August 15, 2016
April 9, 2009
Things I would rather be doing than working right now, even though I like what I do and have a to-do list a mile long:...
November 26, 2008
November 25, 2008
I'm bleaching my hair, blogging for NaBloPoMo, trying to get a few more work items crossed off my list, making the guest bed for the company that's arriving tomorrow, scrubbing the guest shower, and finishing up the laundry (well, I'm doing the first two things right now, and the rest in a minute), and I still hope to be in bed by 10:30pm, if not asleep by then. Not sure I'm going to make it....
October 21, 2008
My friend nj introduced me to the phrase gambatte kudasai yesterday. It's a Japanese saying that means "just keep going, and do your best." Thanks, nj, for saving my day with that phrase....
September 24, 2008
A recent IM conversation....
June 16, 2008
Between Beaner duty in the mornings, long working hours, and other family obligations, as well as upcoming vacation plans, June's obviously going to be a light posting month. Thus every post I do squeeze in will likely have some variation on the word "random" in its title. Sorry about the spewing, but I want to record a few observations and happenings before I forget them. As I've mentioned many times before, this blog is the best resource I have...
May 20, 2008
The miscellany's coming a day early this week....
May 15, 2008
Oy, I'm sick. I thought Al was being kind of a baby by staying home from work and sleeping for the past three days (mainly because he seemed fairly functional when awake), but now that he's passed the illness on to me, I suddenly understand the impetus for sleep. I slept until 10am this morning, needed another half hour to get out of bed, had a 45-minute nap this afternoon, and at just shy at 9pm am desperate to...
January 16, 2008
I put our turkey fryer on freecycle last night. I got it out of the garage, washed the dust off it, and set it near the front door for pickup (I have about 8 people waiting behind the woman who said she'd come today around noon, in case she doesn't show up)....
November 17, 2007
It's been a rough night workwise, and I think I'm about to throw in the towel and go to bed, for Pete's sake. But before I do, please allow me to share with you the photo that's been getting me through the day:...
August 1, 2007
I think I could have a kick-ass future as a computer-science cartoonist. I've got the great little metaphorical stories all framed out in my head, the dialog, the actions, the gestures. I've got a wealth of material from my day job. Too bad I can't draw....
July 18, 2007
My fabulous, patient, handsome, understanding, sweet, hilarious, hockey-playing, golf-crazy husband turns 40 today. To celebrate, we are going away for a golf weekend together (my parents will watch the Beaner in our absence, so it's a vacation for him, too). Because most of the birthday focus is on this weekend, I'm afraid that his actual birthday—TODAY—will be a bit anticlimactic. To help keep that from happening, I'm shouting out to the friends who know him well enough to have...
June 17, 2007
Just so's you know: I haven't abandoned my My Every Day photo project. I *did* take photos on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and I hope to upload them... soon. The problem is currently that I've used all the hard disk space on my MacBook, and we're wrastlin' with an NAS drive that doesn't seem to like our wacky home network. I'll probably end up having to buy a separate external drive just for the MacBook tomorrow, at which point...
January 19, 2007
When all of my Uncle Bruce's affairs were settled at the beginning of 2006, I received a small amount of money from the estate. I was pretty conflicted about it, mainly because some hoops were jumped through to give it to me (the will did not explicitly say that I should get anything), and because although I appreciated the sentiment that each of Bruce's nieces and nephews should get something, I didn't need it....
October 23, 2006
Gah, I have SO MUCH to blog about, and no time to do it—maybe on the plane tomorrow. I'm leaving for Adobe MAX in Las Vegas tomorrow morning, and I'll be gone until late, late Thursday night (yes, I'll be spending half my birthday at a conference, and the other half on a plane). I want to write about the little point-and-shoot camera I just got (a Finepix F30) this morning so I could have something to carry around...
August 31, 2006
I may be adding to this post as the day goes on; random thoughts that aren't worthy of entire blog posts keep popping into my brain....
June 28, 2006
Scene: Paper goods aisle. A woman leans langorously on her cart, shuffling forward one... step... every... 30... seconds. I zip into the aisle from the opposite direction, scanning the packages of toilet paper for my favorite brand as I move toward the woman. I can't see the Ultra version I prefer, so I grab the regular version of the same brand....
January 4, 2006
Al is standing right in front of the little TV in the kitchen, eating cereal. I am in the dining room, falling asleep in front of the computer....
September 29, 2005
Last night I dreamed that time rewound somehow, and I was watching the 9/11 attacks again—this time from my window rather than on a hotel television. "Look," I said to Al, "the Towers are still standing...and there's only one smoking hole." I checked my watch. "That second plane should be coming just...about...NOW." And sure enough, in it came. It was just as horrifying the second time, when I knew it was coming....
March 12, 2005
I just found out that my friend Jed's father was murdered earlier this week. I should be working right now, since Al is watching the baby and it's quiet here in the living room, but I find that every time I look at the letters "JSP" I see "JED". My thoughts keep drifting to Tacoma, Washington (where Jed is right now) and to something Jed did for me years ago during a time of great stress. I need to...
November 12, 2004
My sister isn't a reader of blogs (even this one), but I'd still like to wish her a happy birthday here. It seems somehow wrong that the date of her birth should sit above anything other than an acknowledgement of that birthday. So, whether she sees it or not: Happy 35th Birthday, Lisa!...
