Pointless photo of the day:

Taken right outside the workplace just a little while ago, even.

By the way... WE HAVE ENOUGH SNOW NOW. And more on the way.

Sigh.

----------

I don't really have much on the brain at the moment and I just finished blogging for work, so I think that rather than come up with a blather I'll just leave you with one last Today's Tea (last night's was Alpine Punch, for those keeping track. And if you are... why?) for the year if that's ok. Well, come down to it, my house, my rules so if it's ok with me then that automatically means that it's ok with the blog. So... Today's Tea: Choconut Oolong. Good. But I slightly broke my rule this time and added a little sweetness to it. After I tasted it, though, so I guess technically I'm still good. For anyone who reads the product link, I'd like to say that this is tea, not breakfast. Anyone who has only tea for breakfast is just a bit stupid, as far as I can tell.

Anyway, that'll be it for me for this year. See you in a couple of days, when no doubt there will be more pointless photos.

Of snow.

Sigh.

The new lens is kind of fun, at least.

I think that it's trying to tell me something

No, not the sad iron. Unless maybe it's dust more often.

December keeps trying to commit suicide on my desk. The calendar, I mean. The one I bought out of desperation last January, because no one seemed to have any calendars that I liked. It's pretty much just generic scenes of the Rockies, so it was very much a this'll do purchase. I never was exactly in love with it.

The problem at the moment is that we're to the end of the year, the calendar's paper is very thick, and the push-pin that's supposed to be holding it to the wall has apparently given up the ghost. Today was the second time that I found the thing on the desk, and the second time it took out one of my speakers in the process. The first time it also attacked my Galileo thermometer, but having had one lucky, non-broken-glass-filled escape I very smartly moved the thermometer to the other side of the desk. And a good thing, too. Looks like the calendar came down hard this time.

See? December's trying to kill itself.

Next year's calendar is a lot lighter, so any suicidal months will have to work that much harder, I suppose.

That's about all that I have today, sadly. I'm not operating on much sleep, and I can't even tell you what today's tea is because I haven't had it yet. When I go home, probably. I had three different ones yesterday, though, and before anyone blames the lack of sleep on the overliness of tea I'd just like to say that they were all non-caffeinated. So there. Sleigh Ride, which is a fruit thing that I have no idea what sleighs have to do with, Spiced Fig, and... um... just a second. Oh yeah, White Chocolate Frost. And I'm even being a good girl and trying them without sweetening them, just to see if it's the tea or the honey that I like better.

Yeah, occasionally I can act like an adult. Only for short periods of time, though. And speaking of the whole adult thing, I should get back to work.

Tradition

I was sort of joking about traditions on my Christmas post, but here's on that's a real thing. These little felt mitts -- homemade and supported by a hair clip -- always have to go on the tree. Always. It and a bird (which Dad didn't put on the tree this year. It's probably pretty ratty by now, though) were, according to my mother, the first decorations she and Dad had on their first tree. The mitts have gone up every year since, with the exception of one Christmas that we spent in Hawaii.

That's a tradition that's headed rapidly to its 50th year. Wow, now that I say that it really does count as a tradition, doesn't it?

And don't you dare stop to figure out how old that must make me. You kids get off of my lawn.

----------

I'll be headed back to my place today (and back to work tomorrow. Weekend work is what I end up with when Christmas and New Years fall so stupidly mid-week), with a stop on the way to see if the licensing office is open so that I can get my 2014 tag before my plate expires. Yes, somebody left her renewal until the last minute again. I guess I like standing in line with all the other idiots who don't take advantage of the months (literal months) in advance that they send out the notices. I haven't decided yet whether I'll stop on my way out of town or stop once I'm back in the city. The advantage of stopping on my way is that it'd be done while it's in my head, but the disadvantage is that the local office only takes cash.

That's right, cash. There are still some businesses out there in this day and age that  (gasp!) don't have debit machines. It's a real pain in the behind, and I'm not sure how they've managed it for so long. Yeah, there's a third-party cash machine in the building, but seeing as I'm too cheap to pay the charges it'll mean a trek down to my much-beloved bank if I stop there.

Um, don't get me started on how much I hate my bank. I'd like to save that topic for another day.

----------

And now, the return of Today's Tea!

Well, not today's, to be honest. I haven't had any tea yet today. The past two days' teas, though, have been from the David's Tea (sorry, DAVIDsTEA) Christmas collection, and I can't give you a direct link to it because it's no longer Christmas and I've noticed that they're very, very quick to remove their seasonal collections from the website. Anyway, I've tried the Gingerbread and Santa's Secret, which is a black tea with peppermint leaves. Both very nice even without sweetener, which is saying something coming from a habitual honey user. I don't think either of them needed it, though. Coming up? Well, I think I'll leave you on tenterhooks because I know you like a little suspense.

Everybody's feeling the suspense, not knowing what tea I'll be drinking next, right?





You people are no fun. Type at you later.

WAIT WAIT WAIT. One last thing, as I see by the open tab. I meant to share this link, which is one of those things that talks about how Canadian vocabulary is different from other English-speaking nations' vocabularies. I find them interesting, if a little well, duh at times. Different countries, different histories, different vocabs. Anyway, I'm posting it here because for a change I've used every single one of the words listed (yes, even the alcohol ones). Often these lists are so regional that even I'm stumped by a lot of them. This time, though... if any of my two fans that aren't from here find these words odd then you honestly might have a little trouble understanding me at times. Funny.

And hooped, by the way, is a very useful word. It needs to become universal. You know, like toque.

Going for real this time. Byyye.

So I was sitting out on the patio...

Ok, maybe I wasn't.

There's a bit of snow, you see.

Seriously, though. That's a lot of snow. I know I've been complaining about it, but since I finally got around to taking a few pictures of it the other day I thought maybe now you'd believe me.

For anyone not familiar with Alberta in the winter, we're not exactly known for having lots of snow. Some snow, yeah, and it does get cold (I'm sure you've heard about that part. Everyone seems to), but we don't usually get piled on like this. It's been pretty much unbelievable. And it's not even January yet. Almost, but it's not. To have this much snow right now? Well, I have childhood pictures of a couple of years when we really got dumped on, but it hasn't happened for a long time.

I mean, look at this. What you might not notice right away is that the hedge is so weighted down that it toppled right into the pathway. Dad went out and knocked some of the snow off after I took this photo, but it wouldn't surprise me if we find out that it's permanently bent in the spring.

The snow's up to the deers' bellies when they leave the path and try to wade through towards the dogwood.

