Flooded Lizard Kingdom

Three minutes is too long for popcorn in our microwave.

2008-11-21T02:11:03Z

Maybe if I tell you, I'll remember.

My sewing machine is back from the shop, hurray!

2008-11-20T03:16:45Z

Almost $100 for basic service? It bloody well better work perfectly, especially since the girl who checked it in had such an attitude problem.

I'd like to think that if I concentrate, I could finish one of the partly done quilts for our bed in time for the holidays. I'd like to think that, but I don't, because I'm 98% sure it isn't true.

Luckily J and G gave us a comforter that one of their dogs ate a couple of holes in, so we don't freeze.

Come to think about it, it's been over a decade since I wasn't routinely sleeping under a blanket that a dog ate a hole in.

Hmm.

Perhaps I will not put a quilt on our bed for a few more years.

I really enjoy these blogs.

2008-11-19T02:28:02Z

Ministry So Fabulous

Feminist Finance

Green Your Decor

I am saying goodbye to Buffy.

2008-11-18T02:56:37Z

In college and for a few years thereafter, I listened to Ani DiFranco. A lot. Call me a stereotypical liberal arts college student, but DiFranco's music was the soundtrack to my life. When I finally started to grow up, though, I found I didn't need such a dramatic and turbulent soundtrack. It didn't ring true anymore. In fact, I developed a slight aversion to hearing it, since it brought back some rather annoying memories of my own histrionics.

I sold my albums, deleted the album copies from my computer, and moved on.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer doesn't yet annoy me, but I'm finding that like DiFranco, it no longer rings true to me. It's not a story that touches me anymore. It's something that a former version of me was connected to, like a shirt I wore in high school that is familiar, but I would never grab it out of the closet and actually wear it.

When C-Man and I got together, I embarked on an ambitious plan to socialize him in all of the television shows I grew up with - and by grew up, I don't mean the shows of my childhood. I mean the shows that got me through the transition between adolescence and adulthood: Buffy, Babylon 5, Farscape, Space: Above and Beyond, Millennium. I wanted him to get caught up on where I was coming from. Buffy should have been the key, it was the most charged with emotion.

We haven't finished it.

And I'm just not motivated to make sure we do.

Part of my disconnection from Buffy is undoubtedly the lightening process I've been going through lately, where I'm keeping the things that mean something to me here and now - not just as an echo of the past. Part of it also springs from my deep disappointment with later seasons. Knowing that it's all going to go badly downhill sucks the joy and hope out of rewatching the early days. When I watch Buffy, I remember that it used to mean something to me. I remember the almost visceral pain, the emotional shocks, the tears, the anxiety, the delight, and the soaring feelings of triumph that I felt as the characters went through their lives. I don't feel it any more, though.

I have confidence that if I ever want a blast from the past, Netflix or something similar will be able to hook me up. But I don't need Buffy around as a safety blanket anymore, connecting me to a past self that I've outgrown.

So the DVDs are on their way out the door.

Bye bye, Buffy. Thanks for everything you did for me.

The only reason I have not already kicked Firefox to the curb is that I'm afraid of losing my small scrap of geek cred.

2008-11-17T05:57:21Z

Seriously, WTF? It's not the internet that's made of molasses, it's the browser. I know that repeatedly slamming the keyboard into the desk is not the answer, and would probably make C-Man cranky, but oh my gosh that is what I'm reduced to when it freezes. up. again. dammit.

If I want to front like I'm a geek girl, I should probably use Opera, but last time I tried it, Google Docs didn't work. Required by one of my jobs + can't do it = no Opera. Also, I hated the way it looked, because I'm used to Firefox and I'm bad with change.

But when Firefox stopped stopping when I told it to stop, that was it. Excuse me, Mr. Firefox? I told you to be done. Why are you lurking around in the background? It's like you have a crush on me and won't go away when I tell you to. That's not endearing, it's icky.

So, Chrome?

There are three children in my house right now.

2008-11-16T04:56:57Z

Four months. Fourteen months. Turned two today.

We are having so much fun!

(Because we have at least four adults here at all times.)

