42

happy birthday
richard!

42 is not an age
it's the answer

now you just gotta find the question

**love kiss love**

Dress a Day

Well, so far so good on my Dress A Day for Summer plan. (Unless I decide to wear pants or a skirt, of course.) To recap last week's sartorial variety:

Mon: Gold/white floral silk jacquard skirt and top from Noa Noa (bought on sale, natch). The top is a short sleeved peplumed affair and the skirt a basic a-line. Comfy.

Tues: Purple/lilac "maxi dress" bought 4 years ago in London. Frock by Leona Edmiston, ever heard of her? Long, stretchy knit floral fabric, sort of peasant-y looking. Bought it for 90% off at Browns, this uber-posh joint off Bond street. It is a dress that needs a very specific body type, which I have, but which is probably why it was on sale. . Tall, curvy, not too fat or too skinny, though I only wear it on "skinny" days. This dress needs curves to fill it in but only has room for so much. I have to wear heels with it or it hits the floor. Platforms work quite nicely with it, thanks.



Wed: Wore my favorite skirt that I "stalked" last summer (you can see it left, there, when I wore it in Berlin at Charlottenburg palace) until it finally went on sale to where I could afford it. By Malene Birger, butterfly print, very long full skirt. Looks great with a tank and I have a cute scarf that I wear Euro-style with it.

Thurs: Turquoise linen halter dress I got three years ago at H&M. It fits so great, has a just below knee length pencil skirt fit on bottom. I always get compliments when I wear it and it cost me about $35. I also got one in brown. Need to fit that one into the schedule.

Fri: Double dress day! Dress 1) white with yellow embroidery edged in black, cotton, halter dress with circle skirt, knee length. Backless, so the the only bra I could find to wear with it was my bikini top. (Girls do that here in summer, wear swimming suit tops as bras, it's a very casual summer environment, especially during a heat wave.) The fabric kind of reminds me of a very cute and sunny sofa. Trust me, cuter than it sounds.
Dress 2)(I sweat thru number 1, it was like 93 that day) Ancient barn-red Ann Taylor halter dress that ties in the back with a complicated string arrangement. I used to forgo the bra with that one, but that bikini thing worked so well I did it again. The dress is ankle length, full skirt.

Sat: Hungover as hell but managed to wear a grey smock waisted dress I got at H&M.

Sun: Wore shorts all day as cleaned and exercised.

Today: Black linen dress from, you guessed it, H&M. Fits very nicely through the waist, hits just below the knee, sleeveless button front, a line. Simple, comfy, flattering. Dressed it up with leopard print belt.

Tomorrow: Will have to wear pants (suit) as am in meetings all day. However, wearing a very cool looking suit I got at H&M, linen, very full legged high waisted pants and matching short jacket. There is this one section of H&M that has sort of "advanced" fashion, and I hit it but hard. That is the only place I can find full pants and sort of funky, out of the ordinary stuff you don't see on everyone. Sometimes they really have horrible stuff, but if you check often enough and know where to look, man there are some SCORES to be had. Most of it in the $50 range....woo!

It got to 95 degrees yesterday, fyi.

Reasons why getting older sucks

1) Having a "spa day" in your own bathroom when you were 25 used to mean experimenting with different brilliant colors of eyeshadow, testing out that new liquid eyeliner, playing with a new nail polish and maybe coloring your hair just because you felt like it. You'd have a bath, shave your legs quickly, use good smellies, and arise from your bath rather like Venus on the halfshell, glowing, fresh and rosy.

2)Having a "spa day" now (at age 38) means shaving, plucking, bleaching, and using horrid smelling creams on hair growing from places you didn't know hair COULD grow, while bemoaning the fact that the hair that's left has every shade of grey known to human kind. (And why is it that men get balder as they get older but women get hairier, and we both decry this fact? What sort of cruel cosmic joke is this?) Your bath (still perfumed with good smellies, at least THAT doesn't change) is now all about buffing, puffing and scrubbing the bits that you want smooth and moisturizing the hell out of the rest. Instead of playing with pretty colors of makeup, you do a facial, and a mask, and a toner, then try out that subdued brown hue of eyeshadow that's supposed to bring out the eyecolor without bringing out the incipient wrinkles that are nicely called "laugh lines". You do another check for random and badly placed hairs. Well, at least the teeth are still in good shape.

3) Losing weight used to mean laying off the booze for a week, going for a walk on a hot day and then taking a good shit. You'd lose five pounds without even worrying about it.
Now? You walk 5+ miles three times a week, do sit ups push ups pull ups leg lifts squats and planks, skip carbs, sugars, bread, alcohol, fun, yumminess and chocolate and all you get are grindy knees, blisters on your feet and bad breath and gas from all the beans you are eating. Your weight? Exactly the same as before, + or - the dreaded PMS bloat where NOTHING fits for at least a week. Hey, but at least you are eating right, right? I know I am eating right when I fart like an 80 year old on a treadmill...pop pop pop pop pop. Frrrrppp.

4) Your parents used to say "when you have kids....". Now they don't even mention grandkids. At all. In fact, your mom gives you menopause advice and you both mull over the benefits of botox.

5) You no longer can wear that cute favorite skirt you wore when you were 24 (even though it still fits!) because, honestly, your knees now frown instead of smile. Yes, the Old Lady Knees have arrived. And they are crotchety old bitches, who whine and creak alot.

6) You go shopping and all the crap you wore in high school is at H&M and all the girls buying it think it is the newest cutest thing they have EVER seen, like OHMYGOD how CUTE. And then the helpful girl working there tries to tell YOU how to wear it! Honey I did leggings before you were born, and I do mean that LITERALLY! In the meantime, you are just trying to find something to cover your ass that does not make you look like Minnie Mouse on acid.

7) You realize that you have shoes that are older than about 1/4 of the humans on this planet.

Bad girl....BAD girl

I didn't post yesterday because the day got away from me and then I got really very drunk. (Well I got drunk later in the day. During the day I had a strange experience when a blind guy completely knocked me over when he ran into me because his seeing eye dog apparently can't see Americans or something. He just whammed into me, full body tackle, and we were both rather surprised, getting the breath knocked out of us and all. I apologized, he apologized, and the dog just kept going. I think some retraining might be warranted.)

I didn't post today (well, not REALLY this is not a post so much as an apology) as I spent the day hungover in a very truly painful way and berating myself for wasting yet ANOTHER Saturday being hungover after a knees up at the pub. Today's was particularly vicious what with the really bad headache and nausea that creeped up every time I attempted to eat. I hate being really hungry yet not able to eat. And it's HOT outside, so eating is not very tempting. And have I mentioned we don't have A/C? I mean, it's not that hot for Texas, but it was, like, 90 today, and that's hot to be in an all glass and steel flat on top of a building. Like being in a tin can. With no a/c.

I am going to limit myself to 3 drinks on Fridays from now on, and when people go get a round I am going to resist the temptation to say "Yeah, sure, I'll have another, thanks!" No more wasted Saturdays due to hangovers!

