Eternal Summer Slacking

I'm a gonna raise a fuss
I'm a gonna raise a holler
about a workin' all summer
just to try to earn a dollar

- Eddie Cochran

Or, in the case of today, getting very little done just to try to earn a dollar.


Today's earrings: moose, theobromine molecules

Bedtime reading: Modesty Blaise, Peter O'Donnell

Smart Money

Today's earrings: owls, coins

Bedtime reading: Modesty Blaise, Peter O'Donnell

School Pictures

Pictures of the Tiger, looking adorable, arrived in the mail today. Someone seems to have given him a dinosaur-skeleton stamp, which is also darn cute.


Today's earrings: eyes, liberty dimes

Bedtime reading: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Leaves of Glass

M & I went to see the Chihuly. While there, we started designing the house that goes around the installations we'd commission from him if we ever had the money. Then we visited the statue of Yoda.
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eta: As M points out in comments, I failed to mention our paying our respects to the Mantelpiece of Horror. We named the dogs Fluffy and Thurlow, and the dying boar Camilla. We did not name the pissed-off looking deer on top.

We have no visio.


Today's earrings: diamonds, brown glass beads

Bedtime reading: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Smell the flowers

Today's earrings: bulls, flowers

Bedtime reading: The Appleby Files, Michael Innes

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear sisters,
Happy birthday to you!


Today's earrings: owls, koi

Bedtime reading: The Appleby Files, Michael Innes

That wasn't really fair

The designers & models barely knew each other, the models knew surprisingly little about dressmaking, and worst of all they didn't let the models & designers confer until after the fabric had been bought. There was a lot wrong with the losing dress, but the guy had a yard each of two fabrics that didn't really go together all that well. He was screwed from the get-go.


Today's earrings: turtles, other turtles

Bedtime reading: The Appleby File, Michael Innes

cover songs

"Wuthering Heights," by the Puppini Sisters
"Smells Like Teen Spirit," by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
"Black Hole Sun," by Steve & Eydie

I looked for covers of "Rock Lobster," but people kept ruining it by trying to do Kate & Cindy's vocal parts and failing miserably. Maybe the Puppini Sisters could do it justice...


Today's earrings: lobsters, rocks

Bedtime reading: The Appleby File, Michael Innes

A good time was had by all

Brunch! There was quiche, and mimosas, and bread pudding. I brought cheese. :)

After yummy food & considerable mimosery, presents were opened. S got a target bag, Cricket got some pretty dresses and some fraction of a drill, Angry Lemming got the remainder of the drill and a remote-controlled indoor/outdoor mechanical dragonfly.

While the dragonfly charged up we watched Act I of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Then we tested the dragonfly, indoors and out. After that, AL conquered the world, and we watched the remainder of Dr. Horrible. 'Twas a sad and tragic ending. I just hope the DVDs are out by Christmas.

The By-Now-Quite-Benevolent Lemming gave me a lift into the city and switched monitors with me. I did not convince him to take any games away, but give me time...


Today's earrings: pineapples, dragonflies

Bedtime reading: The Appleby File, Michael Innes

I think they're playing quarters

Or something very like it, anyway. Every so often a group shriek wafts across the airshaft, as though someone had just scored a difficult shot.

Ah, youth and drunken merriment.
I wish they'd hurry up and get old and dour and go to bed early.


Today's earrings: bears, estrogen molecules

Bedtime reading: The Appleby File, Michael Innes

Farmer's market today

There was preponderance of stone fruits and a dearth of properly joyful tomatoes... *sigh*


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: The Appleby File, Michael Innes

Plan A on schedule. So far.

The Angry Lemming's birthday present arrived at work today. Now I just need to bring it home, wrap it, and transport it without incident to brunch this weekend.

Which day is brunch?


Today's earrings: turtles, swirly blue beads

Bedtime reading: The Appleby File, Michael Innes

Somehow I'd missed this bit of pop culture

I just listened, for the first time, to John Ashcroft sing his greatest hit, "Let the Eagle Soar." Um. Yeah. He sings fairly competently, I'll give him that.

