inspector

Betcha didn't know there was a law of stackable hamsters. 

Best of lists abound even though the year (and decade) are not done yet.  Here's a worst movies of the 00's list.  I saw Glitter in the theater.  Don't ask.  Just pity me.  


Pride and Prejudice and Zombies will become a miniseries. 

Somebody decided to pull a fire alarm at my apartment this week. Oodles of unamused residents and rental office people.

Fire alarms going off in the morning /= amusing.

This bit of Twilight related news = amusing.  From abka .

Psych will be back for a fifth season. Whew!

I want to make turkey tetrazzini, but I am afraid even the simplified version will be too exotic for EL to handle.  He is still processing his first sushi experience from Friday, waiting to see if he gets mercury poisoning. 

They make diapers for birds.  The jury and I are both out on how we feel about this.

I'm being threatened with the possibility of a snuggie in the near future.  See above.

The VSL peeples sent this video today as a suggested break from fambly time and it's pretty good -- a collection of movie quotes where the characters say the name of the movie.

There was also this extremely cool birdie related link -- don't overlook the sound! 


There's a buttery turkey roasting smell permeating the house.  EL has a plan for fud, which is good because I don't know how to cook turkey.  My last cooking task was to squish the meatball mixture for yesterday's dinner.  SQUISH. 

Fambly t-day celebration #1 brunch happened earlier and fambly t-day celebration #2 will happen tomorrow.  There is supposed to be sushi.

If you need an easy laugh, go check out Fake AP Stylebook. 

It's oil changing time again for the car.  It's just gonna have to wait for the weekend.  Homework, alas, cannot. 

There is much that will have to happen in the next few weeks (months!) and sadly there will be no signing up for Yuletide this year. 

abka and denis77 's housewarming party was a lot of fun this past weekend.  They have many fun paint colors in the new place.  I saw people I always wonder why I don't see them more often than I do.

A day off meant that I actually am semi caught up on school.  Also laundry.  It also means that I end up cooking strange things like pasta with a gooey barely fried egg, parmesan cheese, and crushed red pepper mixed in while it's still extremely hot.  Yum!

Probably much safer than my initial impulse to see if dijon mustard could function as a sauce for rice.  Yes I need to visit the fud store, can you tell? That's usually why I get "creative" in the kitchen.  In my defense, no one could have anticipated the exploding gummi bear cake.

Remember the marigold project? I thought they were dead since they shrank and refused to bloom.  But, now in November, they have decided to bloom.  Sideways towards the sun, but blooming nevertheless.  Crazy, possibly zombie marigolds.

I really love shiitake mushrooms, especially if cooked in olive oil with crushed red peppers, put them on pasta, and covered with parmesan.  Yum!  I'm going to try invader_jim's suggestion with ginger and garlic in a stir fry next and put a gooey fried egg on top.  Because I can.   Tomorrow I'm bringing some of the harvest from the log to my co-worker who isn't afraid of mushrooms and likes to cook.

I also really like Bones, which I started watching because of duckyfer, who thought I might like the Brennan character with her smarts but lack of social skills.  Hmm, not sure what that implies. ;)  She was right -- I do and can't wait to finish watching the first season this weekend.  EL heard Brennan make some sort of esoteric pedantic statement , to which Booth replies with: "Hmm. Just because you say it in that definitive tone doesn't mean it means anything to me."
EL stopped to say that HE feels like that in our conversations sometimes.  Hah!  I'll take the lack of social skills if I can have her smarts with it!

The parrot is afraid of little corn on the cobs, but NOT the large ones.  Is this similar to the rules about being afraid of teensy parakeets but fearless in the face of cats.

Fargin iceholes, Johnny Dangerously is a fun movie. You corksuckers wouldn't understand. Or maybe you  have seen it and you do :) Some-in-a-ditch, don't try no fargin trick, otherwise you will wind up with you* bells in a sling and your boils chopped in a meatgrinder .


*The 'r' omission is fargin intentional

The only Halloween-themed thing I can think of to share today is that I had a work-related dream this week.  It was storytime and there were kids and I woke up because one of them was poking me in the eye with a fork and CLEARLY I have some issues with  storytime.  Hey, the last work related dream I remember had to do with a patron bringing in a machete.  Maybe it's broader than merely storytime.

Oh wait, this is more Halloween-y.  I'm on the far right next to Evil Lurker, who is in the blue with the orange wig.  We're all vampired up.  Not a trace of sparkle. 

Johnny Dangerously is on on the television.  I have to go fight zombies, excuse me.

Ooh, I want one of these!  The bird might hate getting into it but I think she'd like the view once she was in.   Thanks to gnomad  for the link.

I have achieved amateur needle felting.  Right now all I've got is bees, but I am armed with a book and several colors of wool fluff.  If this continues I will have a reason to go to the sheep and wool festival in May.

