“Fjord Fiesta” A margarita bar for the weary bearded traveler.
“Fjord Escape” Iron age Eco-tourism.
“Fjord Focus” Ophthalmology practice.
“Fjord Edge” Axe sharpening services.
Mind the gap, where you intestines used to be!
After nearly 1000 years of failed business ventures, Wednesday decided to get back in the soildering game. She married a princess (The Danes have always been progressive), amassed an army, and attempted to conquer England.
After many failures, using her her years fighting with Leonidas as her guide, Wednesday finally conquered England and became known as Pug Forkbeard.
After conquering and unifying England, Wednesday decided to fade from the limelight to pursue her more creative endeavors. She then spent nearly the next millennium in England, traveling around the countryside gathering stories and hoarding grain where she decided to embark on the greatest writing career known to pugkind
She reminisced about her time there during an appearance on The Mike Douglas Show in 1966. Prose before milkbones
“I took a liking to England right away, something in there air there unlocked by creative juices. Probably emissions from all the rotting teeth; or the gas from the terrible food; or the terrible weather; or maybe the the miasma of cancer vapors from the collective national stiff upper lip. Wait, why did I like this place again?”
During a prolific period between 1589 and 1613 Wednesday wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets whose imprint on the English language and world culture cannot be overstated.
Among the most famous words in world literature is the opening soliloquy to Wednesday’s theatrical masterpiece Puglet:
To pee, or not to pee, that is the question– Whether ’tis Nobler in the loin to suffer The Stings and Arrows of distended bladder, Or to take Arms against a Sea of urine
No comment, my wife will hit me if I say what I think of Pug Austen
Wednesday’s coffers finally filled from her scheme as a grain trader and playwright, decides to to take the opportunity to focus her considerable talents on writing novels.
Between 1811 and 1816 she wrote six novels, which would become definitive classics: Pug and Pugability Pug and Pugjudice Pugsfield Park Pugga Pughanger Abbey Pugsuasion
Excerpted from Pug and Pugjudice:
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single pug in possession of a pizza crust, must be in want of a drink.
Wednesday famously suggested the real reason her sister Cassandra burned her letters from that period. “I was having an affair with Lord Byron AND his half-sister Augusta Leigh. Can you imagine what would have happened to my work if that had gotten out? No one would have ever believed my books were written by, ‘A Lady!'”
Next chapter: Wednesday conquers America.
Wednesday the pug was born to a poor Spartan family on July 19th, 510 BCE. Her father, Pugtroclus, was a popcorn vendor. Her mother, Cleocharia, was a river nymph. It wasn’t a pleasant childhood as Wednesday’s parents had a strained relationship. She famously spoke of this in a 1977 interview on Parkinson for the BBC: These leather shorts are chafing my taint.
“My parents always fought about money. Dad would say, ‘I dragged my popcorn cart all the way to Olympia and back. I work my ass off to put food on the table. When I get home, I just see you splashing about in the creek. There isn’t even a cold meal waiting for me.’
“Mom would reply, ‘I’m a goddamned river nymph! What does a river nymph do? A river nymph frolics! I’m sorry that my chosen profession isn’t economically viable; but you knew this from the start. You sure didn’t seem to mind all the frolicking we did when you were younger.’”
Wednesday demonstrated an aptitude for battle from an early age which is a good talent for a young Spartan. She fought at Thermopylae with Leonidas and they had a close relationship. Many a night at the pub were spent bantering about the latest play or music. The 2007 biopic Leo and Me, for which Wednesday won a Golden Globe for Best Original Screenplay, highlights one of these exchanges:
“ABBA!” Wednesday cried incredulously. “Leo, come on! You have got to be kidding me. They are terrible.“ Leonidas replied “I fucking love ABBA, I don’t care what you say. It’s a good thing the Swedes aren’t marching towards our gates. I’d let them pillage Sparta for backstage passes.”
After Leonidas fell, Wednesday lost her desire for combat. She decided to wander the world, seeking more peaceful endeavors. Eventually, she settled in Galilee.
500 years of travel left Wednesday with an empty coin purse, she noted that “artisanal” sangria was all the rage. Naturally, cashing in on this fad by launching an exclusive line of “artisanal” sangria goblets would replenish her coffers. Market research showed that anything labeled “artisanal” instantly became more desirable if it was made of wood.
