It is serendipitous and appropriate to have "Under Attack" come up on my iPod while I am pruning the roses, just as a rose cane stabs me painfully in the armpit. Bloody annoying, but appropriate.

(Possibly this is a lesson to me not to wear tank tops while pruning. Perhaps leather all over, or at least more than just halfway up my arms (yay pruning gloves) would be good.)

(Or possibly I just shouldn't let the roses get so overgrown.)

big)  when i put my computer into hybernation, it doesn't appear to shutdown properly (eg., when it starts back up again i get the 'your computer shut down unexpectedly' messge.  Is this normal?

small)  can someone tell me how to get friggin file extensions to always show up?  who ever thought it was a good idea to hide file extensions anyway? 

I had a dream last night that someone who I know loathes me (as thoroughly as anyone could) was really kind to me. What was so sad was that even in the dream I was kind of heartbroken, like something in me knew the whole scene would never really happen if it wasn't inside my own head in the deep safety of night. But in the dream I kept talking anyway like it was, and it was so nice. It was peaceful.

So there's this free answer service called ChaCha... you can send a request via phone, web, or SMS for just about anything that can be smooshed into 160 characters (if you're curious, give it a shot: call (800) 224-2242, text 242242, or visit http://www.chacha.com). I tried it, said "Hey, I bet *I* could do that!", and decided to apply for a Guide position.

This job is like crack for me! If you enjoy traversing the web to discover obscure facts, you can join the Guide team and get paid for it. It's not a huge windfall — .20 per answer — but it adds up as you get faster. I think I know a LOT of people who would also enjoy this, and decided to put it out there.

Full disclosure, Part 1: There's a proportion of queries that are considered jokes, but we still have to answer them as seriously (albeit lightheartedly) as we can. There's also a goodly number of people who ask for sexually related things, like how to enlarge their genitalia, or how to properly administer fellatio. Directly obscene or
hate-related queries can be aborted, but if you get squeamish at the thought of explaining what a Boston Pancake is in modern slang, this job probably isn't for you.

Full disclosure, Part 2: If you decide to become a guide and allow me to be your sponsor, I do get a "finder's fee" of some sort (I'm not quite sure what it is, but it doesn't come from your income). If you choose to allow me to be your sponsor, you'll need my work-related email address for referral: klsabin@tmail.com. You certainly do not have to list me or anyone else, though, to become a Guide.

(Apologies to the NPLers on this list who already got this via email... I just wanna spread the word!)

I know it's a holiday, or I'd be in a different county.


But, why do I hear a bunch of boats and jetskis at 7 am? I thought the dumb redneck neighbors slept until at least 9.

It is very hard to be at all enthused about the Fourth of July when there are already people setting off fireworks tonight before it's even dark, and I know they'll be going until at least midnight (judging from last night), and tomorrow will be even worse. Fireworks are only legal around here from 11am to 11pm on the actual Fourth itself, but even if these schmucks know that, I'm sure they don't care.

Poor Zeke. What with the thunder yesterday and this morning and the fireworks starting yesterday through the weekend, he's going to be spending a lot of time under the bed.

My text message conversation with Michelle an hour ago was ducking hilarious:

shellynoir: World's ugliest parking garage. Third and pine. It's getting torn down soon.

cheesepuppet: If they're tearing it down just because it's ugly then they'll have a lot of other buildings on the list.

shellynoir: I think it's the price of seismic retrofitting that's the deciding factor, actually.

cheesepuppet: I love that someone just texted me the phrase, "seismic retrofitting". It's just so not text-friendly.

shellynoir: I have to teach my cell phone twenty ducking words every gorram day.

cheesepuppet *laugh* Twenty ducking you say?

shellynoir: You watch your ducking mouth, young lady!

cheesepuppet: Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderama

HEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEE

There are clips on youtube!

And of KIDS ARE PEOPLE TOO! (Wacka do wacka do wacka do!)

And Romper Room and what was the one with the two guitar playing chicks and the laughing flowers, the giggle patch?

Got my first scrubs!



Has these stretchy panels in the side so it fits nice, it isn't boxy and unflattering like the standard scrubs are. I'll take a pic this weekend!

Packages went out yesterday to:

Meg (box of wonderment!)
Tasha (box of extra special delightfulness!)
Katie (t-shirts I owe you)
Eli (book I owe you)

Packages are in development for:

Angie (baby stuff!)
Heidi (the book I owe you! i can't find it!)

( George MacDonald Fraser, Flashman in the Great Game, Flashman's Lady )

( Marie Brennan, Midnight Never Come )

( Georgette Heyer, April Lady )

( also read )

Liam is reading a book about trains he got for his birthday. A couple of pages in, he looked up and said disbelievingly, "They feed Coke to trains?! What?"

I did a small double-take, then figured it out and explained the difference between large-c Coke and small-c coke.