My new favorite word will be "NO". A word I've always had problems with.

Though I did fairly well with it today. NO cleaning. NO cooking. NO moving.

Hmm...maybe I don't have problems with no after all.

random photos Thursday

These photos are from my trip to SE Asia in March/April 2006. I took over 1000 pictures but have only posted about 20 between blog and Flickr account.

Monks in the Upper Pak Ou caves in Laos. I'll never forget how those caves smelled. And how many Buddha statues there were everywhere.

Scene from a boat trip along the Mekong River in Laos. They really wear those umbrella shaped hats.

Monks' laundry in Luang Prabang, Laos. I'm not sure why I like taking pictures of laundry on the line, but it is a running theme in my photography. I guess because it is such a normal slice of life, and so evocative of home and daily life. Plus it's pretty when it flaps on the breeze, all colorful and flag-like.

Street scene in Luang Prabang. That was such a GREAT place.

View from Angkor, Cambodia. I have many shots like this, down long ancient roofless hallways with many doorways.

Bangkok at night, from posh bar on roof of tall building.

Me and a baby elephump. I was nervous, but it was sweet. I love elephants.

We are having a heat wave in Norway right now. I have to go ice down. Remember when I complained about rainy cold weather just last Friday? Well, sometimes you get what you ask for. Woo! Everyone is running around half naked and gleeful. Naked babies are swimming in the fountain in the plaza beneath us. Baby butts everywhere.

We interupt your random photo viewing.....

.......To blog about some shit.

1) Holy shit, I so am stunned by Weeds season 2! I lost all willpower and downloaded it to iTunes instead of waiting for the DVD as I had planned to do, and watched it over this week. Can I just say, as a season ender, that is the most cliffhangery thing I have EVER seen? I couldn't sleep last night because I was thinking about it so much. One thing that makes it so watchable, but so perverse, is that really, NONE of the characters have any truly redeeming qualities.

Think about it...Celia (my favorite character) is a bitch. Look how she treats her daughter. Andy is a wastoid free-loader (though smokin' hot), Silas is a manipulative little shit, and Nancy really is NOT a good mom and you can't tell me that dealing pot is the ONLY thing she could have done to support her family. Conrad is the only one who even comes close to having a moral compass, but he is still a drug dealing badass who beats people up.

I mean, let's face it, they are all fairly horrible people, but they are also intensely human. Painfully, relate-ably, human.

So, while you may not do any of the things they do, you understand WHY they are doing them. And understanding is in many ways also empathy. Nancy has this vulnerable thing going on that just shines through, and Celia is just so confused and messed up and angry, but what she is really doing is trying to make things better and help other people avoid her mistakes. She just goes about it all wrong.

That last episode of season two, with the Mexican standoff, just killed me. I'm stunned. When Nancy was standing there with guns pointed at her and she finds out her boyfriend is killed, and she's just trying to deal with it and process the news? And she's all "Wait, he's DEAD?" and they all yell "Yes!" at her and she sort of flaps her hands and goes all girly? It was so feminine and vulnerable in the midst of all the macho gun pointing posturing, I thought that was a phenomenal moment. Wow.

2) Summer arrived on June 1. Thank you. I can now officially begin my Dress A Day plan, where I work through my summer wardrobe of skirts, dresses and sandals and hopefully never wear the same thing twice (unless I want to, of course). I have a skirt fetish, what can I say. (Summer is not so very long here, so while a Dress (or skirt) A Day seems really ambitious for a whole summer, we are really only talking three months MAX, so for me that is doable. I think. I have alot of skirts. And dresses. I will have to do some repeats on shoes.)

3) Bed issues. Well, first of all, Badger you are a total bitch for having a new bed and then BLOGGING about it, with you being all comfortable and individually well rested and shit. I hate you! Ok, so maybe I only hate your bed, but that's only because I CAN'T HAVE IT.

We, on the other hand, went looking at beds and realized that in order to buy a bed in Europe we are going to lose about 6-7 inches of sleeping width. Length is the same but width is narrower (our American King sized bed, by general measure now, is about 200cm by just over 200 cm. A large Euro bed is 200 by 180, so we'd lose + /- 20 cm of width.) Sheet fitting issues aside, I don't know that I want to lose that much width and buy a bed that won't really fit anything in the US when we go home. So I am sort of stuck. Also? European beds are WAY softer than American ones. I want a softer bed, yes, but not a marshmallow, so I was pretty shocked at how squashy some of those beds were. And expensive.

We did, however, try a compromise and bought some 'over mattresses' at Ikea, the Sultan Tuvebo ones, that add about three inches of padding on top of an already tall bed, thus hopefully leveling out some of the gorges in the bed and making me hop up to get into it. We also put the bed sideways, hoping to avoid some of the worst divots by making new ones elsewhere. The Tuvebos seem to make a difference, so far, for me at least. Rich thinks it might be too soft for him, but we bought two of them and he can remove his if he so wishes. He'll just have to climb over the cliff of mattress if he wants to get near me.

I'm fairly certain out future includes separate but equal mattresses, a la Badger and husband, because Rich's idea of a mattress is a bit too board-like for me, and now that the firmness is causing me actual PAIN instead of just a modicum of discomfort, we have to find a solution.

Ikea did have a kick ass round bed, which we both briefly went "Hmm...?" to, but then I realized that 1) I could never find sheets to fit and 2) How many times can you roll around on a bed like Austin Powers, rubbing your bum and saying "Do I make you horny baby?", before it stops being funny? Answer: About twice.

Today's random pictures: Istanbul

My favorite Mosque in Istanbul. It's as old as , or older than, Hagia Sophia, in fact it's referred to as Little Hagia Sophia. It's recently been restored, and I really enjoyed visiting it. The man watching it was very, very nice and allowed us to wander where we wished, which was very different from other mosques I have visited.

We had dinner at the Orient Express restaurant. This is where the very posh train used to stop and all of the the best international society would pause while waiting to catch their trains. The food was quite good even though the place was not very crowded.

Picture of me in a mirror taking a picture in the harem at Topkapi palace. I had to wait ages until all the other tourists moved on before I could get the shot. Visiting the harem there (I've now done it twice) is an exercise in patience because you are squished in with about 100 other people, all trying to see the same tiny room at once.

A boat on the Bosphorus.

View up towards the Blue Mosque from the stable market behind. L iked that market, it was a bit more relaxed than the Grand Bazaar and had some (few) different items. I also had a very nice conversation with one of the stall owners there, he was the son of the former Imam of the Blue Mosque. He was a big admirer of Bill Clinton, who he met when he gave him a tour of the mosque.

My muse...

....has left me. Sorry for lack of posting, I just don't really have much to say. So I think this will be Random Pictures Week.

Today's Images from Vilnius.

A courtyard of an old baroque building.
Rich in the sky bar of the hotel we stayed at. If that bar were in London or NYC, it would be the hippest place in town. As it was in Vilnius, it was not crowded, ever, and a mojito cost $4.

