Yvette's Inner Geek Blog

Leap Day is the day I remember specific people's birthdays: my little cousin Sophie is 12 (it's her third birthday) and my friend Jon from college must be 28 (ooo, lucky number seven). I thought that Mozart was also a Leap Year Baby (learned somewhere during my early public school education) but I can't find any evidence of that.

In other Numbers Notes, I find it interesting that I will be turning 29 in this Leap Year. And my fourth wedding anniversary is sneaking upon me. I hadn't realized that being married in a Leap Year was considered bad luck in Greece. Oh well. I also walked under a ladder that year and spilled a ton of salt. Plus, a black cat has crossed in front of me almost every day for seven years.

February 29 is also the one day of the year that it is traditionally okay for a woman to propose marriage to a man. There are some interesting vintage postcards from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that really encourage women to put on their scarlet bloomers and grab a guy by the balls, which of course was totally inappropriate back then. (It's much more common nowadays.) Way to embrace women's suffrage... give them one "free" day year!

However, I'm amused by the fact that if a man declines a proposa under that tradition, he has to "soften the blow" by giving her a kiss or buying her gloves, a silk dress, etc.  I'd be proposing like mad during that time period just to get a bunch of lovin' and cool swag. If a guy accidentally took me seriously, I would have said j/k because there doesn't seem to be a traditional penalty for that. Other than breaking a guy's heart... oh, cry me a river. Payback's a bitch!

Wow, I suddenly feel very cynical. I assure you that everything's just fine with me. *twitch* 

Posted by Yvette at 08:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Box of Chocolates | Feminism | Friends & Relationships | Fun! | History & Genealogy | Holidays

Have you ever poked around on Craigslist? You can buy, sell, or solicit anything. So it's not surprising that my college friend Steev found a want ad for a Chinese Baseball Announcer. Or that he responded.

What surprised me is how long it took the interviewer to hang up on Steev during their (videotaped*) phone interview.

This is the same guy who used to torture telemarketers when they called by speaking gibberish (or saying "poopie") to them for as long as he has free time. The nature of their job made it h difficult for them to hang up on him, and he got the biggest kick out of that. Maybe he's stopped by now?

Nowadays, if you're in the Chicago area, you should go to see his live Saturday night game show called "Don't Spit the Water" or one of his other Blewt! productions.  Puppets by Noah Ginex, whom I revere as an even greater fan of The Muppets.

*Is is still okay to say videotaped if the thing was recorded on a DVD or hard drive camcorder? What else can I call it? 

Posted by Yvette at 08:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Box of Chocolates | Friends & Relationships | Fun! | Memories | Teh Interweb

This has been around for a few months, but was just introduced to The One Semester of Spanish Spanish Love Song.

I especially enjoy the farmer tan and the shirt, plus these great lyrics:

1. Me gusta la biblioteca
2. Mi gato es muy "blank-o"
3. No remembro how to say eleven
4. ...y cinnamon twists
5. Au revoir
   

Posted by Yvette at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Tags: Box of Chocolates | Music | Teh Interweb

When I mentioned how much I love my mouse at home, I should have also told you about my wrist cushion. It is absolutely THE BOMB.

I may complain about a sore middle finger from scrolling too much, but I haven't complained about wrist pain since I started using the IMAK wrist cushion. It's a slightly stretchy cotton-nylon shell that is filled with ergoBeads, whatever those are. It doesn't matter what they are, because my wrist loves them.

I bought it about the same time as I purchased my Logitech trackball mouse because using the new mouse without one was, admittedly, a little awkward. And I'd never found a wrist cushion that I liked, despite trying several different types.

The IMAK cushion I purchased had been sitting patiently on the shelf of an office store, inconspicuous next to the colorful gel-filled mousepads and the various "adorable" comfort-inducing items with kittens and puppies and American flags on them.

If you're in the market for a wrist cushion, this is the one to get.  The thumb-controlled trackball mouse isn't for everyone, but  everyone needs a good wrist cushion. It probably comes in several colors and with fewer bits of lint than appear in this photo.

