Cabinet of Curiosities

Local wildlife

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:12:56 GMT

As illustrated by diagram one, I live on the edge of a small town. But my house is also firmly ensconced in suburbia. Deer, coyotes, nutria, foxes, raccoons... they've all wandered to within less than 50 yards from my street, but I've never seen any come closer. I assume because of the lights and traffic.

My next door neighbor went out for a smoke two nights ago and practically stepped on on a cougar. They're not rare in this area, but it's strange that this one ventured so far into suburbia. According to the state trooper who stopped by, there have been four other sightings in the nearby neighborhoods.

Looks like we picked a good time to go to California. I'll have to ask mom to be extra careful not to let the cats out when she feeds them this week.

Avatar

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 14:34:44 GMT

Aaaaaand of course I'm not the first one to notice.

Hello! It is 6:30 am, I am at work, and I'm going from here directly to an all night LAN. Sleep is for the WEAK.

(PS: Avatar was quite good.)

Avatar

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 10:01:19 GMT

Fern Gully on steroids?

Also: whee! I work four hours! Good night!

Rat wrangling

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:12:52 GMT

Tom finds use for my phone's camera. The rats think that cage cleaning is a game. A game where the goal is to climb on my head. They have yet to find treats in my hair, but it hasn't yet stopped them from looking.

The war on the "war on christmas"

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:09:43 GMT

If you haven't read this most recent exasperated essay about the logic-freeness of "the war on christmas", you should.

Jesus? Not so much the reason for the season

Axial tilt is the reason for the season!

Put the Mithras back in Christmas!

First place ribbon! Yay!

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:02:12 GMT

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:11:19 GMT

I'm on the bus, on my way home from work.

I forgot my jacket and umbrella, I have an 8 block walk home in the cold rain with nothing but a sweater, and PMS city, and yet... I feel very mellow. Is it the holiday season? Delicious cookies I ate earlier? I don't know, man, I'm just gonna go with it.

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:01:00 GMT

The water lines to the washer froze yesterday. No damage. Just proves that uninsulated garage my as well be open to the elements.

TV + geek = blah blah blah

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:23:35 GMT

Finally got around to finishing the rest of StarGate: Atlantis. Three things:

1) I think I liked the series even better than SG1.

2) If there's an upside to an awesome show being cancelled, it's when they know ahead of time and decide to have fun with the last few episodes. The second-to-last episode (or, as I like to call it, "CSI: Atlantis") was pure gold.

3) How the hell did Dr. McKay end up being my favorite character? The one who made his debut on Star Gate: SG1 as the egotistical jerk you love to hate?

Doing my part to stimulate the economy

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:43:11 GMT

Posting this from my new iPhone.

Yes, a matter of fact, it is all that and a bag of chips.

There are a few things it can't do, though. Cook pancakes, for example. Or walk my dog. I'm sure they're working on an app for those.

Happy Halloween!

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:02:16 GMT

Seasonal Festivities

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:28:18 GMT

Whoo! Zombieland and a haunted corn maze, all in one night! Whoo hoo-coughcoughcough

OK, so maybe standing outside in the cold for 3 hours wasn't the best idea when you're getting over a cold. But it was worth the extra-sore throat me and Tom both have this morning. Who could miss the chance to see a 10-foot-tall evil clown?

Highlight of the maze: man in a pig mask jumps out and scares people, and then pretends to sneeze on them.

Also. Zombieland was awesome.

That is all.

Sick today

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:40:22 GMT

And when Suzanne is home from work with a fever, she does silly things. Like spend the afternoon vintage-izing digital photographs:

How proud is Zelda...

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:14:26 GMT

... of getting a 6th place ribbon at her first agility trial?

This proud:

Speaking of...

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:30:39 GMT

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:04:02 GMT

Tom had D&D tonight, so I had to make myself dinner. I had pasta with homemade pesto and tomatoes from the garden with garlic cheese bread, and homemade apple blackberry pie for dessert.

It's not so much that I can't cook, as I'm just rarely inclined. Don't tell my husband.

Staff meeting doodle

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:01:56 GMT

Note the claws. I was going to make it some kind of mutant monster elephant, but then the stipple took over.

Mom is awesome

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:41:52 GMT

She made me a quilt!

(I even got to pick out the fabric)

My favorite part

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 17:47:46 GMT

... of this is:

"Although the First Amendment may allow Plaintiff's counsel to make these wild allegations on her blog or in her press conferences, the federal courts are reserved for hearing genuine legal disputes and not as a platform for political rhetoric that is disconnected from any legitimate legal cause of action."

At least once a month at work I have to wade through a court document to see if it should be added to the library. They are normally dry as toast in the Sahara. Gems like this are extra special.

Behold the carnage

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 04:48:47 GMT

Labor Day evening we had a little adventure. I'm only sharing about it now because our house is finally returning to normal. I've successfully made it to the "and now we can laugh about it" stage of this little journey.

Here's a tip, kids: don't try to multi-task while a quart of vegetable shortening is boiling on the stove. Fun fact: an electric stove does in fact put out enough heat to cause Crisco to spontaneously combust.

Another fun fact: when you use a dry chemical fire extinguisher in a room, it will get on EVERYTHING in that room. Including things inside cupboards and refrigerators.

ranty ranty

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:48:33 GMT

Excuse me whilst I swear.

Stupid fucking animal dumpers dropped off two kittens on our street. They appeared three days ago. Very friendly, very hungry, very covered in fleas.

You know, I can forgive a lot of ignorant bad pet owner shit. OK, so your cat that you didn't bother to spay had an "oops" litter. Fine. Take them to the fucking shelter. It's FREE and in this area, they have a good chance of finding a home (and are guaranteed to get speutered and vaccinated). Don't dump them in a neighborhood so that, at best, someone else will clean up your mess for you and, at worst, they die of FLeV, get hit by a car, or starve. Fuck.

I took them in for the night and then took them to the shelter this afternoon. Wasn't that hard.

slightly TMI

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:44:57 GMT

Sir, I applaud your honesty, but this is yet another reason why I will never have a male gynecologist (and am boggled that a generation ago that's all that was available).

I don't want a doctor that thinks of parts of my body as "magical and mysterious". I want one who is going to get down to business and get it over with efficiency and with real sympathy to what the procedure feels like on the patient end.

Guess where I went camping this weekend

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:05:29 GMT

Hint: somewhere in Oregon (and the photo is misleading).

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:40:10 GMT

Gah, for one glorious day I thought my computer was fixed. Then it wasn't. I have some rather excellent photos that I took at the Inavale Horse Trials that are stuck on my backup harddrive because I insist on shooting in RAW format which can only be viewed/edited in photoshop which was only on my computer... blah blah blah.

In other news, I have a request for everyone who utilizes the English language. Please no longer refer to anything you have to say as "not PC". This is simply code for "something I'm about to say is completely douche-baggish" OR "Somebody, somewhere might possibly have a different opinion than I do, and I guess disagreeing with someone isn't, um, nice or something? And someone might be mad at me if I disagree with them?"

I have yet to see the term used correctly. Ever. No really, I mean EVAR. I mean, really, prefacing something totally jerkwad with "tee hee, this is totally not PC, but..."
does not get you off the hook. Also, politically correct has nothing to do with having a different opinion than someone else.

So please, no more using this term. No one seems to know what it means anymore, anyway.

Thank you for your attention.

Fri, 29 May 2009 17:38:26 GMT

As I was lying in bed last night, unable to sleep because it was so hot, I counted the days and realized that only eight days ago was the last frost. Dear Oregon weather: please take your lithium. Thank you.