can we all just agree that barbara kingsolver's the poisonwood bible is quite a good read?

i've been reading it on the train lately while i've been not driving to work, and last night i very nearly missed my stop because i was so engrossed in the book.

can we all just agree that working from home is excellent?

and not just because it allows you to respond promptly to voicemail messages like this:

nephews' mama: "i'm not going to try to tell the whole story on your voicemail, because it will cut me off like it always does, but i will just say that you need to call me back as soon as possible, and make sure that i don't forget to tell you about the babypowder incident. you're also going to be really sad that our camera is in the car that's in [name of city that is very far from where they live] in the shop. call me back!"

more wacky dreams.

just one, really. the other night i dreamed that i was at the beach but the tide was really low and so there were islands surrounded by shallow water, but really low long waves too.

and there were a bunch of dead horses in the water. they were all stiff, and their legs were sticking straight down, but when the waves rolled in and out, the dead horses were flipping over and over.

i was understandably upset about it, and i decided that i would try to find out who or what was responsible for the dead horses. i learned that the italian government had recently installed a huge iron fence, although it wouldn't keep the dead horses off of the beach when the tide came in.

this somehow meant that the italian government was implicated in the dead horses situation, and so i set off to learn more. i was moving through the cars of a passenger train, but i had to hide from the people who didn't want me to solve the mystery. they were trying to waylay me by doing things like offering me barbequed roadkill skunk on a fancy platter.

i was getting to the bottom of it, too, but then someone sent me a text message and it woke me up.

i probably shouldn't have eaten that grilled cheese sandwich right before going to bed a little drunk after staying up for 22 hours that day. blah blah.

can we all just agree that it was way better back before blogger automatically signed you in with the last gmail address that was being accessed on

your computer?

i would blog a lot more, but sometimes i find the prospect of signing out and then signing back in again too daunting.

dangit blogger, quit being so lame.

sometimes the answers to your questions are painfully obvious.

"are pincurls cool?"

sometimes i really, really wish i knew the answers to your questions.

"can goats hiccup?"

sometimes i don't even understand your questions.

"what is a cultural word that starts with y?"

good luck.

can we all just agree that the return of hardcore thursday is long overdue?

how will you be observing it this week?

well, i certainly didn't see that one coming.

me: blah blah cupcakes.
jesse: blah blah cupcakes.
me: blah blah you still bringing frosting?
jesse: "i have one question for you. i just got done buying my handlebar moustache..."

can we all just agree that, much like ants do not belong in either my bed* or in my underpants**, large pieces of fake plastic wood do not belong in

my eye?

especially the day after i was around the building project? sheesh. (also, come on eye, what's up with letting the giant fake wood piece hang out in there? i was even wearing glasses all weekend, just to help you out. aren't you supposed to take care of debris or something? you made me feel betrayed.)

*

**

can we all just agree that riding home from work is, in fact, totally excellent?

i have recently decided that the freeway i take to work is way too dangerous. it has all the normal freeway problems (serious slowdowns, accidents, ladders/wheelbarrows/recliners/boxes/mattresses in the road, stalls, cars on fire, etc.) but lately it has also had pretty spectacular problems as well. almost daily. so the freeway and i? no longer friends.

i also realized that i've been comparing driving and biking/taking the train in an unfair and inaccurate manner. i always think that driving takes 20-25 minutes, and i know that the train sometimes makes me wait up to 17 minutes, when i miss the one i wanted by a second or two, and then the train ride is 24 minutes, and then i bike for 10-15. but when you consider that the best case driving scenario is incredibly rare, and that i at least know how long the bike-train-bike operation will take, it becomes sillier and sillier to think about driving.

i rode my bike to the train station and took the train, and then rode from the train station to my office today, but i finally got a chance to ride home with a friend this evening and it was fantastic. i feel amazing (but really tired) from the exercise, and i didn't have the stress of driving at all today. score one for me! (and one for the polar bears!)

i hope that we will make a habit of riding together. she is a pretty serious cyclist and she rides almost every day. some days i know i can't do that because i've got things to do in the evening, but it just felt so good that i hope to do it often.

can we all just agree that the i.t. dude hates me?

i have a compaq. it is running windows 2000. sigh.

can we all just agree that the following are the ingredients for a fantastic weekend?

