I have nothing to say tonight. Is that okay? When this happens, I should probably stay off the blog, but I don’t have that kind of control.
Instead of babbling, I’ll leave you with a couple of videos. The first is about little green army men with British accents. I can’t embed it (well, I probably could but it would take too much effort right now), so you’ll just have to trust me and click on the link. It’s funny.
The second video is the first episode of Written By a Kid, a web series created by the Geek and Sundry people. These guys find a little kid and ask him/her to tell them a story. Then they animate it and show it over the voice of the kid telling the story. Super cute.
Now I can’t decide if I want to watch more Geek and Sundry videos or read my book. What is wrong with me?
And I want to be a princess. And I want a pony. And world peace. I can’t have any of that, but I can have funny cat videos. It’s one of my inalienable rights as an internet user.
Also, if you have 4 minutes to spare, watch this. Jimmy Steward wrote a poem, and I cried.
Check out my new favorite mug! (How funny is that – WordPress spellcheck is British! It wants me to put the u in favourite.)
I drank my tea from it this morning.
There’s lots to tell and not enough hours in the day, so I’ll digress even more from the trip and show you adorable-ness personified elephantified. It’s only 22 seconds – watch the whole thing.
Did you hear about Cal Ripken Jr’s mom getting kidnapped (and returned)? Crazy, right? I wouldn’t bring it up except that I heard the best use of the wrong word in a news report about it. I don’t know who was talking, but whoever it was said, “She was approached by a man garnishing a gun.” I was immediately distracted by the image of a guy poking sprigs of parsley down the barrel and in the trigger of a handgun. Odd, but not all that scary. Or maybe it’s all the scarier for being so odd.
Posts here will probably be scarce (or at least very short) for the next few days, so to keep some pretty on the screen, here are some randomly selected pictures of Sparky’s other Scottish crush.
Apparently, he can’t keep his hands off himself. Can’t say I blame him.
I’m totally worn out from today. I spent the work day getting more and more frustrated, and then I went to the gym for two hours (class night) and didn’t think about work for even a second (which was wonderful). But the gym drained all of that frustrated energy out of me (and more), so now I’m all limp and noodly. Relaxed, but in an I-can’t-lift-my-arm-above-my-head kind of way.
I heard the prettiest version of Over The Rainbow during yoga today. I don’t know a lot about Eva Cassidy (she was local to the area and she’s dead – that’s the extent of my knowledge), but I have really really liked everything I’ve heard her do.
Raise your hand if you want to watch an adorable kitten get his ass handed to him by an equally adorable bunny. That’s right. Everyone in the whole wide world just raised their hands. Even though most of them don’t read me. They just knew it was the right – no, the ONLY – thing to do.
Who knew that in a battle of bunny vs. kitten, the kitten would lose? (From The Daily What, of course.)
Here’s a little bit of randomness to end your day.
First, a video of Riley running across the yard. I’ve been paying a lot of attention to Roxy lately (she hurt her leg while staying at the kennel two weeks ago, and we’re babying her), and I think he’s feeling neglected.
Check this out! The shin-kicking in this video happened in Chipping Campden, the village we stayed in. (Source and article.)
Last, can someone please explain this fortune to me?
Love is the first feeling people feel, because love is nice.
What to read? I think I need help. I started a book of short stories by Harlan Ellison before we left for England. I left it behind because it’s hardcover, and I didn’t want to travel with it. The stories are all somewhat depressing, so I’m not in a hurry to get back to it. I started Little, Big on the plane ride over, but it’s hard to get into and I’m thinking about giving up. Has anyone read it? Should I keep going? I finished Coming Home (this was my second time through) late last night. I love that book. The book club I may or may not be a member of read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks this past month. I missed the meeting because of our trip. I have it, but I don’t think I’m anywhere near in the mood for something like that. That would mean branching out, and I just don’t feel like doing that today. Maybe it’s the stormy weather, but I want comfort reading. Wait – I think I have the solution. I haven’t read the most recent Dresden Files book, and from there I may move on to Jim Butcher’s fantasy series. Hooray for decisions! You guys are so helpful. 🙂
We had a request for more dog videos, so here’s one of the dogs in the rain.
Hey, I didn’t promise it would be interesting. They don’t do much that’s interesting…
We’re home, and it was wonderful, and can I please please please go back? The last couple of days at home were so peaceful and restful. I avoided my work email and managed to wake up this morning still feeling somewhat serene and would you believe it? A day at work with lots of catching up to do and one crisis (that I couldn’t get resolved today) did NOT get to me. I still feel pretty good and not at all stressed. Except for the headache. It’ll go away.
