You want to take a bite...

Ok, my NaNovel this year is about a stripper and I've been chatting with my writing buddy EDog about the whole book. We were talking about how there are no "adult" smilies on the IM service we use, but how you could dress your avatar like a hooker.

Now we were just being silly and it was pretty funny, but after we made our female hookers, we went to the male wardrobe and made some. Here's my favorite, the manwhore with his big smile and wink and his shirt open to the world. He's practically saying, "You want to take a bite..." in some heavy sexy accent of undetermined origin.

Ok, so I'm a little looped out on the lack of food and needing a shower and about 6000 words today, but I am still laughing.

Princess Princess I'm a Fairy Princess (aha!)

The Fairy Princess

You are youthful, cheery, and exuberant with a
sunny disposition and a mischievous sense of
humor. You are very lively and are always up
for a good bit of fun. You have a deep love of
nature and animals.

Role Model: Titania

You are most likely to: Convert a pumpkin into a
useful mode of transportation.


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Princess Princess I'm a Fairy Princess

Well, not really, but here is what I got on the test.


The Noble Princess

You are just and fair, a perfectionist with a
strong sense of proper decorum. You are very
attracted to chivalry, ceremony and dignity.
For the most part you are rather sensible, but
you are also very idealistic.

Role Models: Guinevere, Princess Fiona (of Shrek)

You are most likely to: Get kidnapped by a stray
dragon.


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Thanks to Girlzoot for posting her results.

All About Sevens

I learned something out at the Boulder NaNoWriMo Kick Off Dinner at Conor O’Neill’s, Tuesday night. Actually, two things. I just realized I hadn’t posted it.

First of all, I learned a practical and quick way to calculate the tip on a meal. If you take the amount you owe and divide by seven, you come darn close to a 15% tip. So, an easy one, if your meal was 14 dollars, your tip is 2 dollars. The exact 15% tip would be $2.10. So it’s pretty close.

The other thing I learned is about measurements, precisely how to tell the difference between a butt-load, a shit-load, and a fuck-load. Imagine you are at dinner and with your dinner roll you get a pat of butter. One pat of butter is a normal amount. Now, to reach the first unit of measure multiply the normal amount by seven, you have seven pats of butter, and that’s a butt-load. For the next level, you raise that by another level of seven, you have almost 50 pats of butter, and really, that’s a shit-load. And if you had seven times that, you would reach nearly 350 pats of butter, which no one would argue is a fuck-load. So that’s the secret.

And my friends and I always thought a butt-load was six. Hey, we were close!

Price Gouging?

I saw this gas sign on the way to my NaNoWriMo Kick Off meeting tonight and I did a double take. I pulled into the lot and looked at the sign from the other side and took a picture. Prices here in Colorado have come down some 50 cents over the last few weeks, however someone forgot to tell these folks.

Perhaps it was due to a shortage of fuel at this particular station. But the same company, just 20 blocks up the road (and it's a big road) had a much more normal spread. I pass that station every day and I believe it was 12 cents between 85 and 87 octane, and another 14 between 87 and 91. And another 20 blocks was a station I didn't get a chance to photograph, but it was a normal spread as well.

I sure wouldn't pay for this, and even when it was at it's highest, I don't think I paid quite as much as the premium price on the sign is. But after all this, you probably guessed that I pay a little attention to gas prices.

New Kitty Picture

Things in my house are pretty quiet right now. All the doors are open and I have one kitty on my hassock and one kitty in the bedroom. Everyone seems to have survived the first few days with the new kitty (Deke) here. There is some hissing and spitting, to be expected as they work out their pecking order (and everyone has to listen to me - especially about not eating the bird).

As quiet is good, I'm taking a moment to post a new picture of my new kitty. His grandma told me that he has a heart on his side, can you see it in the picture?

Kitty's Coming!

I'm adding a new baby boy to my household, one of the four-footed furry kind. I have some pictures from August, but I'm excited and posting this away from my home computer. I'll post pictures soon!

Deke should already be on the ground in Denver now and I get to go pick him up after work. I wish I could have taken time off today to go get him but I took tomorrow off entirely so I could spend it (barring the quick trip for kitty food and toys) with him and his new brother, my big fat sassy cat, Alec.

I am a little nervous, but I'm sure everything will work out fine. I am so excited to get him to my little home.

More soon!

Following the Yellow Brick Road

As I have so many other things to do today, I have been sitting with my laptop and bouncing around Blogland. Here are a few of the gems I picked up along the way:

Heimlich Maneuvers
Stories from Rick's Cafe
the study of an honest contradiction

And some really strange wild things that I couldn't understand due to a language barrier.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

You Should Get a PhD in Liberal Arts (like political science, literature, or philosophy)

You're a great thinker and a true philosopher. You'd make a talented professor or writer.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

Guess I should go back to school... I'd be talented at it :)

What Serenity Character are you?

Which Serenity character are you?

Kaylee Frye 94%

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Birthday Blues

I am a big fan of birthdays, and I always try to have a good time on mine. Last year I went to San Diego and stayed on the coast so I could see the ocean. We walked on the beach every night, and ate lots of seafood and got sand in our shoes.