November 10, 2004
I woke up this morning thinking that I really should explain the lack of blogging here lately before anyone started to worry... and then I saw that Lauren had already started to worry. :) I'm doing fine and will explain myself shortly; I just need to go out and run a few errands first. More later today!...
October 13, 2004
What I find hilarious about this terror alert system is the higher the terror level, the more benign the Muppet....
August 29, 2004
The New York Times has a great little article on typefaces in its Arts section today called Acceptance Letters (free registration required). Be sure to click on the Slide Show link at the bottom of the article if you're reading online. I noodled around with Fontographer back when I worked at the World Bank and again when I moved to Macromedia (which makes the product), but I never really got the hang of type design. Having a decent design...
August 11, 2004
OK, I've finally got the lori-and-al blog database rebuilt and all the cruise entries and photos posted. You can see them all here in chronological order. I figured I'd end on a nice note—photos of our last day at sea—rather than describing the disembarkation process. Actually, disembarkation itself wasn't *too* bad; it was more the chaos outside the terminal that got to me. I'm not very good in crowds, and I'm especially anxious now that I have a belly...
July 26, 2004
One of the people from whom we bought this house was named Jonah. We still get a considerable amount of mail addressed to Jonah—mostly catalogs from outdoor equipment suppliers and fitness clothing manufacturers, medical journals, a few mortgage refinancing solicitations, and an occasional Runner's magazine. [Jonah was (still is, probably) a serious athlete who outfitted the basement with the wraparound mirrors mentioned in the previous post, the better to make the basement-filled-with-fitness-equipment feel like a real gym, I assume.]...
March 30, 2004
Oh, this is so weird. Yes, that's me in the photo at the top of the page....
February 23, 2004
Al and I just returned from 10 days out of town without Internet access. At least every other day I mentioned how I missed blogging, and how I should really be taking notes because Al was offering hilarious insights on a regular basis. Of course, now that I'm back, I don't really feel like blogging... Favorite quote from Al while we were away: "Yep, I'm the guy in the minivan, driving slow in the right lane... and I feel...
February 10, 2004
A couple weeks ago, as Al and I were watching SNL's Weekend Update on TiVo, Tina Fey made a joke about something that's been on my mind for years (and that I wrote a little rant about back in 1991): that the message Super Bowl ads send to us is that "girls are sluts for beer." (Of course, it's not just ads run during the Super Bowl—beer ads run year-round have this message.) Note that Tina made this joke...
November 27, 2003
It's times like these that I wish I smoked. I have a very strong urge to sneak out of my in-laws' condo and have a cigarette, just to be bad....
July 14, 2003
Al and I had a lovely weekend in New York City with his brother Carl, our sister-in-law Tris, and their baby Henry, who turned one on Sunday. Turning one is a big deal in Korean culture, so there was a good-sized family gathering at a Korean restaurant on Saturday night to celebrate. I can't remember the name of the ceremony that preceeded dinner, but for it Henry was dressed in a traditional first-birthday hanbok (parts of which were also...
May 23, 2003
For reasons I choose not to go into, we were not able to board our 8:10am flight to Vancouver this morning, and instead were re-booked on the 2:35pm flight. We should still make it to B.C. in time for me to shop for a stick before the first game of my hockey tournament, so that part's not so bad. The bad part is that I got up at 4:50am after 5 hours of sleep, and I am now royally...
May 22, 2003
This morning as I was driving to work, I got stuck behind a big white van advertising doggie day care. I noticed the big yellow sticker on the back when I almost slammed into it; traffic had apparently stopped or slowed significantly in front of the van, which I couldn't see around. I merged right as quickly as possible and got off at Marsh Road. I hadn't planned to go to Starbucks this morning, but I decided that traffic...
April 24, 2003
Turning up the stereo to drown out other noises in the house is not the same as having quiet time. One small sliver of chocolate dropped on a laptop keyboard can wreak havoc on your hands and clothes (not to mention your trackpad). I seem to have reached the age when non-stretchy pants are no longer comfortable. My great-aunt warned me back in the mid-80s that this day would come....
April 2, 2003
First off, for those of you who are concerned about my welfare, I survived this year's April Fool's Day unscathed, and I don't have Sars. I'm responding well to the Zithromax, thank you very much. Al drove me to work this morning, and as we pulled around the circular driveway in front of my office building, I heard the woman who was giving this morning's Pentagon briefing read an excerpt from this article, which I'd found linked from Cynthia...
March 24, 2003
Just got off the phone with BofA Customer Service. Or maybe it was Quicken Customer Service—I'm not sure. Al asked me to get a Quicken PIN number so he could download my statements (he's the financial record-keeper in our family), so I called the BofA number. It wasn't clear from the menu options what I needed to do, so I pressed 4 for "if you need help with something else...." When I said I needed a Quicken PIN number,...
March 18, 2003
I got an e-mail from my friend Jimmy this morning, in which he used a phrase that totally captured my imagination. Here is the relevant excerpt: ...it looks like we won't be moving west, at least for the time being. If something big pops up for one of us, we would definitely consider it. For now we are going to try to "bloom where we're planted", as Shayr says. I can just tell: that phrase is going to be...