Um, big hint, by the way. If you're in this area and you have deer around, don't plant dogwood if you don't want them in your yard. It's one of their favourite winter browses.

I actually saw deer yesterday. Two whitetails, and then later about five or six mulies. It's not all that uncommon to see the mulies, but we hardly ever see the whitetails in the yard. They're too skittish to stay around for very long. I suppose that it might seem a little odd to some of you that we have deer herds just wandering around the neighbourhood, but Dad's place is fairly close to the outskirts of town and there are a couple of wooded lots in the area, so there are plenty of places for deer to hang out.

Um, anyway. You didn't come here to read about deer and snow, I suppose. I'm not sure why you did come here, though. Maybe you want to hear about...

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS?

Yeah, I did pretty well as usual. I got a gift card that I very much look forward to using, and you'll be hearing lots more about tea (lucky you. I'm sure my two fans are really looking forward to it. Toughies, though. I like tea), but the one that's going to affect the blog the most is the fact that I got a new lens.

Did you hear? I got a new lens.

It's my first prime lens for this camera, and it's been years since I've used a prime lens at all so I'm looking forward to it. It's a 50mm f/1.8... oh, hang on. I'll just link for the nerds out there. Gimme a sec.

Here it is.

Now, bear in mind that I'm a neophyte when it comes to all the specs, but what all that stuff means to me and my style of pointless photography is that even though it's a wide angle rather than a macro (or micro, as Nikon calls them) I should be able to get some decent close-ups while still using it for more general portraits and things like that. The reviews are good, it should work well in low light, the bokeh's supposed to be great, and the little bit of playing around the house I did yesterday makes me happy.

Let the search for even weirder pointless photography begin.



You're ready for this, right? It's gonna mean more spiders come spring...





Yay spiders.

Christmas: a photoessay

We have some traditions here at our house, as pretty much everybody does. Since we haven't had dinner yet and there's still a couple of things to do, I thought I'd just give you a few slightly less pointless photos than usual rather than a lot of words. Ready? Let's begin.

 

I take a picture of the tree every year.

 

I celebrate my Christmas feet.

And of course we grill the turkey...

 

 

Um. I guess we won't be grilling the turkey. Actually, as I mention every time we do a turkey, around here it's done on the rotisserie. So much better than roasting that you wouldn't believe it. I can already smell it even down here in the basement. And for those new to the program, I'm not in the basement as a punishment. It's just where the computer is. I'll be going back up as soon as I'm done with this.

Merry Christmas or whatever you're celebrating to everyone out there in blogland. Be good to each other. If anyone wondered what our tree really looks like, here's a last shot for the day:

Stay tuned in the new year. I got a present that pretty much guarantees that weirdness (even more weirdness, yes) will be happening on the blog. Yay weirdness.

Something something something

Something daylily something.

Yeah, I have no idea what to write about. I could mention that there were three moose browsing the shrubs right outside our office window the other day, and a few days later a bunch of whitetails did the same thing, and that it can be neat having a wildlife sanctuary as your back yard.

What would I say after that, though? It'd be an awfully short post.

I could bring up the fact that my father still doesn't have a Christmas present because I have no idea what to get him. That's pretty depressing, though, considering that it means I'll likely be shopping this weekend. Either that or hellooo gift card. Which is all right, really. I don't object to gift cards in the slightest. Better to let someone choose his present than to buy something totally lame that won't ever be used.

That's kind of a short post too.

I could talk about snow.

I don't want to talk about snow.

So...

Um...

sigh

There are chickadees outside the window right now cracking sunflower seeds open on the branches. I love chickadees. They're always around when you need something to talk about on a nature walk. You can train them to take seed from your hand as well, if you're into that sort of thing. I'm not, personally, because I worry a little about introducing inappropriate behaviours, but the birds are at least smart enough to fly away pretty quickly if they sense that something's not right.

Ok, that last was veering a little too close to what I do for a living, and this isn't the work blog. Speaking of work, though, I've now wasted enough time not having anything to talk about that I should probably stop typing. I hope you enjoyed this non-post. See you in a couple of days or so.

Guess what?

It's snowing. And cold.

Thus, flowers.

And grumpiness.

We were flying my helicopter at lunch hour, though, so I suppose that helps a bit. What also helps (and also is not very good at all, when you think about it) is that this place is covered in Christmas food at the moment. Some is dropped off by volunteers and customers, some of it comes from Christmas parties, and some comes from the staff. And, as is usual and predictable, I've had altogether too much of it. And no doubt will continue to have altogether too much of it.

Tis the season, and all that.

Anyway, this will have to be short (again), but blame the helicopter this time. I certainly do.

I continue to suck at the helicopter, by the way, but at least it's fun sucking.





Wait... that didn't sound right at all...

Pointless non-snow photo of the day:

Look! It's an apple. From when there were apples.

And not snow.

I'm tired of snow, in case you wondered.




And I also have nothing to blather today, which is sad considering how often I don't blog these days.


Ah well. At least there's an apple.

Yeah, yeah, I'm still around

I was around yesterday, too, but it was a busy day so no blog for you.

You'll noticed that I'm still refusing to post winter pictures. Well, not so much refusing as that I don't have any on my nerdstick, to be honest. I took some yesterday, but they're for the work blog. You'll see them there in a bit, after I've edited them and actually written the post.

We have a bit of snow at the moment (as in, roughly four times the amount of snow we usually have at this time of year), and for a change my apartment building's management company has decided to clear the parking lots not once but three times so far this season. That's big, you know. I've lived there for about twenty years, and in that time the managers have become notorious for clearing the lots maybe once all winter no matter how much snow we have. It leads to all of us having mini lakes in our spots come spring melt, and that's about as pleasant as it sounds.

Apparently not this year, though. Today's clearing number three, which meant that I had to have my car out of the lot by eight. Which means, in turn, that I go for fast food breakfast to waste time for an hour before going to work.

Yippee.

As a rule I don't really do restaurant breakfasts. I get a craving for a certain outfit's breakfast sandwich maybe once a year, yes, but when I've had it I'm done with the craving for the year. Problem is, I've now had my third one in two months. I DEFINITELY DON'T HAVE THE CRAVING ANYMORE.

If this snow (and shocking regular snow removal) continues, I'm really going to need to find a new routine. Any suggestions for a place to hang out at eight in the morning, anyone?

By the way, we're all told to have our cars out of the lot from eight to five on pain of towage. I wonder, though, was the removal company penalised for the fact that they didn't get done until after seven the last time they did this? Those of us trying to find a place to park after coming home from work certainly were.

