I KNEW it!

Aug. 13th, 2014 07:02 pm
aroraborealis: (laughter)
While my cat was using the litterbox, I noticed it was a bit low on litter, so as she was burying her product, I sprinkled some fresh litter on top of where she was scratching. She stopped, sniffed around suspiciously, and got back in the box to poop even though she had just finished using it. I KNEW cats saved it up for fresh litter!
aroraborealis: (laughter)
Colleague: What's the best thing about your job?
Me: The people!
Colleague: What's the hardest thing about your job?
Me: The people!
Colleague: …
aroraborealis: (happy side)
On Friday night, I stopped at a liquor store on my way to visit [livejournal.com profile] uberjay and T. Inside, there was a local distillery (Ryan and Wood) rep showcasing some of their wares, so, naturally, I stopped to take a taste, first of the gin, which I quite liked, and then of the rye, which the rep described as his favorite of their spirits.

While I was tasking the rye, who should walk by but [livejournal.com profile] uberjay himself? So I got his attention and foisted onto him the remainder of the rye I was tasting. And then, of course, he tasted the gin. And then, after discussing all the delicious cocktails we'd be making with them, I bought a bottle of the gin, and he bought a bottle of the rye, which inspired the rep to say that he was glad he hadn't packed up a few minutes earlier as he had planned.

"You're like a one-woman stimulus package!" he told me. Which [livejournal.com profile] uberjay pointed out might have to be my new tag line.
aroraborealis: (oh please)
Spam )
aroraborealis: (laughter)
My company provides a forum for people to ask questions at the company meetings, and many of them wind up getting answered on our internal home page. My favorite in the current batch:

Q: Why are there pennies in some of the urinals?
A: That's where they keep going! So weird.
aroraborealis: (laughter)
The most absurd parts of my job are always when I'm doing something super fun but feeling stressed about it. Like, I'm running late for the boat party and have to stop to buy 30 pool noodles and I can't find the entrance to the Target parking lot. Or, I'm so hungover from the first night of parties at the retreat, but I have to restock for night 2, so I'm miserably buying two grocery carts of booze that I can't imagine ever wanting to drink ever again.
aroraborealis: (blind dance 1)
Every so often, I'll have one of those discombobulated days where in the course of moving through the day, at some point, I'll take something out of my backpack pocket and forget to zip it back up. I haaaaaate doing this, both because it looks sloppy and because it makes it that much easier for someone to steal something (this is almost always the pocket containing my wallet), especially because the way my pack works, the unzipped pocket really gapes open.

So, okay, these things happen.

Except, recently, it's been happening a LOT, and it's kind of alarming. At least once a week and sometimes more frequently, I get home, or have some other reason to look in my pack, and I realize that I've been walking around for I-don't-know-how-long with my bag sagging wide. And despite my intention to take extra care after noticing this, it doesn't seem to be getting better. It's getting worse, in fact.

So I've been thinking about ways to improve my attention to zipping, bringing what had previously been basically an unconscious habit down into the realm of conscious practice. And it's been ... not really changing the situation at all.

You can imagine my relief, then, when last week, I once again found my bag unzipped, and when I zipped it up, I discovered that I had just UNzipped it. That it had been zipped before, but that the teeth of the zipper are failing, and it sometimes just comes open as I walk around.