There's a pattern for a cardinal and many other birds...

The mushroom log is growing mushrooms!

EL went out to the back yard this morning and a moment later I heard a cry of "Mushrooms!"  There are what I hope are shiitake mushroom heads tearing through the wax on the drilled holes in the log (a very cool gift from invaderjim  and wildmachinery last year). 

I'm taking this week off for a staycation ( I dislike that word but it actually is utile here) where the plan is to catch up on reading for both pleasure and school, try needle felting, cook something weird, take a dance class or two, organize my closet & boxes, suck down some television, buy a riding helmet, and learn to slide in my new curling shoes.

I leave you with this SKIENTIFIC (apologies to ellen_fremedon ) demonstration of how krakens are the new vampires.

I don't want to be developed.  But there is a mandated training thing tomorrow so I suppose I must be.

I've watched a few youtube videos and glanced through a few books and now I am fighting the urge to take up needle felting.  It's basically all stabbing.  You see the appeal.  Plus, they have many bird patterns.

I hate being asked out by customers at work.  It's beyond awkward and I am usually so taken aback that I end up being rude and abrupt out of surprise.  A good rule of thumb: don't hit on people in a customer service capacity-- they probably can't answer honestly on company time anyway and it cuts off their graceful escape route.  I have been told I have a knack for attracting the "problem children" in my workplace.  Not going to touch that one. 

EL and I have been on a huge cooking kick recently.  Take 2 of the pizza dough was this weekend.  And, uh, there were biscuits, sausage gravy, pizza, lasagna, meatballs, bread machine bread, calzones, etc. in the few past weeks.  EL says he never used to eat or keep around so many bready things before he started dating me. *wins at carbohydrates*

I'm going to start watching the first season of Bones soon.  duckyfer talked about it enough to me that I am intrigued.

Someone at the barn told me I looked 'exotic'.  I have to say that that has never been an adjective I would have applied to myself.

You'd think they should be.  I mean, look at all the outdoors they live in! 

But poor M was covered in rain rot when I brought him in today. No open sores, but he was definitely a bumpy horse right over the saddle area. So he got carrots, got brushed, and got put out with more carrots since we didn't have any spray for him that day.  He thought it was the best day ever and will probably be even easier to catch next time -- right now he practically comes up and sticks his head into the halter.

So I rode D, who was cranky today, but his cranky is not a bad cranky. There was a caterpillar at the barn that was large and black/tan so I decided it was a rottweiler caterpillar. 

Then I went home and am packing for an experimental week at EL's. The experiment is to try the commute from his place for a week and see how that goes.  I need to go read for school some before bed so I must set down the laptop because the INTERNETS ARE OMG SO DISTRACTING.  Oh and set out work clothes so I don't have to figure that out in the awful early hours.  Sigh, it should be simpler than it is.  Dressing like an adult is damn hard.  Maybe I need different shoes that are work appropriate AND actually comfortable?  It's one or the other at this point. 

It's like eating like an adult.  I fall back on pasta with cheese so much that even I am starting to get bored of it.  I mentioned this to EL and he went, uh oh, should I not have bought stuff for making spaghetti and meatballs tomorrow?  No, no, I could eat those until the cows came home and said, hey, what did you do with our cousin Vincent?  It's the lack of creativity at home which bothers me.

OK, time to go pretend to be a good student and then a good employee, and then hopefully actually a good girlfriend. 

If you haven't seen Regretsy yet, you should.  It's probably not worksafe because of things like a masturbating dinosaur sculpture but very riveting.

If it's possible to be Rickrolled on the car, I was Rickrolled on my way to work.  And then Wayward aproSon came on and all I could see was Guitar Hero.  Technology: weirding your radio experience since mumble mumble.

Apropros of nothing, there are few things funnier than a cat sitting on a power cord.  Do not disturb the kitteh while she is charging.

I'm currently looking for creative ways to use 'emoragequit' in a sentence such as:  My toenail emoragequit on me and is falling off.  TRUE STORY.  Aren't you glad you now know that?

It's Fred's fault, really it is.  If I haven't explained it yet, Fred is the new imaginary employee at work who took my desk.  That is, someone left a note on my desk saying it was now Fred's.  Hint: he doesn't exist, if imaginary didn't clue you in. Since he doesn't, he's a great scapegoat for anything that needs scapegoating. 

So yeah, Fred's fault.  I just wish Fred could explain some of the things which occur in a public library. 

I mean, can you think of a reason, ANY reason at all why a grown man would choose to walk around with a red shower pouf festooning the upper part of his arm?

Can you also explain to me why a customer -- I mean patron (I'm not at work so I don't have to use the official inaccurate language) would ask if I had seen any rattlesnakes around before entering the children's section? She was looking for westerns she said, which simultaneously answers and raises more questions.