The Church of the Babies. Little flying babies everywhere.

Nuns on the run. From me.
Sunlight hitting bricks and reconstruction materials inside an old church being fixed up.

The beer that kicked my ass. 7% strength, porter. I didn't realize how strong it was until suddenly my arms would not work. Be wary of the local beers, they are not for wimps. I also liked this beer because they sort of named it after my mom.....and she can kick my ass as well.

floating away on my own ark

It's done nothing but rain all week. Rain. Dreary greyness. Clouds. And cold. Bloody cold. Cold breezes. Cold wind. Cold. Wet. For a week straight.

I'm about to claw my eyes out. I am so tired of wearing jackets and rain gear and warm socks and having frizzy rain hair. Ugh. I just want SUMMER and WARMTH.

So, I am building an Ark. An Evil Party Ark. Or, maybe more aptly, A Slightly Naughty, Perhaps Even Baudy, Fun Boat with Lots of Alcohol and Soft Squishy Beds. On it will only be people I like, lots of beer, roasted cashews (my new favorite snack), waffles with sour cream and raspberry jam, and quesadillas. Everyone can do whatever they want, but they all have to bring lots of beer (wine's ok too, but only good wine) and extra supplies of the above mentioned snacks. The beds will be really nice, that is one thing I don't skimp on, even on a homemade Ark. And the toilet paper will be high quality as well. I won't tolerate sore arses on MY ark.

A selection of DVD's will be provided, of course, right now I am thinking 'Weeds' seasons 1 & 2 and anything by Joss Whedon.

My ark will, of course, have free wireless and coffee at all hours. First stop..... Amsterdam, because if we are all going to be stuck on a smallish (hey, building materials are expensive and I am not letting just ANYONE on my Ark) boat with lots of munchies, soft beds and good stuff to watch, don't you think we should first go to Amsterdam?

**Next Day:
They forecast SUN all week and say that summer is here! Well, we'll see. At least it's not raining right now......

Big Girl Panties

My sister in law Stev has an expression: "Just put on your big girl panties and deal with it".

I love that expression. First time I ever heard it I bust out laughing and I still giggle at the mental picture I get whenever I hear it. WAY better than pulling yourself up by your bootstraps!

Anyhow, today I did indeed put on my big girl panties and deal with it.

I, all by my mine own self, fixed my start up disk on my Mac. Yep, me, all by myself, I booted from the install disc and everything! Disk Utilities, First Aid, the whole shebang. Me did it!

I've been nervous about fixing it, my Mac told me it need "minor repairs to the Macintosh HD" or some such blah blah and to restart from the install disc. But I, never having "booted" from any disc or sandaled from a frisbee or high heeled from a plate or any such thing, was distinctly nervous about it, especially after my Dad's late saga of erasing EVERY FUCKING THING from his Mac on the not so complete advice of his Mac guru. (Nobody, apparently told Dad that he MUST BACK UP before reinstalling his operating system. Dad's a literal kinda guy and needs ALL the instructions, he's been known to hand his cell phone to strangers at gas stations and say "Can you make this work?")

I did need to find some more specific instructions as to HOW one goes about booting from start up discs, but thanks be to the Mac website for explaining to me that I need to restart the computer with the install cd in it whilst holding down the "c" key. Some digital gymnastics and a few "wow, that's a wierd noise"-s later, and voila! fixed disk!

I have to say, the Mac website is really great for finding anything I need when I have questions about my Mac, in a clear, concise and easy to find manner. Kudos to them. Cuz, for real, the iBook G4 booklet that came with the computer is USELESS.

These big girl panties are a comfortable fit.

Proust Questionnaire

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Being in a beautiful place on a beautiful day, with a beautiful meal ahead of me and no pressure to be anywhere else. (Gettin' laid is also nice.)

What is your greatest fear?
I'm actually quite superstitious and writing my worst fear could make it happen. I don't like to leave myself open for that sort of karmic interference....

What historical figure do you most identify with?
Diana Vreeland (ok so she's not exactly a "historical" figure), Queen Elizabeth I, Edith Wharton.

Which living person do you most admire?
Dalai Lama. Hirsi Ali. Jimmy Carter.
(Dad, don't scream).

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Impatience and intolerance.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Lack of initiative. disloyalty.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Pretty clothes.

What is your favorite journey?
I've been on many journeys of late, so I am honestly going to say my journey of discovery over the past 5 years.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Religiosity.

On what occasion do you lie?
Whenever I am confronted with authority or bureaucracy.

What do you dislike about your appearance?
I'm a bit annoyed with my new belly. It is going to go away. After that I can go back to complaining about my ass.

Which living person do you most despise?
Our current president. Now that Jerry Falwell is dead, that certainly helps shorten my list.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Fuck. also, "Rich where is my......?"

What is your greatest regret?
I don't really have any regrets, as I think of regrets as something you have when you did something actively you would like to take back. I have some "what if's" and I do wish I had not miscarried in Jan 2004, but how can you regret something that you did not initiate?

Who is the greatest love of your life?
My husband, of course. Duh.

When and where were you happiest?
When I went to Oxford the summer of 1989 and studied there, I remember being in a haze of such happiness I thought it would never end. That will always be the absolute best time of my life. Sometimes my heart would race I was so happy. I still get that occasionally, but not for such an extent of time as then. That is the happy place I go whenever I need to rekindle that certain excitement.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I'd like to be a bigger risk taker. I'd also like a 36" inseam and legs and bum like Giselle Bundchen.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Becoming an inveterate traveler. Realizing that life comes one day at a time and letting go of some unnecessary stresses.

If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be?
Minor yet very wealthy royalty somewhere in Europe. Either that or a redwood.

What is your most treasured possession?
My Luccese boots, my bug ring and my glasses.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Being cold and wet.

Where would you like to live?
I'd love to live in London. But ultimately I will always want to go home to Austin.

What is your favorite occupation?
Reading.
My favorite job was doing visual merchandising for stores. I loved creating store windows and making style statements. If I could I'd be a fashion editor.

What is your most marked characteristic?
My sense of humor. It won't be contained.

What is the quality you most like in a man?
Humor, initiative, tall, with a way of making me feel safe. I also like a hairy (not TOO hairy, think Pierce Brosnan) chest.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Independence and strength. Humor and a certain quirkiness as well.

What do you most value in your friends?
Loyalty, acceptance and humor.

Who are your favorite writers?
Diana Gabaldon, Bill Bryson, Terry Pratchett, Alexander Dumas, Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Antonia Fraser.

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Pick a Musketeer.....I also love Lady De Winter, even though she's not a hero.

What is it that you most dislike?
"Compassionate conservatism". "Faith Based Initiatives". Red, green or yellow peppers. Rude people.

How would you like to die?
In my sleep. Or very quickly and painlessly.

What is your motto?
Try it once...if you don't like it you don't have to do it again.

With thanks to Jaye, from whom I snatched this. She, of course, snatched from others.....

A great article from the New York Times that I am posting in its entirety.

