The difference between men and women, #3,647,982 November 29, 2007 ~ 3:15 pm
Posted by Julie in : In Da Hood, Rants , comments closedMy plea to people of the male persuasion on public transportation: please do not feel like you have to share your rapping skillz with me while you listen to your iPod. You probably haven’t noticed that I do not feel compelled to share my Freddie Mercury imitations while I listen to my iPod, but you should be suitably grateful. You probably also haven’t noticed that no other woman on public transportation feels like she has to share anything that she’s listening to with the rest of the conveyance. I have no idea why this difference between the sexes has developed, why you males (especially those in their teens and twenties) feel like you have to show off for us, but whether it’s on my way to work in the morning or coming home from a long slog at the office, I think I speak for all women on the MTA when I say “Just keep it to yourself, okay, buddy?”. Thank you.
Drained November 28, 2007 ~ 4:53 pm
Posted by Julie in : Fambly, Rick , comments closedThere is a lot going on in the world of Julz, not the least of which is that Rick’s sister is in the hospital. Her cancer came back, and then she came down with pneumonia and sepsis on top of it. She is not doing well, and my thoughts are in Massachusetts with her and the family. If you could send your good vibes that direction, too, I’d appreciate it.
Just lucky, I guess November 27, 2007 ~ 3:31 pm
Posted by Julie in : Da Cats, Rants, photo safari , comments closedThird time’s a charm, right? And bad things happen in threes? That should mean that after today, my debit card number is off the plate. Today, my debit card number got stolen for the third time. I’m starting to wonder if some brainiac out there sits around coming up with random combinations of numbers, slaps them on cards, and sees if they’ll work to pay for stuff. Because I can’t think of another reason why my card number would be stolen. I only buy online from secure sites. I always make sure that my transaction is over when I leave an ATM, and I make sure to take my receipt with me. I do not get cash from shady ATMs, only my bank and the ATM that’s in the same building as my office, which is surrounded by offices and has security cameras on it. And each of the three times the damn number has been stolen (three different numbers, mind you, twice with HSBC, once with WaMu), the friggin’ card itself has been sitting in my wallet. I just do not get it. Good thing I took money out of the ATM last night. Also a good thing that I bought some wine with it. I need a drink.
I decorated the small tree that I have left over from my college days last night, and while I was hanging decorations, I could see the wheels turning in Freddie’s head. “Oooh! Toys! Toys to swat at!” And every time I would tell him “No, this is not to play with,” he would give me a very confused look. When I thought about it from his point of view, I can’t blame him. He’s a little street cat who has never had an indoor Christmas, and I have spent the past 6 months encouraging him to swat at toys. He doesn’t understand that the Christmas tree is not a toy, only that it’s shiny and dangly. Poor little street cat. At least that’s what I thought until he took a swat at my icicle lights and knocked out the middle of the strand. Then I thought “stupid fucking cat.”
Pictures, as promised:
The most hideous ornament ever. Yes, that’s a crab painted on it. Don’t ask. I love it for its kitsch value.
LED lights are bright.
For example, that green light throws this blinding beam of light two feet away to this curtain.
Do not fuck with the Frosty Friends or they will have you jumping through hoops, too.
Just for Rick, an shot looking up from under the tree. We like to look at the tree this way.
Lights on. November 26, 2007 ~ 10:55 am
Posted by Julie in : Da Cats, Daily Grind, In Da Hood , comments closedEveryone in my neighborhood had the same reaction to the day after Thanksgiving as I did: days too short, nights too long and dark, must decorate. Even if houses were only half decorated on Friday, some lights or decorations were put up. Neighbor Forrest outdid himself and managed to put three giant inflatable light-up things on his porch roof, besting his record of two from last year. When he is completely done, I’ll take a picture and post it, although anyone who happens to check out pictures taken from the space station can probably see it. It’s that bright.
My apartment is lit up pretty well itself, and I’ve discovered that LED lights are like laser beams. I have them on my tree for the first time this year (trying to save the planet through my Christmas decorations, Al Gore would be proud), and holy shit, they are little multicolored spotlights. I was so blown away by them the first night I had them up that I totally forgot to put the ornaments on the tree and just sat there mesmerized by the glow. Freddie was also transfixed, at least enough so that he forgot to try to chew the cord for a bit. That’s good, because I’m really tired of saying “No! Zap! Zap!” to him. I don’t think he’s going to understand electrocution except by experiencing it - telling him “Zap!” ain’t cutting it. And no, “Bzzzt!” doesn’t seem to make much of an impression, either.