Wednesday quickly signed up for carpentry classes at the local community college. The course was taught by a sweet, patient man named Joseph. There were constant interruptions by his wife, Mary. She had some facial ticks and would randomly repeat certain phrases like “King of the yews” (A pet name for her husband) and “Virgin birth”. Eventually, Wednesday got handy with the lathe and turned her first prototype. Sangria anyone?
Joseph suggested that Wednesday take pre-orders for her goblets. Renting a stall outside the temple in Jerusalem would offer the most exposure for the product. Wednesday made her way to the big city with Mary (on a sangria run) and her goblet in tow. Unfortunately, there was some sort of scheduling mix up. Wednesday’s stall was occupied by some local money lenders. Wednesday showed them her receipt for the stall and asked that they vacate the area. The money lenders also had a receipt for the same stall and the dispute soon became heated. Mary soon, became agitated by the argument and starting yelling “King of the yews, King of the yews”. The money lenders heard something seditious and reported Wednesday to the authorities.
Shortly after, Wednesday was arrested and sentenced to death by crucifixion. Luckily for Wednesday, her half river nymph heritage allowed her to hold her breath for hours on end. Nullifying the normal suffocating effects of her sentence. This is boring business, so, after a few hours, Wednesday took a nap. The authorities mistook this for death and Wednesday was able to escape her shallow grave. Regrettably, the artisanal sangria goblet was lost in the melee at the temple and was never seen again.
Next chapter: Wednesday travels to Scandinavia, rules England, and writes her best seller, Pug and Pugability.
Lisa & Wednesday circa 200 after we got her; she’s about 10-12 weeks old
Dear Internet,
It has been a rough couple of weeks.
Since mid-December, we’ve noticed Wednesday’s back legs becoming more drunken sailor-y then ever and the Prednisone and Glyco-Flex combo wasn’t seemingly helping anymore. While she’s been prone to the occasional peeing in her sleep and hate pooping in the house, we realised that much of the hate pooping had nothing to do with her supposed anger and everything to do with her having zero feeling in her lower half of her body. As her Prednisone was almost out and required a refill, I made an appointment with her vet to get a check up and warned some hard decisions were going to be made.
The vet unfortunately agreed. Wednesday’s neuropathy has gotten markedly worse since her last appointment in November, which was detrimental to her quality of life. TheHusband and I had agreed that if she could not at least do her business on her own, then it would be time. I could not keep her to assuage my broken heart; I would not want her to be so broken that my last memories of her are one of her in pain. Little baby Wednesday with Jen, circa 2000
TheHusband and I had been down this road before numerous times in the last few years, where we think it’s time to put her down only to have her a miraculous recovery.
But this time, there is no recovery. There is no drug, surgery, or physical therapy that can save her.
Because the last few years had been so touch and go, I thought I had cried all I could cry for this dog. I had long come to terms with her near death, but it was not until this appointment it had really hit home. Wednesday, April 2003
I cried all through the vet appointment, cried on the phone with TheHusband on arranging the date, cried while pumping gas, and then cried so hard the rest of the day that my eyes were raw and my cheeks were stained.
While getting ready to leave for therapy appointment Thursday morning, I cried in the shower. While getting dressed, I got my jeans up to my knees before I fell on the bed and started crying so hard I started hiccuping. Wednesday and her stuffed pug, January 2011
I called into work sick.
After coming home from therapy, where I cried some more, I walked into TheHusband’s office where my heart broke in half again for when ThePug saw me, she stopped cleaning her paws, her tail starts wagging, and she attempts to push herself out of her bed happily to come greet me, only she could barely climb over the small hump of her pillow.
Two days later, I’m still crying.
After the vet appointment on Wednesday and when I came home from therapy on Thursday, Wednesday and I spent the whole day in bed. She was ever joined at my left hip, while I aimlessly tried to do some work and watch Britishisms. June 2012. When she got too big to lay on me, she opted for squishing herself right by my, preferred, left hip wherever I was sitting down.
I can’t find Wednesday’s origin story, but I know I’ve written about it somewhere in the thousands of files that document my life. She was born to the first litter of a sire and dame, Linus and Lucy, were owned by ExFiance #2’s aunt and uncle. They had been trying to breed Linus and Lucy for ages and when it finally happened, they opted to give the pups away to see how they would do.
