Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Grammar goodies

Most excellent.



Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).



Are You Gooder at Grammar?

Make a Quiz



Now take it and tell me what you scored. Make sure to post the results on your own blog to spread the grammar love.

Nothing like a little public humiliation...



This is several months old, but I just came across this picture and thought I would share.

For your viewing *ahem* pleasure, a picture from my bachelorette party. Yes, I am drinking out of a diamond shaped ring shot glass. Yes, I am adorned with many shiny sparkly things. Yes, that is in fact a veil made of bar bathroom paper towel.

This is the first time any of the pictures have been put out to the internets, as far as I know, and it may be the last.

The party was a blast, and I was surely and soundly humiliated by my dearest and closest friends, as per tradition. And I can't wait for the rest of them (you know who you are!) to get married so that I can return the favour. Bwahahahahaha.

In all fairness, I did get off quite lightly, compared to some of the other poor girls I've seen dragged around town in horrid getups. In fact, I fared far better than my husband - he may have made an even prettier woman than I did that night. But I'll save those pictures for another day...

Performancing

Becky at Savvy Mom posted a great Firefox extension for her contribution to Works for Me Wednesday (Hosted by Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer).

It's called Performancing, and it's a great little blog editor that sits right inside your Firefox window, and does all sorts of neat things like accept drag-and-drop formatted text from webpages, and allow you to take notes to save for later.

Very easy to set up and use, and in my humble opinion works a smidge better than the Blogger Beta interface. It supports a wide variety of other blog platforms as well.

Enjoy!

Getting to Know Your Friends - The Holiday Version

I was tagged in e-mail, but I decided to answer here rather than by e-mail. I am *much* more likely to post on my blog on any given day than to answer e-mails, although I have no good reason for that.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Egg Nog. Preferably with spiced rum. Or Hot Chocolate, with Mint Chocolate Baileys. I'm not really that picky, as long as there's alcohol.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? He wraps them.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Coloured on the tree, none outside. Blinking obnoxious coloured lights on the tree, to be exact.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Tree goes up whenever we get around to getting a tree, which usually means we wait until The Husband's parents get theirs, and tag along with them. Decorations go up as we get around to it. Sometimes, they don't even make it up. It's strange, considering how much I love Christmas, but the decorating thing just doesn't get my mojo going.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Squash and cheddar casserole.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? When my brother knocked over the Christmas tree when I was 2 or 3.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I have no idea. I think my mother's handwriting on Santa's tags gave it away. Hence why I don't put tags on Santa presents now.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Monkey always gets a book and a set of PJs. Nothing for the "big kids" (aka The Husband and I).

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Tons of lights and as many decorations as will fit.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Love it love it love it. We don't get much here, but we're under a heavy snowfall warning right now and there's already over a foot on the ground and I'm ecstatic.

12. Can you ice skate? Have you ever fallen on the ice? Not well. And yes, a lot of falling.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My parents got my brother and I our own shared phone line, which then became my own line when he moved out. I absolutely loved it.

14 What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Being a kid again with my daughter, and spending quality time with family..

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? I have no idea. Probably peppermint cheesecake.

16. What are your favorite holiday traditions? Crafting and wrapping.

17. What tops your tree? A star.

18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Giving. Especially when it's a homemade gift.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? I have way too many favorites. I love them all. I'm a total Christmas music junkie.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or yum? Yuck! Yuck, unless they're crushed and put in hot chocolate. That's a yummy treat for by the fire on a cold night.

Now I tag Andrea, Birch, Bryan, and anyone else that wants to play along.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

A much needed chuckle...

Breasts and why we should be filled with shame for using them.

I love me some finslippy today. Make sure you follow the link to the full article - I just didn't want anyone to miss the Irony Overload bit.

I'm crawling back into bed now. Some strange bug has taken over my body and is making being upright for more than 10 minutes at a time very unpleasant. Great timing, considering we have a parent-teacher interview at Monkey's school in 2 hours, and I have a 3 hour class tonight (that I'm probably only going to go to long enough to hand in my homework and get the next assignment), not to mention the 7 hours of worked I missed today.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Which Sports Car are You?

I'm pleased with my result. The exact word out of my mouth was sweeeeeeet. And anyone who knows me shouldn't be the least bit surprised by that.

I'm a Ford Mustang!


You're an American classic -- fast, strong, and bold. You're not snobby or pretentious, but you have what it takes to give anyone a run for their money.

"Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

There's more than one of me!

Someone needs to make one of these for Canada, if there isn't already one. Very cool.