Anyway, off to the work blog for me. I'll let you know when it's time to have my next regrettable breakfast sandwich...

Rainbow!

This is the last one of these, I promise.

Until I take more.

Pointless photo of the day:

This is why I love digital photography. I can do completely stupid things and all I'm wasting is a little energy.

Pointless photo of the day:

It's a double rainbow! Just a very short one...

And no, the picture's not reversed. The clock's supposed to look like that.

It's left-handed.

Forget about frightful

The weather outside is effing nuts. We've got more snow than we had by January last winter, and it's COLD. Cold enough that my car is still buried from Monday's blizzard and will probably stay buried for a while yet.

Yep, it's been cabs to work these past couple of days, because I've had evening programs and I can't exactly ask one of my coworkers to come pick me up.

Let me tell you, I don't know how people manage with cabs. Most of the drivers are nice, but the waiting. And the not having control of when you leave or arrive anywhere. And the cost, of course, but that should go without saying.

So, since I need to get back to work for a while before I go set up for tonight's performance of me pretending that I know anything about stars, I think we'll just have a mourning rose (mourning this weather, of course) for your pointless pleasure today and then I'll schedule a couple more weird photos so you don't miss me too much while I'm housebound.

Again.

This is really getting ridiculous, you know.

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Anyone who's on twitter at the moment has a feed full of RIP Nelson Mandela, but I'll add my two cents. I don't think younger adults out there can truly understand what an important figure he was. The world is a different place now because of people like him.

Pointless bored photo from last month of the day:

Wheee...

And, erm, my apologies for having TLC on while I was doing this. I should have switched to Discovery or the Food Network or something. Especially since that's more usually what's on...

Pointless bored photo from last month of the day:

And then she decided to start moving the camera...

Pointless bored photo from last month of the day:

Nothing like a hand-held double image during a snowstorm, right?

Hmmm. Helicopters, or the weather?

So, I was going to talk about this. But then this horrible crash happened in Glasgow, and somehow it doesn't seem appropriate to talk about fun with remote-controlled helicopters. I'll let you know in a while how many of my plants I've shredded, though.

I guess, then, you get to hear me gripe (briefly. I'm really going to try to make this brief) about what we're in store for.

The pictures you're seeing to the right are from our last big storm at the beginning of November (yeah, I only got them off the camera a few minutes ago. Didn't really want to look at them). Sooo pretty, right? Uh huh. Whatever. If you click on the photo and look closer, you'll see that it was still snowing when I took it. And it kept snowing. And snowing. Listen, Alberta's generally a fairly dry place. We get snow, obviously, but compared to the east we don't get a whole lot. Not so much this year. It's only November, and we've had more snow than we had by January last year. Last year, by the way, wasn't an especially dry one.

Later that same night...

Uh huh. Whatever.

There's been more snow since then, of course, and now we're headed for another major storm. Fun one this time, however. They're predicting 60 km/h winds on Monday, and that combined with heavy snow means that I sure as heck won't be going anywhere for a while.

Naturally, since this is Alberta, the snow is followed by extreme cold. I'd give you a link to our forecast, but it's just too depressing to even bother looking at. So let's look at something else instead. Something I was looking at this morning. Something that apparently had the shakes...

Ok, what really happened was that this was just after the sun came up, and I was shooting through my bedroom window here at Dad's on a veeery slow shutter speed. I'm surprised it looks like a deer at all.

It's pretty normal to see deer browsing the backyard here. What's not normal in November is to see that the snow is already past knee height for them.

To quote Monty Python, bloody weather.

Anyway, that'll do it for me for a few days. Again. I'm going to schedule a couple of pointless photos that I took the night of the last storm when I was bored, mostly just because I don't know what I'll do with them otherwise. See you once I've dug out, folks.

White space

Yeah, still in denial here about the whole winter thing.

----------

I'm currently (well, not currently. Currently I'm typing this. When I'm done, though, I'll go back to currently doing what I was doing before) working on the nature centre's quarterly newsletter, and my two fans will know that it puts me in a bit of a mood. Editing a newsletter is aggravating, really. Trying to get submissions, trying to get those submissions to sound like they're actually written in English (sometimes that's a little iffy, even in a place like this that's supposed to be all about communication), and then trying to wrestle those submissions into a readable format on the page...

Um, ok. I honestly like that last bit.

I enjoy the aesthetics of a well laid out page. I try pretty hard to make sure that my pages are well laid out, and I like to think that I succeed more often than not. I wouldn't call myself a professional by any means (although technically, since I do get paid to do it...), but I think my pages are reasonably pleasing to the eye. With that in mind, then, three things that I think are important in layouts for newsletters and posters. And, I suppose, by extension blog posts:

Number one. White space. Big surprise on that one, since that's the title of the post. White space is important. It gives the eyes a rest, it makes things look balanced, and it keeps a page from looking like more than just words and words and words. It might surprise you, but I generally take care about white space even here at the home of the blather. There's a reason for the apparently arbitrary line spacing and the occasional weird non-paragraph. Sometimes it's cadence, yes, but sometimes I'm looking for a shape. If I don't like the way the pointless photo's framed by the words, for example, I'll go back and reword and respace until I'm happier.

Number two. Stay away from the dark side. Backgrounds, I mean. Dark backgrounds may look nice, but they're bloody awful to try to read anything on. The other day I was flipping through one of the magazines that we take here at work, and they'd printed not just pages but entire sections on this truly awful shade of brown. I don't know what effect they were trying for, but the affect on me was that I didn't bother reading it.

Number three. DON'T TILE. Yes, that needed caps. Nothing looks cheesier than a tiled background, even if you've got a blank space for text placement. And if there's no blank space at all? There's no readability. I'm reminded of that every single day by a poster here at work that I can't do anything about because I didn't make it. Ah well, it'll be gone next week. Thank Whomever.

Anyway, back to the newsletter. Yay.





I hope yay, at least. A girl's gotta have hope, despite past experiences.

Stupid people in hallways

Yep, still flowers leftover from the summer. I do have seasonal pictures on the camera, but part of me doesn't want to even see them.

More snow on Sunday/Monday. As in, possibly 20 cm more.

I miss flowers, did I mention?

----------

This post will be short (hopefully) and disjointed (inevitably) because I'm in a state of brain no work. I've been having the sleep thing -- or lack of sleep thing -- again (um, when am I not, exactly?) and last night I finally hit the point where I knew I was going to sleep. I absolutely knew it. Eventually the head and body both do hit that state, even if you're scared they never will. Anyway, I went to bed around 11:30 pm, got to sleep pretty much right away (yay!), and... around 2:30 am what sounded like a half dozen people or so decided to have a fairly loud... let's call it a discussion... in the hallway. A loud, protracted discussion.