I remember driving to their house when it was time to pick out a puppy and I wasn’t terribly keen on the idea of a dog. I didn’t fancy myself a dog or a cat person, pets seemed to be too much responsibility and commitment. I could barely keep human relationships going, getting a pet seemed to be too much trouble then it could be worth.
I sat on the kitchen floor, puppies scampering and sniffing me until all but one wandered off. Wednesday took one look at me, climbed into my lap, nuzzled my hand and fell promptly asleep.
That was it. I had been chosen.
Several weeks later, we picked her up and brought her home. Soon later, we would adopt her sister and brother, whom I would re-home in 2008 when I could not find a living space to take all four of us.
For nearly 14 years, 1/3rd of my life, this dog has been my best friend, my constant companion, my confidant, and nothing less but a four legged fur extension of myself.
I had calculated during her entire life time, we have not been apart for more than two months. Total.
Wednesday taught me about responsibility, laughter, and patience. She gave me unconditional love, never asked for anything other than to be my side now matter where I am. If I’m sitting in my office, vacuuming carpet, or in the kitchen making coffee, she’s always where I am. The click of her nails against the floor as she follows me from room to room, the pitter patter of pug feet TheHusband says, will always been an echo of her presence.
She taught me how to love. Without her, and her brother and sister but especially her, I would never have taken chances on relationships, learned to open my heart, and learned how be vulnerable. Without her, I never would have taken a second chance on TheHusband.
She is everything to me. Wednesday, December 2013
xoxo,
Lisa
P.S. Her euthanasia appointment is scheduled on February 1 as I knew if I had pulled the trigger the day we were at the vet, I would not have been able to drive home. In retorspect, knowing there is a definite time and hour she’s going to be killed has made it a lot worse than ripping the band aid. For two days I’ve been near inconsolable about her upcoming death and I expect as time marches on and on the day it happens, I will be besides myself.
We are going to be with her when they put her down. We’re opting to have her cremated and she’ll have a urn so that she’s with us always. I had joked about giving her a viking funeral, but TheHusband is pretty sure we might go to jail if we tried.
TheHusband is working on her obit, which I’ll be posting at the time of her death.
While I may not have responded to everyone who gave their condolences, I do want to thank you all for your sympathy and love. Knowing that she was beloved by so many has been comforting.
Persephone and Hades, circa 450BCE via British Museum
Dear Internet,
Where was I? Oh! Yes.
It is late Sunday night and TheHusband is engrossed in some sport ball of DOOM that is nail biting, etc. I’m annoyed because I have my British telly lined up for the evening and I was told nothing was going to happen just yet so I can’t watch my stories as hoped.
But if my yawning is any indication, and how sleepy my eyes feel, when I get into bed to watch said telly, I’ll promptly fall asleep.
This week has been a week. I still feel okay with missing a few days writing this week, sometimes things just cannot be helped. This upcoming week is going to be far worse as due to schedule kerfuffles, I’ve got at least two 12 hour days on tap, plus I’m prepping for one of my liaison departments accreditation which is taking longer than anticipated. I’ve got a lot of plates I’m spinning in the air at the moment and some personal projects are going to have to be on hold for just another week. I know I said a few weeks that I would be catching up on personal email and projects, but please bear with me for another week if you haven’t heard from me yet.
The next morning.
True to my earlier prediction, we were not five minutes into telly where I promptly fell asleep. We forewent going to the gym this morning as TheHusband has not been feeling well, some version of the plague has been hanging out for the last week, which worked to my benefit since it meant we did not go to the gym. The next three days are going to be rough as I’m working longer than usual shifts to cover all the meetings and classes that were heaped up by happenstance.
Other notes:
I discovered sometime in the night that my heating blanket is not in fact broken as I was beginning to think it was. It seems if the dog is laying on it , it stops the heat from generating up to me. Once I moved her off, and noticing the location she was laying on felt like a sauna, the rest of the blanket warmed up. New note to self: Do not allow dog to lay at my feet anymore.
Speaking of the dog, we go in for a vet check up on Wednesday to see about upping her dose of Prednisone for her arthritis and spaghetti legs, but not to be too much of a Cassandra, the end is coming. Example: she has almost no feeling in her back legs or below her waist anymore, so she has not been able to tell us when she needs to poop. It just comes out and she’s surprised as we are when it happens. This morning I was carrying her down the stairs and stopped in the kitchen to get some coffee before taking her out. She starts pooping while I’m holding her like a football and I had to put her on the ground, holding her up by her harness, so she can finish her business. She’s had a good run at 13.5 years, but coupled with the occasional peeing when she sleeps which has started to become near daily and the fact she cannot feel when she has to poop, we said if it gets to this point where her quality of life is diminishing, and it will get worse, keeping her around to soothe my savage heart is not in good interest to anyone. Discussions will be had with the vet, and potentially hard choices will be made.