Someday I'll probably upgrade to the wrist cushion for my keyboard as well so my left wrist will stop feeling so jealous. But I figure that my left hand gets out of doing a lot of the labor that my right hand endures, so it can just shut its proverbial mouth and be content with the fact that it gets to wear a pretty ring every day.

Posted by Yvette at 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Computers & Tech | Review

I have been scrolling pages on Teh interwebz too much lately and it's catching up to me.  

For as much time as I spend with my hand on my mouse (that's not innuendo, thanks very much) and on the computer, I'm fortunate not to not (yet) suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome. Today, however, I realized that the underside of my middle finger is tender.

At work, I use a semi-ergonomic wireless Microsoft mouse with a scroll wheel. My middle finger logs many hours on the slightly raised bumps, pulling repetitively as my brain demands more, better, faster visual input on the screen in front of me. My right hand middle finger is much more of a workhorse than I give it credit for.  

(My left hand middle finger also works diligently in tandem with my left hand thumb, resting on the Tab and Alt keys respectively as I frequently switch views on my taskbar.)

At home, my preferred mouse for the last couple of years is a Logitech with an optical Trackman Wheel. It stays in one place and I move my on-screen cursor around with a red track ball... and I absolutely love it. It took a couple days for my thumb to adjust to the new movement, and now I can go effortlessly between different mice without even noticing (like hopefully someday I will do with  Dvorak and QWERTY keyboards).

But it also has a scrolling wheel upon which I rely heavily for my internet needs. And isn't it always embarrassing to talk about a seemingly benign injury that is related to a cushy desk job? Well, whatever. At least the underside of my middle finger gets a break when I'm playing the Wii.

On a side note, it absolutely drives me crazy to watch people surf the internet, wholly dependent upon their mouse to scroll down a page, etc. in a painfully slow manner. If I just described you, dear reader, please do not take offense. Just learn the faster way or let me do the fingerwork while we're looking at something together next time, okay?

In the meantime, I better go check into what kinds of rehab I might expect to endure if I continue to abuse for my poor, tender middle finger. But I'm thinking that there also has to be a fancy gadget out there that will allow me to scroll down pages through eye movement!

Posted by Yvette at 06:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Computers & Tech | Geeky | Personal | Review | Teh Interweb

There are 12 costumed people featured in Wired's Geek Chic Gallery: Costumes of WonderCon 2008. Number 12 looks like he just wrapped a blue sheet around himself and is carrying a length of chain. WTF is that all about?

My expectations for "cosplay" (as the kids are calling it these days) are more along the lines of showing the only way that one can get away with wearing a wife beater to a geekfest like WonderCon... *SNIKT*.

Posted by Yvette at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Tags: Geeky | Teh Interweb

I just took a bite of reheated leftover zucchini that tasted like fish. And... I don't like fish.

It wasn't straight zucchini, and it was only that one bite that made my taste buds freak out. The original meal was a Hawaiian Teriyaki rice bowl from Rumbi Island Grill that I had no problems with yesterday. (I order the full-size bowl so that it feeds me for 2-3 lunches--hooray!) The ingredients in the rice bowl are: brown rice, mixed vegetables (carrots, zucchini, celery, maybe a hint of onion or other squash), tofu and Hawaiian Teriyaki sauce.

Normally yum-yum. But why the fish taste today?

What natural or artificial chemicals are found in fish that make me gag, anyway? And is it possible that one of those checmicals is also found in zucchini, which I'm not particularly fond of anyway? I might be able to look this up on the interwebz, but I'm wondering if anybody who is reading this blog entry might have some special insight for me.

I hate the fact that I am picky about certain foods. But what am I to do when certain foods induce a gag reflex?

Any help with this scientific mystery is greatly appreciated. Thanks! 

Posted by Yvette at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Tags: Food, Drinks & Dining | Personal | Science

If you're in the San Francisco area, I hope that you're going to WonderCon for me. I'm really hoping to make it to the San Diego Comic Con this year for the first time. I've never lived closer to California, and yet after 2.5 years in Utah I still haven't visited.

