Lack o' daisy cull.

1) This kind of movie makes me mad: the kind where the back of someone's head gets blown off with no warning to the viewer at all. I mean, usually you can see it coming from a mile away and you can sort of brace yourself for it, but when it happens like all la la la la la—BLAMMO!!!!! it's annoying. Pulp Fiction was like that for me, and I just saw Burn After Reading and yeah, it was like that too.

2) We use MCOWs at work. Pronounced EM-cow, an MCOW is what the NY office calls a Magical Collection of Words. We have MCOWs for specific products and services, and we have to use the same wording in everything we create for that product or service. It's magical. And they're words.

3) I love Thursdays. Have a great day.

They had no need for luggage. Blanche always carried a week's supply of clothes and food in her hair.

Summer's over already?

I walked outside my house today to get in the car and go to work and all I saw was white. "The hell?" You'd think it was winter or something. Sheesh.

I still haven't pulled my coat out of the closet, because, you know, if I break down and wear a coat then I'm admitting that it's really winter. And I'm not ready to admit that yet. Maybe sometime in January.

Today's the last day of work before our Christmas break, and I'm really sleepy and kind of cold and very bored already at 11am. But I'm just getting through the day because when I walk out the door this afternoon I don't have to come back until January 5th. I'm really looking forward to this time off.

I'll be spending a few days at my parents' house this week and I'm bringing the boys with me. This will be their first trip outside the house since the day I brought them home, so I'm excited about that. I'm wondering how they'll react to the car ride and how they'll be at my parents' house with the dog around. Of course, they'll be safe in their cage the whole time, but there will be so many new smells and sounds and different faces peeking in at them and it will be a very enriching and life-changing adventure for them, I'm sure. Like going away to summer camp or college or something. Maybe they'll be grumpy and resentful when we go back home, because their world has expanded beyond the kitchen table and my looming face and now their old familiar life feels small and cramped and limited.

Oh well, they'll probably forget all about it if I give them a few new strips of paper towel.

Wherever you turn, Bob's always watching.

Happy Friday!

I found this amazing video clip a while ago, and if you haven't seen it, it's really worth it. It just makes me happy every time I see it. Just click on the link and then watch the "Dancing 2008" clip. And have your speakers on, because the music is good, too.*

It's just nice to know, with all the divisiveness and conflict in the world today, that there are still some things that are universal.

Click here.

*I promise, with all my heart, this isn't one of those trick videos that will scare you. I know it sounds like I'm setting you up for that, but I'm not.

A Matter of Taste

My friend Jason posted this meme on his blog and I thought it was cool. I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to trying new foods, so it was fun to fill this out. I encourage you all to do the same! Heidi, Susan, Heather?

The Food Tasting Meme

Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions. Bold all the items you've eaten. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating (or eating again). (Note: I used yellow font on the foods I'd tried, because the bold doesn't show up very well on my background.)

Venison
Nettle tea
Huevos rancheros
Steak tartare
Crocodile (does alligator count?)
Black pudding (I couldn't eat anything made with coagulated blood)
Cheese fondue
Carp
Borscht (yummy with sour cream!)
Baba ghanoush
Calamari
Pho
PB&J sandwich
Aloo gobi
Hot dog from a street cart
Epoisses
Black truffle (I really want to try this sometime)
Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
Steamed pork buns
Pistachio ice cream
Heirloom tomatoes
Fresh wild berries
Foie gras
Rice and beans
Brawn, or head cheese (head cheese...even the name is disgusting)
Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (jalapenos are too hot for me...I'm such a wimp)
Dulce de leche
Oysters
Baklava
Bagna cauda
Wasabi peas
Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
Salted lassi
Sauerkraut
Root beer float
Cognac with a fat cigar
Clotted cream tea
Vodka jelly
Gumbo
Oxtail
Curried goat
Whole insects (no no no no no. Well, maybe if they were breaded and deep-fried, then served with some kind of dipping sauce)
Phaal (again, spicy wimp here)
Goat's milk (remember when we had that goat that lived in the front yard that time?)
Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more
Fugu
Chicken tikka masala
Eel
Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
Sea urchin
Prickly pear
Umeboshi
Abalone
Paneer (I have a recipe to make this, and I want to do it sometime)
McDonald's Big Mac Meal
Spaetzle
Dirty gin martini
Beer above 8% ABV
Poutine
Carob chips (remember stinky beans, and the big carob craze in the 80s?)
S'mores
Sweetbreads (if someone slipped it into my meal and I didn't know, then maybe.)
Kaolin
Currywurst
Durian (yay Cambodia! It wasn't as stinky as people made it seem)
Frog's Legs
Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
Haggis (gross)
Fried plantain
Chitterlings or andouillette
Gazpacho
Caviar and blini (never tried blinis, but the caviar was just salty)
Louche absinthe
Gjetost or brunost
Roadkill (puhlease)
Baijiu
Hostess Fruit Pie
Snail (I would probably gag if I tried them)
Lapsang souchong (closest I've come is hot buttered tea from House of Tibet)
Bellini
Tom yum
Eggs Benedict (my favorite breakfast!)
Pocky
Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
Kobe beef
Hare (I saw this on the cooking channel and the raw meat was dark, like a big chunk of liver, but I might try a bite depending on how it was cooked)
Goulash
Flowers
Horse (...)
Criollo chocolate
Spam
Soft shell crab
Rose harissa
Catfish (tried it, but the texture was reminiscent of what I think bug texture would be)
Mole poblano
Bagel and lox
Lobster Thermidor
Polenta
Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
Snake

The Food Tasting Meme

Virtual Reality Playdate

I had an interesting dream last night. I dreamt that I was playing with Alice, and we were having the best time. She was the same age as she is in real life, and looked exactly like she looks in all of the pictures on Susan's blog, but she could talk in perfect sentences. It was so fun! We were swimming and then lying around on the lounge chairs, and she was talking up a storm. I can't remember everything she said, but one thing she said was, "I miss Gobi." And I was like, "Who's Gobi?" And she put her hand to her heart and said, very melodramatically, "One of my very best friends from long ago, but your mom threw him away." !?!?!? Funny. Bizarre.

Most people don't know it, but sometimes you really can fly.

Long Time No Write

It's been forever since I posted anything, but here I am again. The last month or so has been pretty crazy in some ways, and pretty uneventful in others.

I've had to travel a little bit for work lately, and that's been a new experience. I went to Los Angeles one week and then to Boston the next, and by the time I got back from Boston I was really tired of taxis and hotel rooms and airports. But it was fun to hang out with our client J and the people from the publishing company in New York. J and I totally bonded, which was cool. He told me we'd be best friends if I lived in New Jersey. Mostly because we shared our lust for the same hot guy in the focus group in LA, and because we both think Andy Roddick is sexy. And because we both like Project Runway. And Thai food.

In other news, my rats are getting huge. So are their balls. If human males had balls equally proportional to rat males' balls, you'd see guys walking around with two basketballs in their pants. Literally. Seems uncomfortable to me.

I've also gotten sucked into watching the Olympics. I've been taping it each night and then watching it later so I can FF through commercials. I love watching shows that way. SO much easier and takes less time, too. Michael Phelps is awesome. I hate that the Chinese are winning so many medals—they're going to be all smug from now on. And there's something in the water in Jamaica that makes people faaaaast.

I admit it, I watch the sporting events like people watch Nascar. I really want to see errors. I get a little bored when it's one perfect routine or perfect dive after another. I perk up a little and get more interested when someone falls or trips, or there's a false start. Or when people get disqualified. I do feel bad for them, but it definitely ups the entertainment factor of the show.

Okay, I'm a horrible person.

Anyway, things have been all right lately, and I can't believe the summer is almost over. And today's my Mom's birthday. Happy birthday, Mom! :)

When the nest is empty, every night is date night.

What You Don't Know Can Kill You

Sidebar ad on my email sign-in page today:

The Simple Mistake That Could Cost Your Life

And of course, if you don't tune in to Eyewitness News on channel 5, you'll never know what it is, and you could DIE. (cue screeching violins from Psycho)

What is it with all the fearmongering on the local news? Every commercial I see for the news lately is some kind of ominous teaser about dangerous medications, home repair horror stories, deadly insect invasions, or how your next-door neighbors are most likely plotting to kill you.

Is it any wonder that people are so depressed by the news anymore?

When I was young, I got my paranoia and fear from the back-of-the-toilet copy of the Reader's Digest. That's where I learned all about the symptoms of every major disease, including some very rare ones. I also learned the signs for a heart attack and glaucoma. I also learned that any time you go out to sea on a small boat, you're probably going to be lost and have to drink your own urine and fight off sharks at some point.

Finding out that there were so many things to be afraid of was just one huge, vicious cycle. It opened me up to the possibility that there were all kinds of other things—diseases and military weapons and natural disasters—that I might not currently know about, that could kill me. In my young life, I already had enough anxiety over cancer, heart attacks, house fires, dogs, and thunderstorms. I didn't know if I could handle any more.

I kept thinking that knowledge—information—would relieve my fears. But the information just kept getting worse and worse. This was one big, scary world and no one was safe.

Now I'm old and those scary things still exist, as well as a whole crop of new scary things we didn't even imagine in the late half of the 20th century. But somehow, I'm finally okay with that. Things don't scare me much anymore. Sure, I'm concerned about things, but that pounding, gut-wrenching panic isn't there.

I guess I look at it like this: It's just life, and no one gets out alive.

Obey gravity—it's the law.