The exercise calendar I mentioned a few weeks ago? I’m using it to track our time at the gym. I’ve cemented that I work best when I hit the gym early in the morning before my day gets going, finding that any time I attempt to schedule after work or afternoons during off days just doesn’t work. To keep myself honest, I’m checking in to the gym on Foursquare and then writing out what we did on the calendar, which is currently posted below my Naked Rowers calendar in my home office. I have been continuously wearing my FitBit Flex since I got it for my birthday last summer, and I like seeing the numbers grow.
Speaking of FitBit, they sent me my yearly roundup:
Not too shabby for six months! If I can keep up the gym and once the weather gets better this year, do more walking/running then next year should at least be double, if not triple that value. I do wish the notification when my battery is low was more reliable. I have set to email and text me but it never seems to sync up with the actual battery level.
Our holiday tree is still up. I had made self-promise to take it down this past weekend but that looks like it is not happening anytime soon.
I’m now ending my third week of being caffeine free and I think I’ve found a winner. My moods have been regulating themselves fairly well the longer I go without, which was the point of the experiment. I’m sure the exercising I’m doing is also of help to keep me fairly mood balanced. In the next month or so, I’m going to continue on with the experiment and remove refined sugars from my diet and see how that works.
xoxo,
Lisa
Dear Internet,
Tuesday was the first day in 76 days I missed a day writing. Wednesday too. And you know what? I’m okay with that. But today’s entry will explain some of what has been going on. My job posted yesterday.1
I am not reapplying for the position.
While I love working with students and seeing everything click when they get it, my passion remains and has always been in technology. With the college’s direction for the position, and the rewording of the position itself, it would be in my best interest to find a position that would better align with my career goals.
Some of you may not know my circumstances, so I’ll catch you all up.
I was hired as an adjunct in 2011. That fall, after two separate interviews, I was hired in as the systems librarian. The position was open for an academic year before I was hired. During this time, the faculty union, which librarians are a member of, were in negotiations with the college for their contract. All of us that were hired in the 2011-12 academic year were hired in as contingency employees. Our contracts were renewed on a year to year basis as contracts continued to be in negotiation.
In the 2012-13 academic year, the union and college came to an agreement with contract negotiations. Contingency faculty such as myself were not included as part of the agreement. We were told that all 40 positions would be reopened to a nation wide search. We could elect to apply for the position if we’d like, but please note that any time we worked prior to the now tenure track position would not be included when we apply.
My original position, while similar in wording to the current position, was sold to me as being 75% Systems / 25% everything else. The college’s push for student success has changed significantly in the last three years — every part of our core job services has been significantly amped towards student success and instruction. Out of my 35 scheduled hour week, I spend 10 hours on reference, 10-15 hours prepping/teaching/wrap up for info lit classes, 5-10 hours a week during liaison work, whatever time is left over doing systems. This also does not include my involvement time spent on meetings for internal department groups and college wide meetings. Or lunch.
When the job posting went live yesterday, those who knew me started emailing and tweeting asking what was the deal. Many asked if they had missed something on my blog? I made it a point to not publicly discuss my work here but to point people to my writing over at my professional blog, of course I did not discuss the terms of my employment because I had no idea what was going to happen to me.
Despite repeated assurances I would be notified when the job posted, I was not told. I found out the job was being posted several hours before it went live by finding a copy of the posting on our internal network of job positions.
As I read through the document, the last line under Minimum Qualifications set off all kinds of bells:
Ability to demonstrate the mental health necessary to safely engage in the librarian discipline as determined by professional standards of practice.
I called HR immediately.
I had a meeting with HR about this line and stated it was not only illegal but inflammatory and discriminatory. I was informed it was a directive from the director of accessibility to add that line to the 19-20 job postings that were going out. I was then asked by HR to provide language from ADA about the discrimination and illegality of the content, but HR did agree the language did not sound correct.
This morning I emailed HR several direct sources of ADA information from the government. I did not hear back.