And that was it for me and sleep.

*shakes fist at the stupid people of the world*

----------

On a totally different and much more amusing note, I can't remember if I mentioned that Hugh Laurie finally joined the twitterverse a couple of weeks ago. I find this extremely funny partly because he is funny, but also partly because one of the biggest twitter deniers in the celebrity world is now one of the chattiest. Maybe there's something to this twitter thing, eh Mr Laurie?

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One last thing, then. In an attempt to escape the endless carousel of crappy Christmas songs that watching television for the past couple of days has implanted in my brain (can we say On Yer Mark, Get Set, All Christmas Commercials All The Time, boys and girls?), today's earworm is a German lullaby that I've actually performed called Guter Mond (or An den Mond), and the link is for a very nice a cappella version. This is a great song to sing. Come to it, German is a great language to sing, although I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's just that there's a lot of good German music out there, I dunno. Anyway, if you need a break from rocking around the Christmas tree or whatever earworm's been throttled into your head, maybe give this one a try.

Later, folks.

Sigh

So I post something stupid about eggs, which apparently I'd already pretty much posted about a year ago. And then I disappear for a week. And then I make a half-assed post, and now I'm about to disappear for a couple of days again.

Which means, of course, that I can't think of anything to blather about right now.

Typical for me.

Um, cosmos, then?

That's cosmos in today's pointless photo, for those of my two fans who aren't gardeners. Cosmos is one of my favourite flowers, and I plant it pretty much every year. I like the divided leaves, I like the apparent (only apparent, mind) simplicity of the flowers, and I like that they grow tall enough to block out some of my terribly exciting view of a hotel's loading dock.

Actually, I'm a big fan in general of what some people might consider old-fashioned flowers. Cottage garden stuff. I come by it honestly on both sides of the family, really: my English paternal grandmother's front garden, my maternal grandmother's yearly flats of French marigolds; I like the feel of that kind of thing. Johnny Jump-ups and other violets (heck, let's add in the violas and pansies as well, then), nasturtiums for both their colours and their pepperiness in a salad...

There's over 60 cm of snow on the ground out there right now, by the way. I want some flowers.

Time was (and I really should get back into the habit) that when winter gave me the flower blues I'd pick up a cheap bouquet at the grocery store when I did my shopping. Carnations, usually, but if something else was on cheap I'd vary it. Sometimes, if I was in the doodling mood, I'd do a vase drawing a day until the whole thing was undeniably fit for the garbage. It was good practice, documenting the changes as the flowers aged. Yeah, I really should start doing that again. If there was a holiday sale I'd occasionally buy a live plant rather than a bouquet. Plants that are sold cheap and already flowering don't usually live worth a hoot, but it would extend the drawing period.

Let's just say that I have a lot of doodles of lilies.

Anyway, doodles, flowers, and frigging snow aside, I need to get back to work. See you in a couple of days.

That's the plan, anyway.

----------

Oh, before I go...

Today's tea: Brazillionaire, which was a sample. I'm... I dunno what I feel about this one. It's good, but it's a little odd somehow. I think maybe it's that I'd like the brazil nuts by themselves. I really like brazil nuts.

I wonder if anyone has Christmas brazil nuts out yet...

Pointless photo of the... week?

There are no irises flowering now.

Now is covered in the most snow (as in, twice as much) that we've had in November in at least thirteen years.

I'd sooner look at irises.

----------

In other news, you know all those ads that are out right now about how important it is to get your flu shot?

It's important. Get your flu shot.

Most people who think they've had the flu are thinking of stomach viruses that aren't the same thing at all. The real flu is serious, lasts a while, can be dangerous, and feels like absolute hell.

I don't think you really need to know how I know about that, folks.



Just go back and look at the pretty flowers.

Me me me... and eggs

Not a great picture, really, but the chickadees were being very uncooperative.

----------

I've been watching the news a fair bit lately, just so you know. I'm aware of Toronto's "crackhead" mayor (as he's been referred to by some US media). I'm sorrowed by the destruction in the Philippines. I know that bad things -- and a few good things -- are happening in a big way all over the world. So what am I going to blather about?

I'm kinda pissed that I broke the yolk of my egg this morning.

Yep. That's what's on my mind.

Well, ok, and I also have a headache that I just can't seem to shake, but I'm not going to make a whole post out of that. You're welcome.

I'll admit, I'm kind of funny with eggs. I was never much of an egg fan when I was a kid (scrambled eggs with cheese being an exception), and some of that's stuck with me. I think it's partly a texture thing, especially because texture is a thing with me at the best of times. I don't like the slightest hint of a jelly-ish white, for example. I wouldn't eat a poached egg on a bet, and the thought of a three-minute egg kind of squicks me. A boiled egg needs to be hard-boiled, even if it means that you don't have the pleasure of dipping your toast soldiers into the yolk.

Is that a pleasure, by the way? I wouldn't know, because I've never tried it. How do you get past the feeling of rawness that so much runny yolk gives you?

So does that mean that I have to cook the hell out of all of my eggs before I'm comfortable eating them? No, not really. Boiled eggs need to be hard, yes, but scrambled eggs shouldn't be rubbery. Oh, and it's a rule, by the way, that if you cook a ham for dinner you need to have scrambled eggs with ham and cheese (and worcestershire sauce and dry mustard) for lunch the next day. As for fried eggs, if it's going to be on toast it'll be over easy... and yes, there's allowed to be a tiny bit of runny yolk in between the two cooked sides. I don't know why it's allowable then and not for a boiled egg, but there you go.

Incidentally, I watch a fair amount of Food Network stuff, and I'd like to know who decided that it's the thing to put a poached egg (ick) on top of a meal or in a burger to have the thrill of the uncooked yolk (ick) burst all over everything. Am I missing something there?

Anyway, I didn't get any runny yolk at all this morning since I managed to break the bloody thing (well, not literally bloody) when I was cracking my egg into the pan. It made me grumpy, and I'm convinced that it made my headache worse.

Yes, a burst egg yolk.



I hate to bring up an internet phrase that should have worn out its welcome by now, but... yeah, first world problems. Back to work for me, now.

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Oh, one last thing. Today's tea: Second Flush Darjeeling. LOVE this. I think I've finally found my favourite basic tea again. I missed you, darjeeling.