I preferred the chipmunk version.


Today's earrings: bees, birds

Bedtime reading: Wings, Terry Pratchett

Celebration of the Anniversary of the Birth of the Angry Lemming

I spent this sacred day (the first of Birthday Season) in meditation and, in the Angry Lemming's honor, kicking around the Mongols and the Spanish.


I wore no earrings.

An Ordinary Day, With Lunch

M and the Cricket came and had lunch with me today. They should come have lunch with me more often. It'd be fun.


Today's earrings: hands, dragonflies

Bedtime reading: Truckers, Terry Pratchett

I think I need a hobby

Ohh! I know! I'll spend the next few days thinking deeply about hobbies I could take up. I'll mull and consider, and if there's time, I'll research. That should fill the time nicely until the new season of Project Runway starts.


Today's earrings: strawberries, peas

Bedtime reading: Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett

The coats came today

It was too hot to wear them home, so I stopped off at the no-really-we-mean-it-this-time-we're-really-going-out-of-business rug store next door and picked up a telephone table. (The logic was inescapable, but would take too long to spell out.) The new table fits neatly in the niche in my kitchen, and, since it doesn't go with anything else in the place, fits right in.


Today's acquisitions:
- 2 coats
- 1 whatnot

Today's earrings: monkeys, fish

Bedtime reading: Cockatiels at Seven, Donna Andrews

After work

I took myself to Stacey's, where I picked up the new Donna Andrews. Inspired by the title, I took myself to Fancy Restaurant for a drink and some dinner. The maitre d' dude promptly handed me a copy of Salinger's Nine Stories and talked Salinger while I drank my cocktail and ate my spring rolls. Then he wandered off to do work and I read Salinger and ate my burger.

My dinner came with a reading assignment.


Today's earrings: bees, typewriter keys

Bedtime reading: Cockatiels at Seven, Donna Andrews

Another excellent brunch

Yummy, yummy, yummy
I've got eggs in my tummy


Today's earrings: coffee cups, green eggs

Bedtime reading: Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett

Actual phone call

- Hello
[gap]
- - Hello
- Hello?
- - Hello, is this Mrs. John?*
- Who's calling, please?
- - This is Name, from Pseudo-Patriotic Group, and I'm calling to talk about the ACLU's latest threat to America.
- [Draws breath to point out that the real threat to America comes from the people who brought us the FISA bill.]
- - May I speak to Elton?**
- [Burst of laughter]
- - Uhm...
- Elton John? You're calling for Elton John? [laughter] I've never met him, though I do admire his songwriting.
- - Oh, I guess I have the wrong number. Sorry. [click]

I'm trying to figure out whether that was 100% prank call, or whether some bizarre chain of events led to a Pseudo-Patriotic Group getting my phone number with Elton John's name attached and then handing that section of their call list to someone for whom the name "Elton John" rang no bells.

It's good to start the day with a laugh.

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*Not quite my surname.
**Not my name, at all.

What do you want for your birthday?

Inquiring relatives want to know.


Today's earrings: spiders, crows

Bedtime reading: Good Omens, Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

Rise & Shine

Woke up this morning with "rise, and shine, and give God your glory, glory; rise, and shine, and give God your glory, glory" running through my head.


Today's earrings: coffee cups, suns

Bedtime reading: Good Omens, Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

Reunited

To recap: I abandoned my coat at the lake. K, being an excellent sister, put my coat in the mail.


Time passed.


I decided that the Post Office had eaten my coat. Yesterday, CC came virtual shopping with me and helped me pick out a new coat. Two, actually, what with the sale...

This morning, our receptionist appeared at my desk with a battered box that had arrived by US Mail. (Did you know that $2 stamps have tigers on them? So cute.) Inside the box: my coat.

Now I shall have coats for all occasions.


Today's earrings: compasses

Bedtime reading: Good Omens, Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett