Month: January 2009

Sleep and food and Saturday links

Casting the witch in the Wizard of Oz.
 I heart Margaret Hamilton.

This is just freaky, but I’m only posting it because of the Firefly reference.

I was really suspicious of the do not call registry right from the beginning, mostly because after the gun registry debacle I didn’t think the Canadian government could organize something conspicuous in a camouflage store.  Now we learn, surprise! bafflement! that the government is SELLING the list at a nominal price to whoever will pay for it. Alas, Ottawa.

In about 2 hours I’ll be jumping on the transit for my coffee date.  Instead of swithering, I’m sorting laundry, acting as cat doorwoman, paying bills, cooking AWESOME split pea with ham soup, making breakfast for me and Jeff and answering emails.  I had a wonderful night of sleep – slept maybe 1 1/2 hours longer than normal.  I actually feel good.

Perhaps it has something to do with the departmental meeting with the new Ops great grandboss at work.  Like Holy Paradigms Batman.  I was buzzing like a thwacked beehive and dancing up and down like a little kid when I got home last night (met up with Keith at Brentwood station and the little bugger did a ninja on me, sneaking up behind me in the bus line up) because I was so happy with the meeting.

There are four priorities in the new configuration of the company.  Safety, Quality, Customer Service and Financial Results.  So I recited them to the dude to indicate that I’d stayed conscious during one of the town halls, and then I asked him to give me the matching 4 mantras of corporate culture.  In a very TED lecture kinda way, he said, “Respect, Metrics, Voice of the Customer and We’re Only in One Business, and that’s the Only Business that We’re In” (not phrased like that and over a much longer period of time) and gave examples to support it.  The previous group he’d been with had just sat and stared at him.  Patricia and I peppered him with questions until he told us (respectfully) to let the men get a word in edgewise (and just think about the state of the world that this would be the case… I love the 21st century).  Then I insulted his wife’s taste in sweaters (yes, I know, and I am going to be punished, I’m sure) and we went home.  It was supposed to be a half hour meeting and it took nearly two hours and the time FLEW BY.  My hopes and fears for the future remain the same, but my hopes definitely have my fears in a hammerlock.

I’ve been conversing with Deb about her daughter Jenn and her Pitbull rescue organization.  Here’s the link. Unfortunately it’s not possible to get a tax receipt for Canadian donors but I urge my American readers to make a donation if it meets their criteria for a worthy charity.

And tomorrow, time for a baptism.  Me happy.

Bits and pieces

I have a coffee date with a guy I met on an online dating site.  Since I don’t have his permission, I will provide no details.  Don’t worry mOm, it’s in a public place in daylight.

Very much looking forward to the Darwin Dunking on Sunday.  Atheists can have an infant dedication through the Unitarians if they want a party-time equivalent.

Go Obama team on the whole Getting the Constitution off Life Support concept.

I didn’t see Aretha Franklin’s Inaugural hat, but I hear the dude what designed it has orders for over a thousand, and thanks to the power of the internets his phone started ringing about two minutes after the Inauguration.  Having seen it I am somewhat amazed that a giant fruit bat swathed in Swarovsky crystals managed to drape itself so nicely on her head, but there’s no telling what animal trainers can get up to these days.

I’m gonna call B’nai Brith today and find out which English language Arab websites refer to Jews as apes and swine so I can tenderly remonstrate with them.  I’m sick and tired of being called a racist by Jews because I don’t want heavily armed dudes killing babies because their parents didn’t have the money to emigrate to Canada.  I don’t want the destruction of Israel, but the last campaign was more a demonstration by a bully than the continuation of diplomacy by other means. Hamas is a greedy, lying, violent sack of putrescent ideology, and I hope they all keel over from necrosis of the brain.   On the other hand, if I don’t actually challenge both sides, Jews are right to call me racist, so I’m going to suck that one up.  I will calm myself by watching Pat Cadell videos.  You know he lived in BC for years, and once gave one of his rants wearing a Canucks t shirt which made me crack RIGHT up.

I liked seeing Keith last night.  He was here for supper, to drop off my memory stick and to pick up his cell phone, which was eaten by Jeff’s bad, bad, sofa.

I liked seeing Kate last night.  She appeared at the front door of Planet Bachelor at the same time I did last night and I burst into tears I was so happy to see her (and just as rapidly calmed down).  Let’s just say I didn’t have a good day yesterday and leave it at that, oh, but how could I not mention I’m hundreds of dollars poorer AGAIN because I had to buy new glasses and they won’t be covered, but my prescription has worsened and the expensive ***** coatings on the old ones are trash.  Nikon lenses are the gold standard my *****.  Then when we got on the bus to leave (I was only there for an hour and had a snack with Paul and Katie) we met up with Wendybird!  It was lovely to see her and talk to her again.  She lives with her brother like me, and while she’s no Rhodes scholar she is one of the most cheerful and sweettempered people I ever met.