Something something Friday

Read the title as: I really have no idea what this post will be. Or if this post will be. I'm so much on Friday brain at the moment that as hard as I've tried to actually think of something to rant off about, it's all just turning into meh.

Good word, meh. It expresses a lot. Too bad that it's not officially a word or anything.

So...

Um...

Well, I could, I suppose, remind everyone that it's always a good idea to have a compressor in your car. Even if you're not pumping up your own flat, you may be able to help out a coworker.

Sigh. Short story, that one. What else is on the menu?

Menu, maybe? I wasn't in the mood to make lunch this morning, so I just packed a bunch of random stuff from my fridge. Ok, to be honest, not entirely random. I did try to make it a reasonably balanced semi-random. Real food, even. The problem is, I didn't manage to fool my stomach with it and now I'm getting major whatthehell from my disappointed digestive system (whatthehell, by the way, reminds me that if you've never read any of Don Marquis's Archy and Mehitabel poems, you really should. Too many people these days haven't even heard of them, and that's a shame). Not in a what did you do to me sort of way; more like a what's missing from this food picture. I guess that my stomach wasn't in the mood for the unexpected today. Oh, and speaking of which, I may have just hit on a slight topic:

Why is it that so many of us are so regimented as to what can be eaten at what time of day? Food should be food, really, but we've definitely labelled things as breakfast, lunch, or dinner food to the point where no one would think it strange if I have cheese and toast for breakfast, but heaven help me if I decide to add a second piece of toast and a pickle and have a grilled cheese sandwich instead (which, actually, has been known to happen when I know I won't have time for a proper lunch during my work day). Or what about the fact that many people will go to Denny's or IHOP -- I've not been to either, but I'm guessing on the menus based on what I've heard -- at any time of day, but will wonder at you if you make waffles for supper at home?

Incidentally, could someone please explain to me why I like waffles but don't care for pancakes much? Largely the same base batter, really, but I'm just not big on the pancakes. Texture, maybe? Waffles are crunchier? I dunno. I can tell you, though, that I don't like french toast at all...

And on a related food note, today's tea is Salted Caramel. I was a bit meh (ha!) about this one when I had it unsweetened at Dad's, but a little agave syrup gave it more life today. Great. Now I'll have to reorder the syrup too.





Anyway. That's enough typing for someone who didn't have anything to say. No blather for the next few days since I likely won't be near a computer. Have a good long weekend, but please don't forget to think about our servicemen on Monday. It's the reason for the day, after all.

Pointless photo of the day:

I was going to say ho ho ho, but of course they're forks...

Anyway, that's about it for today. I need to get ready for my next program. Oh, today's tea: Pistachio Cream. I din't buy this one; it was a sample. It's quite nice, actually. I've never had mulberry leaf tea before, but I might just...

Dammit.

And damn you, samples.

My toy makes new friends again

Today's pointless photo is not of my toy. It's part of an amaryllis.

And why only part?

I was bored, I guess.

----------

So, I had breakfast at McDonald's this morning. Not, I should say, part of my normal routine. You know, in case anyone wondered. I had breakfast at McDonald's because I had to get my car out of the apartment parking lot before 8 am since they're actually going to clear it (not part of THEIR normal routine. We hardly get the lot cleared all winter). A bit late for me, by the way, since I already managed to turn my ankle in the parking lot on Monday, but better than nothing. Anyway, in order to avoid the threatened tag-and-tow I figured that I may just as well make my semi-annual McMuffin run.

It really is only semi-annual. Three times a year at the most. I just get a craving for a bacon and egg McMuffin for some reason, and when I've had one I don't need one again for months. Pretty safe craving, overall.

Breakfast at McDonald's always makes me laugh a little because I tend to forget that the place is such a hangout in the mornings. A whole lot of seniors -- mostly men, for whatever reason -- sitting with their coffees and their newspapers. It's like a club. Legion Light.

Seniors aren't the only people there, of course. There are also, apparently, people with toys.

For those new to the program I should explain that when I refer to my toy I'm meaning my 3DS. I get a kick out of carrying my 3DS around, because when a 3DS locates another 3DS it makes a new friend.

No, seriously.

It's got its own little social media thing going on. When your 3DS finds another 3DS you acquire the Mii from that system and you get to play games with it. It's all a bit silly (especially for someone my age, yes), but it's a fun little nerd locator. You get home, you take the thing out of your bag, you see the green light, and you've found another nerd.

And the nerd finds this nerd in return, naturally.

Nintendo upped the nerd ante not long ago by making it so that if you go to a so-called Nintendo Zone with your nerdfinder you make friends with the last person who was there even if there's no one with a 3DS around at the moment. McDonald's are Nintendo Zones. I knew I'd capture a nerd.

Well, I got five of them. Must have been a busy nerd breakfast.

Anyway, it looks like I'll be playing some nerd games when I get home. And they better have that parking lot cleared when I get there, by the way. After all, 8 am at a McDonald's finding nerds is not my preferred way to start the morning...

----------

Tea of the day:  Chai Guarana. Needed a buzz after the way my day started.

Pointless photo of the day:

I'm at work. It's a little busier than I was expecting. The snow is starting to fly (so maybe people will stay home and I'll get more work done this afternoon).

Yeah, this is all you're getting.

----------

Today's tea: Chocolate Rocket.

Yep.

I should be pretty much vibrating in an hour or so.

----------

One last thing: Hugh Laurie, who I thought would be the last holdout, is now on twitter. Maybe that means I should start using my own account for something other than just following people?

Nah, probably not.

I have one, though. If you know one of my e-mail addresses, then you know my user name. Such as it is.

Pointless photo of the day:

I kind of like this one, actually.

After this weekend, though, the scenery won't be looking much like that. There's forecasts of doom ahead, boys and girls.

Or at least of winter.

And since we all know what kind of a mood that puts me into...



Ok, seriously? Just lacking sleep here at the moment, and unless you'd like to read completely aimless blather I think I'll just give the blogging thing a pass today.

Hell, I'm going to give it a pass even if you did want to read completely aimless blather.

So there.

----------

Tea of the day: Pumpkin Chai, which was apparently part of their fall collection so I can't give you a link. Good, but funny to call it pumpkin chai when it doesn't have any actual pumpkin in it (carrot and squash, according to the package). It has pumpkin candies, though. Do they count?

Cute

Today's pointless photo isn't all that bad, by the way, when you consider that I was taking it handheld through a window in fairly low light conditions.

Anyway.

I'm hoping to keep this rant brief, but we'll see how it goes.

