:/
i'm feeling exceptionally misanthropic today.
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May 31, 2006
May 30, 2006
just testing
May 27, 2006
growth
when we got him, i stupidly figured he'd stay roughly the same size; not knowing how much dogs actually grow in the first couple years of their lives... he went to the vet yesterday to get his monthly heartgard and we discovered he'd gained 8lbs since the previous month! maybe it's all the peanut butter. :)
May 25, 2006
*cough*
i'm practically crawling out of my skin right now. in less than an hour, i will be starting a 5-day weekend; and i don't have any projects to start on to keep me busy for the next 54 minutes.
May 23, 2006
smart
i've been using this guy's smart playlist theories for about two weeks now, and i think it's made all the difference. you see, when you have 15 gigs of music at your fingertips, it's like being at woodman's trying to find the right orange juice; there are too many choices.
so, to summarize (he gets into a lot of detail), you spend a couple days making sure the cddb got their data right the first time by being pretty deliberate about your music's genre. of course, this is only necessary for specific collections.. say you dig on the techno, well iTunes files everything under electronica/dance by default. and anyone who's anyone knows there's more to it than that (this goes for country, classical, folk, etc). after you've scrutinized your albums, you make several smart playlists (details available at first link above), and a final "uberplaylist" which you combine with your genres, resulting in several smart playlists by genre; allowing you to listen to a smattering of reggae that you just added to the library in addition to ones you haven't listened to in 6 months. it opens up the experience of listening to music that you thought worthy of loading onto your computer in the first place, but may have forgotten about.
it's just short of saying outloud, "i feel like some drum n bass but i don't remember which artists or albums i have, will you play whatever, iPod?" i<3 it.
brunch
(almost) every sunday, we go out for breakfast somewhere in this grand city, sometimes even leaving the borders of madison to smaller, more quaint communities. we've tried many a buffet; starting with the nau-ti gal a number of years ago. the spread is good... and they have chocolate chip cookie dough! but for $15 (and then tack on the $5 bloody, $1.30 coffee, and some weird .5% village tax) it's bordering on not being worth the drive. we soon branched out to other buffets, coachmen's golf resort, the esbma, madison concourse, and most recently, the orpheum lobby. we have yet to try the edgewater because they don't start serving until 11, and i'm usually ready to break my fast around 9.
all in all, the best buffet for your buck is the madison concourse—dayton street cafe. it's got the most food, one free bloody, mimosa or champagne and coffee or juice.. all for $17. that seems steep, i know, but it's a lot of food. and you won't need to eat for the rest of the day.
May 20, 2006
see?
each square is ~1ft and i have enough yarn to make this twice as big. my gauge is almost half the pattern's.. maybe i knit too tight?
anticipation
May 19, 2006
i promise
i'm still a knitter. i'm still working on the "throw", which, due to an incorrect yarn amount suggestion, is taking a while because i bought too much yarn. i'm also sitting on a sock that i started while waiting for that yarn to show up, with leftover yarn from the fair isle socks... so honest! i'm knitting.
May 18, 2006
causality
i watched the beginning of the matrix reloaded last night. actually, i made it through the scene on the highway right up to where morpheus falls on the hood of the car niobe was driving. great flick.
jones is doing great. he seems to be used to the idea that he can't get into things when we're not home... except on sunday, we forgot to put the garbage in the back hallway. :/ and i just got the replacement denise cables cuz jones decided to make a meal of two of them last saturday night. i've said it before; he's lucky he's so damn cute.
May 17, 2006
remittance
i used to take bob and zona* to oregon to the vet because they specialized in ferrets.. and i used to live in oregon. they were a good vet, but after zona died, and the little scheisse's got bob sick, we started going to a vet that's much closer; and cheaper. on or around the last visit to oregon, i picked up a heartgard for mom & geo's (now deceased dog) callie.
fast forward ~4 years to yesterday. in the mail. a bill from oregon vet saying callie had a visit on 04/05/06 and i owe them $32.10. imagine my surprise. so i called them this morning and explained that i hadn't had any pets visit their clinic for about 4 years, and callie has been dead for about 3. the girl asked me for a number where i could be reached. i told her i wouldn't be able to help with anything because the bill doesn't belong to me. she seemed hesitant. i'm willing to wager $10 that i get another bill in a month; with their generous 1.5% late charge added.
*bob and zona were my first pair of ferrets. they were the cutest things ever and they pooped everywhere. zona died under the knife, and bob came down with ece after we got rinky and tinker—any ferret owner knows about ece and how yuckyterrible it is. i won't go into it.
May 16, 2006
maintenance
i don't like leaving my car somewhere for a day to get looked at, fixed up, or scrubbed down, because it's going to be expensive, and i don't get to use my car for the day! anyway, it's at midas getting the brakes checked.. they've been squeaking for a couple months, i've been negligent. and i told them so when i called. hopefully it won't brake my bank.
update: :( $379 later...
May 15, 2006
don't bug me
i have a case of the mondays.
May 13, 2006
no one's perfect
being someone who works/ed on emails that our customers get, it's always nice to see that we're not the only ones who make mistakes.
update: looks like they fixed the image; that's the beauty of html emails.
May 12, 2006
waterdog
it would appear that jones has no problem with rain. in fact, he seems to go slower in it, stopping to sniff every little thing, and eat leaves, and sticks. i was out in the rain for a total of 1.5 hours last night walking around aimlessly... waiting for him to find just the right spot to do his duty. at 8:05p, the demon inside was awakened by a romp with james*, and finally, eureka! i could go back inside and take off all wet things.
