THNT site. That's Officer Borlan to you.

Icky and not so icky

I have a dead centipede squished between the Office Phone List sheet and the wall.

Yuck. I hate those things.

My jaw still hurts, although not as bad as yesterday.

I'm now reading Makai, thanks to a fun package I received yesterday from mom and sis. I confess a big weakness for the Noel fabric and pictures of my adorable niece, who starts day care tomorrow!

I have work to do.

That's all.

And now for more random stuff

My sweetie is feeling better - thanks to y'all for your concern! :)

How to tell when the bed is too small: I've managed to save myself in the nick of time in the past, but last night it actually happened. At 3:00 am, I fell off the bed completely. Not only that, but my buckwheat pillow got tangled in my hair and wanted to keep my head attached to the ground. I was so tired and sweetie was so confused, it took me a few minutes to get off the floor. I can feel the effects today. My side muscles were wrenched and I landed hard on an elbow and finger. How my head didn't hit the nightstand, I have no clue.

I want to build my own computer. I saw the neatest case the other day, in a computer store. I think it would be pretty interesting. Alas, I won't be doing it any day soon. But when I do, it will be riced up, I guarantee. Maybe with some of these things:

Molecule? Atom? Biohazard?.

I love