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Thursday, 31 August
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 31 Aug, 2006 |
Spooky plan the first: a party. Thing is, I don't really have parties in my home any more, especially Halloween parties. It's just too intimidating a process, with the outcome depending upon my very limited social capital. The solution? Throw a party at work! Then people have to come! HA! When I first started working here, they had elaborate Halloween potlucks. Serious decorations, lighting, the works. They stopped soon after, I think because the organizers just got burned out. I don't blame them. But still, it's something I'd like to see happen again, so I decided to do it myself. I've recruited a compatriot who is good at decorating, and has a lot of props. I'm going to scour the Halloween Food group for spooky ideas. Yes, it will be a potluck, but there's no way I'm leaving all the fun food to others! I want to bring as much myself as possible. Oooh...this would be a good way to use those goodie bags from last year, too. Of course this means I have to work on Halloween. Ah well, I'll manage. I think it will be a blast. I'm gonna show scary movies with the sound off, and bring in my fog machine, and, and...yeah, like that. *dances* Now I just have to plan cooking time in between haunt visits.
~Spooky~ | Cat Connor | 31 Aug, 2006 |
Wednesday, 30 August
~~ | Cat Connor | 30 Aug, 2006 |
Haunting Season has begun. I don't care if you wormy humans think it's still sweet, sweet Summer. I smelled Autumn in the air this morning, and have had a craving for all things spooky for a few weeks now. Today, I thought to myself: "Self, what would you like for lunch?" Self answered: "Something creepy!" So I fired up the internets and started looking for this year's fright. The earliest haunt is The 13th Door, which I didn't get to see last year. It opens in just two weeks! Then there will be a long dry spell until the rest of the haunts open in October. I shall have to content myself with planting spooky letterboxes, watching scary movies, building props for the yard, and generally tormenting my long-suffering Spousal Unit. Worse yet, this year we have a car of our own, which means I'll be dragging him to haunt after haunt. He reads comments here, so feel free to leave a note of sympathy. Now, back to scheming the screaming.
~Spooky~ | Cat Connor | 30 Aug, 2006 |
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Tuesday, 29 August
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 29 Aug, 2006 |
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Monday, 28 August
~~ | Cat Connor | 28 Aug, 2006 |
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Today's discovery: Pad Thai is every bit as good cold as it is hot. Yum. Saturday was laundry, and one itsy letterbox in the Pearl District. The Spousal Unit and I have decided that those types of boxes are better saved for winter months, when we can't go hiking. Then Sunday, ah, Sunday. Off for a hike up the Horsetail Falls trail with Wendie and Metta. It was a perfect day, we had a great time, and found two delightful letterboxes. Then SU and I decided we weren't too grubby for delicious Ethiopian food from Sheba's. Man, I lovelovelove that place. For the first time, we finished our whole plate. Hiking will do that. We are again in celebration mode as the SU got the first bit of his grant application turned in. Grants are arduous, and each step deserves Ethiopian food and beautiful scenery.
~Enough about me...~ | Cat Connor | 28 Aug, 2006 |
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Friday, 25 August
WELCOME HARVEY MICHAEL!And a big CONGRATULATIONS to Rob and Jen! Yay!
~~ | Cat Connor | 25 Aug, 2006 |
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Man, what a great anniversary. Bill and I have been married four years, but it seems more like four weeks. The day began with eggs, juice, and a lovely little present from Bill--a pyrite (at least I think it's pyrite?) heart that we'd had our eyes on for a while. We have a small collection of stone hearts that we add to on special occasions. From there, we went on an early-morning letterboxing jaunt at Crystal Springs Rhododendron Gardens. Since Bill hates the way I dole out clues a line at a time, I soon handed the sheet to him, and we wandered off, at first in the wrong direction. I got stung by a wasp I accidentally brushed with my hand, but it was no big deal. Apparently, I'm not allergic to yellow jackets. Finally we found the box, and sat down on a bench to stamp in. The box was pristine as we were the first finders, and there was a darling stuffed octopus inside as well. Surprising? Well...I inked up the stamp and handed it to Bill stamp-side down so he could put the impression in our log book. He lifted the stamp to find: 4th Anniversary August 24, 2006 **SMOOCH!** Yep, I'd carved a stamp, planted it a few days before, and faked up a clue page. Bill was completely surprised. Called me a sneaky fucker three times. I'm gonna be smug about that for a year. After that, Bill had to work a while, during which time I carved a special stamp having to do with who married us. After he was done, we planted a real letterbox in the same place I'd put the anniversary box. The rest of the day was spent doing real letterboxing at the Audubon Wildlife Preserve on Cornell. We sought 7 and found 3, which isn't bad for us! The place itself is beautiful, and we'll be back many times. End of the day was dinner at Queen of Sheba, and two exhausted travellers stumbled home. I want at least a hundred more like that, please.