Katie’s doing super well in school still and got 95 on her last test.

Comcast layoffs are affecting people I know in the US.

This month is a three paycheck month, and happy I am about that.

The cats have trained me to pour them a glass of water if we happen to meet up in the bathroom.  Go thumbed primate.

the nut shot

Has anybody ever noticed that one of the enduring tropes of humour is the nut shot?  I’ve said before that anything can be explained by ‘following the genes’ and this one is pretty simple.

What makes a nut shot funny?  Well, it’s happening to somebody else. That’s pretty standard for all humour.  But notice the division of humour.  Men almost inevitably find the nut shot more amusing than women do.  Any action which potentially removes a rival from any activities resulting in offspring is going to be a-ok; if it’s accompanied by humiliation and dominance, that makes it even tastier.

I have heard some women remark that a man could use a good swift kick in the ‘nads, but it’s almost inevitably in the context that the guy is an asshole, the guy is abusing his power, or he’s sleeping around on his pregnant wife, an activity which draws a lot of heat even from women with a relaxed attitude towards sex.

Can you tell I’ve been living with Jeff for the best part of a year?  I’m enjoying it, even if it has me meditating on the nut shot at 4 am.  Not because I want him to experience one – I grew out of that 40 years ago – but because he laughs his ass off every time he sees one. Especially on Robot Chicken, which has a high NSPE rating (Nut Shots Per Episode).

This is how everybody uses a cell phone, including me.

Obama was inaugurated.  He’s doing something about Gitmo, and about bloody time.

Feetsball & biscotti

Normally I don’t watch, and I don’t care.  But the Eagles Cardinals game yesterday was awesome, and I think I’m in love with Larry Fitzgerald.  His play in the first half was enough to make watching football seem like a rational activity.  Then the Steelers won, but holy crap, it wasn’t nearly as fun a game and the injuries were pretty much continuous.

On another subject…Gosh, I miss all the fun. I have to wonder if ScaryClown had something to do with it.  And all the people who read this blog who’ve quit drinking are probably happy to be reminded of how stupid it all was.

With all the paper and crap put away, the acoustics in my room have changed.  It is very odd.

I am sad to report that my second zombie heart was a miserable failure.  It went into the oven okay, but sagged terribly and now looks…. Well, I’ll finish it anyway and post a pic, but  next time I’ll make the base bigger.  Let’s just say it’s a differently abled zombie heart.  We went to Michael’s and got more sculpey and paint and clayworking tools.  Jeff declared himself allergic to the Muzak, and I told him I was tempted to tell him he wasn’t the target audience (it was screechy girl stuff).  I also wanted to quote Katie K about the “all Jann Arden all the time” station here in Vancouver.  As in, she doesn’t like it.

Biscotti got cooked.

I also made spaghetti and meat balls – Keith even ate some. It was good to see him.

Otherwise I didn’t do much yesterday but I feel refreshed and rested… back to work!

Food and family

I had a wonderful day and evening, sorting papers and rendering my room quite tidy, and then visiting at Planet Bachelor, where for an extra special bonus there was Jim, Jan and Nita (who was just back from a demonstration re Gaza in Surrey).  Nita is at VCC – like Katie, but at a different campus –  taking heavy equipment repair, go women in trades.

After Paul picked me up – accompanied by Keith, who promptly started asking me pointed questions about my parenting, or lack of it – we went to Burnaby Mountain and looked down over the city. There were kids sliding down the hill in the purest, most mood elevating sunshine, on that grainy crystalline snow that Paul calls corn snow, and the city itself was resting under an enormous smooth blanket of fog.  I was very glad to get up the hill in the sun however briefly, and Mt. Baker on the way down the hill was so beautiful…

The pork roast Paul cooked was better than anything I’ve produced recently, the company was awesome, and then I had a miserable ride home on the transit.  25 minute wait for the 106; seconds of waiting for the Skytrain, and then another 25 minute wait for the 25 bus.  I was so chilled when I got home that it took me about half an hour to warm up enough to go to sleep. Note to self – dress for the outside, not the inside, dummy.

This morning I decided I had no interest in the Mexican coffee that I am finding kinda bitter and savourless, so I cracked open the Sumatran, and the aroma that is currently permeating the kitchen could be used to waft angels home.  Happy sigh.

I hear from Lady Miss B that Vixy (half of noted filk due Vixy and Tony) will be watching the inauguration live.  I am happy for her.  It’s an historic moment and I’m glad that someone I know will be there.