I've been watching Anthony Bourdain on twitter taking on a group of chefs who've signed a petition boycotting Canadian seafood until the government bans the seal hunt. It's been interesting. There's pros and cons on both sides, of course. I can't deny that the way the seal hunt is done is cruel, but I also can't deny that the hunt is sustainable and that seal overpopulation has a huge effect on everything from cod stocks to the number of sharks that are draw in towards human-frequented beaches. Bourdain's taking the First Nations approach, in that banning the seal hunt directly affects the lives and livelihood of Inuit families who depend on it. He should know, and better than those chefs who signed the petition without doing any research. He's at least seen an Inuit hunt. And eaten the meat, to boot.

All of that's neither here nor there for me, though. As I said, pros and cons on both sides. What gets my back up more than anything is the fact that 95% (well, ok, I'm guessing on the number) of the people who protest the seal hunt are only protesting it because baby seals are cute.

Seriously.

Can you honestly say that people around the (Western) world would even care about this if baby seals looked like flounders? Or even if they looked like baby pigeons, which have to be some of the homeliest babies out there.

I get so tired of the cute factor in popular conservation. It appeals to the instinctual need to save babies, yes, and obviously gets a response, but it sends the wrong message. Pandas are cute; let's save them. Polar bears are cute (and deadly); let's save them. Sharks aren't cute; let's let people continue to overharvest them for their fins (fins only, mind. The rest of the shark isn't used) until we suddenly realise that it's almost too late for several species...

Cute isn't going to save anything in the end, folks. It makes people spend too much time and too much money trying to save cute things that in the end may not even be able to be saved (see: polar bears). In the meantime, while we run around saving the cute posterchildren we're losing habitat all over the world. Rain forest, grassland, ocean reefs; it's all kind of depressing to me that well-meaning people are working so hard to save cute while the places that cute AND ugly can actually live are disappearing.

I've thought for years -- and I'm not the only one in the environment business that thinks this -- that unless we can get people to realise that saving whole systems is what's important and that they need to drop the SAVE THE *insert cute animal here* rallying cry, no one's going to understand that the cute, apparently petable things can't live in isolation. They're all part of a web of interdependence. The cute things are important, the ugly things are important, the inoffensive-but-sort-of-boring things are important, the places they live are important, and until the whole thing goes tits up we'll never realise just how important the whole thing -- not just the cute part of it -- is to us.

So am I saying you shouldn't care about cute things? Well, no. Just don't make the mistake of thinking that a cute thing is all there is to care about. Get educated. Don't go off half-cocked. Understand that there may be more to an issue than the cute things before you put your name to a petition and get a pat on the back from a lobbying organisation whose agenda is to get money from people who like to protect cute things.

Don't fall for the cuteness. The rest of issue's important too.

So this happened.

Yesterday I was out taking fall pictures (which you'll see in the next while, such as they are).

Today, not so much.

Bugger.

I mean, don't get me wrong -- it's the end of October, it's Alberta, and this was bound to happen. They're saying it probably won't stay anyway, so what's the big deal, right?

Roads. Roads are the big deal.

Somehow, every year the first snowfall causes people to lose their minds as if they've never ever seen snow before and then take off down the highway in a big cloud of idiot. It doesn't help, of course, that this snowfall is creating a layer of ice that half of the population of the QEII (um, that'd be the major highway between Calgary and Edmonton, for those not familiar. Renamed in honour of Her Majesty for a royal visit a number of years ago, which always makes me wonder about the thought process: I know, let's take the stretch of Highway 2 where everyone drives like it's the Autobahn and leaves their collective brain at home and name it for the queen. I'm sure she'd like that) will think means DRIVE FASTER.

Personally, I'm staying here.

For a number of reasons, actually. The idiot factor is the big one, but there's also the problem of the stupid new rock chip that I got on the way here on Friday that looks likely to spread but I couldn't get fixed yesterday because hello? small town business hours (and that was too a sentence. Of some sort). And, since it's me, you can add lack of sleep to the mix. I have no need to make myself part of the problem today.

To be honest, the lack of sleep really kind of ticks me off today, because I'd had a really good sleep the night before and there was absolutely no reason for my brain to play the let's see how many things I can make you worry about all night game. I really, really, REALLY hate nights like that, because it's like I'm having my own self-contained argument. In a somewhat three-year-old style, sadly. It kind of goes like this:

You know... such-and-such might happen.
Shut up.
And if it does, whatsis is certain to happen afterwards.
Shut up.
And you just know that when whatsis happens, it's going to make whosis completely impossible to deal with.
SHUT UP.

Yeah, super productive, that internal discussion. Ah well, if it gives me another excuse to stay out of the idiot parade today then I guess it's not such a bad thing. Oh, and if you're here in Alberta and you're not already following @511Alberta and @AMARoadReports on twitter for updated road conditions, then you really should be.

----------

In other news, I finished a sketchbook yesterday. My watercolour sketchbook. Ok, maybe not technically finished since I could still use the backs of some of the not-so-good pages that I don't mind wrecking to play around with now and then, but finished enough that if I put it on the shelf tomorrow and never used it again I wouldn't consider any of the pages wasted.

I finished a sketchbook. I don't think that any of my two fans can realise just how big that statement is.

I never finish sketchbooks. I either get partway through and then stop using them because I'm sick of the paper, or I get partway through and put them aside because I can't bear the thought of the crappy artwork that's in them.

I have a little bit of a problem remembering that a sketchbook is a sketchbook and not a this-has-to-be-perfect book.

I made a resolution with my last big sketchbook purchase, though, that I'd allow myself to be less than perfect. Good thing too, since I am less than perfect. And you know what? It stuck. Well... mostly it stuck. My little pocket sketchbook that I do pen & ink stuff in has had to take over from its bigger cousin in the less than perfect category (unfortunately, I had a few things turn out decently in the bigger book. I'm still using it, but not as much for casual doodling as slightly more finished ideas), but the watercolour book stayed as experimental as it was supposed to be.

And it's done! Woohoo! No, seriously. I finished a sketchbook AND in watercolours no less. I suck at painting, but I've kept plugging away at it long enough to finish a sketchbook. Who'd'a thunk?

I have its successor already waiting in the wings, even. And -- knock wood -- now that my wrist is finally starting to feel a bit more stable, it may even get used.

Hooray for small victories, then. And hooray for lunch when it's leftover pizza. In other words, time to stop typing and (sigh) watch the snow while I eat pizza.

Sigh, again.

At least I'll enjoy the pizza part of that.

What inevitably happens when someone gives me something that I like

Something food-based, anyway.