The short days depress me, and the lights only help so much. The past few days have seemed endless, and I always think it’s much later than it actually is. Today might not be as bad since I’m back at work and that eats up a lot of hours, but then again, I’m back at work and that sucks. When we compare that to endless days spent watching my TiVo backlog…well, work does not offer me the entertainment of Tim Gunn or Ugly Betty, ya know?
Self. And yarn. November 20, 2007 ~ 11:08 am
Posted by Julie in : About a Julz, Craftiness Is Next To Godliness , comments closedLast night I took some pictures of the finished Odessa in my horrible bathroom lighting so you could get a feel for how it fit:
Then I realized that it looks like I’m wearing a bathing cap. Hmmm. I got my hair cut a week and a half ago, and when I say cut, I mean cut. I hadn’t had a haircut in about…um, seven months. Maybe longer. So I looked like this:
In other words, like a dumbass. My layers had all grown out and my hair was just blah. Rick looks nice though, doesn’t he? I can’t get a tan like that to save my life, let alone one that will last into November. Someday when I don’t have skin cancer and everyone else on this planet does, however, I will be victorious. But I digress.
I got a haircut. And apparently two zits as well. And I learned that holding the camera at just the right level on a DSLR that doesn’t use its LCD as a viewfinder can be interesting (or a tremendous pain in the ass and heavy to boot).
The haircut normally looks better. This was after having an alpaca hat on my head, after all.
Freddie agrees that hat hair is bad:
But yarn is good. Guess whose Blue Moon Fiber Arts order came in last night?
It’s missing a skein (I ordered two of one color for a pair of knee socks), but I emailed BMFA last night to tell them and they just got back to me saying they would send out replacement skeins in a few days after they had dyed them. I heart BMFA. Also, three of the skeins above are gifts. I’m just not telling which three.
Holy Finished Objects, Batman! November 19, 2007 ~ 11:13 am
Posted by Julie in : Craftiness Is Next To Godliness , comments closedHoly crap, I got some knitting done in the past two weeks! Details and pictures for not one, not two, but three projects that I finished behind the break.
Christmas proposal November 15, 2007 ~ 10:58 am
Posted by Julie in : Random Insanity, Story Time , comments closedI love Christmas as much as the next person. I love decorating for it, buying gifts for other people (I get a real rush from finding the perfect gift for someone), making things for people…I’m still a big kid about it. Especially this year, which will be Samang’s first Christmas. (I went out and bought her a “Baby’s First Christmas” Winnie the Pooh ornament Monday night. She likes it very much and wishes she could eat it.) I can hardly wait to see the look on her face when she sees the Christmas decorations and lights.
However, like I said yesterday, this whole “put the decorations up the day after Halloween” thing is a bit much. Seeing the runners stream under the garlands on the streets during the NYC marathon? Just wrong. I like Christmas decorations, I enjoy how they brighten up gloomy winter days and give us something beautiful to break up the long dark nights. But I would like to propose something: how about next year we put up the lights the day after Thanksgiving, like we have always done up until now, but we leave them up an extra month to make up for not having them in November? I dunno about you, but January depresses me. No festive holidays to look forward to, just cold and darkness. I think January needs brightening up a whole lot more than November does. Because really, November has Thanksgiving. You might not go all out decorating for it unless you live in my neighborhood (we’re Irish, we decorate for everything), but you’ve got it to look forward to. I do not look forward to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the same way. Perhaps because there’s no pumpkin pie.
Note: this late taking down of decorations has worked before. When I had a roommate and liked to annoy her in retaliation for all the shit she pulled on me, I left the decorations up until March one year. I simply told her that in my family we didn’t take the decorations down until Little Christmas. I then told her Little Christmas was in March. And she fell for it. Her gullibility led to a much brighter and happier winter for me, and her obsessive compulsive self had fits every time she walked into the house and saw our fake tree still up and lit. (I was going to say “everyone wins,” but really it was just me who was the winner. I’m okay with that.)
Grab bag November 14, 2007 ~ 2:49 pm
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closed- I biked to work this morning. It was gorgeous, the sun was shining, and it was warm. Now it’s still warm, but overcast. The meteorologists are saying we won’t get rain until late tonight, but after Friday’s botched prediction which left me riding home in the rain, I’m really wondering. If I end up doing it again, I’m gonna be super-pissed.
