Month: November 2007

1. As part of their “Great Whale Trail” non-lethal study (cough, JAPAN!), Greenpeace is allowing people to vote on their favorite name for a humpback whale. The leader, with 71 percent of the vote? Mr. Splashy Pants.

2. There was an article in the good old Salt Lake Tribune this morning about religious groups planning to boycott the upcoming children’s fantasy movie The Golden Compass because it’s “anti-God.” The paper quoted a newsletter blurb for the (Catholic) Madeleine Choir School that said, “[The film] represents the new face of atheism: It is aggressive, dogmatic, and unrelenting.” Um, guys? Try changing “atheism” to the name of nearly any other Christian religion. Maybe Jesus can give us all a little self-awareness and perspective for Christmas…

2a. Cough, SOAPBOX! Sorry.

3. In the spirit of tolerance, here’s a picture:

I made macadamia nut pie for Thanksgiving this year. It went over well, but I’m still craving pecan pie. Or just pecans. I was re-reading the saddest Christmas story ever, Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory,” and came across this description of pecans the two characters are shelling for fruitcake:
A cheery crunch, scraps of miniature golden thunder sound as the shells collapse and the mound of sweet oily ivory meat mounts in the milkglass bowl.

(I highly recommend the story, in spite of it being sad. This is the first Capote I read as an adult [I remember reading “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and being disappointed it wasn’t like the movie] and it’s really, really well-done. The last line is perfect.)

I referred to the fact that I’m now working two jobs for the rest of the year on Monday, because the laptop repair came close to bankrupting me after all and this is The Year I Gave Up Credit Cards And Roommates (And, By Extension, Ghetto Apartments, Leading To More Rent But My Kitchen Now Is Worth It).

Today is a two-job day and I woke up and said, “I really don’t want to do this.” But then I had to think, “It’s not the easy way to work two jobs and not go (further) into debt, but it’s THE COWBOY WAY. So cowboy up.”

To help with the day, here’s Gene Autry’s Cowboy Code, similar to the Roy Roger’s code I posted about a year ago and can’t find. Check out number 7.

1. The Cowboy must never shoot first, hit a smaller man, or take unfair advantage.

2. He must never go back on his word, or a trust confided in him.

3. He must always tell the truth.

4. He must be gentle with children, the elderly, and animals.

5. He must not advocate or possess racially or religiously intolerant ideas.

6. He must help people in distress.

7. He must be a good worker.

8. He must keep himself clean in thought, speech, action, and personal habits.

9. He must respect women, parents, and his nation’s laws.

10. The Cowboy is a patriot.

(I’m choosing to interpret number 10 as the bumper stickers that say Think: it’s patriotic!)

And with my apologies to Jonathan Safran Foer for that title, here is the plaid dress I worked on last week:
I think I just had too much exposure to it, because I should love it–it’s red and pink at the same time and it’s the puffiest party dress I’ve worn since I was about nine. I’m just disappointed that the fit is off, because I made a practice bodice out of muslin and a bodice lining before I actually did the bodice out of the silk, and the waist still came out too big. And it was kind of a lot of work for a one-event dress.

But maybe I can wear it again to the Nutcracker. Hell, I could be in the Nutcracker in this.

The laptop, that is–I dared the Gateway the Saturday night after Thanksgiving (oh the humanity!) and got her back as good as new. Hooray!

Other things I did with a week off and no Internet:
1. Sewed a dress for my friend’s wedding.
2. Met with the same friend to get briefed on the wedding set-up I had agreed to supervise.
3. Started the second job I took to pay for the laptop repair.
4. Made ten pounds of mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving at my brother’s (five pounds plain, five pounds chive and onion).
4a. Made a macadamia nut pie, also for Thanksgiving.
5. Braved Target the day after Thanksgiving (oh the humanity!) to get a belt to go with the dress I made because the fit was slightly off.
6. Set up (and then attended, in the slightly ill-fitting dress) my friend’s wedding reception.
7. Ordered 80% of my Christmas gifts. (I borrowed some internet for that.)
8. Finished both a knitted gift and a sewn gift for co-workers.

But between 1, 2, 6, and 3, it almost feels as if I didn’t take vacation. Also, does anyone need any leftover mashed potatoes?

1. I won’t be posting next week, because I have the week off form work and the laptop went back to Apple for repair yesterday. (Hooray, it can be fixed without bankrupting me!)

2. I’ve been wanting to get a bird feeder for the winter. I might just have to get the BirdCam to go with it.

3. Check out this vintage typewriter store: http://mytypewriter.com. They have some beauties (and they’re not cheap). Maybe I’ll have to break out my old Underwood while the laptop’s down.

4. Have a Happy Thanksgiving, all six of you blog readers. And check out the newest version of the LOLcat meme: LOLgrims, or Thanksgiving-themed pictures captioned in LOLspeak!

I know it’s turned into Laptop Week on the blog and that whatever sympathy people had is quickly drying up, but I had to share some good news: It turned on last night! It’s not dead yet! It’s getting better! It thinks it will go for a walk! It feels happy!

Ahem. Those movie quotes get out of control. And the laptop doesn’t feel that happy, because its keyboard is fried. But I’m happy that it’s a keyboard replacement and not a MacBook replacement.

Now I want to watch Monty Python…

You might have heard that I spilled cereal on my laptop (my brother had to email and ask, “How exactly did that go down? ‘Hmm, computer, would you like to try some of this too?’ Or was it more of a throwing action?”). But on the bright side, I’ve seen a string of good movies lately, which has been some nice escapism.

I highly recommend The Darjeeling Limited; the short that begins it, “Hotel Chevalier,” will make you want to go to Paris and wear a hotel robe. I finally saw Little Miss Sunshine, on the recommendation of the same brother teasing me about the laptop, and that’s pretty fabulous, too. And last night—after a day involving video editing (I’m a copywriter, by the way; that’s all I’m saying), getting paperwork notarized for a credit card dispute (no, I did NOT charge $500 at sears.com), and all sorts of other issues—I watched The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou again. There’s just something about watching someone else’s crisis on film.

(Actually, I suppose that something would be catharsis. So watch these three good cathartic movies in case you’ve had a bad week, too.)

…for the first installment of an exciting saga titled “I Spilled Cereal On My Laptop Last Night.” (You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! Actually, you’ll just cry and swear off cereal forever! Because what is an almost-28-year-old doing eating cereal anyway!)

While I’d love to use my work PC to post pictures of cats wanting pie, I think that’s generally frowned on as “unproductive.” I’ll try to stealth-post as much as possible but that will depend on how many coworkers are standing around pinning “creative” “concepts” to the walls. (You’d be surprised how popular that is here.)

So, to be continued…