*james is a 5yo german shepherd/something small who lives on morrison next door to darlin', who is a 1.5yo black lab that owns a friend of ours.
and how does a ribcage end up on the sidewalk? i swear, i have seen more strange animal bones since getting a dog than ever in my life.
May 11, 2006
carp in my tunnel
between five and 10 years ago, i was working at the wisconsin relay system as a "c.a.", or communication assistant, typing up to 120 wpm on a good day, for six hours at a time. about halfway through that stint, my left arm came down with what is now known as "repetative stress disorder", or a toned-down version of tendonitis. i couldn't carry full grocery bags, i couldn't do the dishes (these things may seem lucky, but not to be able to do something is different than not having to do something), i was really into making hemp necklaces at the time, and i had to stop that, too. so i took a six month reprieve from typing (unfortunately, it was to work as tech support for aol 3.0), and it helped bunches. the soreness would come and go; i still can't read a book while lying on my back, but i can do the dishes!
well, this morning, i woke up with the sorest right wrist evAR. and i can tell the difference between tendonitis and carpal tunnel; and this isn't tendonitis. our admin assistant is ordering me a better wrist rest.
May 10, 2006
weird dream
i just remembered the dream i had before i woke up this morning.. it was some jungley-war conflict like in good morning, vietnam when the sgt sends cronauer and garlick to basically get killed. and then i escaped into some bunker-type thing and an old boss from when i was 16 was there. strange.
may 1 - nov 15
the city of madison attempts to keep our streets clean by enforcing parking restrictions on certain days and certain sides of the street between 8a and 11:30a. if your car is parked on the wrong side at the wrong time if/when the parking attendant rolls around, you'll be ticketed. one year ago, the penalty was $10, which would increase to $14 if you waited more than two weeks to pay.
this year, the penalty has increased to an astonishing $30. so pay close attention.
* i have closed comments on this post due to an overwhelming number of comment spams left for this entry.
May 9, 2006
*cough*
kurt and i went on a date last night... for no other reason than i really wanted some good sushi and i wasn't going to get what i wanted from a delivery (i'll spare you the explanation, since i've done it in the past). it was absolutely scrumdiddilyumptious. the chefs at takara know their stuff.
but, we came home to some sort of natural disaster. jones ate the daisy that my friend judy got my for my bday.. and he tore apart some packaging which had that black foam stuff in it. omg. what a mess.
i should really start taking pics of the state of the livingroom to accompany these posts. you'd chuckle.
May 8, 2006
clothes
i hate shopping for clothes. some people love it, and i think that's weird. more specifically, i hate trying clothes on; the lighting is bad, the mirrors are too close to you, and it reminds me of vulnerability.
i need to get new spring clothes; the cords i'm wearing today have a new-found hole in the crotch. i could maybe get fired for wearing them.
May 6, 2006
wip
here's my progress on the retro throw from the last knitpicks catalog:
i have a measly 4 more squares to knit. though the amount of yarn that i have left looks like i can make 8 more squares, so maybe i will.
here's jones sittin' on the back porch:
May 4, 2006
mushies
i just bought 1/4lb of morels from someone at work for $5. we're gunna fry 'em up tomorrow.
?
there's a slight vibe around the cubefarm. i don't think it's mercury, either.
May 3, 2006
tossers
yesterday i heard two references to throwing away clothes, that were inexpensively acquired, after their use was no longer. i wonder if they know about st. vinny's.
uh oh
i got debbie stoller's the happy hooker yesterday... i started reading the beginning, and it was very fundamental, especially about yarns, hook sizes, what an LYS is, etc. but then we got down to the nitty gritty of the single crochet (which is the cast-on row of the piece). this part i can do; mom is a crocheter and tried in vain to teach me, but i wasn't willing way back then. the best i could do is the single stitch chain to tie up the cardboard for recycling. not completely useless, but not a shawl either. i attempted to start the first row, but it became late and i became tired. i'll try again tonight.
May 2, 2006
more on the dog
in addition to finishing off the stephen king book (we kept it around to use as a deterrent to the table when leaving the house), and chewing the back off kurt's cell phone, he ate up the corners of my lunch bag... leaving me with no option but to order another. i like reusable bags cuz they like the environment.
savetheinternet
i've been reading about this thing for a couple weeks now, and like many internet rumors, i like to wait a while before i react.. well, this one is quite real. from snopes:
Simply put, network neutrality means that no web site's traffic has precedence over any other's...Whether a user searches for recipes using Google, reads an article on snopes.com, or looks at a friend's MySpace profile, all of that data is treated equally and delivered from the originating web site to the user's web browser with the same priority. In recent months, however, some of the telephone and cable companies that control the telecommunications networks over which Internet data flows have floated the idea of creating the electronic equivalent of a paid carpool lane.
save the internet has a form to fill out that will automatically mail your representing senator. do it.
May 1, 2006
more randomness
i spent friday afternoon and saturday morning getting a lot of cds into the new plastic caseless cd holder. i can't stand how much room cds take up. ones which didn't make the cut are some dj mixes from when my buddy jonathan started madfam, a community for, by, to, and from techno music enthusiasts in the madison area. unfortunately, i had trouble with one of the discs and decided that none of them would work (actually, i didn't want to try), so they didn't get in with the rest of my music collection. anyhoo, jones hasn't taken to chewing it up now that it's full, and out of his sight.
i got 1.5 more squares done for the throw; it's going remarkably slower than i expected.
we didn't get outside as much this weekend, on account of the rain and coolness, so jones was a little hyper before bed last night, resulting in little sleep bits for his hoomans.
*yawn*