I may be going to San Francisco for a couple of days to see the big sights (Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, Pacific Ocean, etc.) while my Norwegian visitors are here in March. The only other time I've been in California was in San Francisco, but I don't have any memories because I was only a year old. Bummer.

How's this for weirdness: as I was typing that last "San Francisco," Shirley Simms was singing the name through my computer speakers--I'm listening to the Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs: Part 1 and I didn't realize that track number seven "Come Back From San Francisco" had started playing.

Now here's something that we all have to wait for, no matter where in the world we live: the film adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Coraline. I like the novella (though it's not my favorite Neil Gaiman book), but the movie looks like it will be absolutely delicious... it's an animated stop-motion film done by the same people who brought you that little cult classic called Nightmare Before Christmas. The Soundtrack will be by They Might Be Giants. Squeeeee!

Neil Gaiman just announced this little (official) teaser trailer:

January 2009 is very far away. I'd put it on my calendar, but I don't have a 2009 calendar yet!

Posted by Yvette at 08:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Around Town & Beyond | Music | Personal | Reading, Writing & Books | TV & Movies | Teh Interweb

I usually save my smirks for later in the day, but a headlining CNN.com article caught my smirking attention this morning.  I've heard about the uncontrollable satellite that could come crashing to earth in the next couple of weeks, and that The Man was going to attempt to blow it up with a missile before it entered our atmosphere.

Here's the first sentence of the article: 

"Pentagon officials said they think a Navy missile scored a direct hit on the fuel tank of an errant spy satellite late Wednesday, eliminating a toxic threat to people on Earth."

Everything sounds great, right? No danger to life as we know it? Hold a sec. Was the phrase people on Earth really just used? Eliminating a toxic threat to people on Earth? That sounds like a sci-fi B-movie to me. Or maybe a fantastic sci-fi cartoon. I hear it in the distance...

"I am Lrrr, ruler of the planet Omicron Persei 8 and controller of a toxic threat to people on Earth!"

Seriously, it doesn't sound real. It's weird, scary and humorous at the same time that stuff like that makes it into real news articles. Here's another snippet, where you can guess which phrase made me smirk a second time:

"China is continuing to closely follow the possible harm caused by the U.S. action to outer space security and relevant countries," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Thursday."

If you guessed outer space security, give yourself a shooting star. I love that China is (supposedly) suspicious because of the USA's potentially devious actions involving outer space.  I'll probably never know anything detailed about our government's full story with this whole thing (or, if you believe any of the conspiracies you see on TV and in the movies, if we're really the good guys or if we have top secret alterior motives). Maybe China is just cranky about it because this news is stealing their New Year thunder. Or the Rat does not approve of outer space hulabaloo in his/her Year. For chrissake, people, the Rat only gets one out of every 12 years!

Overall, I'm happy to hear the reports of the spy satellite being shot down. I don't know what naked pictures of me might have been on there, you know? And it's a really good thing that the spy satellite didn't fall into China's territory, because they really don't need to be seeing that stuff.

Speaking of outer space, I'm bummed that I didn't get an opportunity to see the lunar eclipse last night. It was cloudy and raining/snowing. Or maybe it was a government cover-up so we couldn't see the explosion of the spy satellite....

*cue the X-files music* 

Posted by Yvette at 08:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Tags: Computers & Tech | Geeky | Nerd Alert | News Bites | Politics & Religion | Science | TV & Movies

Posted by Yvette at 06:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Box of Chocolates

There's now an easy-peasy way to convert your now-antiquated HD-DVDs into now-high-fashion Blu-Ray DVDs, according to a Wired How-To Wiki article.

(In the course of writing the subject line and that first sentence, I just used a record-breaking 10 hyphens... wow! Plus one for that sentence!)

Here's the quick-and-dirty (I can't stop using the hyphen! Augh!) process for each one:

1. Rip the HD-DVD
2. Burn to Blu-Ray
   

See how simple it is? All you geeks should be done by lunchtime. 