By PAUL VITELLO

Published: May 27, 2007

EVERY summer, people all over the world become acquainted again with a deep truth spoken by the philosopher-tourist Steve Martin.

He was speaking for tourists everywhere, not just to France, when he said: “Boy, those French, they have a different word for everything!”

That people from different countries observe different customs — not only of speaking, but of eating, sleeping, gesturing, counting change, observing boundaries of personal space, tipping cab drivers, standing in lines, avoiding certain topics of conversation at dinnertime as unbearably disgusting — is a truism one probably can never be reminded of too often.

Especially this year, which according to statistics compiled by New York City, is likely to be a very big year for foreign tourists around here. The dollar is cheap. The shopping is endless. And about seven million foreign visitors are expected in the city — the highest number since before 9/11 — mainly from Britain, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia and Germany.

This is good news for New York, of course. Foreigners who vacation in the United States spend about four times as much as American tourists do.

But it is bad news only in those isolated cases (which you hear about if you talk to cabbies, tour guides and certain sarcastic individuals in sales) where the awe of Mr. Martin’s revelation is supplanted by the ugly reality of a culture clash — a tip denied, a personal boundary violated, or a long line at a drug store counter jumped by a family of Italian-speaking people, who forever thereafter shall be remembered by the offended party present (an acquaintance of mine) as those “ugly Europeans.”

Let it be said that no group holds a monopoly on the title of “ugly.” Tip-stiffing, line-jumping, excessive price-haggling, sidewalk-blocking-when-stopping-suddenly-to-take-pictures-of-a-person-playing-the-steel-drums — none of these are unique to any national group.

Expedia, the online travel service, conducted a survey of tourist boards around the world that rated British tourists as the most obnoxious. Some people in the tourism world claim that the Chinese, the newest wave of world travelers, are even more so.

Whatever. Is it time, at least, for retiring the term “ugly American” from the dictionary of foreign phrases?

The answer, according to experts in the rarified field of tourism anthropology, is a possible yes.

“Ugly” behavior in tourists is almost always in the eye of the people being toured; and Americans are no longer the only, or even the dominant group of tourists out in the world. We are now as often toured as tour-ing.

And New Yorkers, it turns out, are just as likely to be exasperated being toured by tourists unfamiliar with their local mores about tipping or standing in check-out lines, say, as the Achuar tribesmen of Ecuador are to be offended by tourists who sit on certain sacred rocks.

“The Achuars have actually developed a list of rules for tourists,” said Sharon Gmelch, an anthropology professor at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. “If you are a man, you are not to look directly at a woman, for example. You are not to sit in certain sacred places, or touch anyone’s person. You’re not to take pictures without asking permission. Some of these rules might work in New York, too, I would imagine.”

Nelson H. H. Graburn, a professor of anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, said one of his graduate students recently asked tour guides in China to rate the tourists from various Western countries.

“They told her that Israeli, French and American tourists could be the most difficult,” Professor Graburn said, “but that what distinguished Americans was that they could be loud and demanding, and then would invariably apologize and give them big tips.”

To be an ugly tourist is to miss the fundamental truth in Mr. Martin’s statement. “It is to have an overall lack of understanding that there is such a thing as cultural difference,” wrote Prof. Inga Treitler, the secretary for the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology, in an e-mail message.

Valene Smith, an anthropology professor at California State University at Chico who pioneered the academic study of tourism and travel in the 1970s, said that the tourists most likely to be deplored by their hosts these days are not the euro-rich Europeans or the British or the standard ugly Americans but the Chinese.

“They have only been traveling widely in the last five years or so, but they are touring in numbers no one has seen before — by the thousands,” she said. “They behave as they would at home — there is a lot of pushing and shoving. Very few speak languages other than Chinese.”

Last summer, in an incident widely discussed among travel experts, she said, 40,000 Chinese tourists descended on the small German city of Trier to visit the birthplace of Karl Marx.

“It was quite a mess,” Professor Smith said. “No one was prepared ahead of time. The Germans were quite upset.”

And so, my fellow Americans, this summer let us host and be hosted as travelers in a world in which we are no longer alone; a world where we can venture forth with the unschooled of other nations, and join hand in hand in ignorance of all the different words those French have for everything!

Adventures in mowing

I thought this was an interesting article.

It's about the small renaissance of reel mowers, like the one they used to use on the Brady Bunch on the Astroturf backyard? Those non-powered ones that you just pushed and they whirred around and scythed the grass off?

I remember being fascinated with them when I was a kid, a lawn mower that was not gas powered and you just push it casually (and quietly) around and it mowed the lawn. Seemed fun. Like playing. My father has always been a bit of a power guy, so our lawn mowers were always big and loud. (Hell, all our household and lawn appliances were big and loud. Dad likes power, alot. Cars, mowers, go carts, anything that has wheels, and at one point, a small experimental hovercraft. We learned Hovercrafts are VERY hard to steer and you might not want to take them on busy streets for fear of the cops showing up.) They scared me, mowers did, and I refused to ever mow the lawn. I always wished we had a Brady mower.

Cut forward to the mid 90's, when I got my own house. Rich traveled alot and I got stuck with the yard work. So, to indulge my retro-yard urges (and to match our house which is solid and original 1950's and has a fairly small yard) I found a little reel mower. I was so excited with it...I thought, Wow, I can be a Brady too! How retro! I could mow at night if I wanted, it was that quiet. Cool!

It was kind of hard work, though. My arms got really tired. And the blades got kind of dull over time and if you went over a really long patch it would sort of yank the grass instead of mowing it, so you had to go over it multiple times. And sometimes you had to use a weedeater anyhow. Rich refused to use it and bought a power mower. I think maybe he thought my little reel mower was too sissy.

But it was still better than those noisy horrid gas movers, in my opinion.

My parents moved away from where I grew up, and now have a very large yard on their land, and so they have moved up to riding mowers. They have to mow 5-10 acres at a time. (Dad's mower even has a cup holder on it, for Chrissakes.) Once or twice Mom has roped me in to help, and I gotta say, I don't really like riding mowers, either.
Mom would plunk a giant brimmed sun hat on my head, kindly protecting me from sunburn but also severely limiting my eyeline above my forehead. I couldn't see anything higher than about 4 feet off the ground with out tilting my head way back and peering out from under the ridiculous hat. So, one time I was riding around near the house, where some of the bigger trees are, whizzing in between the trees and around them, trying to get the hang of the forward, reverse, and the turning radius of the mower. I thought the tree branches were pretty high, but...no. I ran right into a low tree branch with my hat-covered forehead, never even saw it coming, and just went ass over applecorn off the mower and landed on my back behind it, legs in the air and the breath knocked out of me. Luckily the hat and the hardness of my head somehow helped me avoid any untoward injury. The mower, I learned, has an automatic stop so if its rider gets knocked off in a cartoonish accident, it just turns right off. Which was nice, as I didn't think I was up for chasing it out of Mom's flower garden, which was right ahead of me. They haven't asked me to mow again. that's probably more for worrying about the welfare of the trees than anything else.