~Love & Marriage~ | Cat Connor | 25 Aug, 2006 |
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Thursday, 24 August
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 24 Aug, 2006 |
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~Enough about me...~ | Cat Connor | 24 Aug, 2006 |
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Tuesday, 22 August
~~ | Cat Connor | 22 Aug, 2006 |
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Monday, 21 August
A co-worker just came back from working out, wearing soft, comfy pants and a t-shirt. Hmph! In my day, we knew how to dress for a workout. See, first you put on your undies and your sports bra. Then tights, the shinier the better. Then you have your bright spandex bottom and the matching spandex top--showing just a touch of midriff. Not like these harlots today, with the navel piercings and the butt crack and the hey-hey. Then came the sport socks, and next were the leg warmers. The leg warmers should not match the spandex! Finish off with a terry-cloth headband, and you're set. Comfort. Harrumph.
~Fashion Victim~ | Cat Connor | 21 Aug, 2006 |
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~Links~ | Cat Connor | 21 Aug, 2006 |
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I always mean to post promptly about whatever little adventures we undertake, but then all the pictures are stuck on the Spousal Unit's camera, and I wait. Well, no more! I'll just post pics later. And learn to take my own darned camera. Saturday we hiked Latourell falls with Wendie and Metta. It was the perfect hike--enough to get us sweaty and tired, but not enough to cause pain. Also, wow, gorgeous. There are two letterboxes on this hike, but the area around the first was too full of muggles to look for it. We did find the second, and thereby introduced W&M to their first letterbox! We'd told them about the hobby beforehand, and Metta spent much of the hike commenting on nice spots to hide boxes. I think she's hooked. They signed into the logbook with one of our spare stamps. Fun! Sunday we dragged out late, and did a bit more letterboxing around town. We tromped (respectfully) around Willamette National Cemetery, and found a lovely stamp there that was done in honor of the letterboxer's veteran father. Then we found a very special gem: Whitaker Ponds. We didn't find the letterbox there, but discovering this small, critter-filled park was enough for us. Head out NE Columbia, and turn North on NE 47th. Just a bit down the road, you'll see a "Whitaker Natural Area" banner tacked to a fence on your right. Park outside the fence, and go through the gate. The car gate was locked when we were there--it was only open to pedestrians. Inside you'll find thousands of native plants, hummingbirds, ducks, squirrels, and a lovely, tiny wetland. I really must go back. And post some pictures.
~Letterboxing~ | Cat Connor | 21 Aug, 2006 |
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Friday, 18 August
~~ | Cat Connor | 18 Aug, 2006 |
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I'm feeling that...that thing. No, not that thing. Yeesh, you people. Every spring I get the terrible urge to fly to Disneyland, and this year was no exception. The urge I'm feeling now is different, but the push feels of the same quality. I have a need to nest. To clean and paint, and to reach out to people. But not so far as to actually touch them, thank goodness. To build and craft. Possibly to make holiday gifts. This will last until I look at the partially blue wall in our livingroom, then fade into a bliss of gosh-a-book-sounds-nice. With any luck.