It is going to be so much easier to replace my backpack than it was proving to be to replace my brain.
aroraborealis: (tequila!)
I read MetaFilter and AskMetafilter with some regularity, so I also follow MetaTalk, where people talk about how the other sites work, how people interact with them, etc. Relationship questions are super common on AskMe, and they're sometimes interesting and sometimes appalling and sometimes frustrating ... much like people and relationships themselves. This morning, someone on MetaTalk complained about how some people use AskMe to ask more or less the same question again and again, never seeming to take in the advice or thoughts that they were ostensibly looking for in earlier questions. The first comment on that post is brilliant and funny, and I am copying it here for posterity, and to remind myself of this pattern when I'm playing the role of the OP and my friends are all tearing their hair out:
OP: "Help! HELP! I'm stuck in a well!!!"
Goons1-4: "Climb! Climb up and take our hands!"
OP: "I'm thinking I should dig... should I dig?"
Goon5: "NO! I was trapped in a well, and digging is a bad idea! Climb out!"
Goons6-8: "Were lowering ropes! Take hold of a rope!"
Goon9: "I've even tied a harness to the end of this one!"
OP: "I can feel the ropes, but I don't want to hold onto them... should I dig?"
Goon10: "No! If you dig, you'll hit water, and then you'll be proper fucked. I should know, I almost drowned."
OP: "I dug a little bit just now, and I haven't hit water. I'm gonna keep digging..."
Goons11-18: "No! Climb! Climb out!"
OP: "Guys, I'm seriously stuck in this well! Help! HELP!!!"
Goon19: "I was trapped in a well once. It took me two years, but I managed to build a climbing machine that pulled me to safety out of a well bucket and a pocket watch. I'm dropping the blueprints, extra buckets, and an assortment of pocket watches."
Goon20: "I've engineered a jet-pack that will rocket you to safety. Stay where you are and we'll lower it down!""
"OP: "Thanks for your help, guys. I'm gonna keep digging. I'll find the Mines of Moria and I'll just walk to the surface."
**Goons1-20 piss in the well**
Goon21: "Guys, seriously... stop peeing in the well."
aroraborealis: (no whining!)
What is your dumbest injury to date?

(This post brought to you by injuring my wrist while shaking my salad to distribute the dressing.)

pi 59

Mar. 14th, 2013 01:23 pm
aroraborealis: (laughter)
Our Pi Day party here starts at 1:59. It has been super fun to see who picks up on it, and when.
aroraborealis: (laughter)
Later, at the trial, __________________________________________.
aroraborealis: (tequila!)
I posted this article on G+ -- 46 reasons why my three year old might be freaking out -- because it's pretty funny, and then it got me thinking:

What does my recent list look like? Without thinking hard, I have:

  1. I'm sneezing too much

  2. I have to pee and I don't want to get up

  3. My cat is meowing

  4. I'm cold

  5. I'm tired

  6. I can't sleep

  7. I have kitty litter stuck to the bottom of my foot

  8. I'm running late

  9. The store is closed when I wanted to get something

  10. My book is boring

  11. I banged my toe

  12. People

  13. The sun is too bright

  14. My cat is trying to get under the covers with me


Thank goodness I have more perspective and self-control than I did when I was three.

What about you?
aroraborealis: (laughter)
This weekend, I learned that if you put dishwashing liquid instead of dishwasher gel into the dishwashER, that thing that I always thought was a total exaggeration from sitcoms of a huge pile of suds taking over the kitchen actually does happen.

On the bright side, a huge mess of soap suds is, of all the huge messes that could wind up spilling halfway across the kitchen, pretty inoffensive, and totally hilarious. Also, it turns out that dishwashers make AMAZING bubbles -- very dense and fine and long-lasting.

Extra thanks to [livejournal.com profile] longueur for the baffled and friendly, "Is there some reason there are suds all over the kitchen floor?" and the cheerful cleanup job. Sadly, he didn't think to snap a photo first.

qotd

Jan. 17th, 2013 01:05 pm
aroraborealis: (cheers)
If you were a kitchen utensil, what would you be, and why?
aroraborealis: (laughter)
(From http://badkidsjokes.tumblr.com/)

Sir

I have a butt

Sir we all have butts
aroraborealis: (happy)
A few months ago, I posted about addressing emails in a fun way in a work setting, and several of you gave me good ideas, and the framework for others.

Today, I sent an email to my groups regarding our new pool table with this opener:

Good afternoon, pool sharks, pool rays, pool skates, and other pool chondrichthyes

So far, I've received 50 style points, a vote for best email of 2012, and a marriage proposal.

Which is to say: Thanks everyone for your help!
aroraborealis: (wtf?)
So far today, I've received two emails regarding one team dropping by another office. In the first, it was described as "dropping buy" and in the second as "dropping bye". I'm impressed.
aroraborealis: (laughter)
Finally, a sexy strawberry costume for men!
aroraborealis: (laughter)
[Poll #1872706]
aroraborealis: (cheers)
From a 1952 speech by Noah S. Sweat, Jr., a lawmaker from Mississippi, on the subject of whether Mississippi should continue to prohibit (which it did until 1966) or finally legalize alcoholic beverages:

My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about whiskey:

If when you say whiskey you mean the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.

But, if when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman's step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life's great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.

This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.
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