When we moved to Norway the first place we lived in had an electric mower. It was sort of a cross between a vacuum cleaner and a lawn mower. I thought it was cool. Rich didn't like it much, I seem to remember. Now we have no lawn at all, which I like 90% of the time but sometimes on sunny warm days I just want to lay down in my own grass (I know what's been there as opposed to in the park when God only knows what may have pissed, pooped or whatever'd there).

When we move back home (whenever that may be) I will campaign for another reel mower. I really liked playing Brady, and I liked what the mower did for my shoulders and biceps. But if Rich kicks up a fuss and wants power, maybe he will be willing to compromise on an electric one? We'll have to see.

Anyhow, this long treatise on mowers is my convoluted and very wordy way of saying Happy Memorial Day! (I seem to remember everyone always mowing on this weekend....)

Random Friday

• Train: On the train to work today, I was listening to music on my iPod (one particularly evocative song being Gary Numan's Metal) and realized that listening to music on a train, any train, is nothing less than a holistic, full body experience. It never fails, somehow, the rhythm of the train will always match the rhythm of the music and they blend in a very harmonious way. Then, as you watch the scenery pass by outside, you suddenly feel as if you are the center of your own 3d light and sound and sensation video. The cabin rocks in motion to your music, the world flashes by, you feel the 'gedunk a dunk de DUNK a dunk' of the train on the rails and you feel like a secret stealth rock star god who controls the motions of the world. Or is that just me? Anyhow, I freaking LOVE listening to music on trains.
  

• Food: Today at lunch we had tacos and waffles. As a combination it sounds strange, but load that taco up with some rich Norwegian sour cream (have I mentioned my absolute adoration of Norwegian dairy products?) and salad fixins' and you have a yummy, practically homestyle Texas Taco Salad. Then for dessert you get waffles, that you spread with sour cream and raspberry jam in a fairly thick layer and I tell you what, that is the best tasting damned thing in the world . Trust me on this one. Sour Cream. Jam. Waffle. Eat. Moan.
  

• Weeds. I am watching the first season of the Showtime show Weeds. Holy crap what a great show, and at times it is laugh out loud ribaldly funny. And yet very true to life. Elizabeth Perkins is a revelation in that series, she is amazing. I have always loved her, she seems very real in whatever she does. Thanks to Grant for bringing it back from the US for me, and I certainly enjoyed texting you about you getting me my weed..... (However, a big "fuck you" to Showtime for blocking me from their website because I am from outside the US. I really, truly HATE that shit.....)
  

• Summer and feet: Summer is a tease. It showed up briefly a few weeks ago, then retreated back to southern Europe somewhere and has not come back. It's grey, rainy and really chilly. It is seriously messing with my plan to wear a Dress A Day for the summer. I think I could manage to wear a different dress or skirt combination every day for the whole of the summer, if it would just freaking warm up. As it is, I have to pull out the tired old sweaters and jackets and not the cute linens, cottons, voiles and chiffons I have loved my whole life. But, and I don't care HOW cold and wet it is out there, I am wearing my sandals and that is THAT. Cold feet be damned. Honestly, my feet are always cold anyhow, so wearing sandals when it's 55 degrees just gives me an excuse as to why they are cold, as opposed to my usual answer which is, "They are long and bony and no blood gets to the ends". (Which is also true. I have the BONIEST damned feet . I never understood how I could have such bony hands and feet and then have this ass and these boobs. Makes no sense.)

• Work: We have yet ANOTHER holiday next week, on Monday. We have had May Day (May 1), May 17 and now this Monday off from work. I'm feeling a bit guilty about it, to be honest. I have not worked a 5 day week this month. Rich and I are NOT going anywhere this weekend, I am traveled out and want to stay home and go for walks in the balmy (chilly) sunny (overcast) beautiful (beautiful) hills.
  

• Play: But first, I am going to the pub this evening. And with the new cell phone (did I mention I dropped mine last week and it exploded and I had to get a new one? and so I got once again the cheapest Nokia, because I am SO not a phone snob and I have bad luck with cell phones as a rule? But this new phone compared to my crappy old one, is like a computer to a typewriter? Wow...) (and how's that for a lengthy digression.... where were we...oh!) I think I can take pics and send them to my Flickr account....so check it out later. Pictures of drunk people...woo!
  

Some images from Lithuania

These are some of the pictures that Richard took in Lithuania. I haven't downloaded mine yet.

Trakai Castle, about 30 km outside of Vilnius. It's been restored, sometime in the 50's, but it's still really lovely and evocative. It helped that we had a really great tour guide. This trip to Trakai was actually one of the best tours I have ever taken, due almost solely to our very pleasant and knowledgeable tour guide, Eve. The town of Trakai is also really interesting. It is the last remaining home of some cultures that are dying out. Only 200 Karaim remain. I also did not know that there are still Tartars in Lithuania. Cool.

Rich put me in the box for bad behavior. We were the first ones to do this, using the box, then after we did it people lined up to get in after us. People are such sheep. Note my freakishly long hands.

He also put me in the stocks. It is as uncomfortable as it looks, not least because I could not move my head and it was 90 degrees in the shade. Of course, with an attitude like mine, perhaps I belong there after all. (I think Rich wishes we had one in our house.) I ended up being a photo op for laughing Russians.

Cool shot of women cleaning up a church after a service. There are like 50 churches in a one or two square mile area in Old Town Vilnius. They all are very baroque and look alot like wedding cakes. One we went into was covered in little statues of naked babies (putti) , and reminded me of a King Cake from Mardi Gras. Fat pink naked flying babies everywhere. And we came across at least three churches that were being vigorously scrubbed by very serious ladies. I can verify the cleanliness of the churches there. They all smell like Pine Sol. The churches are all very much in use, which is refreshing after so many places where they tend to be more monuments to history than living breathing centers of culture and gathering.

This church is cool because it hasn't been restored yet. We happened upon it during a wedding; the lights going up the aisle are all little votive candles. The church was huge, airy, decrepit and yet somehow spiritually uplifting, maybe because it wasn't so covered in ornate crap. It felt well used and authentic. I really like things that haven't been restored and fixed up. I like to see the bones and the guts of a place and then put my imagination on it from there. This place really felt good. The Soviets used it for storage when Lithuania was under Soviet rule. Many beautiful churches met that fate.

Speaking of Soviet, when I download my pictures, I'll post some of a visit we made to a KGB prison/museum. THAT was freaky, and sad too. I've always been fascinated with the cloak and dagger KGB era. and to see a prison in situ was a treat, if also a bit of a brutal and eye opening experience. So many lives ruined for a failed political experiment.

I really will.....

I really am gonna post about our trip to Vilnius. I promise. It's just things have been a bit hectic upon re-arrival back home and I am struggling to catch up.

That, and I KNOW I put my camera down around here somewhere, I am just not sure where.....so downloading pictures from the trip is a bit tough without it.

