Today's earworm

Trailers for sale or rent
Rooms to let...fifty cents.
No phone, no pool, no pets
I ain't got no cigarettes
Ah, but..two hours of pushin' broom
Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room
I'm a man of means by no means
King of the road.
- - Roger Miller

Today's earrings: compasses

Bedtime reading: Swan for the Money, Donna Andrews

Another eventful day

I spent most of the day on a project that rightfully belongs to a coworker. See, he was out sick, and there was a deadline, so my boss started work on it. She soon found that the way he'd been keeping it was, shall we say, not up to her standards. So yesterday evening she roped me in. Today I got our local IT dude to pull reports for me,* then spent the afternoon blissed-out playing with Excel. Also, avoiding coworker (who I was hoping would be out again today, but no, he came in) because I don't know exactly what our boss told him. I'll be done messing with his stuff on Monday. I hope he forgives me...


*Tip to programmers: when you're creating a database, build in some kind of report function accessible to the end-user types. Everyone will be much happier.


Today's earrings: bees, estrogen molecules

Bedtime reading: Swan for the Money, Donna Andrews

So nice when the right dress wins.

I think Shirin won just for that waistline. As she should.

The Models of the Runway are living up to their drama-promise. In this week's episode:

The models were astonished and displeased that Mitchell survived this round, and they all dread getting stuck with him because a) they think he's not long for this competition and b) he didn't exactly charm them with last week's blame-the-model stunt.

We waste a lot of time listening to the models re-recite the rules of the game, and various among them talk about their sucking-up techniques. Fatma announces that her designer Logan is hot.

Finally, we get to model-picking. Shirin surprises everybody by going back to the model she had in the first episode. Ra'mon makes a big production of wanting to switch to Althea's model, but Althea gives him massive stinkeye and he backs off and chooses the same model as this week. Mitchell chooses Fatma. As she passes behind the screen, she dramatically raises her hands to the sky in a "why me, Lord?" gesture (that everyone sees). She begins tantrumming about losing Logan the hottie for Mitchell the loser as soon as she hits the model room, and won't shut up. Out at the runway, Logan chooses someone else. Fatma glares at her when she gets back to the model room. Somebody tries to reason with Fatma about maybe not being so openly obnoxious while the cameras are running, and Fatma turns on her. The rest of the game of musical chairs goes off without serious incident. The one left out is Malvin's model Valerie, who seems to be a lovely woman. Everyone is sorry to see her go. Except Fatma, who's still pouting about losing Logan.

Next week: Fatma, still not getting over it.


Today's earrings: flies, fish

Bedtime reading: Swan for the Money, Donna Andrews

How I spent my afternoon

Note: "brides chaussure" is not labeled on this diagram. We decided to go with "pull tab," though "bootstrap" was a strong contender.

Today's earrings: frogs, rocks

Bedtime reading: Swan for the Money, Donna Andrews

Galileo's telescope

Today's earrings: turtles, other turtles

Bedtime reading: Swan for the Money, Donna Andrews

Anxiety, not seasonal

As most of you have heard, ad nauseam, I got to the bus stop this morning and realized that I didn't have my wallet. I went home and searched, and did not find it. There was panic. I spent the morning all worried, making lists of things I'd have to replace and errands I had planned to run this afternoon and now couldn't because my wallet was gone. My boss pointed out that I could get money from my accounts by the quaint stratagem of entering a bank branch with my checkbook and writing a check to "cash." That was most comforting, and had not occurred to me.

We were freed after four hours' labor, and I sped to the burger joint where I'd gotten dinner last night. Wonder of wonders, they had my wallet, completely intact, behind the register. I <3 my local burger joint.

I went to run my errands, then popped over to M's for dinner with the family: S&D most charmingly met me at the station with umbrellas; K made yummy crepes for dinner; M won two games of rummy tiles; AL&CC obligingly ran me to my doorstep.


Today's earrings: diamonds, aquamarines

Bedtime reading: Six Geese A-Slaying, Donna Andrews

Welcome K & S & D!

United says their plane has landed, which caps a most satisfactory evening:
I succumbed to the siren call of the sale at the SF Center Borders... only to find that the main Borders store on the 4th floor isn't closing, just the newsstand in the basement next to the BART/MUNI station. But it's all right - I found the last stocking stuffer! Hooray! (Don't worry, M, I've still got you covered.) And, since I was in a bookstore and everything, I got a couple things for me. I just caught a bus going home, and then just got to my door as the drizzle started.


Today's purchases:
Soon I Will Be Invincible, Austin Grossman
Six Geese A-Slaying, Donna Andrews

Today's earrings: coffee cups, teaspoons

Bedtime reading: Six Geese A-Slaying, 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

Speed

Reluctantly crouched at the starting line
Engines pumping and thumping in time
The green light flashes, the flags go up
Churning and burning they yearn for the cup

They deftly manuver and muscle for rank
Fuels burning fast on an empty tank
Reckless and wild, they pour through the turns
Their prowess is potent and secretly stern

As they speed through the finish, the flags go down
The fans get up and they get out of town
The arena is empty except for one man
Still driving and striving as fast as he can

The sun has gone down and the moon has come up
Not long ago somebody left with the cup
But he's driving and striving an hugging the turns
And thinking of someone for who he still burns

- - John McCrea


Today's earrings: coffee cups, hummingbirds

Bedtime reading: Owl's Well That Ends Well, Donna Andrews

Poor Jonathan

He was seriously annoying me, but I hate seeing him forced to withdraw on a medical. He wanted so much to play... Chet quitting in the same episode was just galling.


