Spelling Bee!

Spelling Bee Dude said "ma-ook-a," and I was like, "huh?" until he said it meant "toward the mountains," at which point I was all, "oh, mauka." Then Spelling Bee Dude said it had no other pronunciations. And I'm all "What!?" Dad said it with two syllables. He even was a native-ish speaker, unlike Spelling Bee Dude. hmph.


Today's earrings: turtles, trees

Bedtime reading: Dragon's Claw, Peter O'Donnell

Scales

Happy Equinox! The sun enters Libra today.

I spent the morning on the phone trying to figure out how to set the time on my 5-year tchotchke. My quest was hampered by the nice lady's inability to find me in her computer. Turns out I'd been filed under the wrong company, and was actually supposed to have been picking from an entirely different tchotchke array. Did I want to send my tchotchke back and choose another? I told her no, no - now that I know how to set the time, the clock is lovely.

Then I got a call from The Realtor (fille), talking about me coming in write an offer this week. I asked if that meant she'd heard from the city about my ap. Um, er, no. Mmmkay. I'd be happy to move along with this, but until we get approval from the city it's kind of pointless, and The Realtor (père) only submitted the paperwork on Friday, so, huh? I did take it as a reminder to leave a follow-up voicemail with the city.

Later, I did some actual work.


Today's earrings: alligators, other alligators

Bedtime reading: Night of the Morning Star, Peter O'Donnell

The Object-Lesson

At twilight, however, no message had come from the asylum,
so the others retired to the kiosk,
only to discover the cakes iced a peculiar shade of green
and the tea-urn empty
save for a card on which was written the single word:
Farewell.
- - Edward Gorey

Did anyone see a psychiatric explanation of why House's hallucinations were of Amber and Kuttner? Because I didn't. Rendered the whole enterprise fairly pointless.



Today's earrings: diamonds, suns

Bedtime reading: Night of the Morning Star, Peter O'Donnell

In translation

The moon, like a flower
In heaven’s high bower,
With silent delight
Sits and smiles on the night.

- - William Blake

“Okay, let’s see… In mellow-speak, that would be… ‘Oh, wow, look at the moon.’”

- - Garry Trudeau


Today's earrings: monkeys, mice

Bedtime reading: Night of the Morningstar, Peter O'Donnell

More dentistry

I've never had so much novocaine, and this was just a cleaning. Now the left side of my mouth is throbbing gently.


Today's earrings: amethysts

Bedtime reading: The Xanadu Talisman, Peter O'Donnell

The song in my head for the past two days

Hey look me over, lend me an ear,
Fresh out of clover, morgaged up to here,
Don't pass the plate folks,
Don't pass the cup,
I figure whenever you're down and out,
The only way is up
And I'll be up like a rose bud,
High on the vine,
Don't thumb your nose folks,
Take a tip from mine,
I'm a little bit short of the elbow room,
But let me get me some,
And look out world, here I come

- - Carolyn Leigh


Today's earrrings: compasses

Bedtime reading: Sabre-Tooth, Peter O'Donnell

Farewell, IT Dude

One of our IT dudes left today. The receptionist and I were lamenting this in the ladies' room, because the guy who left is good at his job, and a nice guy, too. This is in contrast to some of his predecessors.
Not like A, I said. I think he was hired for his looks.
And C, she replied, he was also more decorative than useful.
Yes, I said, I remember when I started here, thinking 'that's the best-looking IT department I've ever seen,' and wondering why we had a bunch of male models tending to our programming needs.
She laughed, because it's true.


Today's earrings: leaves, other leaves

Bedtime reading: Sabre-Tooth, Peter O'Donnell

My boss shared this with me

A sign of the End of Days


Today's earrings: monkeys, alligators

Bedtime reading: A Taste for Death, Peter O'Donnell

For those who were wondering...

I've given all my financial records to a loan officer, who called me this morning and asked if I'd given her the right ssn. Or maybe been out of the country? I managed to convince her that I was sane, despite having no credit rating, and she seems to be letting it be a challenge to her.

No decision yet.

To fill the time, I installed a tag cloud. Now I'll have to reformat the tags, which will fill more time. Score!


Today's earrings: amethysts

Bedtime reading: A Taste for Death, Peter O'Donnell

hover hop flutter

Now that the election's over you'd think I'd be able to concentrate at work. But no. Maybe I just picked the wrong earrings today...


Today's earrings: frogs, hummingbirds

Bedtime reading: A Taste for Death, Peter O'Donnell

That's much better.