(Otherwise, terror.)

(Which is why I think Boy Detective might be an only child.)

(It's not like he would never interact with other children, after all.)

(That's what school is for, right?)

Work has been kicking my ass.

2008-11-15T05:35:25Z

Job #1, 30+ hours per week.

Job #2, 20+ hours per week.

Make self available for several hours a day to toddler.

Nurse toddler.

Do you see a place for sleep and substantial, well-crafted blog posts to fit in there? 'Cause I don't. Even if I could do them simultaneously. But I've tried to make notes to myself on post-its in the middle of the night before, and darned if I can figure out what they say in the morning.

Damn! I should have photographed some of them and then I could post them and you could guess what they mean!

Maybe next year.

This cartoon totally cracks me up.

2008-11-14T05:16:17Z

Speaking of doomed...

I will totally kick that guy's motorcycle over if given half a chance.

2008-11-13T04:37:20Z

Loud! Loud loud loud loud! F&$ker.

My son is doomed.

2008-11-11T17:42:41Z

Two reasons.

First, he is a redhead. I have red hair, his dad has red hair, so that's just the way these things work. Being a redhead is supposedly great, and some redheaded 12 year old I talked to on a bus a couple of years ago said he's never been made fun of for his hair color, but honestly it's not all it's cracked up to be if you have any personal boundaries.

When you're a redheaded kid, people feel like they have permission to touch your hair. In grocery stores, mostly. Complete strangers, touching your hair. Gets old.

Second reason he is doomed:

A squirrel bit him in the park.

No, he didn't contract some strange squirrel virus, and actually our pediatrician said there had never been a case of squirrel to human disease transmission, so that's all well and good.

But EVERYONE KNOWS.

When my MIL or C-Man introduces him to someone new, they say "Oh, is that the boy who got bitten by the squirrel?"

We may have to move to north Austin so he can have an identity that is not related to a wildlife attack.

[Side note: did you notice I didn't post yesterday? Yep, I didn't. So much for NaBloPoMo. You know what's embarrassing? I didn't decide to skip a day. I even wrote half this post yesterday. Then I plain forgot about posting. Ah well.]

You should apply for a job here.

2008-11-10T05:17:28Z

The OMG Center for Collaborative Learning.

I assume that any additional commentary would be superfluous.

I highly recommend these two books.

2008-11-09T05:57:10Z

The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach might be only the second science fiction novel I've read that wasn't originally written in English. It is amazingly rich, introducing character after character as the short chapters fly by. It is very, very different from any science fiction I've read before, which is saying a lot. Don't read the whole review linked above, it gives too much away. The story is too haunting for you to miss out on letting it piece itself together.

Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber is about America, Iraq, food, love, loneliness, death, fear, and more food. I just wanted to wrap up in it and roll myself around, it's like a comfortable sweater. The main character, Sirine, had me rooting for her even when she made bad decisions, and somehow I knew that Abu-Jaber wasn't going to let me down.

And if I say any more about either of them, I'll miss posting today and mess up my NaBloPoMo Mojo.

Telecommuting has its advantages.

2008-11-08T03:47:30Z

My work from home job involves a team that is distributed across the United States. Our weekly meeting is by conference call. If it were not for this arrangement, no one would probably have ever emailed me this:

have you ever noticed that if you call the conference call number and you're by yourself, they play really sexy music?

These are quite charming, and you may want to buy some.

2008-11-07T04:37:08Z

I don't think that individual crafters using recycled materials are going to make a dent in the amount of garbage we toss out, but if you're going to craft anyway, turning trash into treasure is a much lower impact way to go about it than stocking up at the local craft mega-store.

BellyBuzz Craft sells reusable gift bows made out of magazines. The Martha Stewart ones are lovely, the Wired ones are geeky, and the Discover ones are quite festive.

So if you actually wrap gifts, which I seem to have forgotten how to do in recent years, you should totally check these out.

A blue jay weighs less than a stick of butter.

2008-11-06T02:24:39Z

Organic Gardening magazine told me so, and who am I to disbelieve them?

No idea how anyone thought to compare the two...