~Enough about me...~ | Cat Connor | 18 Aug, 2006 |
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Thursday, 17 August
"french laundry foie gras with marmalade on toasted brioche points makes you forget any suffering any animal went through with one bite." It was a private comment on a private blog entry. I shouldn't be posting it at all, and I may yet take it down. I certainly won't link or mention the person who said it. I will only say this: it's been bugging me for two days. I can't wrap my head around it. The words hurt my brain, and make me uncomfortable in my skin. I've said before that hipsters hate sincerity. Vegetarianism is often a very sincere expression of personal ethics. Not always, but enough to create a stigma of sincerity around practitioners. So much so that I can only guess some people run in the opposite direction, no matter how much a prick they look*. And now I'm going to do the same thing, in my own sweet prickish way, I guess. I know I can't exactly go veg all at once. What I can do is dump everything but the swimmies. Yes, I'm pretty sure that fish suffer when you hook them, reel them in, and whack them on the head (and I say this as someone who has always wanted to be a fisherperson). I will probably stop eating them eventually, I just want to approach this in a way that gives me the greatest chance of success. So goodbye Noho's teriyaki chicken, adios Arby's Beef 'n' Cheddar, so long breakfast bagels with bacon, and sandwiches with disgusting meat-like substance. I'll miss you, but it's time for a sincere expression of personal ethics. *Note to person who posted that comment, should you see this: I'm only saying you look a prick. I don't know anything about you.
~Enough about me...~ | Cat Connor | 17 Aug, 2006 |
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~~ | Cat Connor | 17 Aug, 2006 |
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I found myself inexplicably thinking about Brenda today. When I was 18, I attended Computer Career Institute, where I learned useful things like COBOL (ID, Environment, Data, and Program!) and Assembler. It was there I met my first husband (*shudder*) and our friend Brenda. I can't remember if Brenda arrived in Riverside before or after we arrived in Anaheim, but I remember it was nice to have a familiar face in California. Brenda was tall and busty, a former model, who was working on "healing herself", which she eventually did, keeping her polished walking stick as a memento. She hated it when I would say her name backwards, as I did often out of sheer silliness. She would unapologetically floss her teeth at the table, fuck as many people as she possibly could, and happily tell you about all of it. Did I want to know about the guy who couldn't get it in because his penis was as thick as a can of Coke? No, I didn't, and I bet you didn't either. Now it will haunt us both. Her cure for a yeast infection was nudity and sunshine, which may actually work, but I was never game to try it. Brenda took us to art fairs, and we hung out at her place, commenting miserably on how all the smog from LA ended up in Riverside. Looking back, I wonder if she and the first ex had something going on. Not that I care--I certainly didn't want the bastard. What is strangest of all is to realize that this was almost 25 years ago, and if Brenda is still around, she is probably a feisty old lady, using her walking stick again for support and as a curmudgeonly weapon, and flossing what's left of her teeth at the table.
~General Tomfoolery~ | Cat Connor | 17 Aug, 2006 |
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The doors on the vast bus barn on 17th were open today, revealing the gaping mechanical maws of the friendly buses I ride every day. The familiar turned alien, threatening. Westworld. We were riding in Yul Brynner.
~General Tomfoolery~ | Cat Connor | 17 Aug, 2006 |
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Two unlit neon letters left the sign saying "CODE" instead of "COFFEE" in my mind. I think it's time I got away from the historical mysteries and found something else to read. Since yesterday was Tuesday the Second (and no, I still didn't get it right), that makes today Wednesday. I've always hated the term "hump day". I am still embarrassed about fifth grade, when my friend Allison and I found out what "hump" meant, and spent the afternoon gleefully singing "HUMP HER TONIGHT" at passing cars, then giggling ourselves breathless. There's no good reason for me to be ashamed of this, as I'm sure the drivers heard only a preteen, sing-song "UHH ER EEEEEEYYYY". I'm probably remembering this tidbit because the Spousal Unit and I have been watching Medium, the series based on the life of Allison Dubois. We have just finished the first season on DVD. While the show is entertaining, it has a decidedly conservative slant that is becoming unsettling. The idea that lethal injection is "too gentle" and the increasing resentment of Allison's husband over doing a share of childcare because she's out saving lives is, well, not a part of the world I live in. In my world, Joe would be figuring out how to go part-time so he could help support his wife in her endeavors, the death penalty wouldn't be gleefully pursued, and the stand-ins for the Innocence Project wouldn't have been marginal bad guys. Bleah. But it's still entertaining. UPDATE: I couldn't resist looking around a little bit. Guess who retired from his career and takes care of the girls? Good on ya, Joe. UPDATE THE SECOND: I used "gleefully" twice in this entry. You know what the world has plenty of? Adverbs. They're everywhere. Bet I could find some if I looked hard enough.
