A gentle reminder… May 27, 2009

While going through the blogs listed on the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day list, I was reminded of a very important thing.

Playlists are for iPods, personal computers, and the occasional mix tape/cd.  They are not for unsuspecting visitors to your blog who may or may not be listening to their own music on Pandora or trying to watch Once Upon a Time in Mexico.  Especially when said visitor also has nine other blogs open in different tabs because she’s trying to get through a major list of blogs giving away great stuff.

Seriously, kids.  At least make the music optional.  Don’t make it start the second your page loads, or I will click away as fast as I can.  I will not add you to my RSS feed (even though my RSS feed doesn’t play the music), and I will not sign up for your giveaway.  If that’s a chance you’re willing to take, by all means… But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

And yes, the same is true even if you happen to be playing music I adore.

Now I just need to use it…. May 26, 2009

For the first time in at least a decade, I have a library card.  I lost mine, found mine, and lost it again, so I figured since I had moved I would just pretend I was a new person.  I can’t get in too much trouble, right?

I put it off for so long because I am terrible with books.  For starters, I like to keep books.  I may never read them again, but it’s comforting to know I can if I want to.  Secondly, I take forever to read books.  It’s not uncommon for me to have multiple books going at once, and it often takes me months to read them.  This is also why I don’t care for borrowing books from friends.  Third, I’m hard on books.  I like to dog-ear.  I often spill (usually water, but sometimes soda).  I drop them in bathtubs (but I figure since my new bathtub sucks and I haven’t taken a bath since February, this shouldn’t be an issue).  This is also why I don’t like to borrow from friends, ha.

But I figure, there’s more to libraries than books.  There’s museum passes, and CDs, and DVDs.  There’s audiobooks, probably, which I find hard to keep up with because I always see shiny things and forget to listen, but the option is there.

So.. yay me.  It’s been a long time coming (as Rocketdog can attest).

Quickie May 25, 2009

Spent yesterday out in the yard putting in flowers.  When my plants look like more than just slightly brighter splotches on the dark soil, I’ll grab a picture or two, but in the meantime I want to share my first major gardening success EVAH.

Wee tomato!

It is, perhaps, hard to see him in the picture… I had to grab the picture fast before the sprinkler came back to get me.  Behind him is the future home of my raised bed garden.  I think this week we’re going to work on getting dirt into the gardens.  We’ve been remiss, to say the least.

How I Spent my Monday May 20, 2009

Approximately 4 hours, which included trying to find the various locations as well as time spent at the actual destinations.  2.5 of which were spent sitting nearly perfectly still while someone yanked at me nervously.

5 hair pins, 43 bobby pins, and 26 hair snaps (23 mirrors, 3 crystals) later…

Somewhat prim, but never proper.

Whoops! Time to redye!

You can see the rest of the photo set here, and everyone else’s (for I wasn’t alone in this torture) here.

The evening also included, but was not limited to heading to see my insurance agent and almost getting in an accident in his parking lot; helping my dad put his first listing on Etsy; freaking out people at TGI Fridays with our fancy-pants hair-dos and plain clothes.  All in all, I was out of my house for 10 hours and well past my bedtime.

Does 3Mx2=6M? May 13, 2009

I just had to blog about the bandage I found at work.  I only mention it because it one-ups the previous post in which I waxed poetic about Nexcare bandages.  And while I still believe Nexcare bandages are the shiznit, I have found better.

Behold:

Sorry so crappy--had to take it left handed

Oh yes.  That is, in fact, Davy Jones of Pirates of the Caribbean fame.  Not only that but it’s got three more things going for it. 1. It sticks like the dickens, even on my joints.  2. It is perfectly shaped to fit my cut. 3. It’s a Nexcare bandage.  Oh yes.  Really, 1 and 3 should be the same because… It sticks like the dickens BECAUSE it’s a Nexcare bandage.

I am a devout generic product user, but for your money, Nexcare is the way to go.  It may cost more, but you end up using far more generics when they keep falling off.

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing May 11, 2009

As a Minnesotan, I think it’s almost a requirement to be fairly faithful to 3M products.  Or maybe it’s just the fact that 3M products are found everywhere and in just about everything.  But while some people may be stuck on Band-Aid brand, I find myself partial to Nexare 3M bandages.

I cut myself doing stupid, stupid things with a black bean can.  Namely, either my can opener sucks or my can opening skills are lacking, so I was trying to pry apart the still-connected pieces with a spoon.  Of course my spoon slipped and my thumb rammed directly into the edge of the lid.  After calling The Hippy inside to turn off the heat on the meat while I kept myself from passing out in the bathroom, I rummaged in the medicine cabinet for my bandages.  My box of generic had two 3Ms that I’d thrown in to empty a box.

I cannot speak highly enough of Nexcare bandages.  They stick like mad, even after washing hands.  90% of my cuts happen on my hands (occupational hazard), so that’s incredibly important to me.  They’re fabric, so they don’t tear or crack, but they also don’t uncomfortably take on water like other fabric bandages.

So now I sit here, hurting and nauseous.  But I can rest assured that my thumb is in good hands.

I almost don’t know how to read these numbers May 6, 2009

The American Dream

I’m reading Bill Bryson’s I’m a Stranger Here Myself.  It is, in fact, a pretty awesome book for a number of reasons.  First, Bill Bryson is a great writer.  I first encountered him when reading The Mother Tongue for a liguistics class in college.  He’s funny, insightful, and wicked smart.  Second, it’s a collection of newspaper columns he wrote after returning to the US after 20 years in Britain.  This means that I can read “chapters” quickly and find a stopping point easily.  I feel as if I’m flying through this book because I’m already on 14!  Fourteen!  With no effort at all!  Third, it’s giving me a new way to look at everything I take for granted.

“Chapter” 14 is called The Numbers Game.  It’s about large numbers.  This book was published in 1999, but presumably these columns were written around 1996.  In this chapter he mentions the National Debt Clock in New York.

If you remember, last year the clock had to do away with the dollar sign in order to add another diget.  If you don’t live in New York, you can keep track of the National Debt here.  When Bill wrote his column, the national debt was $4,533,603,804,000.  The debt has nearly tripled in 13 years.  Sort of takes the guessing out of why everyone is in finacial freakout these days.

This debt includes everything–not just credit cards.  I’m sure my personal debt is far lower than most people’s.  I have no credit card debt, and have never in my life carried a balance more than a couple months.  I do have student loans, and while I think they are completely excessive (by my standards), I know that they could be worse, and no one can reposses my education, blah blah blah.  But still, debt frightens me, and it frightens me even more to see a number as huge as $11 trillion.  Trillion.

I’m going to bury my head in my book again, and hopefully speed through the trillion chapter.  It would truly be lovely to see that dollar sign come back to the clock.  Think it will ever happen?