Bicycles in Oxford - Everywhere I turned, there were people riding bikes. Some with robes flapping behind them, some in skirts, some in casual clothes. Then there was the one guy riding down the street on a unicycle, but I didn't get my camera out in time to catch him.
Here’s a video I took today of Roxy eating peanut butter. Because you’re worth it, and gosh darn it, I like you.
While coming home from my disappointing pedicure yesterday, I found myself behind a car at a stoplight. The light changed, but the guy didn’t go. I waited a couple of seconds, he still didn’t go, so I lightly tapped my horn. It didn’t come out so light. I wasn’t irritated, I wasn’t in a hurry, it was no big deal, but to the guy in front of me, I must have sounded like “Hey! Jerk in the car in front of me! What are you, asleep?” Not what I meant. But I have a solution! Every car should be installed with two horns. One little one so you can politely nudge someone when it’s clear they just need a little help, and then the normal obnoxious one, still with the big button in the middle of the steering wheel, so you can find it easily in an emergency and pound on it when loud blaring blasts of your horn are called for (which is practically never, unless you live in New York, but that’s a whole different thing). Problem solved.
Also this weekend, my most recent phone problem got fixed! Yes, it still reboots when it overheats and I can’t always find the GPS satellite (so yes, I’ll still be shopping for a new phone soon), but last week, the button that lets me turn my screen on and off quit working. WAY more annoying. The only way I could do anything with my phone was to plug it in (or unplug it). Then the screen would light up and I could make a call or check email or whatever. Otherwise, nothing. I took it to the Sprint store in the mall where the friendly technician took the whole phone apart and cleaned the button. For free! (Because I don’t have the protection plan and he can’t charge me for it and technically shouldn’t have been working on it at all.) Yay! And because I am a happy and grateful customer, I bought him a frappuchino. And a cookie. He also told me that I’m eligible for my upgrade in June, not August, and that technically, I’m eligible as of May 17th. Double yay!
This would make my commute so much easier to handle.
Remember that statistics midterm I wasn’t able to finish because I was caught by surprise by the format and didn’t have enough time to finish it? Yeah, the professor said no to my request to take another exam, so I got a 50%. To avoid a repeat on the final, I made sure I had over 4 hours available to take it. I walked in to the testing center and they gave me a scantron sheet. Yes, my final exam had 20 multiple choice questions on it (which is what I’d expected on the midterm, based on the tests in Statistics I – same professor). It took me an hour and a half. Do I think I did well? NO. Why? Because even though the course guide said the final will cover the material on the last two quizzes, about a quarter of the exam was on a subject we weren’t quizzed on. I could get lucky, I guess. Since it was multiple choice, I was able to guess at the answers. (I’ll leave the statistics jokes for you to make. I’m DONE.) So…yeah…I’m not happy. On the other hand, it’s over, and I will never be taking a statistics class from this horrible example of professor-hood (professor-ness, professor-ability) again.
This made me feel better (from The Daily What). One guy, lots of accents.
I’m supposed to be studying. One more chapter of statistics, one more quiz, one more test. But it’s 8:30, I had a long day and a longer commute, and I just read the same paragraph (about goodness of fit) three times without anything other than that one phrase (and something about a distribution that conforms to some claim) to show for it.
So here – watch a commercial about kids and moms and the Olympics. I won’t tell anyone if you cry a little. I did most certainly did not.
You’ll feel better when you watch the Carlton Dance flash mob, led by Carlton himself.
John and I are sitting on the couch together, laptops on our laps, mostly ignoring a TV show. We started watching MI-5 the other day, and we’re enjoying it, but for some reason neither of us is interested enough to put the laptops aside and actually watch it. But we don’t want to admit it, so it’s still on.
Every day should start like today. We slept in a little (letting the dogs sleep upstairs = not a good night’s sleep), and then we took the dogs for a nice stroll around the neighborhood together. The weather was perfect, we weren’t in a hurry – if it hadn’t been for work, it could have been the perfect morning.
This is just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.
Who’s having the best day ever? Would you mind sharing? Just a bit? No, my day wasn’t horrible. I made a small decision I wish I hadn’t (although it’s not really that big a deal), and yes, my commute was not what I’d hoped for, but I’m home now (makes up for a lot), and the weather is perfect (makes up for even more), and the week is over half done. I’m kinda halfway between wanting to just go to bed now and looking forward to going to the gym. I’ll probably be leaning more towards the gym once I get out of these #&$%%# tights.