On a different note , I was pleased to see while going through the storytime nametags that there is not one 'Edina' nametag but two.  One was almost certainly an accidental repeat.  Wheel on fire anyone?  I of course made a 'Patsy' nametag and alphabetized it away.

I think I must be sick or something because I have barely felt like eating chocolate  or sugar for the last month.  I can remember this happening only once before when I was sick.  But I'm not this time and so I am confused.

I know there are people whose checks are written in the order they are pulled from the checkpad and in their banking records, the numbers march up neatly and consecutively.  They also have only one checkpad from which they write checks and and the others are waiting in the wings for later, unused. 

I am in awe of these people.  If they exist. 

Zombieland opens this weekend!  I doubt I will be going to see it then, since I am too inundated with schoolwork this week to look up from the page much, but I am happy it is out and will be seen at some point in the future.

My new favorite word is 'emoragequit'.  I heard it from EL, who saw it bandied about EVE Online a lot recently as in 'quit in an emo rage' and asked if I could explain 'emo' in more detail to him.

Yesterday was my third working Saturday in a row.  It's back to normal for a week and then the liberry switches hours and we all rearrange our lives again for an undetermined time. 

The Thing is a deliciously creepy movie.  EL turned it on earlier this week while we were sort of half-watching TV and I wasn't really paying attention  until this one scene which was so fascinatingly gross I had to rewind and watch it again.  Eeeee!   It only gets better.  And by better, I mean grosser. 

Because of the above film, I may have to go easy on the red sauce when putting the filling in the calzone I will be making in a bit if i don't want to imagine eating exceptionally icky things.  The best part of making pizza dough is punching the yeasty blob halfway through the rising. 

I have homework again.  I forgot about this part.  Once I get adjusted, I'll be ok, but until then, is it really necessary to have so many group projects?  You'd think that for an online class, which presumably is composed of many people who have a busy schedule, there's be less of that, but apparently you'd thought wrong.  Luckily, graduate school appears to have more organized and focused classmates than undergrad, so it shouldn't be too painful.

EL went to the store to buy bird food for the Puck.  I am getting so spoiled. 

The Public Library listserv has a v. cynical and amused discussion going on concerning this article: 10 Jobs for Quiet Workers.

The author has clearly not been in a public library in a long time.  It makes me wonder just what else she got wrong in the other professions.

The Neverwhere series is cheesy but in a good way and was a very easy watch this weekend, although I did have to re-watch one episode on Sunday after I fell asleep on the couch on Saturday. Clearly inlovewithnight 's couch is too comfortable although it doesn't have the life-sucking powers of EL's couch. That could just be because I have spent less time on the first couch and haven't tested it properly.

I want and need to get rid of many books and things before I move. This is HARDER than it looks and I feel like I need a buddy to help me be merciless and motivated, but who would want such a boring task, seriously. The bird is not on the list, that's all I know.

It's sad and I can't believe, but I sort of hope it gets cooler so that my workplace will turn on the heat and it will no longer range from 63 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit in the building.  Customers keep complaining and what I WANT to say is: you CAN leave, I CAN'T. Be Glad.

I think I chose one of the last really beautiful days of the season to go on a trail ride on Friday.  It was nice -- although I need to remember how to sit a trot again.  It seems counter-intuitive at first that dropping your stirrups makes it easier to relax into the saddle then not so much.

I rode D, who still gives kisses for carrots.  He'll do it even without any visible carrots, just in case bumping your face with his muzzle makes them appear.   He is older than before, but hasn't slowed down much and still becomes alpha-horse when being led out of the field and all the other horse are curious and treat-seeking.  Get away, you can see him saying, I have this human right now and all her treats, real or potential are belong to me.  His feet are still ridiculously tiny for his size.

I rode Western -- good god, those saddles are heavy and cleaned  it afterwards.  In case you were wondering, snakeskin is hard to clean.

That was my second time on a horse in a good while.  I'm going (twice!) again next week.  Now I need to buy a helmet of my own again.  I can't keep borrowing on and B is unlikely to ever allow me anywhere near a horse without a helmet because of the incident with the tornado and the fence.  In my defense, I didn't KNOW there was a tornado warning and it wouldn't have made a difference with or without the helmet.

I've MISSED this.

Open questions to the public:

Why would you EVER put try to put coins into a printer to make it print your document?  I want to know what you even thought was a money slot.

The scanner cannot scan your barcode if you turn it sideways.  This is not rocket science.

Yes it does matter to the automated reservation system if you show up 35 minutes late to your computer.  Don't look so shocked.

Oh and GUEST038 is not spelled GESETO38.  The computer will not recognize that as the same.

What possible good reason could you have to have your laptop beep loudly ever 5 seconds? 

See.  SEE!