In the meantime, check out this out. Trakai Castle. It was a gorgeous day and very warm when we saw it.....

Right now I gotta get going on cooking dinner.....

A meme because I'm lame, and a correction, also because I'm lame.

My prior post may make it sound like I went to Vilnius and got some new boobs. Um, that would be WRONG. I went to Vilnius and got some new bras, and found out that my boobs have gotten bigger all on their very own. Sorry for the confusion. (I did have a very nice and inexpensive facial, though. I would assume a boob job there would be cheap as well.))

If I was an hour of the day... I'd be 3pm.
If I was a planet... I'd be the sun. Because Earth revolves around me.
If I was a direction... I'd be Southwest, baby.
If I was a piece of furniture... I'd be a bed.
If I was a liquid... I'd be .a really nice amarone wine.
If I was a sin... I'd be Lust. Totally, Lust.
If I was a rock... I'd be quartz, because it can be many things.
If I was a tree... I'd be a live oak.
If I was a fruit... I'd be a raspberry.
If I was a flower... I'd be a gladiolus.
If I was a climate... I'd be an mountains near water.
If I was a musical instrument... I'd be a bass guitar.
If I was an element... I'd be fire.
If I was a color... I'd be red.
If I was an animal... I'd be a white leopard. Or a bird.
If I was a sound... I'd be a laugh or a moan. YOU know what kind of moan.
If I was music... I'd be tribal drums a la Dead Can Dance..
If I was a music style... I'd be Technoindustrialworld.
If I was a feeling... I'd be eagerness.
If I was a book... I'd be The Three Musketeers.
If I was a food... I'd be a Shrimp Tostadas at Matt's El Rancho.
If I was a place... I'd be London.
If I was a flavour... I'd be raspberries.
If I was a scent... I'd be something woodsy and sexy...vetiver or sandalwood.
If I was a word... I'd be "fuck".
If I was a verb... I'd be "bugger". (that word cracks me up)
If I was an object... I'd be Stonehenge.
If I was a part of the body... I'd be the brain.
If I was a facial expression... I'd be a raised eyebrow.
If I was a cartoon character... I'd be The Roadrunner.
If I was a movie... I'd be Auntie Mame.
If I was a shape... I'd be an hourglass.
If I was a number... I'd be 8.
If I was a season... I'd be Summer.
If I was a sentence... I'd be "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

Back from Vilnius, New with Bigger Boobs!

We're back from Vilnius, Lithuania.

While there, I bought some new bras, because hello, prices there are cheap for almost everything. The place is rife with lingerie stores. It seems women there only wear lingerie, shoes, amber and makeup because there were TONS of those shops and not so many actual clothes shops. So I bought bras, because the varieties were just amazing. And I got a little sizing surprise.

Introducing the new Double D Karla! (Ok, so I am still not up there with Badger's freakishly large E's, but hey, a double D push up bra is somethin' to see!) Now in shades of black, white, hot pink, bright yellow and a poppy flower print. The only problem is they are sort of the Hummer of bras (as opposed to my former Subarus) and they don't fit in the "garage" (bra drawer) very well, so I might have to do some rearranging.

More later...I gotta go to work. Or should I say, more about Vilnius later. We are done discussing my upsized chesticles.

Happy 17 May!

Hey Norway, you got a nice country goin' here. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.....

Wave your flag, wear your bunader and be proud! Just maybe you could warn me next time before you shoot off cannons at 7am in honor of the national holiday? Cuz, seriously, that scared the crap out of me this morning.....

A brief moment of wiki glory

Thanks to Lee for that one.....

My Mottos

I realized I never really ever wrote out (to myself or to anyone else) the rather hard and fast rules I have assigned myself as life guides. Some of these I have always followed, some are things I have learned from people wiser than me along the way. Whatever, if you want to understand me, these are the rules I live by.

• Try everything once. You always have the option of not liking it, in which case you don't have to do it again. But at the very least give it a try.
• Every so often you have to force yourself to do that scary thing. It may not be so bad. (Except for touching bugs!)
  
• It's always a "no" unless you ask. You'd be amazed how much you can make happen if you just ask. I've gotten to do so many cool things just by asking if I could.
  
• People are basically good. Trust that and use it.
  
• A smile is always the right response. (Except maybe to a mugger.)
  
• Don't play stupid. Don't hide your smarts. Don't be afraid to say "huh?"
  
• Be generous with yourself, your friendship and your resources. Karma will always repay you more than you expect.
  
• An emotion is never wrong, it just is what it is. You feel it for a reason. If you are embarrassed about what you are feeling, evaluate and try to figure out why you are responding in a way you are not happy with.
  
• Do your damnedest to not force your opinions onto others. Do your damnedest to not let others force their opinions onto you. Try to keep an open mind without letting it be trampled.
  
• Girls should always always be nice to other girls. We are all sisters in this life and should support each other whenever and wherever we can. I can't stand women who treat other women badly.
  
• Men are just big boys. They are an awful lot of fun to talk to and hang out with. They appreciate a girl who can talk cars, appreciate other girls' boobs (hey, I worked at Victoria's Secret, I know a good boob when I see one) and who likes beer. In many ways I am an honorary guy.
  
• Time is useful. Use it to step back from a worrisome situation, allow a painful experience to heal, or prevent you from murdering someone who really pisses you off. Realize that what seems tragic now may not be so bad in a year, or may just be a different, more manageable sort of tragic.
  
• Always have an outfit that makes you feel really sexy.
• Don't be late. Being late is just rude. If you are going to be late, let whoever you are meeting know.
  
• Absence does not make the heart grow fonder.
  
• You can rest when you are dead. Enjoy the health and days you have and realize that life is not about goals, it's about the journey. Cuz we all end up in the same place.
  

Most importantly......that advice about clean underwear? I follow that one religiously. Nothing worse than getting stuck in a strange place without your luggage and with no clean undies.

slowly but surely taking over the world

create your own visited country map

I'm slowly crawling eastward.

We've got a trip to Vilnius coming up. I pre-added Lithuania because well, if you've got the flight already booked you are as good as there.

The Aftermath of Decadence

Me as a naughty schoolgirl a la Eurovision contestant Tatu.

I am so hungover I can hardly move. I have lipstick prints on my neck and bite marks on my thigh. Candy necklaces, in the hands (or more aptly, on the necks and thighs) of drunk adults, become a force for evil and lasciviousness. Woo! I highly recommend them as a party dessert from now on.

I got up at noon today, walked into the kitchen, smelled the leftover wine and had to run back to bed before I hurled. I stayed there until 2pm. Rich, sweet man that he is, cleaned up everything. I think we might have a party routine figured out: I do the preparations and he does the aftermath. I also think that vodka is very bad for me now, and I might have to avoid it. Though I also had wine and champagne....so maybe mixing all that was not such a great idea.

Urg. I guess you want pictures don't you?

Some of the Eurovision party gang. Goths, Rock Stars, Pop Stars and an Irishwoman. (She couldn't decide what her costume was, and she's Irish, so hence her costume became Irishwoman.)