Alternately, if your player and discs are still in pristine condition, you should pack them carefully back into their original packaging and put them on a closet shelf to allow for proper fermentation of nostalgic value. Unless you already have one there, you MOC collector.   

If you still have some repressed anger about HD-DVD losing out in the end, you can put on your Wikipedian hat and add helpful and/or false information to the Wikipedia entries for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.

Posted by Yvette at 08:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Computers & Tech | Geeky | News Bites | TV & Movies | Teh Interweb

The nail is in the coffin for HD-DVD, and the people at Sony are surely ecstatic to finally have a Booyah! in their pocket after the 1980s embarrassment of Betamax. And there's no doubt that Blu-Ray will rock my world and wreak havoc on my finances in the next couple of years.

I'm very much looking forward to it, though I think I have the majority of the movies and TV shows I need on plain old DVD, most of which look great on my bigass HDTV with my under $100 upconverting player. 

So my acquisition strategy will be different for these new-fangled discs (once I have a player, or a PS3 if Ben has his way). I'll probably lean more heavily on Netflix, which fits better into my long-term strategy of being less materialistic without giving up my entertainment budget.

I'm not saying that I won't buy any Blu-Ray DVDs, because that would be complete insanity. I claim only partial insanity. There are select movies and shows that I am already looking forward to... remember that little TV show called Heroes? Please allow me to quote a covetous Wayne Campbell:

It will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.  

All future Pixar films will also come into my home in delicious Blu-Ray HD glory, plus a smattering of other fantastic new titles as the average prices (hopefully) decline.

Amazingly enough, it was less than a year ago when I first posted about this format war. And at that point I was considering one of the dual-format players... I'm glad I waited. The thanks should really go to Ben, who convinced me to be patient until a clear winner was revealed.

Now everyone can move forward and Think Blue in '08! (Aren't thinly-veiled political statements okay in election years?) 

Posted by Yvette at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Computers & Tech | Geeky | News Bites | Politics & Religion | TV & Movies

Posted by Yvette at 09:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Fun!

This is one of my favorite recent photos of Isis. She spends a lot of her time looking at us with disdain, and occasionally with disdain while upside down. Here she is exhibiting her extraordinary power over the sun, the floating air particles above her, and Phoebe (who is peering out cautiously from underneath the couch).

Captain's Log for today: spent all afternoon making long-overdue returns to stores and subsequently spent more than had been refunded. It's all good. I bought new bath towels and honey roasted mixed nuts. 

Posted by Yvette at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: House & Home | My 3 Cats | Personal

More cleaning and doing shit around the house today. The pressure is on because my former host parents and little host sister from Norway are coming to visit us in a month. Even though our house has gradually improved in the nearly two years that we've been here, both in terms of clutter and home improvements, there's a still a lot that's potentially embarrasing to show our international visitors.

We still don't have our skylights replaced nor the roof around them fixed. The general contractor we're dealing with now has been slooooow to keep in touch... but that's still a huge improvement over the people who would never call us back. I wouldn't put money on having new skylights before my Norwegians arrive, but I have a secret burning hope that they will be. Chilly winter weather is also a factor, which brings me to my next topic...

My main task today was sorting through various piles and boxes of clothes to give to charity. I diligently recorded each item so that we can claim them as a deduction on 2008 taxes. Nevermind that most of the clothes in the bags and boxes should have been donated to charity in 2003 or eariler... including one sweatshirt of unknown origin that I wish I had known I'd had for the Cheesy Christmas Sweater Day at work. Check it out:

My favorite part is that it's a cheesy knitted pattern that is puffy screen printed onto a standard sweatshirt. Also, it serves a double purpose as delightful holiday apparel and a souvenir from Charleston, SC. Why, Lord, why? Also, why is it in a box of my old clothes?