~~ | Cat Connor | 17 Aug, 2006 |
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Wednesday, 16 August
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 16 Aug, 2006 |
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Last night I dreamed about my sister for the third night in a row. They aren't nightmares, but I'm certainly getting tired of it. Last night we were decorating for a Brady-Bunch themed Halloween party in the apartment where I spent my teen years. The very apartment where I did, in fact, decorate elaborately for a Halloween party once. I invited everyone! Nobody came but Colleen and her boyfriend. They sat around awkwardly for 20 minutes and left. None of that had anything to do with the Brady Bunch. In fact, nothing in my life except last night's bizarre dream has anything to do with the Brady Bunch. I have, thus far, led a blissfully Bunchless existence. Joe's Goals is down, and I may expire from pointlessness. Why do anything if I can't check the little box? WHY??! Ryan sent back a USB cable, along with one of these lovely cards painted by his wife, Huyen. I want some, but I have two boxes of note cards already, and only one person that I use them for. And I write that person twice a year, if I'm being particularly attentive. Obviously, I need more people to write. But not too many, as it's very hard work for me to make my handwriting legible. Or I could write many people, and just have them hold the card against their foreheads and divine the contents psychically. Working, working, waiting for Woody's second extubation attempt. Go Woody!
~Enough about me...~ | Cat Connor | 16 Aug, 2006 |
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Tuesday, 15 August
Spent the day at home nursing an ankle (that is such a weird word. Ankle ankle ankle.) that has become increasingly less cooperative since Angel's Rest. It got better during the day, then not so much better, so hell with the thing, it's getting wrapped and taken to work tomorrow. In the Annals of Immigration, we had a pretty serious fuckup a while ago, when I sent in a form for Bill on the last possible day (idiot mistake #1) and forgot to put in the fee (idiot mistake #2). So all we could do was wait for them to kick it back, then resubmit. They kicked it back very quickly, with a puzzling note: not only had I forgotten the fee, but the form was late. What? I sent it overnight. It's stamped with the proper arrival date right there. Hah, the problem was idiot mistake #3: I got the date off the wrong place, and the form was, in fact, a couple weeks late. So we're all feeling horrible 'round these parts, but we'll suck it up, write a letter of explanation, and send things back with fingers crossed. So what could we do but rent some movies and try to think happy thoughts. Watched Half Light, Demi Moore's latest spooky little mystery. It was pretty bad. No happy thoughts. I'm off to bed now, and I'm going to start this day over in the morning. I don't care if you think it's Wednesday. I declare tomorrow to be Tuesday The Second. Let's get it right this time.
~Enough about me...~ | Cat Connor | 15 Aug, 2006 |
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Monday, 14 August
~~ | Cat Connor | 14 Aug, 2006 |
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Sunday, 13 August
*groan* A while ago, we decided to have a hike with our friends, Wendie and Metta. It's scheduled for next weekend. Wendie recommended Angel's Rest. I took a look at the specs and decided it was way beyond our current fitness level, though Wendie described it as "easy". For some reason, I got a wild (aka, stupid) idea to find out who was right, the web, or Wendie. Six miserable fucking hours later, I decided the specs were right on. See, it's really, really hard for me to turn around before the end of a hike, especially if there's some cool goal, like the top of a mountain with a fantastic view. So we didn't turn around, we just went very slowly, and endured all the way to the top. If there had been a nasty, bug-ridden motel at the summit, charging $600 a night for a closet-sized room, we would have booked immediately. But no, we made our way down because hey, there's no choice at that point. Soo...I'll be looking at a few of those other hikes Wendie recommended. I'm wondering if we should be hiking together at all--but the company will be fun even if they have to slow down a lot for us. Because we didn't want to get knocked completely off the horse, the Spousal Unit and I took our poor, sore muscles and went hunting for a couple new pioneer cemeteries. Escobar, White Birch, and Gresham Pioneer are all tucked into a tiny corner on Walters Road, between a church and Forest Lawn, a huge, modern boneyard that holds little charm. It hardly seems that there are three cemeteriees there at all. We looked for Mt. View Stark, but there's simply nothing there. Either the location on the web is wrong, or it's been built over. Finally, we wandered out to Pleasant Home, which is a lovely spot in a churchyard, adjacent to a farm. We walked the small graveyard to the music of cows and sheep. I've decided that my first letterbox stamps will be Victorian gravestone motifs. The Spousal Unit had a better idea for placement though: it's fine to start people in a cemetery, but it could be construed as disrespectful to hide a letterbox in one. So we'll be going for spots with nearby parks or other places to hide boxes. We have a few candidates.