- I spent yesterday at a software implementation meeting. It was boring. I spent last night volunteering at a theatre gala at Tavern on the Green. It wasn’t boring. I will forever treasure the fact that I walked around barefoot in the Rafter Room while I was waiting for Lori to bring me a pair of shoes from her girlfriend’s car. I will not treasure the blisters that I have because of the shoes that I had been wearing up to that point.
- There are 41 knitting days until Christmas. I know this because the Yarn Harlot pointed out yesterday that there were 42 days left and well, I can do some math. This means that I still have a shitload of knitting to get done before Thanksgiving. Have to finish up the Oldest’s present (I’m over halfway done with it), and make presents for Rick, his mom, his step-dad, the Youngest, Lori, and my sister-in-law. The sister-in-law’s birthday is in mid-January, though, so depending on how the rest of the knitting goes, I might make her jewelry for Christmas and give myself a few extra days to knit and call it her birthday present.
- I did get Rick’s sister’s Christmas present done. It is beautiful. I am happy with it. Maybe someday I’ll actually post the pictures I took of it. Maybe.
- Thanksgiving is next week. I realize it’s an early Thanksgiving this year, but still, it’s killing me. Thankgiving means Christmas is right around the corner, and I am not ready. I am also not ready for the Christmas decorations that are up all over town. Apparently putting decorations up the day after Thanksgiving is out. We must now put them up the day after Halloween. Maybe next year we should just put them up the day after Labor Day.
- We were informed today that we’re getting new phones at work. This is good, because the ones we have are from the days right after rotary phones went out. I will now be able to have a headset to help with the carpal tunnel (couldn’t before because they weren’t compatible with my dinosaur of a phone). However, Big Brother will now be taping all our conversations. Can’t freakin’ wait.
Dark November 12, 2007 ~ 12:38 pm
Posted by Julie in : Rants , comments closedIf I heard Richard Frankel’s quote about stagehands “featherbedding” once this weekend, I heard it 87 times. Rick has a habit of surfing the radio for traffic reports while we’re driving, and the news stations kept looping news of the stagehands’ strike that’s got Broadway dark right now.
Let’s get one thing straight, Mr. Producer, you need those stagehands. I don’t see you out there dirtying your hands, risking injury, making sure heavy and costly set pieces get to the right place at the right time for a play to run smoothly. Stagehands are some of the hardest working people I know, and I know just how hard their jobs are since I have on occasion worked as one off-off-Broadway and on college productions. I have nothing but respect for them. It’s a shame the producers don’t.
Yes, Broadway is dark, and yes, that’s costing the city a lot of tourism dollars, but I know what it’s like to work on after a contract has expired and finally take a lot less as a settlement just because dammit, you need some money, any money to make up for the increase in cost of living that occurred while you were waiting for the other side to get their heads out of their asses. I’m firmly with the stagehands on this one. I hope the issue gets settled soon for everyone’s sake, but mostly for some of the hardest working men and women on Broadway.
Con Ed rant November 9, 2007 ~ 10:57 am
Posted by Julie in : Rants , comments closedThe Con Ed bill came this morning. $54.92. Now I dunno, that seems a little high. Not as high as August when it was over $150, but high. I’m not running any fans or airconditioners, I don’t leave lights on when I’m not in a room, I switched over to CFLs on all my lights…it doesn’t make sense. So I sit down and really read my bill.
Supply charges:
$22.50 for 206 kWh - That’s my charge for the energy supplied to me. Okay.
$0.54 - That’s a tax. Okay.
Delivery charges (otherwise known as, The Part That Pissed Me Off):
$12.57 - Basic service charge for my 206 kWh that I’ve used. I read the small print and am told that this is for basic system infrastructure and customer-service charges. So basically, I am paying for this 206 kWh TWICE. Thanks, Con Ed.
$15.34 - Delivery charge. This apparently maintains the system that I get my 206 kWh through. I’m getting charged THREE TIMES for the fucking electricity, because really, what the hell is the difference between maintaining the system and maintaining system infrastructure?
$0.47 - tax for renewable energy programs. I’m cool with this. We should have renewable energy programs. So that we don’t get butt raped by Con Ed every month.
$1.39 - Tax on the delivery charges. Because it wasn’t enough that they taxed me for the electricity the first time, they had to get me for the two other times they charged me for the electricity as well.
Thank you, Con Ed. After going through this bill, I feel like Kevin Bacon in Animal House: “Please sir, may I have another?” Except Kevin Bacon had a choice, he could have joined a different fraternity. Me? Not so much. Fucking monopolies.
