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I particularly liked the last ten minutes of the yoga class

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I stayed home today, hoping for a quiet and restful day.  I mostly succeeded (am still succeeding, really).  My gym offers yoga classes at 9:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I took advantage of my day off .  I’ve never tried yoga before.  Turns out I kinda like it.  Especially the end, with the laying down (big hit with me) and the quiet music and the breathing and the focusing.  I still feel fairly calm.

I like it.

I also like these things from The Daily What:

1st – If you like Stephen Fry or Molly Lewis, you will like this video.  If you like them both, you’ll be over the moon.  Super-cute.

2nd – Speaking of super-cute, here’s a puppy going head to head with an ice cube.

I hate missing the joke

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When I don’t get geek humor, rather than feel good that maybe I’m not as far gone into geekery as sometimes seems to be case, I feel stupid.  Well, I guess it depends on what kind of joke it is I’m not getting.  Today’s XKCD is an example of the kind of geek humor that makes me feel dumb.  My education didn’t include whatever the hell makes this funny.

Things I do find funny?  I’m so glad you asked!

Air guitar in Parliament (from The Daily What):

Sign I think I want to post around my neighborhood (also from The Daily What):

Beyond those things, nothing is funny.  Nothing in the world.  Ever.  And ever.

Awesome birthday present

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If you love books and need decorating ideas (for your books – no, also in general), visit these websites.  SuzRocks told me about one in yesterday’s comments (best birthday present from the internet ever), and I just don’t know what to do with myself now.  Other than get lost in these sites.

Bookshelf Porn

Bookcase Porn

The best part of the timing of my birthday is, of course, the three-day weekend it usually falls on.  So even though, technically, my birthday will be over in just under two hours, I really get another day.  A day with a trip to a used bookstore.  You know what I don’t have enough of?  Goats. Books.

Linktastic – just a little

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Maybe only linking to two things doesn’t count as linktastic, but they’re totally worth it.

Link #1: Today’s XKCD comic.  I’m a little twitchy now.

Link #2: By way of nn.c (and yesterday’s post, no less – I’m a little late), here’s a video both amazing and adorable.  It’s making me wish for a really good video camera so I can do the same thing with Riley racing at full speed around the yard.

Yeah, yeah, it’s less a link and more an embedded video, but I think you’ll forgive me.

#)(*$%^&*%#!

I would choose to use a mouse over a touchpad any day of the week.  If I’m sitting at a desk or a table or a coffee table or any flat surface.  If my laptop is actually in my lap, a mouse is more of a hindrance.  I mention this because I’m sitting at my little desk between the dining room and the kitchen, and I reached over with my right hand to move the mouse.  The mouse that isn’t there.  But my hand made the mouse shape and tensed to hold it under my palm.  Weird feeling to tense for a mouse and miss.  It’s very much like going upstairs while carrying something that’s blocking your view so you can’t tell when you’ve reached the top and your foot looks for the next step only to find nothing but air so you stumble a little as your foot misses and hits the floor.  It’s like that.

Well, I thought it was funny

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The internet conspired to make me laugh today, which is good ’cause my workday left me feeling irritable.  First, The Bloggess.  Naturally.  Time-share ponies = awesome idea.  Then, John and I watched an episode of Castle on Hulu tonight (we’re maybe three episodes behind – it was the one with Donna from That ’70s Show), and there was one scene we laughed so hard at we had to pause the show and go back.  Then, I read an email from last week (I’m not that behind – I must have missed this one) that’s a compilation of winning Style Invitational entries and alternate definitions of words.  I can’t find the actual list online anywhere, so I think it’s just an email thing that was put together who knows how long ago (I’ve seen some of them before) and by who knows who, but it’s really funny.  My favorite was lymph: to walk with a lisp.

Maybe you had to be there.

http://www.hulu.com/

Relevance is overrated

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I meant to post this yesterday but got distracted by the evening’s drama. Nancy Nall, purveyor of links, pointed me to a couple of things that made laugh. First, the cheat sheet Bonnie Tyler probably used (I would have) during the original recording. My favorite part is the dotted line indicating when to croon the lyrics or belt them out.  Second, an edible rickroll.  I know it’s a couple of years late, but that never gets old to me.  Third (and best), Better Book Titles.  Self-explanatory, I think.

