wonderfully surreal

Some of these are simply incredible:

http://haha.nu/creative/creative-photos-by-chema-madoz

go, go gadget bladder!

This Saturday, AMC is doing a "Best Picture Showcase" of the five 'Best Picture' nominated movies. Back to back. To back to back to back. Starting at 11am, going through almost midnight. Babel, The Queen, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, and Little Miss Sunshine. Large popcorn and soda included, with free refills all day. I'm so there. [Oddly enough, I can't seem to convince any of my friends to spend twelve hours with me in a movie theatre watching heavy dramatic movies...]

Man, I am *so* going to need something light and frivolous the next day to overcome the heaviness of those movies.

And a salad. To counteract twelve hours of popcorn and soda.

sheesh

Went to retrieve my trash can from the curb last night, only to find that my neighbors had missed trash day and put two bags of trash into *my* can after the fact. It's the second time they've done that...the last time, I just ignored it. This time, I took the bags, closed them up [they hadn't bothered to], and set them in front of their gate.

How did I know it was theirs? By the pieces of mail in the bags, one of which I set prominently on top of the bags. Yeah, it sounds a bit petty, but trash service in Palo Alto isn't cheap...I've already lowered my account to the smallest can they will allow to save money, and then these rude kids come and fill my can 2/3 full the day after trash day, leaving no room for my own trash next week.

Annoying. Especially when you try to be a good neighbor yourself, bringing over mail that was accidentally delivered to you, picking up random bits of trash along the shared walkway, delivering FedEx packages that were incorrectly left on your doorstep, being sure to leave the shared driveway accessible, stuff like that.

Harrumph.

my morning

hic.

hic.

hic.

[hopeful pause]

[tentative anticipation]

[sigh of relief]

hic.

damn.

hic.

almost forgot

Another fun, dorky thing I did: After figuring out that I needed a PAL-to-NTSC plug adapter, I hooked up a powered antenna to my LCD monitor [with integrated TV tuner], so now I have TV in my office. Even cooler, the monitor does picture-in-picture, so I can be working on the computer and watching TV.

Hee hee...I love technology.

look ma, no wires

w00t. Just replaced my wireless router...now have dual-mode [B/G] secure wireless up and running. This means I can use my work laptop [a sweet little Dell Latitude D410], and in about a week or so, I'll be trying out my Windows Mobile device [a hopefully sweet little Samsung i730] wirelessly.

Rock.

a nice surprise

It's been hectic at work lately...not horrible, but definitely busy. As I was heading back to my desk yesterday afternoon, the QA manager saw me and said, "Congratulations, Stacey!" I blinked and asked, "For what?" He smiled and replied, "Check your email." A bit baffled, I did...and got a nice surprise.

Code Green does a monthly "employee recognition" [people nominate folks they think deserve recognition], and I was one of the two chosen this month...so I now have a very nice $150 amazon.com certificate to spend.

How cool is that??

a great quote from PBS

"A dog looks at you and says, 'You feed me, you shelter me, you play with me...you must be a god!'

A cat looks at you and says, 'You feed me, you shelter me, you play with me...I must be a god!'"

rainbows have nothing to hide

Rainy, grey days are my favorites. The main reason: you are free to feel however you want. Happy, sad, gloomy, upbeat, thoroughly neutral. When the weather is sunny and bright, and you feel anything other than sunny and bright yourself, you inevitably run into chipper types who say perkily, "Smile! How can you be glum on a day like today?? It's so *gorgeous* out!!" But on grey days, no one urges you to be gloomier if you are feeling up, no one chastises you for being down...you are free to be yourself.

Another reason to like rainy days:

seeing the honorable sir

The tickets are here and it's official: Susy and I are going to see Sir Mix-a-Lot in March. I'm so psyched...