Back and Blogging

This blog has sat somewhat dormant for a while, not for a lack of things to talk about, but for a lack of words to express them.

When I got laid off, I really didn't want to talk about it. I was fighting off depression and working hard to stay positive; I didn't want to indulge in writing about being depressed, and writing about staying positive was just too much.

Then, I got caught up in a whirlwind of a new job. There are issues with blogging about work at the best of times, but I certainly didn't want to jeopardize a new job. Happily, things seemed to have evened out, and I'm now fully employed.

So hopefully, HOPEFULLY, I'll be more able and inclined to blog again. :)

I'm going to post a blog I wrote this week about a whiskey-tasting dinner I got to attend last week in honor of St. Patrick's day. What a great experience!

See you soon!

Purple Cow

I never saw a Purple Cow; I never hope to See One; But I can Tell you, Anyhow, I'd rather See than Be One.

Well, Mr. Burgess, I have seen one. In my office. In the lobby. In fact, it scared the dickens out of me the first time I walked in and saw it. Apparently, our new tennants brought it. I have a feeling its one of those that they put on street corners and then auction off for charity.

But still. There's little more random that walking into work and staring down a purple cow.

WTF, CSF?!?

Oh my god, my college is so pretentious!

I just got an email about homecoming, and this is what it says:

“What is 4D? Well, in art-school parlance, 4D is time-based creation: video, sound, performance, telenetics — 4D art does not keep still. What does this have to do with Homecoming @ CSF? Well, there are four distinct groups involved: alumni, students, family and founders. And 4D is the space-time continuum — moving into the future without leaving the past behind. 4D transcends the individual. 4D is about all of us.”

Then? THEN? There’s a list of events, which includes Quadstock featuring Devotchka (an Eastern European band, which couldn’t be more painfully indie if they tried).

And then they talk about a fun run with the P-Dogs. That’s right. They shortened our already terrible mascot, the Prairie Dogs, to the even more terrible P-Dogs.

I think I just died a little bit of horror.

(What the heck is telenetics, anyway?)

10 Things

Some random things:

1. Vacation was good. Colorado is a beautiful state. Husband was violently ill second night out. Husband also melted shoes on sand dunes. Good times.

2. Photos to follow (see below!).

3. Survived the second trip to the dentist. Tuesday was cleaning. I HATE the picky thing with a vengeance. It gives me the willies. So I listened to Dr. Who on my ipod and tried not to bite the hygienist because my jaw was clenched so tightly.

4. Next week is fillings. One new, replacing one old. Joy. (Although, that's pretty effing good for not having been in EIGHT YEARS. (And the old filling is well older than that.))

5. I have been a bottomless pit of hungry since getting back from vacation. (My theory is that I ate too much whilst on said vacation and stretched my stomach.) But I have been very good and "on plan" so far. I'm about to go wolf down a big bowl of popcorn, though, because it is very low points. And filling.

6. Some friends want us to go to a concert Sunday night of some blokey I've never heard of. He's playing at a Unitarian church, which worries me. According to friend, he has a gorgeous voice and is "very funny and very liberal." I'm not at all sure what to expect.

7. They're showing Shaun of the Dead at Red Rocks in two weeks and I totally want to go.

8. On vacation, we ate french fries drizzled with truffle oil and fresh grated Parmesan. Never has a more perfect dish been conceived, nor eaten.

9. One of my dad's idols died. RIP Stan Winston.

10. And now it's time to go watch disk three of season one of SGA. This show is highly cracktastical, in that sometimes it's a smidge incoherent, but mostly, it's just freaking addictive.

For the Win!

Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment — this was the time — when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama, St Paul, Minnesota, June 3, 2008

it's a good thing

A few good things from the desk of me:

• Wegottaeat.com – Since the dawn of the personal computer (or thereabouts), I have been searching for a recipe organization program I could love. I have tried several, loved none. My biggest pet peeve? The TIME it takes to enter each recipe, and the fact that most programs make you enter quantities in decimals rather than standard fractions (ie: 0.66 cups instead of 2/3 cups). I save recipes from all over the place, frequently found on the web, and the last thing I want to do is re-type everything when I feel like a simple cut and paste ought to suffice. Enter We Gotta Eat recipe manager. The smart cookies developing this site (still in beta) realize that a lot of times you just want to copy and paste, and have made it easy for you to do so. Also, it looks like it's got a social function, whereby if your friends are also members, you can share recipes. Cool.
  
  (I'm already drooling over Cookbook, one of three winners of the "My Dream App" competition, but until it is released, wegottaeat.com has my vote.)
  
  
• Epicurious has a redesigned website that kicks booty, while we're on the subject of recipes.
  
  
• Gaim.com – The community portion of this site has tons of great articles about living well, living whole, living green.
  
  
• Just found out that this lunchbag is on sale at reusablebags.com — I'm totally buying two right now!
  
  
• Bought one of these Chico Bags at Vitamin Cottage a couple of months ago, and I cannot TELL you how handy it is. I keep it in my purse at all times and use it whenever I'm buying just a few things that don't REALLY need a plastic bag. The best part is that It is really easy to stuff back into its carrying pocket — a must for collapsible bags like this.

fooffera

I think I'm finally coming out of my wedding hangover. It went well, Emily was amazingly beautiful, as always, and I found out that not only is Matt a fine dancer, he's a heckuva singer as well. ;)

If you haven't already seen them, there are a few, mostly blurry, pictures on my fickr page.

Tonight, the hubby and I are going to see "The Little Mermaid" at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. I'm kind of interested, because apparently, based on how this six-week run goes, the show could change dramatically between its run here and its opening on Broadway in December. I'll have to let you guys know what I think. Actually, I'm angling to write a sort of pre-review of it for the winter NYC guide book here at work. We'll see if that pans out.

~*~

Last Friday, I went to my first ever baseball game. Truth be told? It was kind of boring. But as my friend Jeff put it, you don't go to a baseball game for the baseball. We were actually there to support my coworker, Mikey, who won an American Idol-style contest to get to sing the national anthem, and she ROCKED. You can download a recording here if you'd like to listen. Unfortunately, the Cubs beat the Rockies rather soundly, but we had great seats, decent stadium food, and lots of fun with drunken coworkers. Good times.

~*~

I'm reading the most awesome book called "Eat, Pray, Love," and it's beautiful and may be changing my life. It's made me want to take up yoga again and maybe learn to meditate, and I've found an ashram south of Boulder that sounds perfect for both. Of course, what REALLY sounds perfect is a week-long yoga retreat up in the mountains, but I don't see that happening any time soon. Maybe for Christmas...

~*~

On the subject of vacations, however, the husband and I have booked three nights in Vail for our anniversary/Labor Day weekend. I'm v. excited. Apparently, it is also the Vail Jazz Festival and Gourmet Festival weekend, which sounds delightful. They're doing a sale thing for the end of the summer, so we got a pretty swank hotel room for $81.50 per night — because Vail is at 8,150 feet above sea level.