I honestly don't remember where this sweatshirt came from. Nor do I remember wearing it, though I guess it wouldn't have been totally out of fashion in the early nineties in the podunk town where I grew up. And it's been washed a couple times at least. Here's a closeup of the puffy printing over the actual weave of the sweatshirt:

I went to Charleston once with my family when I was in high school, but I'm pretty sure it was springtime. It's likely that this gem of high fashion was given to me as a gift... maybe from a parent who traveled to Charleston on business? In any case, it's now buried in a bag destined for the thrift store. 

Though I'm mildly tempted to pull it out so that I have something to wear at this December's Cheesy Sweater Day. Meh. I'd rather pare down my closet at this point. Besides, I still have a few sweatshirts from high school plays that I can't bear to part with yet--I mean, they have my name on the back and are the ultimate proof that my sixth grade dream (to be in high school plays and musicals) came true.

So tomorrow I'll drop everything off and be done. Clothing I'll probably never wear again will become clothing I will officially never wear again. I hope that my mystery Christmas sweater finds a good home with someone who genuinely likes it or with someone who purchases it as a purposefully Cheesy Sweater. Or maybe it will end up with someone who loves it because it reminds them of Charleston, SC.

Posted by Yvette at 08:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Tags: Holidays | House & Home | Memories | Personal

When she's not meowing like crazy for no reason, she's cuddled up with someone (or Loki) and purring like crazy. If you look closely, you can sort of see where her eyelines are in this photo...

Posted by Yvette at 07:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Tags: My 3 Cats

Happy Birthday, Liz!  If we lived closer, I'd be taking you out to PAR-TAY tonight. But we don't. :( Hope you're having fun anyway.

Ben and I have spent today completely inside, listening to music and doing crap around the house. For me, that means laundry, making food, putting away the last of the Christmas decorations (shut up!) and other domestic cleaning types of things. For Ben, that means putting the final touches on the new trim around the new hall bathroom door (the exisiting door frame was crooked and wouldn't even latch) and replacing outlets, replacing light switches, patching drywall and other manly home repair stuff.

Haven't I already talked about Ben replacing outlets and light switches before? Why yes, I have. But every single outlet and light switch needs/needed to be replaced in this house. Some of the outlets were as loose as... [insert your own prostitute joke here 'cause I'm all out of funny]. Seriously, they wouldn't even half-assedly hold a plug. And the rest would hold plugs only half-assedly. He also had the bright idea (unlike the previous homeowners) to put GFCI outlets in the kitchen and bathrooms.

I love my handyman husband. But he's sick of repairing all of the retarded stuff that needs to be repaired around the house (see Exhibit A), and I'm sick of him having to do all of the repairs. Can we please be done now?

Exhibit A:

Posted by Yvette at 07:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Tags: House & Home | Personal

Valentine's Day is not usually celebrated in our house with much more than a card. And how fitting that there's even a card, considering that it really is a Hallmark Holiday. But once in a while, we'll cave to commercialism and buy or do something sweet on this day of forced romance.

There was a sweet card waiting in front of my computer yesterday morning from Ben (who was already off to work when I got up), and coffee was fresh and hot in the pot. My plan was to make a nice dinner, because I don't think I've ever done that on V-day before.

So I took a lunch break to pick up the necessary food items, and I also bought a relatively cheap but surprisingly pretty splash of red, white, purple and lavender carnations. Yep, I took that photo all by myself.

(I figured Ben wasn't going to get me any because I/we don't agree with spending 3x the amount of money for roses or flowers on a specific day--plus, we've been together forever and don't need the holiday. Just give me a plant or flowers some other day when they're cheaper, you know? We don't even acknowledge Sweetest Day because we'd never heard about it until 2000, plus it's right around our birthdays.)

On the menu: Peppered Filet Mignon in a balsamic red wine glaze, with sides of caramelized green beans and scalloped potatoes.

Please note that these were recipes I decided to try out for the first time, knowing full well that if I fucked it all up, we could have a nice, romantic burrito dinner at Taco Bell under the magical glow of fluorescent lights. Or, more likely, the emergency frozen pizza that's in the freezer.