Alternate title: Selfish Spoiled Brat To Blame for Deforestation

Today was a snow day, but I didn’t get to play in it.  I had back to back to back meetings all day long, mostly with the same group of people, so it turned into one highly productive marathon conference call.  My ear buds aren’t meant to be worn for nearly 10 hours in a row.  It was a relief to finally hang up the phone.  And tomorrow is Friday.  Compared to today, wearing jeans to work will be like dressing up.  Work clothes on a snow day = yoga pants, a sweatshirt, and fuzzy slippers.  Speaking of yoga pants, Wombat is in love.  I have to agree.  I can only think of one job where I could get away with wearing yoga pants to actual work, and I’m not flexible enough for that.

Two spaces or one?

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Like he often does, John Scalzi pointed me to an article about the number of spaces between sentences, a subject about which he’s apparently pretty passionate.

I’ve never put much thought into how many spaces I put between sentences. I mean, I always used two, but it never occurred to me to wonder why. I certainly had no idea people felt so strongly about it (although that shouldn’t surprise me – people get worked up about everything else, so why not sentence spacing?), and I don’t really see a difference aesthetically. I’m willing to convert to one space (I imagine it’ll become second nature eventually, but right now it’s slowing me down), if only because it’s logical.

I wouldn’t bet against myself in a poker game – actually, I probably would

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I don’t want to work any more this week.  Or next week.  I’m ready for vacation, and I’d like a super-long one, please.  The danger with super-long vacations, of course, is that after all that time off, I don’t want to go back to work.  The first time that happened to me was after the month I took off to move across the country when I transferred from San Diego to Norfolk.  Then, I could very easily blame my reluctance to go back to work on the fact that work = ship and deployment and separation and stress.  I don’t have that excuse anymore (something I am most certainly NOT complaining about).  Going back to work now just means not being able to stay home and be lazy, something I don’t get any sympathy for.  Which is fair.  I can hardly demand sympathy for being employed.  Nor should I.

Editing is a good thing.  I just deleted a paragraph about my hair.  My ponytail, really.  Be grateful.  It was…stupid.  Worse than inane.  Or, well, it was inane, but not in a fun way.

Because I can’t think of any other way to stop tonight, I’ll leave you with this: Kenny Loggins wouldn’t beat the baby Jesus.

You’re a fake and I’m a phony

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i bought myself a present.  I finally own a copy of Holiday Inn, which I am watching right now.  Other than that, I’ve got nothing for today.

Well, something.  If you like Russell Brand, you will probably like Tim Minchin.

With that, I’m off to finish my book.  It’s somewhat entertaining (Connie Willis’s book is MUCH better), but I’m ready for it to be over.  I need to finish it so I can read something else.  Before Christmas.  Ooh, there’s a thought.  What books are coming with me on our trip?  That’ll be fun to plan out.

Thought of something else.  John Scalzi posted his third list of ten things he’s done that you probably haven’t.  I can only think of one off the top of my head: I have crossed every single line of longitude on the globe, all by ship (except for the width of the US – I did that twice in a car, a few more times by plane).

And now for some geek humor (thanks to The Daily What (and FoxTrot, of course) for the comic).

Catching up

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After hearing their version of “Let It Snow” on Pandora the other day (last weekend, maybe?), I bought The Four Freshmen album, “Snowfall”.  It’s my new favorite Christmas album.  I’m listening to it now, relaxing a little before bed.  We had a very busy, productive day, starting with a long-overdue visit with Erik and Margaret.  We met for lunch and moved on to Barnes and Noble, chatting about their wedding plans, puppies, travel, wedding music, wedding dresses, and Calvin and Hobbes, among other things.  John and I bought road maps and travel guides for our trip, and then we went shopping for new weather-proof winter coats.  We both ended up with coats with zip-out fleece liners (’cause it just makes more sense), but I fell in love with the new Columbia Kaleidaslope jacket.

Trust me, it’s way more flattering on than in the picture.  I tried on the large, and it was perfect.  And SO warm.  I’m very happy with the coat I got, but can’t I have both?  I need this one, too, right?  Or, you know, not.  I’ll live.  The point of today’s shopping, though, was to get us that much closer to ready for our trip.  Which we’re very very very excited about.

We got home much later than originally planned and settled in for dinner and our annual viewing of Love Actually.  Which got interrupted (but in a good way) when Corey called.  We’d been trying to connect all day, so I put the movie on hold (to be continued tomorrow) to talk to Brother of Mine.  Also long overdue.

Speaking of Christmas, and thanks to nn.c, here’s a link to a bunch of Christmas-themed photos from around the world.  My favorites are the skiing Santas and both of the ones of Santa runners.