Completely independent of my actions, various people picked up on the mental health line in the job description as it was being distributed via national job hiring networks. I was tipped off by various people the extent of the uproar over Twitter and over at Tumblr. Lots of people took the college to task for its faux pas. Near end of business day, the college responded:
Now, before the Internet got wind of everything, I DID post my job was available on Twitter and that while I was not reapplying, I would sincerely answer any questions had about the position.
And while I will not comment publicly on the events other than what I’ve laid here, I have responded to people’s comments about “the past employee in that position” and I repeated my offer from earlier in the day that if anyone had questions about the position, I would be more than happy to discuss it with them privately.
It should also be remarked on that now several people of note from the college are now following me on Twitter.
My goal is to leave the position with my dignity intact. I have a lot of projects to wrap up before my contract ends on June 30 and I would like to have the opportunity to complete out those jobs. I’ve been assured while Michigan is an at-will state, the college has to have document course of action of any misdeeds done on my part, which has never happened. I’ve never even gotten a bad review.
But I am kind of excited about the unknown future. I’ll be revamping my professional site within the next few weeks and applying for positions.
And again, I want to make clear that I am writing this up to present facts as they happened and to let people know who were bombarding me with tweets, emails, texts today that I’m okay. I’ll be getting back to some of you in the next few days but I really do appreciate all of the support you’ve given me.
xoxo,
Lisa
Dear Internet,
Today is TheHusband’s 35th birthday, which in true TheHusband fashion was spent with basketball, ice cream, and cake. It seems then, on this momentous occasion, that I should dig up the poem I wrote him for Valentine’s day a few years ago to cement how much I love the bastard. Ode to Snookie Wookums:
A billet-doux for Justin
I struggle to tell you how much I love you,
Not because I do not know how to say it –
But because it has been said many times before (and in many different ways).
Not just from me to you, or from you to me, but
Shakespeare, Byron, Shelley, Keats — dead white guys
(Your favorite kind.)
Who wrote overly flowery language to describe,
The merest changes in touch, scent and vision of their beloveds,
When they were naked upon the often stained mattresses.
(And why were those mattresses always so stained?)
(Did they not believe in cleaning in those days?)
Or having their woman kill themselves for whatever reason –
(Death, despair, misery – your favorite subjects).
Love, then, is a word we throw about carelessly these post-modern times,
To describe anything we have strong affection for from –
Our pets, food, clothing, movies, to music and cars.
(And do we love, in that we have strong emotion or do we love because we cannot use any other word to describe how we feel for the item we are attached to?)
So then, on this Valentine’s Day –
(A saint who is honored for love instead of being remembered as a Christian martyr in antiquity)
Let me not talk of death, misery, despair, or Nazi’s –
(Thrown in to see if you’re still reading),
But rather let me just tell you that for all of the reasons that I love you,
And for all of the reasons that could possible exist and
Have been turned into a Lifetime Movie Extravaganza –
It is because of your quirks and your stubbornness,
Your strong sense of wavering morality,
Your love of pretentious literature and even more pretentious music,
Your arrogance, your silliness,
Your daring and your bravery,
Your sense of adventure and your resoluteness,
And all of the physical reasons that I adore you so –
(Not stated in case your mother reads this).
Thank you for stalking me all those years,
For proving to be worthy, for believing in me,
For being all of the things that I could hope for and more –
I love you, my snookie wookums, and am every so glad
That I will be dragging you, unwillingly, to the alter in May!
Happy Valentine’s Birthday, my love!
xoxo,
Lisa
Cocaine toothache drops for children circa 1885, via ClassicPixs
Dear Internet,
The lesson here is to stop the pizza/Benadryl combo because honestly — I’m not fooling anyone.
The weather has shifted from days and days of nothing but snow to a quick warm up and sleet and ice. As we are the first driveway on the block, when the city plows we get the built up from them going around the corner. The last few days of sleet and ice meant our fairly pristine driveway had a 2′ ice dam at the end that was impossible for me to drive over in either direction.
So we didn’t leave the house on Saturday because who has time for that?
Later.
A fairly good evening was had as we went out with my brother and his girlfriend for TheHusband’s birthday and sat and shot the shit for a few hours before we got into the cake, which I had made for his birthday. German chocolate cake with “35!!!” scrawled across the top. One foot in the grave is my husband. One foot. Time for an upgrade.
xoxo,
Lisa
Dear Internet,
I came home from the work ‘do today to find my blog has been quietly exploding across the library-sphere due to a mention and a link back from a professional online publication to my ALA code of conduct round up post. Again. Coupled with popularity of the ripped open belly of my psyche posts, this instant love feels a bit strange.