Today's earrings: flies, alligators

Bedtime reading: Owl's Well That Ends Well, Donna Andrews

Return of the cooks

The squirrelly guy is annoying me.

I count seven New Yorkers, four San Franciscan, two each from Chicago and Atlanta, and one Angelena. No one's currently working in Vegas. hmmmm.

I predict trouble between the couple. The judges will like one of them better, and the other contestants will not be supportive. I do hope they come out the other side still wanting to be together.


Today's earrings: pigs, peas

Bedtime reading: Owl's Well That Ends Well, Donna Andrews

Prosperity

Main Entry:	prosperity
Part of Speech:	noun
Definition:	good fortune
Synonyms:	abundance, accomplishment, advantage, affluence, arrival, benefit, boom, boomlet, clover, do, ease*, easy street*, exorbitance, expansion, flying colors*, fortune, go, good, good times, gravy train*, growth, increase, inflation, interest, luxury, opulence, plenteousness, plenty, prosperousness, riches, success, successfulness, thriving, velvet, victory, wealth, welfare, well-being
Antonyms:	failure, hardship
Source:	Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.3.1) Copyright © 2008 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved. * = informal or slang

Today's earrings: flowers, coins

Bedtime reading: Owl's Well That Ends Well, Donna Andrews

Pretty good day

I hit Green Apple after work, and discovered
:) - a present for Tiger
:) - Pomegranate has reissued the Fantod Deck
:) - they had penicillin in stock
:( - you have to spend $150 to get a free bag. No free bag for me.

Then there were pot stickers. :)


Today's acquisitions: Life on the Mississippi; Mark Twain; Bantam, 1990
Winnie Ille Pu; A.A. Milne, Alexander Lenard, trans.; Penguin, 1991
Men and Gods; Rex Warner, trans., Edward Gorey, il.; New York Review of Books, 2007
The Fantod Pack, Interpreted by Madame Groeda Weyrd; Edward Gorey; Pomegranate, 2007
The Culture of Fear; Barry Glassner; Basic Books, 1999
The Three-Martini Playdate; Christie Mellor; Chronicle Books, 2004
How To; Jennifer McKnight-Trontz; Chronicle Books, 2004

[some presents]

Today's earrings: mice, men

Bedtime reading: Owl's Well That Ends Well, Donna Andrews

Spring Forward

Brunch @ M's. Afterward, there was a little light shopping.


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: Owl's Well That Ends Well, Donna Andrews

I found you guys a game to play

http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq


Today's earrings: coffee cups, crows

Bedtime reading: Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon, Donna Andrews

I wish you all watched Survivor

...because then I could just say, "OMG! Tracy totally rules! Cirie too!" and you'd know what I was talking about. I love those two. I want one of them to win.


Today's earrings: pineapples, peas

Bedtime reading: Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon, Donna Andrews

Not pleased

The wrong one won Project Runway. And Muni has proposed changing the bus routes I take to work.

I'm going to go wallow in pointless aggrievedness now.


Today's earrings: sapphires, flowers

Bedtime reading: Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon, Donna Andrews

Happy Leap Day

So today one of my coworkers said, quite seriously, that she thought there were 30 days in February. If she's playing dumb, she's doing it really convincingly...


Today's earrings: frogs, kangaroos

Bedtime reading: Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon, Donna Andrews

Glistening through a tear of tremulous admiration

Confirmed my hypothesis about the homeless guy in Stacey's - he will move over if asked politely.
I am over-pleased with my new plant dictionary. Inside are gems like

• Boojum tree Idria columnaris
• Darling lily Crinum flaccidum
• Firewheel tree Stenocarpus sinuatus
• Honesty Lunaria annua
• Joker's hat chilli Capsicum baccatum 'Bi-Bell'
• the Larch Larix
• Nodding clubmoss Lycopodiella cernua
• Painted tongue Salpiglossis sinuata
• Rosy posy Rhodohypoxis baurii
• Toadflax Linaria, L. vulgaris
• Velvet prickly pear Opuntia tomentosa
• Zombi palm Zombia antillarum

I'm almost as pleased about the darling lily as I was to find out Grace Darling was a real person.
*gloat*gloat*gloat*


Today's book purchase:
The Penguin Who Knew Too Much, Donna Andrews
Flora's Plant Names; Loretta Barnard, Dannielle Doggett, Fiona Doig, Kate Etherington, eds.
Games Magazine, October 2007

Today's earrings: flies, amber teardrops

Bedtime reading: The Penguin Who Knew Too Much, Donna Andrews