The Sing-Off

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Tonight was the first time I’d ever heard of The Sing-Off.  I still don’t know much about it, but it seems to be a talent show for a capella groups.  Good ones.  Little Sister Melvin (henceforth to be known as LSM (or Sparky) (I googled LSM to find out what it could stand for, and by far, my favorite is Lesbian Sex Mafia) has been watching it, so here, for your viewing pleasure (after you finish reading one of the most convoluted sentences in this entire blog), are my favorites of the videos she had me look up.

The lead singer in this first video is the guy from The Persuasions. I really like his voice.

This one will not be John’s favorite video, but Mom will like it.

He might like this one, though. It’s one of his favorite songs, but doing his favorite songs a capella has always been hit or miss.

This is the first one I’ve seen where they look like they’re having a good time.

Okay, I promise to stop now. There’s a lot of good stuff out there, and it all makes me want to sing again. It also reminds me that I should be reading Adam’s blog (among many many others). So off I go.

Hanukkah’s almost over – watch this before it’s too late

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I realize this is cheating, but I’m fairly certain that you won’t follow the link and actually watch the videos that I found so entertaining (the last two), so I’m going to embed them.  That shouldn’t stop you from visiting The Bloggess, of course, particularly since her latest post is the funniest thing I’ve read in a while.

Here’s one in the same vein (musical geeks, not holiday music):

Uninterrupted prosperity

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This is the Cadillac of baby carriages.  I was totally jealous of the baby boy who was riding in it.  I could have taken a better picture (one that included the adorable little boy), but the nanny (I think she was the nanny.  She gave off more of a nanny vibe than a mommy vibe.) wasn’t too keen on that.  Understandably.  After all, I am a total stranger who walked up and asked to take a picture of her stroller.  Sans baby.

Let’s go in a completely different direction: tarp surfing.

Thanks, Ms. Nall (we’re pretty formal in these parts), for the video and for pointing me here.  I haven’t read The Onion in a couple of years.  I forgot about it.  And now I’m a little sad.

My titles are often not relevant

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Or pertinent.  I like that word.  I should use it more often.  I’m failing at the go-to-bed-earlier game.  Again.  As a result, this post, like these sentences (but not this one in particular), will be short.

With all the talk of loud neighbors, this made me laugh.

Goal for tomorrow: manage my time so I can read and write and be asleep half an hour ago.  (That would be impressive.)

I could be funnier if I had a British accent

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I know, cat videos on the internet, cliche, blah blah, but this is hilarious.  Trust me.

Thank you to John Scalzi for finding it. Speaking of John Scalzi, I recently read Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded, a collection of some of his blog posts over the course of a decade.  One of my favorites was Football With Jesus, which I just found in his archives.  For you.

Everything’s going my way

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(oh) What a beautiful day.  This morning was perfect, in every way, and when I went for a run, I was so happy to be out doing just what I was doing and seeing just what I was seeing that I nearly cried.  The sky was this perfect September blue, the trees were still green, the morning light was clear and the air was fresh, and even though I’m sore and tired now, that feeling this morning makes it okay.  Better than okay.

That paragraph makes me sound ecstatically happy.  I’m too tired to be ecstatically happy.  I’m worn out happy.  With a dehydration (I think) headache.  John and I went to Waterford this afternoon for the Waterford Fair.  Happens every year, but we keep forgetting about it, so this is the first year we’ve gone.  They’ve got tours of historic homes, LOTS of exhibits and vendors selling all kinds of crafts, live music, and lots of food.  A couple of residents are selling their homes, so they took advantage of the crowds to hold open houses.  NICE houses.  And they’ve come down in price; both of the houses John and I looked at were only $695,000.

Tangent:

John Scalzi is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors, both for his novels and his blog.  Check out his latest post.  The idea came from the two previous posts.

Back to the fair.  But really only for pictures (all taken by John, used with permission 🙂 ).

John and I decided this was a re-enactment of that time a squad of soldiers got lost and wandered down Main Street in Waterford during the Civil War.

Look! Baby lambs! According to the sign on the pen, they're only two days old. The white one is a boy and the black one is a girl. Super cute.

Anyway, the fair was fun, but Waterford has some major hills (okay, one major hill), and we got a little too much sun, and we’re both very tired.  Tomorrow will probably be more restful.

No, I’m not keeping this cat

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I can’t have a cat.  Riley would spend every minute bouncing off the ceiling.  Every minute he’s not trying to eat the poor thing.  He’s high-strung as it is.  I got further proof of that this morning when I brought a cat inside.  Briefly.  After I threw him and Roxy out on the deck.

