alligatorjuice

youtube is a great resource for how-to videos. so, when i wanted to see how to use a diz (an implement used in preparing wool for spinning) i went to youtube. well, you know how they give suggestions for things you may be searching for?



two things:

1. ummm... do all of those videos adhere to youtube's terms of service?

2. if you can't spell it, i'm not sure you should be involved in the act in which it is used...

i cannot explain this, i'm sorry. all i know is that there was a foot race among bartenders on the street where my brother works, well, as a bartender*. oh yeah, they're all dressed as turkeys. anyone who knows my sibling knows how damn funny this is.

i found a video, but it's not helpful at all. i can't tell which one he is. well, hopefully i'll find a video later from someone who was closer to the action.


*relax, sandwich lovers, he only works part time as a bartender. he still makes sandwiches full-time. :D

i'm slightly perforated, thanks to my cat, mason.

i was trying to clip his nails. now, i've done this minor task on other cats, and a few guinea pigs (literal, not figurative) with no issue. mason, however, doesn't want me to clip his nails without references from the aforementioned animals. so anyway, tonight, i got a lot further than i have in the last two weeks of trying - mom held him, and i got three nails on one paw, and two nails on the other front paw.

right at that moment, dad decided to clean some gunk out of the computer keyboard with the canned air.

the sound scared the heck out of mason, and he took off like his tail was on fire, knocking my water glass over on the way. this would have been all fine and well, if he didn't have his back legs on my thigh and one front paw on my shoulder at the time.

he didn't draw much blood, but i think i might have bruises in the morning...

The setup:
2. Favorite slash pairing?
3. Do you have a fave "South Park" episode? 4. What got you interested in costuming? 5. What one thing would you change if you were God for a day?

remember when i complained last year about parents doing their kids' school projects while not knowing a darn thing about the subject? long story short, fourth graders in new york state learn about local history, starting with the eastern woodlands indians who lived in the area. the students usually build models of longhouses, which are the permanent structures that the eastern woodlands indians lived in.

ok, that's what's supposed to happen. what usually happens is that the parent will take over the project, and completely forgetting their fourth-grade history, they'll come up with some mishmash of native american culture, usually heavily weighted with plains indian culture. in previous years, parents have bought the 'fighting indians' or 'cowboys and indians' figure packs (both of which are plains indians); they have also purchased teepees and totem poles to put around the longhouse.

it's now longhouse season again, and as in previous years, i have a new story. a mom and her kid came in, and she asked if we had flexible rods, like one would use to make a wigwam. i asked her if they were doing the longhouse project.

'oh yeah. but we're making a wigwam.'

*headdesk*

it does make me wonder (again) how the teachers grade these projects...

i was doing my online banking, and i realized that my credit card has recently been changed to a platinum card. platinum. me. wow. i guess it's because i've had the darn thing for so long, and they felt silly calling it a 'student' card still. :D so, i thought that maybe they gave me a credit line increase along with upgrading my account type. nope, still $500. who the heck has a platinum card with a $500 credit line? well, other than me, apparently... :D

last week, i was beginning to question if the tv show numbers was jumping the shark. last night's episode made me feel much better, though. while last week's episode had almost none of the things i watch the show for, last night's had everything - science, geekery and slightly wacky characters, just to name a few. though, they really need to stop putting in a new nutball every week to cover for larry's absence. but i'll tolerate it for now. :)

so, halloween occurred. i went to work in my hogwart's student uniform. i got called hermione three times. no, i didn't bite anyone. i was tempted, though. i really need to find a new work-appropriate halloween costume.


yes, i realize you've seen many pictures of me in my costume. but here's another anyway. :)

maria joked that i should name the owl crookshanks (as he's been called that at least once). i said no, i should call the owl hermione. bwahaha! but no, i'm not that evil. :D


everybody who dressed up (except maria). left to right - headless horseman, me, gnome (though everyone thought she was an elf), pumpkin, dorothy and toto, mechanic.

after work, i came home to hand out candy. ok, what part of 'just one' is so hard to understand? see, this is what happens when we hand out chocolate! i knew we should have kept the peanut butter cups to ourselves and only handed out the jawbreakers and twizzlers... :D we didn't have a lot of kids (about 12-20), and it's a good thing in a way - almost everyone we had took two or three - we would have run out if we had too many more. while almost everyone made some sort of token effort towards a costume (some kids had sports jerseys, several had masks) i don't think anyone really had a complete costume.