Proof that Vampires exist. This picture reminds me of that movie "The Hunger". Hanna is so totally photogenic. Who knew?

Me and Hanna, we are Up To No Good. (Woo glowsticks!)

Reechard as zee Judge Francaise.

A good time was had by all. And one of the best things about having a party is you find lots of unopened beer and wine in your fridge. Not, of course, that I could even think of having any now....yaarrgg.

drunk eurovision blogging

Ok so we are in mid Eurovision party.

I'm drunk.

so is everyone else.

woo!

My Tatu costume worked out well, if I do say so myself. I make a good naughty school girl. We also had many people in shiny foil wigs, some goths, and one fabulous costume where Will dressed as a girl. Not sure what he was trying to portray, but who cares, with legs like that, he can go far.
The only bummer is that Terry Wogan was not the MC, as BBC did not do a live send to Norway, Fuckers.

Right now they are judging. I am for Russia and Bulgaria. Bulgaria did some sort of gypsy Goth drum thing and Russia did a naughty school girl gone growed up routine that totally matched my costume.

Now is the interminable time where they give us entertainment while the judges tabulate the votes. This time it involves goth acrobats dancing with light sabers.

yes, I know it sounds like I am not making sense. But that is so very Eurovision.

the US is so missing out on this.

Wish y'all could be here.

We are having candy necklaces for dessert. You can have your sweetie off the neck of whoever you choose. Europeans like that sort of thing.

eurovision tonight!

I am still having problems with Haloscan, so I apologize if the comments won't work or if yours doesn't show up even if you DO manage to leave one. I really don't know what's up, and I can't figure out how to fix it, so I might end up doing the unthinkable and switching to (gasp) Blogger commenting. That is last resort, however.

As a way to assuage my pain, I am gonna get SO drunk tonight, for it is Eurovision Song Contest, and we are having a party. A Fancy Dress party. As in, come dressed a la Eurovision past, present or imagined.

I won't tell you what we are dressing up as, but will surprise you with it after the fact.

The semi finals were on Thursday night, and both my favorite choices were eliminated. I liked Denmark, and Switzerland. It seems that the Eastern Europeans (eg., the newer entries to the EU) came out in force on the phone voting and voted out all the western European countries (eg., the EU 'old guard'.) Eurovision is VERY political, believe it or not. And after last year's win by Lordi, I am sure we will get alot of Monster Bands this year. It seems to be a trend that the previous years' winning style is always copied.

Hence Switzerland's entry: a song called "Vampires Are Alive". Monster themed indeed. Here's a sample of the lyrics.

Vampires are alive
The legends have to survive
We'll never come undone
And we will be forever young

I am a vampire I'm a slave
A slave to the daylight, hence my grave
In the darkness, in the shadows
Here I am
I want you to be be forever mine
Together until the end of time
Like a nightmare, neverending
Let me change your world

What I liked about it was even though the song is all about vampires, there was a definite Broadway or even Disney on Ice feel about the whole thing. No dark Apoptygma Berzerk or Sisters of Mercy vibe, but sort of shiny and bright and poppy. Like if Buffy went glam and did a Broadway show, but forgot the funny and insightful Joss Whedon lyrics.
They didn't make the finals.

Oh and then there was Denmark. A giant drag queen in a feathered headdress. I loved it, not the least because she had boys with feathers dancing around her. She actually had a great voice, however, and hit high notes way better than I ever could. (Not that that means much. I don't do high notes well at all.) But they are out too.

As always Britain will be represented. They are automatically in the finals, and this year, we get....SCOOCH!


They look just like RyanAir flight attendants. Naughty flight attendants...watch the part where she does the explanations of the exits and how to fasten your seatbelt. Comic Gold, people, Comic Gold.

Now you see why I get wasted for Eurovision, right? You kind of have to to be able to listen to music like this.

trying again with the five fave restaurants meme

Geeky Tai Tai, I don't know, but I think you might be evil. Every time I try to do this meme you tagged me for, something goes horribly wrong and I end up having to delve deep into my template to fix things. This time, when I attempted to add you to my links? I accidentally deleted ALL my other links and had to find my old template and restore them, but I think some names are missing and dammit I can't remember exactly who. If you are reading this and used to be in my links and you notice your name is now missing, it's NOT because I don't love you, I just am an idiot.

I know Dave, Kjersti and I are evil, but GTT, you might have the most evil mojo of them all.....the UNKNOWN TO YOURSELF EVIL BLOG MOJO. Hmm......I bow to your will.

Ok, so now for that meme. Let's hope it works this time, or I am gonna be really hosed. I don't know if the template can take any more tweaking!

FIVE LOCAL PLACES TO EAT MEME

I'm supposed to list the other people who have done this meme, add my name to the bottom of the list, then tag five people so that they do the same. So here's the list of previous players:

• Nicole (Sydney Australia)
  
• Velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
• LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
• Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
• Olivia (London, England)
• ML (Utah, USA)
• J (California, USA)
• CuriosityKiller (Hong Kong, SAR)
• Shelli (Minnesota, USA)
• Bluepaintred (Saskatchewan, Canada)
• Avitable (Florida, USA)
• Diana (Singapore, Singapore)
• Karla the Texpatriate(Oslo, Norway)

Now for the five favorite places. Since it's really expensive to eat out in Norway, we rarely go out. considering a pizza delivered is over $50, you can see how going out is just not much of an option. that being said, we do have a few places we go when we get the funds to do so.

1) The Pub. The Friday night regular pub. They give us a discount on beers for being regulars with jobs. The food is comforting, plentiful and quite well presented. They use lots of bearnaise sauce, and I don't know about you, but any sauce made with mostly butter is way ok with me. You can get a "dagens rett" (day special, day food) for 115 nok, which is a GREAT deal. But I am NOT telling you where it is as then you would all go there and see me drinking. So there.

2) Haveli, they have a few locations. Good Pakistani food. Well presented, tasty. Quite expensive but eh, that's life. I took Lee and Mags and Brett there when they came to visit and they both LOVED it. Even though they nearly fainted at the wine prices.

3) Hard Rock Cafe. Cuz, you know, NACHOS. They import the cheese and chips. Seriously. Closest thing to home I am gonna get.

4) This funky little place called Tullins Cafe. I used to go there on "dates" with my friend Julia, before she up and left me for the States. Good food, good prices, great studenty atmosphere, small but satisfying wine list. Somehow wine there just always tasted better. Maybe it was Julia....I dunno. Dude I miss you!

5) This is not a restaurant, but I love my friend Mary's cooking. She's Indian and that girl can COOK. I don't care what she makes, it's yummy. Even things I don't normally like (fish!) I like when she cooks it. So, even though it's not a restaurant, I nominate Mary's House as a top five place to eat locally.

