April 2004 Archives

How to play:

- Grab the nearest book.
- Open the book to page 23.
- Find the fifth sentence.
- Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

From "The Tarot According to You" (which wasn't the closest reading material, but was possibly the closest book):

"Ups and downs." (which isn't a proper sentence, but was the fifth phrase that ended with a period)

See, stuff like this is why fortune-telling "works." Of course there are ups and downs. It's ridiculously easy to apply such a vague phrase to any part of your life. (I'm not passing judgment here--I don't care whether you believe the cards (or whatever) were influenced from beyond (or wherever) or whether you just use it as a jumping-off point for a little self-analysis. It's just an opinion.)

If I ever end up with a camera phone, I'm definitely moblogging. And this is what you can do with all those pictures! Note: thar's a link in the link to a freeware (!) photomosaic tool. Nifty! On the back burner for now, but something to remember....

The first batch of the year is in the bottles....

I'm not claiming to understand this but some of them are kinda pretty....

Now here is a cool site design: malevole. I stumbled on this looking for lorem ipsum generators....

I finally found a wallpaper book! With our office in a design center, you'd think these things would be tossed left and right, but apparently they're not. Anyhow, I worked late last night, and when I left, there was a stack of sample books in the trash on our floor. Yippee! They're kind of smallish, but I'm sure there are Things To Be Done with them.

Scene from our common weekend pub stop:

Mark, reading Cook's Illustrated: "Bacon is now a 1.4 billion dollar industry." (or whatever number--I don't actually remember)
Later on, Darcy, reading Family History: "Gee, scrapbooking is a 1.2 billion dollar industry now."
Pause.
Mark: "Almost as big as bacon."

Well, it struck me as quite clever and amusing at the time. I find myself mentally adding the comment "almost as big as bacon" to the end of underwhelming statements.

I was in first place for an entire week, apparently much to the chagrin of my dear father-in-law ;-) It may never happen again, so I snapped a screen print for posterity.

Last weekend I shot a 28 at sporting clays! I'm getting better! I had a super time, and I was relaxed and not really worried about my score, because the previous time out I got 25 and that had really been my goal. I know at some point I'll have to get a lower score but so far I just keep going up and up! It's quite exhilarating, actually.

Today we took Maggie to Briley to get fitted with a better recoil pad. (Well, okay, the existing pad really barely qualifies as such, so it's more like "get fitted with a recoil pad.") I am looking forward to reduced bruising!

One of the random titles of the latest spam wave.... Most of them are complete nonsense, but I kind of like this one. A castanet curfew? On the area palazzo? Say it ain't so!!

Things started out well enough--I got up in time to go to the grocery store on the way to work and restock lunch stuff. Decided I'd treat myself to a smoothie. The drive-thru for the adjacent Starbuck's was blocking the parking lot, as usual, so around the block and in through the back door. Five minutes later, I notice the plastic cap isn't on securely and I have smoothie all over my jeans and blouse. Back home to change clothes. By now it's a little late, so I figured I'd take what used to be my normal route through the park. I've been going another way because the construction at the end of my normal route is horrendous, but I thought since it was later, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Got hassled on the little road that goes by the school by some jerk trying to make the one wide lane (so the buses can park and drop off kids) into two lanes (so uptight people can pass in a school zone) but I always sort of enjoy that, because I just toodle right down the middle of the big fat lane at exactly the speed limit. It usually works, and this morning was no exception. Got through the park and to the construction, and for a bit it seemed like it wasn't too bad, but then it just all came to a halt, and I ended up waiting under the overpass for over five minutes, while the people around me got more and more irritated. Everybody scooches around like being one inch forward when the construction guy turns his sign around is going to make all the difference. Anyhow, finally got to work an hour and a half after I left the house the first time....

I didn't know this guy had a website. But then, I had neither wondered nor looked for one, so that's not surprising. Found it through a link about "sparklines" and thought I recognized the style....

I had forgotten how much I loooooove cotton candy! We took Texas Bob out for birthday dinner at Ibiza, with Kirsten, and somehow our waiter found out it was a birthday dinner, and thus brought us the signature humongous martini glass piled high with fluffy pink cotton candy, topped with a sparkler. I've seen it happen so many times there, but never been at a receiving table.... Kirsten and I devoured the stuff. It really is heavenly. I don't think I've had it since high school, and that made it that much better. You wouldn't really want to eat it very often, I suppose.

Yesterday afternoon we attended our first baseball game (exhibition) of the season. It was a perfect day for it. We had to run through some rain at the beginning, but about halfway through they opened the roof and it was a perfect spring day. I sang along during the stretch--the stars at night, are big and bright (clap clap clap clap) deep in the heart of Texas--and all was well with the world, even though the Astros didn't win.

Today Mark started our first homebrew of the year. We'll have a perfectly-timed Maibock in a few weeks. I can hardly wait! The house still smells of boiling hops and whatever else goes into it. I spent a little time raking and weeding in the back flowerbed. I'm looking forward to appreciating the results tomorrow morning. It usually seems like kind of a letdown right after you finish, because you worked so hard and it doesn't look so different, but the next day is often a pleasant surprise. That's what I'm hoping for, anyhow.

I finished re-reading Maggie Now this afternoon. I really didn't remember it at all from the first time. I think I had it confused with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Anyhow, it was super, and now I'm on to Around the Bend. Mark wonders why I'm on an old-book kick. Just seems like the thing to read right now, that's all. Cryptonomicon was FABULOUS but I'm not ready to dive into another multi-hundred pager just yet. I like these old stories about people. The lives they paint are so different from anything I would imagine, they might as well be science fiction.