i love halloween, and i used to love trick-or-treating, and i'd hate to think that everyone is having the same experience i am with handing out candy. this neighborhood used to be crawling with kids on halloween, and now there's barely anyone. it's not like there aren't any kids around, because there most definitely are. for example, i didn't see my eight-year-old across-the-street neighbor, or the three kids down the street who leave their bicycles on the sidewalk in the summer. they're just not trick-or-treating, at least not in this neighborhood.

i was having a discussion with a coworker today, and she said that she didn't know what the time warp was. ok, i don't know how it's possible not to, so i told her to youtube it. it's been a while since i watched rhps, so i decided to do likewise.

it's very (very!) tempting to dig my magenta costume out of my closet and wear it to work tomorrow instead of my hogwarts student uniform. of course, magenta is an incredibly impractical costume for work - the shoes would kill me, it's cold, and my hair would be in my face all day. not to mention that i don't even know if i have the garter belt and stockings anymore. and, of course, it's not the most family-friendly costume in my closet... :D

so, yeah, i haven't changed my mind on what i'm wearing tomorrow. but if i keep getting called hermione, i'm going to bite someone... :D

last night, i got three rows from the end of the scarf i was knitting. and then i realized i had made a mistake in each of the last five pattern repeats. oh well, it was only about 45 minutes worth of work that i had to rip out... :P yeah, i'm not always so particular. but this time, i felt it was too noticeable to just leave.

you'd think someone would check these things before they go into production - professionally printed signs with errors are not very professional-looking.



the out-of-place blur on the window is obscuring a reflection that i didn't notice was there until i edited the picture. :D

i refuse to let the redundancy 'atm machine' become 'proper' english.

yes, i've seen signs similar to this before. doesn't make this any less funny. :D

am i killing your friends pages yet? good. 'cause i have more stuff to post. :)

i saw this the last time i went to the grocery store



nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

i only just noticed that all of my livejournal posts for the last week were dated three days in the future. come to find out, someone messed with the date on the computer. i think everything is fixed now. i hope. :)

there's a restaurant that my mom and i go to often, especially when we go to the movies on tuesday nights. i've told you guys about this place several times, most notably in the dead monkey and predator stories. the food is average, but they have a huge variety of fantastic desserts.  more often than not, when mom and i go there, odd things happen.

one recent time that we went there, i noticed the pancake portion of the menu. if you're ever in the position to eat at this place, i wholeheartedly suggest the buttermilk pancakes, and i went through a phase where i'd always order a short stack of strawberry pancakes. but i spied something on the menu that i'd never eat. :P


one of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong...

saturday, we welcomed mason, a 2-year-old american short-hair from the city shelter to our home. no pictures yet, but i'll be sure to share some soon.

as expected, he's slightly nuts. i swear he thinks he's a russian blue. for those of you who haven't had the opportunity to be a russian blue's human, they'll follow their human around like a dog. they don't fetch or do tricks, though. believe me, i've tried. :) mason is also the only cat in history to not like chasing laser pointers.

yes, i know about hulu's iminent change to a pay service. but look what i found! and just as i was lamenting how long it's been since i've seen forever knight!

 

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22512375
i know it's made with a cat skull, but when i look at it, i think, '*SQUEAK*'

did anyone watch tonight's episode of numbers? wow, did it suck!

first point of suckage - artsy camera angles. this is not csi miami, people! we don't need extreme-close-ups of everyone in every scene, and we don't need fancy-schmancy camera angles.

second point of suckage - ookie-spooky plot line. this is a crime procedural, not a science fiction show or a low-rated daytime soap opera; it's really not the place for an episode about cloning. yes, i know, the person in question was never actually tested to see if she was a clone. but still. the plot line was total crap.

in fact, very little of what i watch numbers for was in tonight's episode. i can only hope that next week's episode will return us to our regularly scheduled geekery. yes, i realize the preview makes it look even ookie-spookier than this week's episode - however, next week is halloween. i expect most prime-time dramas will have a halloween episode at some point - it'll look ookie-spooky at first, but in the end, everything has a rational explanation. i can deal with that. i can't, however, deal with another episode like tonight's.