~Enough about me...~ | Cat Connor | 13 Aug, 2006 |
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Friday, 11 August
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 11 Aug, 2006 |
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It's been a hard morning. I figured out that I'd completely misunderstood Dreamhost's email restrictions, and that's why so many Blogathon sponsor emails weren't going out. At least I know what's wrong, because I was about panicked. Couldn't figure out why things weren't going, couldn't verify what went, couldn't hit anyone with a rock to make it better. So I'm spending the next few days sending emails. Which is fine, as long as it works. On a TMI note, I've tripled my flaxseed-oil dose (I wasn't taking very much), and will keep that up for a month and see if my hands improve. The one thing I won't do to combat eczema is stop petting the cat, and that may well be key. I'd rather live with the yuck than not have a kitty. In other non-news, the inability to post simple html to a Vox post (you can do it in comments, but not posts!) without jumping through hoops is annoying. I find I'm using Vox less and less, which is fine. I figured I would just use it to keep up with friends.
~Enough about me...~ | Cat Connor | 11 Aug, 2006 |
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Thursday, 10 August
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 10 Aug, 2006 |
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So far I have:
In other extremely personal news that you probably don't want to hear about, I have manage to rid myself of two nemeses over the last year: asthma and IBS (aka: the poopmonster). Unfortunately, I didn't follow the troubleshooter's credo, and do one thing at a time, so I don't know exactly what worked. I'm pretty sure quitting sugar did the poopmonster in. Exercise had something to do with the asthma, but I'm not that much fitter than I was a year ago. Not enough to explain 18 months without an asthma attack. If I were going to over-analyze, and I am, I would have a couple of theories. I could have just grown out of it; after all, I grew into it. I know a lot of people who developed asthma as adults, but I don't know if it just "goes away" eventually. The second suspicion is supplements. About 18 months ago, I added extra vitamin D, flax seed oil, and pro-biotics to the heavy-duty multivitamin and C I already took. The point of this all is that when you're sick, it seems like you're always going to be sick, and you just live with it. I believed I would never get better. Now I know I can. Next target: eczema. *scratches hands*
~Enough about me...~ | Cat Connor | 10 Aug, 2006 |
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Wednesday, 09 August
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 09 Aug, 2006 |
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I don't celebrate enough. Had a good Blogathon, so did I go out and party? Buy a new widget? Nah. Didn't even think about it. No wonder I have a hard time getting anything done. What's in it for me? Yeah, I'm mostly kidding. I've never been one to celebrate a job well done. I think it's time that changed. We just launched the new intranet site at work. It has been my baby for far too long, and it's good to see it finally out getting some use. It's a big accomplishment. I'm not sure quite how I'm going to do it, but I think it's time to celebrate.
~Enough about me...~ | Cat Connor | 09 Aug, 2006 |
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Lessee...movies we've seen lately...
Blogathon was amazing, and for a change I'm not completely burned out, and am already working on next year. I'm also working on a project for a friend, which is very, very different. You'll see. Oh, finally, this really deserves its own post, but I'm lazy: I've been using Joe's Goals since it launched two months ago, and I must say I'm enjoying it very much. The interface is dead simple, and Joe keeps adding neat new features, yet keeping that interface intact. The only problem with it is you can get carried away adding goals, because they're so fun to check off.
~Enough about me...~ | Cat Connor | 09 Aug, 2006 |
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Tuesday, 08 August
~~ | Cat Connor | 08 Aug, 2006 |
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Monday, 07 August
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 07 Aug, 2006 |
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Sunday, 06 August
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 06 Aug, 2006 |
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Saturday, 05 August
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 05 Aug, 2006 |
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Friday, 04 August
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 04 Aug, 2006 |
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Tuesday, 01 August
~Links~ | Cat Connor | 01 Aug, 2006 |
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