Sigh.

Ok, maybe not exactly inevitably.

And maybe not sigh either because my tea stocks really did need to be replenished (have I mentioned that I have more than a mild dislike for Teavana? Yeah, I thought I had) and I'm looking forward to this.

It does look rather like tea overkill though, doesn't it? There's an explanation. Really there is. $50 = free shipping, and being cheap myself... well, all right, sometimes being cheap can get a little expensive, but it's not like all of this tea won't get used or anything. And if it's any good, faster than I'll want to admit to myself. That's what comes from all of these big insulated mugs everyone uses these days, you know. What would have been one cup of tea becomes two cups of tea right from the start, and then...

You use up tea, that's what the and then is.

I just thank Whomever that I'm not a coffee drinker. $50 wouldn't have taken me nearly as far at Timmie's.

Anyway, for anyone who's been curious enough to click on the photo and read the labels, a brief explanation in no order:

• I like Darjeeling as a basic tea, and it's getting increasingly hard to find without going to a specialty shop.
• I like chai.
• I like being buzzed sometimes.
• I like being buzzed with chocolate added.
• I like to have a dessert tea on hand because sometimes a person's just in that mood.
• I like not being buzzed sometimes, and I thought that I should get something non-buzzy because the rooibos chai I was given that started this whole thing is going fast.
• I... um... needed to get something else to make it to $50. Seriously? I'm usually a honey person at home, but honey's a pain at work so I end up using sugar. I thought I'd give the agave syrup a try to see how I liked it.

And there you have it. I should be good for a while in the tea department, and since those clever people send along free samples when you order I'll probably be well on my way to my next choices by the time the cupboard is bare again.

At least they didn't try to sell me more canisters. Take that, Teavana.

Ok, this time I just forgot

I've been fairly productive at work today, which yay me considering it's Friday and all. So, blog topic is...

Well, I actually have one, but I'm hoping to keep it short.

We've started work on designing and building a nature playground here at the nature centre. The whole idea of nature or natural playgrounds is to create spaces out of largely natural materials that encourage physical, unstructured, and creative play while helping kids want to be outside. The playgrounds are built in such a way that, although they're made from non-traditional materials, they're still safety certified. It's going to be a fantastic space for us to use both in programs and informally, and at this stage at least I'm pretty excited.

What you see above, though, was my nature playground as a kid.

It's just a vacant lot behind the house that the owners never bothered to clear. The town cut a road allowance (probably before I was born) but the road was never built. What remained, then, was a path and trees. We were in it all the time. We built forts; we made up stuff.

And we were outside. Even me, the incredibly neurotic kid who couldn't have bugs on her, went outside and played in the trees.

Kids don't do that now, and it's sad. If kids are outside at all, it's structured and "safe" and damned near cocooned. It's like kids today are wrapped up in plastic.

You should see what happens to our plastic kids when we take them out on the trails, though. They get interested. They get dirty and don't care. They open up (I had a teacher the other day who said that one boy who'd been chattering to me the whole time about the stuff he was finding barely says two words in class). There's all kinds of studies out now about how being outside in nature can help with everything from ADHD to autism, but to me that doesn't matter as much as the fact that being outside just feels good.

Hopefully our constructed nature playground will be a step in helping kids AND their overprotective parents (helicopter, anyone?) to see that.



Yeah, nice short post, Dee.

No post again...

I just don't have a lot on my mind to blather about at the moment, I guess. I will say a couple of things, though.

Thing 1: The mayoral race in my hometown was just decided by one vote after a recount. Another town's mayor was decided by sixteen votes. And another town's final council member was decided by drawing a name from a hat because the race was too close to call. Still think that the old excuse my vote doesn't count anyway rings true?

Thing 2: There's a trial currently going on in Edmonton about severe pet abuse that is going a long way to confirming my increasing belief that human beings shouldn't be trusted with animals' welfare. A dog is a pack animal and will do almost anything its owner wants it to do, and the owner repays that... well, I don't want to call it loyalty because it's instinct, but think loyalty if you want to... by beating the animal until its hips are fractured and then shoots it a couple of times besides? Yeah, the human animal is definitely superior, isn't it? Superior scum. The prosecutors are asking for jail time; I hope the judge grants it.

Ok, enough rant. I need to get back to work anyway. Enjoy your out-of-season flower, since I wasn't in the mood to post a picture of brown things.

 ----------

Update to Thing 2: 14 month jail term, 2 years probation after, no pet ownership for 15 years. Now what do we do about the rest of the sick so-called humans out there, eh? Ah well, at least it's a little something.

Pointless photo of the day:

Sorry, but that's really all I have time for. Just thought I'd let you know that I'm still here.

Blog burnout

I've already done two (yes, two. Not one but two) blog posts for work today. Please may I be excused from blogging for myself?

Of course I can. My house, my rules.

I will say one thing, though. There's a swap meet here today in conjunction with waste reduction week, and I brought five things (of which all but one have left the building) and have only picked up a small change purse in return. Yay me and my own waste (well, clutter) reduction week. End. Weekend.

I'm tired of typing now so I'm going to stop. See you in a couple of days.

Got nothing

Sorry about that. I always feel a bit of a cheat when I've been away from the blog for a few days and then come back with absolutely nothing to say.

But here I am all the same.

I guess I could tell you that I'm wearing my new bracelet and one of the pendants today. I can't give you an update on how successful the bracelet's been in the Quest for the Non-Scratching, unfortunately, because my apartment's been really hot and hot and sweaty tends to lead to more scratching. Too bad, too, because things had been looking a bit better before this past week.

Not much to say about the pendant either. It's a pendant. It looks nice. It's fun to play with. Yeah, play with. I'm a fidget when I'm talking to people or thinking about things, I'll admit. If it's one of the rare times when my hair's down, I'll play with my hair (and I hate seeing other people do that, so you can see how much of an unconscious habit it is with me). If my hair's up, I'll play with whatever's around my neck. Might be a pendant; might be my crocodile nerdstick (yep, still wearing that. Still a five-year-old girl. Still fun). In lieu of something around my neck, I play with my pinkie ring.

Never my watch, though. Watches aren't toys. They're for telling time, silly people.

Anyway, that's it. More on the weekend, maybe.

Especially if I wear a different pendant.

Turkey

The pointless photo, by the way, is not of a turkey.

The picture's about all you're getting today, though, because I just spent a stupid amount of time on a silly doodle and now I don't feel like typing. A shame, really, since I probably won't post at all tomorrow and I'd been on a bit of a roll the past few days.