It’s hard because when people praise, compliment, or are effusive towards me for I get WEIRD. I want you to recognize my brilliance, but please, let us not speak about it publicly. Think of the children.
Don’t you worry though, I do plan on owning the title of Queen of the Pussy Posse but right now I’m just kind of warming up to the title.
The work ‘do was rather good! I tweeted from my professional Twitter account to be engaging with my colleagues. Our poster session went over pretty well and lots of snaps were taken while I was demoing some of our goods and services. It was after the poster session was over my color combination was not particularly a good choice for photography — I was wearing a purple skirt with dark purple polka dots, dark green tights, and a similar color to the tights shirt and a light grey cardigan. Plus I’m currently a redhead, which always throws off my make-up and color choices when I quickly switch back and forth between dark, dark hair and red, red hair.
It has been nearly two weeks without caffeine and the weirdest thing is how balanced I am beginning to feel. I keep telling TheHusband I went off of caffeine, and soon I’ll be limiting refined sugar, to help with the bipolar. The strange effect is going off of caffeine has helped my ADHD. A lot. Like noticeably a lot. Which is downright strange since all almost all ADHD drugs are stimulants.
I’m able to put together tasks and complete them in a reasonable amount of time that I had not seen since the early days of when I was taking the drugs. A week after being caffeine free, I would wake up on my own accord, create a list of things I must do for the day and do them in order. The tasks were completed. I did not leave things unfinished or undone. Physical tasks are one thing, but digital tasks I’m still kind of all over the place on. This post was started five hours before it was finished because I kept skipping around reading my RSS feeds, stalking social media, checking email, talking to friends on gChat, and so forth. Even though I’m still digitally all over the place, in comparison to where I was before, I’m loads better.
Additionally, I’m not only sleeping really well, but when I get up, I get up on the first ring of the alarm. No more 45 minute snoozes or feeling fuzzy brained or dragging my ass around in the morning. I realize my medicating doctor refers to me as a peculiar case, but I had not thought the reverse prescription for my ailments would possibly end up to be true: take me off all stimulants, the number one antidote for ADHD, and my ADHD becomes asymptomatic.
First day back to work is a perfect example. I set the alarm at 6 for I knew I had to wash my hair and shave my legs, which can take me longer than usual for I often like to dawdle in the shower. I gave myself a soft time to get in the car at 7:15 to start warming it up to leave at 7:30 to make the 5 mile drive to the event space to be there by 8. The event actually started at 830, but we had 30 minutes for socializing and breakfast before hand. I wanted to give myself a wide berth of time due to weather and roads and Lisa.
The alarm went off at 6. I was out of bed at 6:04. By the time I ate a banana, drank some coffee, checked work email (wanted to make sure the event was still happening due to recent weather trials), showered (I always set an egg timer for 10 minutes on work days when I shower or else I will never get the fuck out), shaved, dressed, blew dry and did my hair, make-up and etc, I actually did not get into my car until 7:34. I gave it 10 minutes to warm it up and even by running late, I made it to the event space at 8:05. Roads were much cleaner than anticipated and traffic was still fairly light. Having a soft and hard leave time helped me control my time management and I pulled it off fairly well.
My impulses are getting better. After the work ‘do was over, I was out running errands with the last errand dropping off a script at the pharmacy. While there, I trolled the make-up aisle, as you do, for I wanted to get some lipsticks or nail polishes in Pantone’s color of the year. Before I would have bought up everything that I could find remotely related to the color on the spot, but this time after a few crawls up and down the aisle I realized that since I was coming back the following day, I didn’t need to buy anything this second, which would give me time to go home and search for reviews online. I paid for what I did have in hand and left.
Genius.
xoxo,
Lisa
P.S. Let it be said that by me now that public confessions of the soul tend to warrant others to confess privately to me. I am totally okay with that. I think I’ve made it pretty clear that any confidences given to me remain confidential. Additionally, please understand that sometimes pulling at the scabs can take a few days to reorder myself to be human again. If I don’t respond right away, I will get to you. I promise.