HowManyOfMe.com
LogoThere are:
16
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Potato Leek Soup

Now, I never wanted this blog to turn into a "what I had for lunch today" blog, and in fact I've seriously considered buying Maggie's book to ensure that doesn't happen, but as you all know, I love food, and I love cooking, and occasionally I'm going to have to share my creations and recipes with you. Today is one of those occasions.

Potato Leek Soup (Vegan friendly)

10 cups cold water
1 leek
Olive oil
4-6 medium potatoes
1/2 bulb garlic
Sea salt

Clean and chop the leek into thin slices (some people suggest only using the white part, but I love to throw it all in for the greeny goodness) and saute til slightly browned in the olive oil. While the leek is browning, peel and dice the potatoes. Add the potatoes and leek to the cold water and bring to a boil. Smash and mince the garlic (you may want to reduce the amount slightly, but I'm a garlic fiend so I use tons) and add. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Now, at this point you could call it done and just give it a good stir, add salt to taste, and serve, but I prefer to cream the soup with a hand blender and then add the sea salt. Top it off with some freshly ground pepper just before serving.

Bon appetit!

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Nine Shades of Weird

Tag! I'm it.

  1. I hate having other peoples feet touch me, and I hate it when my feet touch other people. Frankly, I hate it when my feet touch anything, which is why my favorite TV watching position is sockless-with-feet-over-edge-of-couch. My family thinks this foot issue of mine is hilarious, and they'll often try to be sneaky and put their feet on me without me noticing, but it never works.

  2. I love shoes. Totally in contrast to number 1, of course, but I figure if I must confine my feet, I may as well do it with shoes that I love.

  3. I'm incredibly cheap. Totally in contrast to number 2, of course. I spend a ridiculous amount of time coveting the shoes of other people (particularly TV characters), but never actually buy the shoes I love for myself. This is also why I'm still walking around in several pairs of shoes with broken or worn down heels.

  4. I don't answer my phone unless I know the caller. Thank goodness for caller ID! This one drives The Husband mad, because I'll run across the house with a ringing phone to make him answer it if I don't recognize the number. When he's not home, I just let the machine take it. I figure, if it's important, they'll leave a message. So always leave a message if you call me from a number I might not be familiar with.

  5. I love spreadsheets. Yes I do. I think Excel is a program designed by the Gods to make my life more pleasurable. The more things I can think of do to with Excel, the better. While planning our wedding, I had spreadsheets for just about everything, including the shopping list for alcohol, on which the taxes and deposits were automatically calculated so that I knew what we were spending to the penny. That's right, if you didn't already know it (but who doesn't...), I'm a total nerd.

  6. I hate odd numbers except for multiples of 5. If I'm listening to the radio and the volume control is numbered, I have to set it to an even number, or a multiple of five. Same with watching TV. Sometimes, I swear that The Husband puts it on an odd number just to torment me.

  7. I love food, and I will try just about anything once, but I also have some very strange food habits. I hate for my food to touch, and if it does touch I must separate it before eating it. Sandwiches are eaten in layers, pizza pops are disemboweled and each type of ingredient eaten separately, cake is eaten from the inside out (cakey part first, filling second, and icing last), etc. This behaviour has been labeled odd by some, and totally disturbing by others.

  8. I eat paperclips. Well, not really, but at any given time you could walk into my office at work and find me with a paperclip in my mouth. Sometimes I play with them with my tongue, and other times I just chew on them.

  9. I only shampoo my hair once or twice a week. I wet it down and style it just about every day, but I don't actually put soap on it unless it's really full of styling cack. Now, you folks with straight hair are probably totally grossed out by this, because people with straight hair often *need* to wash their hair every day or it gets greasy, but that's not the case for *most* of us with frizzy/curly hair. Plus, frizzy hair is even frizzier when it's squeaky clean, which is generally not my preferred look.
I'm now supposed to tag nine other bloggers to do this on their own blogs, but I don't think I even have 9 readers, so I'm just going to tag Andy and Birch and if anyone else wants to play along, just leave a link to your post in the comments.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Happy Birthday Monkey!

Monkey's 6th birthday is later this week, but we're celebrating this weekend because she will be with her dad for the actual day and the following weekend.

Can't believe you're six already baby!

Love you much.

Mom

Friday, November 10, 2006

Sexism in the Sandbox

Environmental Groups vs. Rona Ambrose

I understand the cause, I understand the passion, and I understand the desire to use language that is going to catch people's attention, but this is unacceptable. What are the chances that the same comments would have been made about a male in her position, regardless of how lovely his hair was?