But, as you can tell from the photo (that didn't turn out as well as the the flower photo), the food made it onto the plate.  I'm not a well-seasoned chef, but I can usually follow a recipe... and this dinner was delicous. It's still hard for me to swallow the fact that I made filet mignon, but it was incredibly easy and AMAZING to eat. I'm not much of a red meat eater, but DAMN it was good. And the meat wasn't even as expensive as I thought it would be (about $6 for two hermetically sealed, bacon-wrapped filets). We won't be waiting until next February to have this meal again.

I shared my recipe for Cincinnati Chili, so I'll keep up the tradition.  The timing was the hardest thing for this meal, but I managed to get everything onto the plates while they were still hot. I would say that it took a little under two hours from the time I started peeling potatoes until we started eating.

Here's a rough outline for timing it well, in case you want to try this meal yourself:

1. Prepare the scalloped potatoes and put them in the oven (bonus points for a pretty casserole dish; I would like one of those next time, but my old Pyrex standby worked well)
   
2. Open a bottle of wine (I used Cabernet Sauvignon) and pour yourself a taste
   
3. Set the table all pretty and pull out all of the serving utensils you'll need
   
4. Pull out the filets, lightly pepper both sides, and let them rest on a plate on the counter (watch them closely if you have sneaky pets who like raw meat)
   
5. Start the green beans
   
6. Start searing the filet mignon
7. Finish the green beans and put them in a casserole dish, then bring to the table
   
8. Pull out the potatoes and put them on the table.
   
9. Turn off the oven and place oven-safe plates inside to warm up a little
   
10. Put the filets directly onto warmed plates and serve immediately.
11. Feast.
12. Leave a comment on this blog entry to let me know if you enjoyed it as much as I did!
    

Baked Scalloped Potatoes     

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 large peeled, sliced potatoes (I used Idaho)
  
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup   
  
• 1 1/2 cup milk
• 1 onion, sliced
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 2 or 3 quart casserole dish.
   Layer potatoes and onions into the casserole dish.
   
2. Combine soup, milk, salt and pepper in a bowl, then pour soup mixture over the potatoes and onions. The soup mixture should almost cover the potatoes and onion; add more milk if it doesn't.
3. Cover dish and bake in preheated 375 degrees F oven for an hour or so, until the potatoes are cooked through. At 30 minutes, you could remove the casserole from the oven and stir once before returning it to the oven (I forgot, and they were fine). Remove from oven and serve.

Caramelized Green Beans with Walnuts

INGREDIENTS

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 pound frozen cut green beans, somewhat defrosted
  
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (almonds would also be delicous--I'm trying those next)
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add green beans; cook and stir for about 5 minutes. Mix in the walnuts, and pour in water. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, or until very little water is left in the pan.
2. Add the salt, white sugar, and brown sugar; stir until beans and walnuts are evenly coated. Cover, and cook over medium heat for 5 more minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly before serving.

Filet Mignon with Rich Balsamic Glaze

INGREDIENTS

• 2 (4 ounce) filet mignon steaks
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• salt to taste
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup dry red wine

DIRECTIONS

1. Sprinkle freshly ground pepper over both sides of each steak, and sprinkle with salt to taste.
2. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Place steaks in hot pan, and cook for 1 minute on each side, or until browned. Reduce heat to medium-low, and add balsamic vinegar and red wine. Cover, and cook for 4 minutes on each side, basting with sauce when you turn the meat over. (Cook a couple extra minutes if you like your meat medium-well done... but by God don't ruin a good piece of filet by cooking it until it's well done!)
   
3. Remove steaks to two warmed plates, spoon a little glaze over each, and serve immediately. 

Posted by Yvette at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Tags: Food, Drinks & Dining | Friends & Relationships | Holidays

This is how my night and early morning went, only imagine a cat that weighs 20 pounds and drools excessively and crawls up to the top of the bed for more IN YOUR FACE action:

Actually, my biggest problem of late is that my feet get hot and I try to roll over in my sleep and I can't. The culprit? A 20-pound bulk of Loki asleep at my feet, constricting the covers and creating near thermonuclear levels of heat. This is compounded by Phoebe, who is a normal-size cat and will generally move when I start pushing her away with my feet.