I haven't posted about our CSA share and food planning in nearly a month, because the last share we got I mostly gave to my parents, because it was right before we left for vacation, and then we were on vacation.

We resumed our normal every-other-week schedule this week, though, with a nice bagful:

- bag of spinach, about 10 ounces
- head of lettuce, green with red speckles, not sure what it's called (but it looked more interesting than plain greenleaf or redleaf, the other two choices)
- bunch of red and white radishes
- bunch of red spring onions
- small bag snow peas, about 8 ounces
- small bag snap peas, about 8 ounces
- dozen eggs

What I have in the fridge that needs to be used: several cheeses: blue, fontina, Beecher's Flagship (which is like a very aged white cheddar); some bacon; sundried tomatoes; sour cream.

Tonight:
- eggs + Beecher's Flagship + bacon + maybe some spinach = quiche
- lettuce + one or two spring onions + blue cheese + balsamic vinaigrette (make some) = salad

Tomorrow:
- rest of the spring onions + half the snow peas + chicken (buy at store tomorrow) = some kind of stir-fry, maybe black bean or Kung Pao

Friday:
- spinach + sundried tomatoes + fontina + rice = risotto (might also add sundried tomato chicken sausage, if I see some at the store)

Saturday we have G.'s family coming over for dinner for grilled pork chops. I think I'll use the rest of the snow peas, the bacon, some sour cream, and other assorted veggies to make pea salad to go with, and think of one other side dish. I also have some bananas going brown, so I'll try the banana layer cake from The Weekend Baker, which uses sour cream in the frosting.

The radishes and the snap peas (which are delicious) we'll just eat out of hand.

There, I think that accounts for everything. I'll have some eggs left over, but Liam is always wanting scrambled eggs or puff pancakes.

This is from various places round the flist, but I like jinian's investigation into where it came from.

( long list )

So, which of the 34 I haven't read should I read? I own copies of Bleak House, War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, The Shadow of the Wind, The Count of Monte Cristo, Germinal, and Cloud Atlas and will presumably get around to them eventually.

I think I'm not going to post about the rest of the trip in detail, having nothing very detailed to say about it, but I did post some more pictures. This one is of Liam at Seal Rock State Recreation Site, on our beach day; we started at Nye Beach, then Seal Rock, then Strawberry Hill to see the seals lying on the rocks (there weren't any at Seal Rock).

The other pics are from the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, where we spent a whole day -- highly recommended for aerospace fans. Another highlight was Shore Acres State Park, north of Bandon, where I went a little crazy taking closeups of begonias in the greenhouse.

Next time we do a coast trip, we'll choose a home base (almost certainly Newport), rent a cottage, and do day trips out from there, rather than driving a lot and switching hotels every two days. This trip was fun, but it could have been more relaxing.

( fiction )

( non-fiction )

That's really not as many as I thought (though I did also buy a biography of Howard Hughes and one of Virginia Hall at the flight museum in McMinnville, too, plus a couple of assorted guidebooks and books for Liam along the way). I think I actually bought more British history than I would have in the City of Books, though, because there wasn't so much of it and I could actually look at all of it. Thank goodness I'm going to have more time for reading non-fiction starting in September.

(Sorry for LJ spammage today; obviously I am feeling deprived from a week of LJlessness.)

When it is this hot, I start to wonder if I wouldn't be happier with significantly shorter hair. Even in a ponytail, it's halfway down my back and hot. I'm off to put it up with my sole surviving hair fork, I guess.

*pant pant*

We started our trip on Friday, June 20th, after Liam's last day of school concert and graduation-from-kindergarten ceremony. The idea of graduating from kindergarten strikes us as rather odd, but he's been at his little preschool/kindergarten for three years, so it's a significant transition to be leaving it for first grade this fall. Liam sang a song he wrote, accompanying himself on a little electric keyboard (you know, the kind with numbers that correspond with the keys, attached to a songbook). I'm not sure anyone actually understood the words except me, but it seemed to go over well nonetheless.

Afterward, we were off to Portland, where we stayed a couple of nights. We didn't do much on Friday; on Saturday, we went to Washington Park. Liam had an ear infection which had given him (and me) a bad night, so we got there late and couldn't find parking near the zoo. Instead, we drove down the hill and parked next to the Japanese Garden. We spent a while there and then at the Rose Garden, which is where I took this picture (and drooled over many roses). When Liam got tired of looking at plants, we took the Zooliner up to the zoo, where we only stayed for an hour or so, as it was predictably crowded, before taking the Zooliner back down to the car.

I managed to resist going to the big Powell's on Burnside (where I didn't want to go with a cranky six-year-old anyway) by figuring out where the Beaverton one was and going there instead. It's not the City of Books, but it was quite nice anyway -- I'll post bookspoils separately.

I have a fresh peach pie.

Wait.
I have ice cream too.