Dear Internet,
Today I am heading to my first work ‘do at the beautiful Frederick Meijer Gardens for a day of TED inspired and styled talks from colleagues around campus. I may be live tweeting the whole event, so be prepared for those tweets.
Since I’m going to be gone for the day, I thought I would leave you with some cheer! On January 20th, Cartoon Network is showing the first new Powerpuff Girls episode in almost a decade, including all of the original voice actors, and new art!
As many of you may already know, I’m a huge Powerpuff Girl fan, especially of Buttercup. EXCITED is not even a word to describe how I am feeling. January 20th can’t get here soon enough! Also, check out my spiffy new wallpaper.
What makes it even more awesomer is Ringo Starr stars as a new character, Fibonacci Sequins, who wants nothing more in this world but to be a Powerpuff Girl. Check out the two new promos AND the music video of Ringo Starr, as Fibonacci Sequins, singing with the Powerpuff Girls.
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”//www.youtube.com/embed/fCXG6A6RIco?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen]
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”//www.youtube.com/embed/U9GdjwWdrsY?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen]
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”//www.youtube.com/embed/z3cINeEvg6I?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen]
xoxo,
Lisa
Men decorating crenellated walls with flowers, some climbing on ladders, via Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Dear Internet,
I am procrastinating.
I crashed shortly after I posted yesterday’s entry, and woke up on my own sometime after 7. Since TheHusband had the alarm set for 8:30, he, for the first time in any memory, got up and started hitting the snooze alarm until sometime after 9. Turns out he got sick at some point in the night and didn’t end up getting sleep while I snored in the glow of the Benadryls.
Time has passed.
I made it out of the house today, and thankfully our massive shovel yesterday cleared 90% of the snow so that all it took this afternoon to get out was a bit of the gas pedal to push me over the ice packed humps at the foot of the driveway created by recent city snow plows. While it was expected the side streets would still be a mess, as they tend to be during storms like this, the main streets were almost unbearable and unmanageable. An email last night went out from the city that the refuse service was not being picked up on our assigned days this week since the people who drive the trucks were going to be used to do the plowing. After driving in this mess, I’m slightly skeptical that happened.
Thankfully, a good chunk of my errands were located in the same general area, with the exception of having to head to the Ace hardware store a mile north which I decided was going to be a miss as I slid on the straight 2.5 mile towards the grocery store. One thing I had not planned on during all of these storms were the stores being decimated of stuffs. Of course it seems silly to think they wouldn’t be hit by the storms as trucks can’t get through due to the polar vortex, but I was genuinely surprised when I saw some of the things I wanted were not on the empty shelves.
Related: Why are people such assholes in stores when bad weather hits? Granted I was shopping in an area where your self-importance rises by 30% once you cross the city lines, but still. One woman, seeing me trundle down the make-shift one cart wide aisle in the veg and fruit area just stood there and wouldn’t move as I came to the end as she had intended on heading down the same aisle in the opposite direction. Another woman parked her cart and her body several feet apart at the small customer service stand when I went up to buy stamps. Dirty looks were shot by both of them when I said, “Excuse me.” in dulcet tones.
Also related: Observation is that black, mid-to-full length, preferably North Face, jackets are the de rigueur to wear in winter. I noticed this trend a few years ago and today it was like a mob of black marshmallows all over the store. Myself included — though to be far, this is my first black winter coat as I was getting tired of looking like a Lifesaver upon leaving the abode in past winters.
Tonight is the return of Justified, a show I love almost as much as my husband. Before I go make the obligatory nightly bowl of popcorn, I want to leave you with a few things. Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock.
I have been hankering for a purple, velvet smoking jacket for a long time but haven’t really found one I love. June tipped me off tonight to Derek Rose, makers of fine dressing gowns, who also created the one Benedict Cumberbatch wears in Sherlock. I had no idea I was so desirous of such a lovely piece of clothing until now. It is my ever most wish to save up £297.00 / $487.00 to buy one.
If you’re interested in Sherlock‘s wardrobe, Sherlockology has done a great job of putting together a list of all clothing worn by the main characters throughout the seasons.
I am not a runner, but this exercise calendar is pretty fabulous. The inspirational quotes are not too sentimental, it has space to write in your daily routines, and a nice area to wrap up monthly routines and goals.
x0x0,
Lisa
P.S. UVerse fucked up our recording of Justified and I am bereft of my Boyd Crowder fix.
