And You Thought There Weren’t Any Great Guys in Utah

I was on the bus last Thursday after class, daydreaming about Bruce Wayne or the Doctor coming along and sweeping me off my feet, when someone out there in the universe thought it necessary to bring me crashing back to reality.

I wear my iPod on the bus specifically to keep lunatics from talking to me, but this guy was not to be dissuaded by ear buds and a little Queen. Mr. Fantastic was in his mid-twenties and banging his head along to whatever he was listening to. He turned to me and said, “I’m wearing two different boots today, cause the laces on the one broke this morning. It makes me look like a hobo.”

I couldn’t argue with that. I nodded and tried to turn back to the rainy green hills outside. No dice.

“I was kicked out of the place I was living, so I have to move into St. Anne’s on Saturday.” (St. Anne’s is a local rescue mission.) “I have a little money left that I’m going to use to buy alcohol and weed.”

This guy clearly has his priorities perfectly aligned, I thought to myself.

He kept going. “I’ve got this dragon incense burner thought that’s worth at least 30 bucks. And another little dragon figurine that’s hand-crafted ceramic and worth about 70 bucks. I’m gonna stash those, along with my TV and DVD player, at my mom’s house while I’m at St. Anne’s, cause, you know, it would suck to lose them.”

I couldn’t think of anything to do other than nod again. Were we there yet?

The inane conversation continued until I, blissfully, got off the bus and he said, “I’d give you my number, but I won’t have one until Saturday.” I expressed some sort of feigned regret at this and skipped off the bus.

He was quite the catch. Infinitely better than that sexy billionaire Bruce Wayne. What was I thinking?

When I'm a Movie Critic...

There may be many movie/theatre critics out there who think they have a good method for determining what makes a "good" show. Well, here are two more.

Jennie and I decide how good something is by how much liquor you need to have ingested to enjoy yourself. For something like the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie you can have fun watching that movie stone cold sober. When I watched Fight Club I wished that I'd had a couple of beers to sip for the first half and a couple pints of everclear for the second half. Woah.

My mom and I know that we like something when we get in the car and say, "Didn't you love the part where..." The more of those moments we find and the longer we're talking about them, then the more we liked the movie.

After we saw the new Star Trek, we were oohing and aahing over it for days. I'm stilling oohing, but it's more internal now.

Note: this works just as well for theatre as it does for films.

Didn't you love that part where Spock turned down his admission into the Vulcan Science Academy and told the Vulcan elders to "Live long and prosper"? Yeah, me too!

A Sign That I Am Not a Pod Person

For those of you out there who think I always remember everything and never miss a detail, I have two instances for your consideration.

First, my mom and I were at the gym yesterday and she mentioned that a guy on the elliptical would "know me if he saw me again." I was oblivious. I think I'm pretty observant (usually), but I completely missed that. Sigh.

Second? Last Thursday I got onto campus shortly after 7am. I came with my mom for what I thought was an 8:30 class. I got there and found out it was a 7:30 class and that there were 15 minutes left. Dude! That's bad enough, right? NO! It gets worse.

I show up today (at the right time) and find out it's a TUESDAY AND THURSDAY class. I had looked on the website to make sure that it was just Thursdays and the schedule for summer is so... bollocksed up that you just can't tell. So... I didn't miss one class, I missed THREE. Damn it! Fortunately, they had just gone over the html code that I taught myself years ago. And the assignment that I turned in the other day in an effort to make up for the class (the one that I thought at the time) I missed? We did it in class today.

I feel like an idiot, but thank God I didn't miss anything more important than that. Again... sigh.

There are a few Banshees that would be very reassured by this sign that I am, in fact, human. I, on the other hand, am just irritated.

Grandfathers, Mothers, and Mayhem

My dear Grandfather turned 85 last week and is still going like a bat out of hell, as evidenced by the spray paint on my fingernails and the permeating odor of starter fluid.

The main thing I'm working on now is painting the biggest generator you've ever seen. It weighs 6500 lbs. I'm calling it "Big Bertha" and it's the color of that scuzz that forms on top of a cup of coffee that's been sitting on your desk for a week.

I should be going to work with him this morning, but I've had a little bit of a sore throat for the last few days and the last thing I need is to get sick right now. There's WAY too much fun stuff going on this weekend!

My aunty and Robyn are in town, GF's big birthday bash is Saturday night at our house, Mother's Day on Sunday, my aunty's birthday on Saturday, a geek trip to go and see the new Star Trek, and tomorrow is cleaning day in preparation for the big party. I'm sincerely hoping that if I take it easy today then my left eye will stop watering. I look like the bad guy in Casino Royale who weeps blood. (OK, it's not quite that bad, but still...)

On the bright side, the party favors are all finished (and pretty awesome, I think) and my mum's Mother's Day present is all finished.

It was inspired by a wreath we saw in a catalog and we got the stuff for about half what the catalog would have charged.

Wish me luck on my busy weekend and I'll give Big Bertha and Grandfather your regards.

Pictures Speak More Than Words

I've got a few pictures that I've been meaning to make into involved, interesting blog posts, but my brain doesn't want to oblige today. So, here are a few recent photos from my world.

Gwen scorning the effort I put into a jigsaw puzzle.

The table from mum's most recent tea party. (The cosmopolitan on the table is a fluke. I swear.)

A rainy walk with my mum.

My cat wondering when I'm going to stop doing stuff on my new laptop and pay attention to HER again!

B sleeping. I adore her fuzziness.

A picture from the Getty museum during my spring break trip. All in bloom.

Not Much, But Something.

Boy, have I been slacking!

Check out this cool picture from Wordle.net...



I typed in the address for this blog and it came up with this! (If you click on it, it'll take you to a page where you can actually read it. Extreme, I know.)

I'm almost done with this semester and am enjoying the rain.

More to come when I have my camera with me...

Wine Really Does Taste Better Out of the Right Glass

We only had nine people at our monthly wine-tasting last night but from all the glassware, you'd think there'd been twice as many. This first shot is of the table after quite a bit had been cleared away.


This one gives you a better idea. Since I was sitting at the end of the table, I got the whole picture. We each had a water glass, a red wine glass, and a white wine glass. A few of us had an extra glass too. And then there were the port glasses that went with dessert.



We tasted some really good stuff. We started with pinot noir and riesling with our salads and appetizers. We had some cabernet with a very tasty onion/herb dip on rosemary triscuits. Our main course was a tomato and breadcrumb pasta dish that mum and I fix as often as we can. Dessert was a double chocolate cream pie with coffee flavored port and chocolate flavored port. Even though I'm not (very often) a coffee drinker, the combination of the two ports was really good!

Many thanks to the wine buddies for a lovely evening and much tasty food and wine. And thanks for leaving us the onion/herb dip.