for your consideration

And I thought I had heard of everything .

six word sunday: just needs a touch of paint

for the
Six Word Sunday challenge

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like buttah

I want this shirt.



A (virtual) $5 to the first person who digs the reference.

*edit: Tim is the winner! It's a "Sesame Street" skit from the 70s, one of my favorites. Have a look here:

the wayback machine

It's on, bitches.

'Member when this was the height of computer sophistication? Shoots, we used to play this at school. Computer video games, albeit educational ones, at school. We were waaaay ahead of those kids playing "Dance Dance Revolution" in lieu of P.E.



The Oregon Trail

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to be late for work. Again.

in the distance

Last Sunday was family dinner, as usual. I picked up my mother, sister and sister's boyfriend and we were headed to meet my father for dinner in SF. On the way there, my car started making a funny noise, a repetitive "glug glug glug" sound. As we're cruising along 101, an identical black Jetta pulls up alongside and tries to get my attention. "You have a flat tire!" the front passenger mouths. I give him a friendly wave of thanks, and pull over to the right shoulder, just before an exit. Sister's bf and I exit the car and sure enough -- rear passenger tire is flat. My car has no jack. A call to AAA says they'll be there in about 30 minutes. 30 minutes come and go, and I get a call from one of their dispatchers saying it'll be another 10 minutes or so. An hour and a half passes before I call them back again and get a nasty woman on the phone: "Since you're not in an accident, you're not a priority." Yeah, bitch, but I'm on a freeway exit ramp and it's almost completely dark, how's about hurrying it up some?! Three highway patrol cars passed us over the course of the hour-and-a-half before one finally stopped to see what the issue was. The (cute) officer promised he'd figure out what was keeping AAA and that they'd be there soon. Minutes later, the AAA driver showed up and changed the tire. I dunno if his timing was a coincidence, since the highway patrol officer had called them, but after waiting 2 hours, we were grateful to see him. The two-hour wait on the side of the freeway meant we missed our dinner reservation, which was pushed back twice to accommodate our tardiness, so we ended up an Italian restaurant that my parents had eaten at earlier in the week. I dunno how they did it twice in one week, cause once was enough for me.

So anyway. Monday afternoon had me going to get a new tire, and while I was there I had the alignment done. The whole shebang set me back $183 (ouch!).

Fast forward to Saturday, as in two days ago. The plan: dad meets me at restaurant #2 to help me change light bulbs in our 25-foot ceilings, then comes over to my condo and changes out some light fixtures. First stop: Home Depot to rent a ladder tall enough to access the ceilings. I bought compact fluorescent bulbs earlier in the week so we'd be set to go once we got the ladder, but lo and behold, once pops climbs the ladder, the socket requires a special bulb. We head over to OSH, where they have 12 of the 20 bulbs we needed. We go and change out those 12 before heading to a different OSH, where they have zero of the bulbs we need. A quick stop for lunch, and we're on our way to yet a third OSH, where, miracle of miracles, they have exactly 8 bulbs. We're on our way back to the restaurant to finish the job when I hear a familiar "glug glug glug" sound coming from the truck.

B: Dad, I think we have a flat tire.
Dad: No, just keep going.
B: Dad, I really think there is a flat tire...
Dad: Nah, seems fine to me.
B: Daaaad...
Dad (looks in side view mirror): Huh. Welp, I guess we do have a flat tire. Pull off over there.

Fortunately, AAA showed up in about 30 minutes this go 'round, something about putting us on the priority list as we were (yet again) on the side of the freeway.

Who does this happen to?! Two flat tires in one week, on two different vehicles, different stretch of the same freeway, the same tire.

*cue "Twilight Zone" music*

six word sunday: where the streets have no name

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Six Word Sunday challenge

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more adventurous

It's 7pm and (this'll make my East Coast pals insane) I'm in short-sleeves and sandals. It's probably in the high 60s still and looks like it'll stay that way for the rest of the weekend. I have Monday off, miracle of miracles, and I intend to enjoy it to the fullest. I'm hoping the weather lasts until then because I have Big Plans.

This week hasn't been the greatest at work -- two of the kids got into a knock-down, drag-out argument the other day, making this the second in a one-week period. I thought we had the issue resolved last week, after a nearly two-hour pow-wow with the two people, but apparently not. They're like little kids -- they argue over the smallest things. This week's trigger? Person A didn't empty the dustbin before returning it to its spot in the utility area, not once, not twice, but three times. The horror! Person B was so incensed, she took a camera phone pic to prove to me what happened. I had the hardest time not rolling my eyes while she was explaining her side of the story. Person A claimed he "forgot" all three times to empty said dustbin, to which Person B said, "Funny how he's always forgetting things. He never seems to forget to take a break or pick up his check!" I nearly lost it at this point, I wanted to laugh so badly. Because it's true. He's always the first to clock out for his break, is routinely a few minutes late for work in the mornings and certainly never forgets to pick up his check. He's a good guy but needs constant reminders on what his job responsibilities are. Things were much better today, the storm has calmed, but for how long? It makes me doubt my management skills.