Monday, November 06, 2006

Chameleon Blog

The blue was too dark, I think.

I'm not sure if I like this scheme either though. We'll see if it grows on me.

Article on Ecofeminism and Vegetarianism

Ecofeminism and the Eating of Animals - Carol J Adams

I'm not going to comment on it yet, unless anyone wants to discuss, but I read it and found it interesting, so I thought I would share. Enjoy!

The Mystery of the Possessed Ceiling Fan Light Solved

So yesterday, the light in the ceiling fan started acting very strange. I turned the light on from the wall switch (it has a remote as well), and within a few seconds the light started cycling from really dim to really bright over and over and over again. C & D were over, so I called them both in to see it. There was some ponderings about whether it indicated pending lightbulb failure or paranormal activity.

I considered leaving the light on and seeing how long it would take to burn out, but I wanted The Husband to see it, so I turned it off and left it off until he got home.

I dragged him into the bedroom (get your mind out of the gutter!) as soon as he got home, and we both stood there and pondered the behaviour for a minute. Then R suggested that I turn the light off, and rather than walking to the door and flicking the switch, I picked up the remote. It was then that I noticed that the "Light" button was depressed and the LED that indicates that the remote is communicating was flickering.

Turns out that the light has a built in dimmer function that we hadn't realized was there, and if you hold the button down instead of just pressing and releasing, it changes the brightness of the light.

The really cool thing about that is that since we moved into this house, we've been cursing how dim the bedroom light is. Turns out it was just on a dim setting. So now we've got it turned up and can actually see things in the room, and all is well.

This post was *way* more interesting in my head than it is on screen.

It amazes me

how indignant some drivers can be, when they're actually in the wrong.

Case in point. I'm coming up 17th street tonight (which of course means nothing to the non-Valley people, but whatever), and I have a green light. I start to proceed through the intersection. The driver across the intersection who is waiting to turn left starts to go as soon as her light goes green (solid green, not a flashing green arrow), and then slams on her brakes and her horn simultaneously and shakes her fist at me. Now, I quite clearly had the right-of-way. What I'm really curious to know is if she realized her mistake and now feels like an idiot, or if she's off posting at her own blog about the crazy lady who ran the red light (as she must have presumed I was doing in order for her to have the right-of-way) and almost drove into her. I didn't notice if she had anyone else in the car, so whether there was an unbiased third party to point out to her what she had done wrong is unclear.

Interesting to ponder.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Waiting on the World to Change

The title of this post is the title of a John Mayer song that is getting massive airtime right now. Here's the lyrics:

Waiting On The World To Change

me and all my friends
we're all misunderstood
they say we stand for nothing and
there's no way we ever could
now we see everything that's going wrong
with the world and those who lead it
we just feel like we don't have the means
to rise above and beat it

so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it's hard to beat the system
when we're standing at a distance
so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
now if we had the power
to bring our neighbors home from war
they would have never missed a Christmas
no more ribbons on their door
and when you trust your television
what you get is what you got
cause when they own the information, oh
they can bend it all they want

that's why we're waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it's not that we don't care,
we just know that the fight ain't fair
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

and we're still waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting waiting on the world to change
one day our generation
is gonna rule the population
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

Now, I immediately found myself liking this song the first time I heard it. It's catchy, it touches on the media control of the right wing, and it talks about the strength of our generation's conviction that things need to change. But then I listened to the song a few more times... and a few more times... (It seems to be on on Sirius Hits 1 every time I'm in the car, which is impressive considering I spend at most 30-40 minutes total in my car out of every 24 hours). The more I listen to it, the stronger the message becomes that our generation shouldn't fight for change, because we're not going to win. That we have to sit on our laurels and wait for all the old codgers in power to die off before our voices can be heard. Not only is it an extremely defeatist attitude, but I just don't think it's accurate!

Do you?

An Official Request

I would like to request that the phrase "over-reacted" be struck from common use.

Guys, nothing good can ever come from telling your wife/girlfriend that she over-reacted.

Particularly when you follow that up with "just like you over-react to everything".

That is all.

Baby shower at my house today for a friend, so I won't be posting again until much later today, if at all.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Pumpkin Pancakes

Monkey and I had these for dinner tonight.

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 1/2 cups flour
1 3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp cloves
1 1/4 cups buttermilk/sour milk
3/4 cup of canned pumpkin
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon oil

Combine all ingredients till smooth. Fry on a hot griddle.

From here.