This year I just took the day off, as this week was packed with bright and shiny meetings and necessary work things (such is the life of a corporate accounting specialist). It was not the most stellar day, as when I got to my mom's house she informed me that her dog, Charlie, which was also my dog from high school, had died that morning. So the rest of the afternoon dealt with the great loss of a very dear friend and part of the family.

I'm kind of at loose ends this weekend, I've got nothing to do and a whole lot of time to do it in. And all I can think about is the fact that everything in my life from that time in my life is slowly slipping away. And there is nothing I can do to stop the sands running through my fingers, no matter how hard I cry.

Fun Game

Reply with your name and
1. I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5. I'll tell you my first memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST. It is written

I'm very late in posting this. Girlzoot, Shaych, and Valium, please accept my apologies.

You are Scooter.
You are a loyal, hardworking person, better known
as a doormat.

SPECIAL TALENTS:
Going for stuff.
LEAST FAVORITE MOVIE:
"Go For Broke!"

QUOTE:
"15 seconds to showtime."

LAST BOOK READ:
"300 New Ways to Get Your Uncle to Get You a
Better Job "

NEVER LEAVES HOME WITHOUT:
Coffee, clipboard, and Very Special Guest Stars.


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Study conversations

Things overheard at Paris on the Platte by the very patient guy at the end of our table:

G: Mar-duck.

A: I think it’s Mar-duke.

G: Marmaduke?

A: Yah, the big orange dog.

G: I think he’s red, in fact I think it’s Marmaduke, the Big Red Dog.

A: That’s Clifford, the big red dog

G: I don’t know, they’re all big and red and they all created god.

Relativity of intelligence

You are smart; you can make it go.

I got this phrase from STtNG, from the episode where Geordi was kidnapped by a space-faring race that stole technology from other races, and wanted to steal Geordi for his talents.

It has now become a stock phrase in my vocabulary. And girlzoot just flung it back at me. I told her how smart she was after she learned me something new on the internet thingy. She said, "Yeah, I can make it go." Made me laugh, and practically snort hot cocoa out my nose.

Maybe you had to be there...

Don’t ask me what to wear

Don’t ask me what to wear

I have no embroidered
headband from Sardis to
give you, Cleis, such as
I wore
and my mother
always said that in her
day a purple ribbon
looped in the hair was thought
to be high style indeed

but we were dark:
a girl
whose hair is yellower than
torchlight should wear no
headdress but fresh flowers

Sappho
Translated by Mary Barnard

Four Years Ago Today

Four years ago tonight, I was soaking in a brand new hot tub in Aurora, CO, drinking wine coolers, smoking Marlboro Lights, listening to Lee Greenwood, and watching the footage of the World Trade Center destruction play over and over and over again on CNN or any channel we turned to. Later, when we were outside in the steaming water, the window open so we could hear the TV, we looked up in wonder and a little terror, the primeval terror of the unknown, as we heard the sonic booms of fighter aircraft take off from a nearby Air Force base. Our voices burbled over one another as we began to explain to each other the fact that military aircraft were flying overhead, it was ok, nothing to be alarmed by. But everything alarmed us that night. We were together and we were safe, but what did that mean anymore, what did anything mean?

It was a month ago yesterday that I spoke to her last. Only a month. The last time. How can that be?

Geekish Nerd?

Pure Nerd 78 % Nerd, 43% Geek, 34% Dork

For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in Nerd, earning you the title of: Pure Nerd. The times, they are a-changing. It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendences associated with the "dork." No-longer. Being smart isn't as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older: eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label: Purely Successful. Congratulations! THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

Katrina

It seems everywhere you go, Katrina and the aftermath finds its way into conversation. Last night when we were out seeing The Wizard of Oz at the Boulder Dinner Theatre it came up. How people could be in such dire straits and we be out enjoying ourselves?

I am lucky, I suppose. I have not lost any family or friends, no one I know personally was in the path of the storm. A friend's new boyfriend evacuated to Colorado, leaving behind his ex and their children against his will. There are so many other stories, so many faces of people, our people, my people, so many that have been devastated, have lost everything except their lives, that it is mind-numbing.

The single worst disaster that has ever hit us, and we seemed unable to move, unable to snap out of the spin. Pictures of the storm, pictures of the people, stranded, angry, calling for help; cameras capturing the images, able only to report not provide the water, food, and medical supplies so desprately needed.

Relief has begun to arrive, and is arriving, at least one of my friends is going down as I write this to provide relief services to the refugees, and another might be called upon at any moment. I feel so helpless, that my thoughts keep spinning, my private grief mixed with a national grief, one we all share. A grief with no end in sight.

Random Thought

And as he drove on, the rain clouds dragged down the sky after him for, though he did not know it, Rob McKenna was a Rain God. All he knew was that his working days were miserable and he had a succession of lousy holidays. All the clouds knew was that they loved him and wanted to be near him, to cherish him and to water him.

--So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish, Douglas Adams