Ah well.

The post title? Any of my two fans who are Canadian know, and as a result probably aren't even reading today. As for me, I had my turkey yesterday, which means I also had my turkey for breakfast and will probably have it for lunch as well. I'll likely give it a miss for supper, but it should be back for lunch tomorrow...

How do you Americans manage to do that? You know, a big meal with your late Thanksgiving and then doing it all over again for Christmas so soon after? I can't help but think that it must be exhausting.

Anyway, a good Thanksgiving to everyone out there. See you in a day or two.

New toys

This particular pointless photo is hot off the camera, boys and girls.

It rocks. Or, more accurately, it's rocks.

My father and I just got back from an hour and a half or so of looking at rocks. A local rock/jewellery store has an annual sale that takes over a small mall, more or less. They bring in (literally) tons of specimen rocks, polished rocks, carved rocks, fossils, beads... well, you name it. I'd never been and I seem to forget about it every year anyway, but for some reason it stuck in my head this time. When I mentioned it to Dad he was interested, so we headed down the highway to check things out.

It was kind of neat, actually. Just about everything you could imagine to see in the category of rocks except fancy faceted stuff. And it's obviously a draw for them. Plenty of people about, and plenty of those people walking around with pop flat boxes that the customer service people would happily give anyone who looked like they had their hands full with the rocks they'd already decided on. Of course they'd happily supply boxes; it meant you could pick up more rocks.

Some of the stuff wasn't of much interest to me -- I'll never be someone who goes in for the whole power of crystals and spheres angle -- but there was enough going on that I think just about anyone could find at least something they liked.

For me, as my two fans know, there's three things (four, sir) FOUR things (somewhat garbled Python reference between Holy Grail and the Spanish Inquisition, for anyone who thought that I was talking to myself there) I look for: the rock's interesting, the rock's real, the rock's wearable (no space for pretty specimens to just sit on a table at my place), and... the rock's cheap. Hey, as much as I like the look of the ammolite they had down there, given the choice between a fifty dollar pendant and a ten dollar one, my budget hollers TAKE THE TEN.

I get to have more fun that way anyhow.

So, after an hour's browse, the end results can be seen above. All interesting, I think, and all wearable at work (with my t-shirt uniform at a nature centre, remember. Fancy things look stupid there). All, as well, posed on the bag that's holding my 3DS on my needs-cleaning piano. Hey, you use whatever background's available. From the left:

A hematite bracelet, bought mostly because my latest attempt at finally healing the eczema I've been dealing with for months is to wear a bracelet over it, my theory being that encountering a bracelet when I start to mindlessly scratch will remind me of what I'm doing and get me to stop. It's working, more or less (I'm still scratching at night, unfortunately), but now there's the trick of finding something that doesn't annoy the bejeebers out of me by clacking and clattering on the desk and keyboard support all day. We'll see how this one goes.

An Ocean Agate (otherwise known as orbicular jasper) pendant, because I liked the patterns. And it was 50% off.

A piece of Baltic Amber, mostly because I've always wanted a piece of amber. And it was 50% off.

And finally, a bit of Dendritic Jasper (couldn't find a good clear link on that one. Let's just say that some sites will claim that the dark inclusions are fossils. Maybe some of the time, but not always), because I'm kind of into jaspers at the moment. They're interesting to look at. And it was 50% off.

50% off wasn't exactly my only criterion, by the way. There were loads of other things that were 50% off. I only bought a few of them...





Incidentally, you run into a lot of weeeird things when you start searching rocks on the web. I was going to provide a link or two, but the weirdness is easy enough to find so I'll let you search if you want to. All I can say is, is it all right with everyone if I just continue to like rocks because they're pretty rather than thinking that they're going to change my life?

Ok, thanks then.

Swing and a miss...

But first... did you see the spider? You had to know there'd be a spider.

And second... this tumblr currently wins the internet.

Ok, now for topic. I went to Wally World yesterday. That's actually news, because I don't think I've been there for nearly a year. Long enough ago, at least, that I have no idea where things are anymore (this particular Wally World is one of those that got expanded into a Super Centre Center, so now it's a cheap stuff/grocery store hybrid. Is there really a demand for that?). Anyway, I needed a couple of things in the cheap stuff category, so off to the Super Centre (dammit, I refuse to spell 'murcan) I went. And how did I make out? Well, here's the rough tally:

1. Watch strap. Managed to buy the wrong size even though I held the stupid watch up to the measuring gauge TWICE, so the pins were slightly too short to stay in the holes. No matter; I just stole some pins from an old watch that I'm not using at the moment. I'd need to buy a new strap for that watch anyway if I decide to put a new battery in it, so no worries there. And the fact that the strap itself is a millimetre too narrow doesn't really matter. It'll do fine until I destroy it. Erm, watch on right wrist (I'm a lefty, remember) + mousing with right hand = frequent strap replacement. Or at least more frequent than most people.

2. Bra. I don't know yet. I always need to wear a bra a bit (and maybe give it a wash) before I'm sure whether I hate it or not. I'll probably end up hating it, though. That seems to be my average with bras. And yes, I do know my proper size, or at least I'm told that I do. I just don't have a good eye for styles, I guess.

3. Coat. Oh, this one's kind of funny. I was only sort of in the market for a new fall coat because my old one's still serviceable although heading slowly to ratty, but these looked decent and the price was right (righter than I thought, actually. It rang in for $10 cheaper than I was expecting). I've been reluctant to give up my old coat, really. It's a fleece with a wind/rain resistant layer that ended up to be much better than I was expecting at the time. Plus, it's purple. I like purple but I don't wear it often (or not as often as I used to). Having a purple coat's been handy for doing programs, though, especially with older kids who might be taller than me. I'd gotten into the habit of telling them to "follow the ugly purple coat" so that they'd remember to keep an eye on me on the trails. But now I have this new one. This new... ugly purple coat. Hey, you didn't think I'd give up the purple when I had the chance not to, right?

4. Sleep tank top. It's a sleep tank top. What more can I say about a sleep tank top other than the fact that it's NOT made in Bangladesh? Well, I could tell you that it's purple.

5. Tinted lip balm. Yep. Unless it turns you orange or gives you blisters, I think it's pretty safe.

6. The big tub of Halloween candy that's currently sitting on my desk. Hey, who else is going to keep this joint properly sugared up?



And that's it. Not too bad; only one impulse purchase, and now I shouldn't have to suffer Big Box Land until at least Christmas. I suppose that counts as a run and not a miss after all, then. But I'm not going to bother changing the post title at this point...