Let me back up.

I went out this morning for a jog, as usual.  (Kind of as usual.  You know, every other day usual.  The way I left the house was as usual for when I go for a jog.  Oh, hell.  Leave me alone.)  About a half mile from the house, on the opposite side of a busy-for-my-town street from my neighborhood, I saw a cat narrowly avoid being hit by a car.  It was okay, hanging out on the sidewalk when I got there, not even a little bit afraid of me.  He’s a pretty little cat, not a kitten, not full-grown.  I guessed 6-7 months old (the vet said maybe 8 months, but not more).  No collar, no tags, not neutered, but he’s clean (and definitely a he) and seems well-fed.  Almost definitely not a stray.  Like 98% not a stray.  He was right behind a house in this other neighborhood, so I walked to their front door to see if he belonged to them.  He followed me.  Right by my ankles.  I knocked (it wasn’t even 7 yet – a little early for a doorbell), but no one answered.  I saw people at a house on the next block, so I headed that way.  He followed me.  They didn’t recognize him.  I tried another house.  Same thing.  I went back to the first house, closest to where I found him, and since there was a light on now, I rang the doorbell.  A guy and his little girl answered the door.  Not their cat.

Three houses with no luck, and the cat’s still following me, so I picked him up and headed home.  Easier said than done.  He let me carry him for a couple of minutes and then he struggled a little.  I calmed him enough to get by another house or so, and then he twisted again.  I put him down, thinking maybe he’d keep following me.  Nope.  He headed for a house like maybe he lived there, so I rang the doorbell.  No answer.  And then he went to another house like he lived there.  So, yeah, this little kitty doesn’t know where home is.  Scooped him up and continued home.  Repeat twice more, without the doorbell-ringing.

I finally got back to the house, but John was out running and I needed to get in the door without getting my face and arms clawed off when the cat tried to escape from the dogs.  I got the teenager across the street to hold him while I shoved the dogs into the backyard (more difficult than usual – Riley’s nose was glued to my cat-hair-covered shirt).  Then I locked the adorable little kitty whose patience was wearing thin in the hall bathroom.  He immediately starting yowling.  I don’t blame him.  I called a couple of the local vets.  All I was looking for was a place to leave this cat for a day or two while I post flyers (fliers?  Looks like fleers.) and look for the owner, and the shelter is kinda far in the wrong direction (wrong if I’m trying to get to work close to on time).  The first vet I called won’t hold a pet unless they know who the owner is.  Not helpful.  The second one was sympathetic, though, totally understood what I need, and was willing to take the cutie-pie, at least for a day or so.  In the meantime, Riley tried to throw himself through the sliding glass door to get at the CAT!  THERE’S A CAT IN THERE!  LET ME AT IT!

John came home about then, so I explained why awful screaming noises were occasionally coming from the hall bathroom (not hurt noises, just hilarious lonely noises) and why Riley (who was no longer trying to hulk his way into the house) was stomping his foot (he really does that) and whining urgently.  John got his camera, and I opened the door to find Stan (he looks like an Oliver, but we know a cat named Oliver, so he’s Stan and no, we’re not keeping him) on the bathroom sink.  John took some pictures (see below) for the flyers I’ll make later today, and I threw him (Stan, not John) in the car for the drive to the nice vet.

He was fine in the car (we no longer have a pet carrier of any kind, and we never had one small enough for a cat), and he was happy to go with the vet tech.  I have their number, they have my number, and when they can’t keep him any longer, I’ll move him on to the shelter.  If I haven’t found the owner by then.  After work, I’ll stop at FedEx Office (I think that’s what they call themselves now, not FedEx Kinko’s anymore), make a bunch of flyers, and shove them in mailboxes in my neighborhood and the neighborhood across that street.  I’ve already posted in the community forums, so hopefully I’ll get some response.

I got a phone call from John a little bit ago.  On his way out of the neighborhood this morning, when he left for work, he got stuck behind a car going REALLY SLOWLY down the street.  He was super annoyed at the time, but it occurred to him, as he sat in traffic, that it might have been the cat’s owners driving slowly by.  That’s probably how I’d go looking for my missing cat.  We’ll keep an eye out for that car, too.

Anyway, if I don’t hear from the owner in a couple of days, there’ll be a cute cat on the market.  Free to a good home.  Want one?

It’s a happy coincidence that I’m rescuing a cat on Wombat’s Random Act Wednesday, but there you have it.  Also, Spokeit‘s post from yesterday ran through my mind all morning.  Gotta love our online community.