Loki maintains his dead weight, and I've tried everything I can with my early morning foot/leg strength to let him know that he is no longer welcome. I can push my foot underneath him (I'm under the covers, he's on top of them) and shove shove shove with no results. If my eyes were open at that time and it was not dark in the room, I'm sure he'd look at me with an O Hai and chirp a little morning purr for me.

Painfully adorable at many hours, but not at 3am. Or 4am or 5am... or any hour at which I am still blissfully unaware of reality.

So I shove harder, and I'm sure at some point I've actually pushed him to the point where all four paws are in standing position--and yet somehow he maintains his dead weight. One time, and I still feel really bad about this, I only nudged Loki and he rolled off the side of the bed and he thumped onto the floor. It's not my waking-hours wish to hurt him, but 3am Yvette-who-you-disturbed-from-slumber can occasionally (okay, often) be angry and wrathful.

So at this point, Phoebe has already jumped off the bed. Loki is refusing to move. At this point, I sometimes give up and move myself into a cooler, less comfortable position and try to fall back asleep. Or, if I'm determined to go back to sleep in the position I desire because I'm the human in charge, dammit, this is usually how it goes:

1. Sit up and attempt to pick up Loki.
   
2. Fail.
   
3. Move closer and pick him up from a better angle where I can use the strength in my back and/or knees.
4. Release him onto the floor.
5. Growl at him.
6. Flop back onto the bed.
7. Feel my blood boil as he jumps back on the bed.
8. Repeat steps 3-6, with more teeth grinding.
   
9. Realize that I'm not in charge when Phoebe jumps back on the bed and flops down between me and Ben.
10. Fall asleep hoping that when Loki jumps back on the bed, he'll stay on Ben's side.

I need to remember to put the spray bottle full of water next to my bed again. That usually helps. But it often disappears from my nightstand for various home improvement projects.

Speaking of Ben, he's usually unaware of my nighttime cat ritual. Sometimes he's the victim of my squirming (do you really need more details?) but he still doesn't totally understand because his feet extend to the end of our queen size mattress and the cats don't have room to be a thermonuclear heating pad on his side. 

Yet somehow, through all the trials of living with Loki for over 7 years, I still love the big fatass.

Posted by Yvette at 08:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Tags: House & Home | My 3 Cats | Personal

Working until 8pm on Friday evening sucked. Working again for another couple hours on Saturday  sucked even more, even though I was working remotely from home. The hour that I worked on Sunday sucked the worst. Overall, suckage in conjuction with recent working hours. I will be taking a break to get my damn hair cut (and colorized? who knows?) sometime this week.

In the meantime, Neil Gaiman has this to say about what I should do about writing my damn Sundance stories on this blog, as well as how to proceed with my writing career:

So I guess I better get on that or risk being eaten by flowers (that kind of make me want to sneeze just looking at them... that would be a double whammy to be eaten by flowers while silmutaneously having an allergic reaction to them. Sounds like stuff from a B-movie horror flick to me.

In case you were wondering, American Gods: A Novel is my favorite book by Neil Gaiman. It's a beautifully told story (because Neil Gaiman is teh awesome) with darkness a humor, great prose, mystery, a travel adventure, and an anachronistic mash-up of deities and heroes from all sorts of world myths in modern rural America. It's probably my favorite book period, but as I am a great lover of books (Valentine's Day is hell for me--trying to convince all those books that they're each the only one) I think it's safer to say that American Gods will always be in my Top 5.

If I ever went back to school for a Master's degree in something literary, it would most likely be folklore and fairy tales. I think I'm most fascinated with their ability to survive and thrive across so many centuries and how one idea can transcend so many different cultures and yet still be the same basic story. And all that without the Internet! OMG how fab!

Okay, the literary geek-out is over (for now), and I should be leaving for work.  