1. friends
2. bicycles
3. sunshine
4. sleeping
5. tasty food
6. placing in a race
7. prizes
8. sleeping
9. friends
10. bicycles

yes.

race place!

yep, i did. maybe a prize picture later. if you're lucky.

i am old, part 2.

last night i went to bed at 11:30, and it was so glorious. old.

gosh i love my vacuum cleaner.

i know i've mentioned this already. last night, though, while i was having the usual low-grade nightmares that i've had every single night for the last month or so, i had this wonderful dream about vacuuming! i was vacuuming a bunch of things, including my room (family and friends, shut it!) and it was so great. i haven't had that kind of wonderful amazing dream in a long time. seriously, when i thought about it today i still felt all happy and glowy.

also today i kept thinking about how much i would like to vacuum the carpet in my office. not the entire building, just my office.

because i'm still amused by your search terms...

"a diagram of how to do your hair like a movie star" (c.w.a.j.a.?. is google's #2 result)
if i could draw you a picture of you getting trims every once and awhile, finding shampoo and conditioner that really work for your hair (super moisturizing ones are totally essential to my hair health and happiness), and using a lot of bobby pins when you want it to be up, i would. but i'm tired. you'll have to use your imagination.

"reasoning behind narcoleptic daschunds" (c.w.a.j.a.?. is google's #3 result)
duh, jesse totally already explained this one. science.

can we all just agree that sometimes, a little change is okay?

i think it might be time to break out of the c.w.a.j.a.?. format. just a little bit. c.w.a.j.a.?., i won't forgetcha.

can we all just agree that two year olds can be harsh?

tonight, at dinner, the two year old i babysit: "YOU. ARE. NOT. DEEDEE! YOU. ARE. NOT. ONE OF THE DOODLEBOPS!"

lest you think this was one of those awkward situations where an old person tries to convince a young person that they are "hip...cool...tuka-tuka-tuka-tuka," let me state for the record that:

1. this was completely out of the blue. we had been eating in silence and i had been looking at her brother.

2. i have never, at any time, claimed, insinuated, intimated, or otherwise represented myself to be one of the doodlebops.

3. their cd drives me a little nuts.

below, deedee doodlebop, who i am not.

can we all just agree that b.f.h. coming to my metro area is SO EXCITING?

welcome to the neighborhood! yes!

can we all just agree that waking up because of earthquakes does weird things to me?

sometimes it makes me really sad. but the last two earthquakes that have woken me up have made me angry! i woke up recently around 4:30 in the morning because of an earthquake, but i was just furious with one wall in my room (which is only about a foot wide) because it was vibrating. and i was certain that this particular wall was vibrating intentionally. and i also had the idea that this wall woke me up every day at 4:30 in the morning by vibrating. ooh was i mad. and then i went back to sleep.

can we all just agree that riding home from work is a great idea?

i mean, i think it is. i guess i'll know for sure tomorrow. the internet tells me it's 13.8 miles to drive, so it should be a nice trip. wish me luck!

can we all just agree that new vacuums are exciting?

oh my gosh. the housemates and i just got a new vacuum and it has changed everything. (our old one was a 1960's model that weighed about 5,304 pounds and was a stunning lime green color, but it decided to go ahead and stop working. also, the hose liked to detach itself from the body while you were using it. i will let you decide if this was fun or not.) it is red and glittery, and it has a bunch of attachments for various tasks. my favorite one is a little oval-shaped brush, which does a great job on molding. there is also the power paw, which i like to call the "power paw. rarrgh!" which is adjustable—you can switch it to be horizontal or vertical, depending on your cleaning needs. the other exciting one is a duster that is made more effective by the power of science—it gets ionically charged or something, and then the dust flies to it. and then you put it back into its special little home, and the vacuum sucks all the dust off of it.

something else wonderful about the new vacuum is that it is bagless, so everything that you vacuum up gets sucked via tiny tornado into a plastic canister, so that you can look at it and be kind of grossed out and satisfied, all at the same time. today i vacuumed the area underneath my bed and both sides of my mattress, as well as some of the molding near my door and part of the kitchen floor. all of us have used the vacuum today. i want to vacuum my whole life.

can we all just agree that it is important to have a good bookstore?

there is one very close to my house. i went there shortly after they opened, because i was very happy about the prospect of an independent used book store a block away from my house. and it is awesome. i love going there, and i rarely leave empty-handed. and even when i was super underemployed, that wasn't a problem, because the books are really cheap (like usually less than $3 cheap).

i got a prayer for owen meany there, and i'm rereading it (one of my favorite high school teachers assigned it to me when i was a junior, and i didn't think that i would like it, but he knew me pretty well and it turned out that i loved it. a prayer for owen meany is absolutely one of my favorite books, and now i've got my very own copy. hooray!

today mamacita and i picked up a funny pie cookbook from 1965 (sample sentence: "most women are fascinated by pies."), a novel about the french resistance, the poisonwood bible, and even cowgirls get the blues. for $4. total.

and the weather was beautiful. and i got new tire levers. and i made a pear crisp and split pea soup. and life is good.