Because of the work crap I've dealt with lately, I was more than looking forward to the facial I scheduled for this evening, my first ever. It was so crazily relaxing, I almost didn't mind when she did the extractions. Almost. It was an hour and a half of bliss, and my skin looks awesome.

Now I'm off to a local pub for some garlic fries and whatever other dinner-type fixins. I imagine we'll sit outside and have lots of conversation over a couple of pitchers.

photo friday: self-portrait

Photo Friday

the dirty thirty

I've made a decision, and I hope that by declaring it publicly that I'll stick to it.

I've decided that for my 30th birthday (which is exactly 2.5 years* from today, for those keeping score at home) I will buy myself a pair of these:




* also known as 30 months, or 130 weeks

six word sunday: the best part of the trip

for the
Six Word Sunday challenge

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photo friday: sky

Photo Friday

feel goodery

I'm a cold-hearted skeptic, ask the folks that know me. (Not really, but I play one on teevee.)

So when someone directed me toward this site I didn't expect much. Or anything.

Let's face it: any site that can have me, the cold-hearted skeptic, cooing at the screen has to be good.

sundancing

Givin' 'em what they want, says I. What that means for you is: few words, lotta pictures.

We hit the ground running on Friday, arriving at 9:30 in the ay-em into Salt Lake City. The rest, bullet-style from the BlackBerry, is more for my own memory than anything else.

Friday:
-saw "the unforseen" (documentary about environmental impact in austin, texas) @ the library
-ate at zoom for lunch
-dinner at the eating establishment and saw perez hilton , pink hair and all
-waited for "the ten" but wait was so long!


Saturday:
-waited from 11 to 12:30 for waitlist tix to the premiere "broken english" at the racquet club
-met Colleen from Ohio while waiting in line
-wait from 1:45 to 2:30 for waitlist spot, we're numbers 70, 71, 72
-wait as volunteer door operator violates ticket policy and continues to let ppl in after the cut off time of 15 mins
-race over to eccles theater on foot to assure number one spot in line for the premiere "the year of the dog" but end up waiting outside (it started to snow!) for an hour
-eccles staff let us inside to wait for another 45 minutes, we end up with waitlist numbers 68 69 70
-it was so dramatic waiting, but we got in with mere minutes to spare!
-saw john c. reilly, molly shannon, peter sarsgaard and other stars of the movie

Sunday:
-up at 4:45am to head to the box office to wait in line for tickets: it was 2 degrees outside!
-waited from 5:30 am to 8 am to buy tickets, we ended up with tickets to four shows: "the night buffalo" (my number one choice for the whole festival), "low and behold," "never forever" and "the nines"
-headed to the canyons for snowshoeing expedition
-headed to the holiday cinema for "the night buffalo." loves me some diego luna, even if the whole movie was effed up
-blazed over to the prospector square theater just in time for the premiere of "low and behold," about post-katrina Louisiana: loved it
-raced over to the racquet club theater to see the premiere of "never forever," about a korean man and his Caucasian wife that cannot conceive a child. she decides to have an affair with a man that looks like her husband in an attempt to have a child
-after three-back-to-back heavy, emotional movies, my head was throbbing

Monday:
-up early to see "the nines" at the prospector sqauare theater; very likely this will make it to theaters
-got to see ryan reynolds, john august, melissa mccarthy
-spent the rest of the day roaming main street

Overall: had a wonderful trip, can't wait to do it again, although after waiting outside in the (literally) freezing cold at 5:30am, the ($3000-$5000) festival pass started to sound like a drop in the bucket. I loved that we got to see a variety of films, even if we only got to see 6 of them. From a documentary to a foreign film, the only thing that wasn't represented in our choices was a comedy. We kept saying, "Where's the 'Little Miss Sunshine' of 2007?!"

The Sundance Bible


Sundance box office


Try figgering this out!


Yummy foodstuffs on our first day


Main Street, as seen from Zoom


Pretty scenery


The Library (and theater), where we saw "The Unforseen"




It looks like one of those miniature Christmas villages!


Movie posters, everywhere!




The cast of "The Year of the Dog"


Waiting (and waiting and waiting) for waitlist tickets at the Racquet Club Theater




Despite the sunny sky, it was brrrr cold!


Finally getting into the lobby of the box office after waiting outside in 2 degree weather for two hours


Here we go!




See that ridge at the very top, through the trees? Yeah. That was our destination!


Yup, we made it to the top -- 10,000 feet!


Looking down from the gondola at The Canyons


Pre-show entertainment at the Holiday Village Cinemas


Voting on "The Night Buffalo" for the Audience Award


Waiting for "Never Forever" to start at the Racquet Club Theater


Main Street (with a sun flare!)


The cast of "The Nines"


John August, director of "The Nines"


Ryan Reynolds


The famous marquee at the Egyptian Theater

six word sunday: they sell everything at the flea

In honor of where I'm headed today, a themed Six Word Sunday!

for the
Six Word Sunday challenge

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da bears!