I swore off tagging a while ago, but I am supposed to do it for this, so here goes. Don't hate me. I'll tag the more foodie people I know. (I'm letting Dave off the hook because he's traveling and I bet he got hit already. See how NICE I can be?) :

Amamgets, Austin.
DoctaWife, Houston
Jaye, Austin
Vivi, France
Sognatrice, Italy

In which technology continually bitch slaps me into oblivion

Good lord, people, can someone please give me a website or machine that just works like it is supposed to? No surprises or anything? GAH. I'm tired of being bitchslapped by electronics.

First there was/is the horrible snafu that has been Haloscan. I don't know WHAT is up, but it just craps out on me and disappears. Why why why???? It's there now, but I really don't trust it. It's like a wayward puppy or something. I need to leash it to the blog and not let it escape again.

Then my iPod continues its wierdness. Monday was HornDog day, Tuesday was Rap Attack and yesterday was Goth Industrial Wonderland. Today's shuffley goodness was mostly spoken word/comedy and some of my lamer music, you know, the stuff you fast forward past? You know you have it on there for a reason, but right now that reason escapes you?

Then at work I've been dealing with Outlook for some projects I am planning and oh holy crap I hate Outlook. Nastier software I've never encountered. Yech. It makes me look like an idiot. (Ok, so on Outlook I AM an idiot, but I am not an idiot on other, normal, BETTER software.)

Then, today, I've been trying to book some train tickets for a little jaunt out to Bergen and somehow whenever I try to get the lower prices the website freezes. then it says the tickets aren't available. Then I go back to the beginning and it says they ARE available, and the whole rigmarole of rejection starts again.
I tried buying the tickets at the train station, but they said in order to get the good price I had to buy through the ticket machine outside or incur a higher charge for having someone assist me. So I tried using the machine outside, but it froze, and so the girl working the counter closed her window and came out to help me....which sort of defeats the whole purpose of me using the machine to avoid having to use the services of staff. Doesn't it? anyhow, it still didn't work and the cheap prices just mysteriously went away. Bait and switch! Bait and switch!

Every day this week, right about the time I get home from work, I've heard singing. This girl comes out onto the balcony of a building next to ours, sets up a sound system with BIG speakers, and starts warbling. It's kind of sweet, but also strange and a bit dismaying. Her voice is ok, but very high and thin, so it sounds like Marni Nixon singing through a tin can. She sings old songs, nothing new. Maybe they are hymns? Why is she singing? Why is she singing to random strangers on a busy plaza? Why is she doing it every day at 5pm? Why doesn't she have any music to back her up? Why is she on a balcony and not down amongst the masses? Why does she sing at such a high pitch when I can tell her voice is not suited for it? Take it down a notch and I bet it would be much stronger.

And, last but not least....we need a new bed, but bad. So I've been scouting around, and can I just say WOW. Beds here are damned expensive. I don't want another cheap one that wears out and causes pain after 10 years like we have now, I want a good one. No Ikea, dammit! So I've been checking out some stores on co-worker's and other's recommendations and I think I might need to ask for a raise, if this is what my co-workers have for beds!
I don't know about you, but $13,000 for a bed (yes, over 100,000 nok) is a bit out of range. I nearly DIED when I saw the price list. The cheapest bed was almost $9000. (50,000nok). The sales lady was all, "But it's all organic and made with the finest materials. It will last a lifetime".
I don't care if it's stuffed with all the granola goodness Mother Earth has to offer, topped with angel clouds and wrapped one thread at a time with gold silk pulled from rare worm's asses, $13,000 is a shitload of money. For $13000 I can buy a new bed, like the one we had that lasted 10 years, once a year for 26 years. It makes the bed that I thought was too expensive at $6000 seem cheap!

All I want is a good bed that will stop me waking up feeling like a bent over old hag. Is that too much to ask?

big fucking problem that I can't figure out

My haloscan comments have disappeared.

Just...POOF...gone.

I don't know why. I don't know how. I don't know WHERE.

But the commenting is gone.

Can any of you see it?

SHIT! If you can't, you can't tell me can you?
I tried fixing it through haloscan but blogger won't accept the html template changes.

Dammit. This is REALLY pissing me off.

tagged and screwed

Well, I was tagged for a blog meme thingy and spent about an hour doing it, and then something went wonky and my post disappeared and right now I am too pissed off to do it again. Plus I am hungry. Cuz I just spent the past hour thinking about restaurants. And I can smell the restaurant downstairs cooking. And I am hungry.

So, Geeky Tai Tai! I did try, and will come back to it, but not now. Now I have to jump up and down, flail my fists and curse alot.

I'm all for fashion but COME ON already

I've always been a fan of fashion. Style, clothes, what's new, what's fun...I love it all. Though I take the trends with a grain of salt (skinny jeans? Uh, not for me, thanks) I do enjoy reading Vogue, Glamour, Bazaar and any fashion mag that comes my way.

It's just...sometimes the pretentiousness of it all gets to me.

Like, yesterday? I was reading Vogue and Vogue is obviously on the green wagon but good. Goody for them, nice for them to jump on the bandwagon! And so, along with an article on how to buy "green jeans" and how great (again) Edun is, they have this big article (like this one) cajoling everyone into not using paper or plastic grocery bags but instead to start using their own reusable bags bought from some uber-fashionable boutique or whatever.

The suggestions include a "reusable" bag from Marni that runs $843. Another from Hermes that is just under $1000. And another, leather one, by some other designer that is made to resemble a paper bag, that costs around $1500.

I don't know about you, but if I buy a bag to carry my groceries in that costs over $800, it better damned well be reusable for about 50 years! And honestly, it should also make my groceries weigh alot less, and perform rather like Mary Poppin's bag, so that I can fit, like, a whole kitchen in there and not notice the weight. Like, pull a whole turkey out of there, with all sides, and still be able to fit your six of beer and your little brother in there as well. I would expect ALOT from an $800 grocery bag.

Here in Norway they charge us for bags at grocery stores. That pisses me off, so whenever I travel I keep an eye out for what I call "attitude bags" that I use as grocery bags. These are just small cheap canvas or muslin bags found at tourist shops that have a saying or logo on them that amuses me.

My favorite bag, that I use alot, is one that says, "Meine Leute waren am Rhein und alles was sie mitgebracht haben ist diese Scheiss Taschen". Translated, it means "My peeps went to the Rhein River and all they brought back was this shit bag".
Then I also have a bag from Harvey's Sussex Brewery in Lewes, UK. I use that one as a quiet protest against the extortionate beer prices here. It hurts a bit to carry crappy expensive beer in a bag that advertises really good traditional beer, but at least I can remember the taste of the good beer.
And I also have a bag I got in Tallin that has Viking ships on it. I just like carrying it in the land of Vikings.
None of those bags cost me more than $10. And they all make me giggle, don't tear when I fill them up, are comfortable to carry and get my groceries home in relatively good condition. And, if I did lose one? No big. It's not like it cost a grand or anything.

I'm all for fashion? It just has to make sense. Thousand dollar carrier bags do NOT make sense. If you can afford a grand for a grocery tote, why not just hire a guy to carry it for you instead.