I'm not all that enthused about Obama - he's said some things, and voted for some stuff, that I am still way not happy about - but OMG I am SO INCREDIBLY cap-locking HAPPY that he won, in a landslide, sweeping Democrats into office behind him all over the place. Maybe we can start inching back away from the Pit now.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed about Prop 8.


eta: I am totally enthused about Michelle Obama as First Lady. Damn, but that woman has poise. Plus the whole smart & accomplished thing. She's going to be great.

Today's earrings: eyes, liberty dimes

Bedtime reading: A Taste For Death, Peter O'Donnell

Surprise!

Friday I got home and found a packet in the mail from the mayor's office of housing about my application for that BMR unit. I figured it was pro forma - just them letting me know that they'd processed the paperwork. I mean, I didn't do so well in the lottery. I was going to call today and see if the letter meant I'm qualified for the program in general, because that would cut down the paperwork for the next time I applied.

Before I got around to calling the guy from the mayor's office, I got a call from the developer's rep. He said eight of the applicants ahead of me either didn't qualify, or found another place, or failed to get financing. If I can get financing, I can have the place. And would I like to come see it again today? After he reassured me that he wasn't kidding, I said yes. Then I asked M to come along.

We all met at 4. M liked the place. I still like the place. Now I just have to get financing.

Best case scenario: I buy this apartment and promptly get two credit cards so I can refinance at a better rate in a year or two.
Worst case scenario: I stay in my rent-controlled apartment.
I see this turning out well.


Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: A Taste for Death, Peter O'Donnell

Blue Dress

I spent the afternoon supervising M as she made my Halloween costume (it's gorgeous), and then we went to see Bottle Shock. I strongly recommend the theater - they bring you pizza & beer while you're watching the movie from a comfy armchair. The movie was pretty good. Turns out it's but loosely based on actual events (shocking!).


Today's earrings: compasses

Bedtime reading: Last Day in Limbo, Peter O'Donnell

Full day, with serious ick factor.

New Dude started work today. (Yay! Hooray!) I spent a couple hours explaining Turkey. Then I went to lunch with the Cricket. We did not eat turkey. In the afternoon, I got a little work done while fielding questions from New Dude.

Met b2 for wine & pizza after work. We were waiting at the counter for the staff to uncork another bottle so we could have seconds when Hot Guy appeared in search of a quick slice. We invited him to sit with us. We talked tv for a while, then HG told me I'd missed a team-building exercise: after I left, my colleagues had decided to clean the Troll's desk. HG had decided to do something about the mold growing in the coffee cup that the Troll had left half-full when he went on vacation, and I guess things escalated from there. They shook a loaf's worth of crumbs out of the keyboard, chipped the filth from the desktop... but there wasn't much they could do about the crusted yellow stain on the chair. Ewwwwwwwwwwww. Then HG left to pursue his evening plans, and b2 and moved on to less revolting topics.


Today's earrings: lizards, rocks

Bedtime reading: Modesty Blaise, Peter O'Donnell

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

No earrings today

I was halfway to the bus stop when I realized my ears were naked. Oh, no!

Annual review today. My boss says she approves of me.


Bedtime reading: Modesty Blaise: The Gabriel Set-Up, Peter O'Donnell, Jim Holdaway, il

The Past

"Photography preserves moments like flies in amber."
- - Rudolf Arnheim

Kinda scary: http://www.ambericawest.com/fieldguide6.html
http://www.amberworkshop.com/buy_amber_inclusions_insects_and_plants.htm
http://www.mineralminers.com/html/ambmins.stm
but the book's not bad: http://www.wilmccarthy.com/Ffta.htm


Today's earrings: flies, amber

Bedtime reading: Modesty Blaise: The Gabriel Set-Up, Peter O'Donnell, Jim Holdaway, il

The Future

Made my first post to Craigslist, and shifted some plastic stackable desk boxes.
Reserved a hotel room.
Finally brought home the Amazon package that came last week.
Ate soup for dinner.

Contents of package:
A Chronicle and Flora of Niihau, Juliet Rice Wichman & Harold St. John, National Tropical Botanical Garden 1990
How to Disagree Without Being Disagreeable, Suzette Haden Elgin, John Wiley & Sons, Inc 1997
Modesty Blaise: The Gabriel Set-Up, Peter O'Donnell, Jim Holdaway, il. 2004
The Twelve Terrors of Christmas, John Updike, Edward Gorey, il., Pomegranate 2006
Rethinking Thin, Gina Kolata, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2007
The Reminder, Feist, Cherrytree/Interscope 2007
Kill to Get Crimson, Mark Knopfler, Warner Bros. Records 2007
Drastic Fantastic, KT Tunstall, Virgin 2007


Today's earrings: dragonflies, other dragonflies

Bedtime reading: Modesty Blaise: The Gabriel Set-Up, Peter O'Donnell, Jim Holdaway, il.