Posted by Yvette at 08:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Tags: Box of Chocolates | Nerd Alert | Personal | Reading, Writing & Books | Teh Interweb

My friend Carole sent my a neat video of an even neater social experiement... 207 people simultaneously freezing in place at Grand Central Station in NYC.

Posted by Yvette at 09:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Tags: Box of Chocolates | Teh Interweb

There was a time when I watched The Daily Show with Jon Stewart almost every night--back when I worked second shift at a hotel and caught the 1am re-run on Comedy Central when I got home. Moving to Utah screwed up my Daily Show viewing because NOTHING is as it should be in Utah, including network or cable broadcasts. Jon Stewart graces the TV with his presence at midnight Mountain Time, with re-runs the next day at 9pm.

I watched a little TV last night to see how the polls were coming in from the Primaries (to make sure that Huckabee didn't have a fighting chance [he doesn't, but won more votes than I'd liked] and to see if there's any indication of whether Obama or Clinton are pulling ahead [not really--it's going to be a tight race]).  I didn't realize that there has been a late-night macho fight going down between Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart about who made Mike Huckabee that came to a head last night:

The build-up and the premise are of course a lot more amusing than the actual fight sequence (though I do love that late night comedy hosts aren't shy about using horribly disguised doubles). But Mike Huckabee does make a guest appearance at the end, and I find it interesting that he would have done that during the daytime taping before any polling results were in. Not surprising, but just a little post-it note in my brain of "how things work."

I think it might be time to pull out and watch some of the "Indecision 2004" DVDs that I have to remind me of the hope I had then, and the confidence that I have now, of Bush no longer being president. I know that there's still a chance that Bush will call a state of emergency and shut down voting so that he remains president for an unspecified and horrifyingly long period of time.

Let's hope that God will really bless America like all the politicians request and not let that happen.

Posted by Yvette at 08:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: News Bites | Politics & Religion | TV & Movies

I almost forgot it was Groundhog Day. Then I remembered, and checked out the official site wherin I learned that groundhog megastar Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and therefore we can expect six more weeks of winter.

I wonder how far this prediction spreads? Phil is in Pennsylvania, and I'm in Utah. Are his predictions regional or strictly domestic? Do they apply in Canada or in Europe? There has to be a cutoff at some point, because that prediction cannot have much credence in Australia, where it is currently summer.

After learning that there is an official 2008 Punxsatawney Phil groundhog Ty Beanie Baby (wow, they still make those?), I learned some interesting facts about Groundhog Day, especially in answer to this pressing question: 

How many "Phils" have there been over the years?

There has only been one Punxsutawney Phil. He has been making predictions for over 120 years! Punxsutawney Phil gets his longevity from drinking the "elixir of life," a secret recipe. Phil takes one sip every summer at the Groundhog Picnic and it magically gives him seven more years of life.

Wow, that doesn't sound like stuff of legend at all! I wonder if a pilgrimage to Punxsatawney, Pennsylvania on February 2 allows said pilgrim to obtain the secret recipe to the elixir of life? That would explain why so many freaking people show up between the hours of 3:00am and 7:00am for the cold, cold festivities. I don't mind the cold, but those are definitely sleepin' hours for me during the winter months.

The groundhog.org website is improved over last year's version, which I originally discovered via a magical Google search. I do have a vague recollection of an exclusive 2007 Groundhog Beanie Baby. But I still have one pressing question about the spelling of "Punxsatawney," referencing both the city and the groundhog: why is that letter S in the word when clearly the letter X serves the double purpose of representing the sounds of both K and S?

According to this friendly little educational calendar snippet, the name Punxsutawney comes from the Indian name for the location "ponksad-uteney" which means "the town of the sandflies." Still doesn't answer my question, especially because in that pronunciation, a K is used instead of an X. Maybe I'll learn more on February 2, 2009.

Unless I can get an invite to the elusive, exclusive Groundhog Picnic? That sounds like fun. 

Posted by Yvette at 09:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Tags: Box of Chocolates | Holidays | Nature and Weather | Nerd Alert | Teh Interweb