My cousin’s oldest son is IMing me right now, which is always highly entertaining, simply because he tries to make me believe he is his mom. This time I almost thought it was her, but I quizzed him and badaboom, it’s the little bugger. (I told him he’s not getting any Christmas presents now, lol.)

The Porkchop and I are heading to NYC tomorrow for a few days. He has to work there and I want to shop… :D. Sadly, I also have to work, but it’s the first week of my 2-days-at-home, 3-days-at-work deal and while I’ll work during the day, at night, I shall shop and go to the theatre and eat NYC food. 🙂 🙂 (Somewhere my sister is very jealous.)

So I shall leave her with some new music I just recently stumbled across…

I heard about Kris Delmhorst on NPR the other night. She has several albums, but her most recent is one where she takes old poems (from the likes of E.E. Cummings and Robert Browning) and sets them to music—and they are lovely.

One of my favorites: Galuppi Baldessare.

Another I heard somewhere I can’t remember, a folk singer named Catherine Feeny. The song I first heard, and one of the ones I love best, is Mr. Blue.

Milton Friedman died today.

You may not know who that is, but I guarantee he’s had an impact on your life with his ideas.

NPR was discussing his death, and what he did for economics, while I was on my way home. I learned about him in high school… I had a crazy teacher who preached Friedman’s laissez-faire economics like there was no tomorrow. It wasn’t until I got older (and had to live in the real world) that I realized the importance of his theories.

From the Boston Globe: “Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who played a key role in the intellectual resurgence of capitalism and the global shift to free-market economics in the final third of the 20th century, died today at a San Francisco hospital. He was 94.

In a 90th-birthday tribute, the columnist George F. Will described Dr. Friedman as ‘the most consequential public intellectual of the 20th century.'”

Wikipedia has some great info and links.

My favorite person is having a sample sale.

It’s invite-only, but you can register and get in on the deals. (Some stuff is 75% off.) It only lasts four days and some things are already selling out… even though it started this morning.

Fortunately, I already got the one I wanted—seconds before it sold out. 🙂

:::happy dance, happy dance:::

One of the best things about my job is the environment, and in particular, the funny people who I share an office space with… let’s call them Mickey and Granny.

I’m in the design room (which is actually a space twice the size of my apartment and half of it’s the conference room) because they couldn’t decide where else to put me. (And thank god, ’cause if I was with the sales people.. oh lord.) So I’m the Web person and Mickey and Granny are the print people and I swear, they are some of the funniest coworkers I have ever had.

Mickey has a very dry, caustic sense of humor and really, really loathes the sales team; Granny is at least 60-something, and just as funny… although she’s a bit nicer about the sales team.

Together, they’re a comic duo of greatness.

And I… I am the instigator. Err.

As labeled by my boss, following a round of barely stifled laughter during Mickey’s one—and only—photo shoot for an image we needed.

It wasn’t my fault though.. he was making faces (and little comments) behind the magazine. All I was doing was laughing!

The rest of the day my emails arrived addressed to the Instigator Upstairs.

😛

My last present from the Chop was tickets to a Death Cab for Cutie concert this weekend (opened by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, who are very good and someone you should check out).

The music was great, but the entertainment came from all sides. Young high schoolers, there with parents, gossiping about so-and-so who came with such-and-such and OH MY GOD, what is she wearing… college students, rocking out, trying to appear as if they aren’t having the same conversation the high schoolers are having with their friends about so-and-so… and the Chop’s personal favorite, the crazy woman and her daughter.

They sat next to us.

The mom, who was in her early 50s (I’d guess), was wearing the clothes and jewelry of a 20-something, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was the perfume.

They arrived in a cloud of muskrat perfume, which then settled like smog over five rows. Eventually I thought it had mellowed down, then she moved… as she was wont to do, seeing as how her and her daughter (maybe? probably in her late 20s) rocked out to Death Cab (um, emo anyone?) like they were at a metal band in a mosh pit.

The moves were somewhere between disco, hip hop and insane gyrating. It was a real treat for the Chop, who sat next to them. lol

The best part was that we were in the sixth row… which, as we found out Saturday, was totally necessary. Seeing as how the Porkchop hadn’t been to an optometrist in several years and his vision, with his glasses, was 20/80.

It says something when the doctor walks out with him, looks pointedly at me, and says, “He is NOT allowed to drive. It would be illegal for him to do so.”

20/80, in case you don’t know, is very, very bad.

I just found out a very old friend of mine, one who I used to be close too, proposed to his girlfriend last week.

Which is a little creepy for the following reasons: he is younger than me, I have known him since we were 7 and it’s just weird, he’s known the girl for less than a year and he has a notorious habit of picking the wrong girls to date.

And somehow I figured his sister and mine, both older, would get married and settle down before he and I.

He and I haven’t really talked in a long time, so I didn’t expect him to call and tell me he had gotten engaged.. but considering how close we used to be, I’m still surprised I found out from my sister a week after it happened.

And a little sad.

In good news, someone’s decided to join us. 🙂

I was going to post at exactly 7:46AM, to commemorate this giant leap into overpopulation, but I was in the car, driving to work.

Which, as it turns out, is going to be fun and challenging. And a little daunting, as several people, including the CEO, are counting on me to completely direct their Web strategy and increase revenues by 1000%.

No pressure, hmm.

The refrigerator repair man guy came… AGAIN… for the fourth time in as many weeks. The diagnosis? The thermostat.

“Um… is that normal?”

“No.”

“Did we do that?”

“Doubt it.”

This was the very annoying, non-talkative repair guy. The first guy chatted with me the entire time; this guy barely says ten words. The Porkchop thinks I don’t like him ’cause he won’t flirt with me… which, OK, might be a smidge true, but I mean, COME ON, you are in my house for almost an hour and you don’t want to talk at all?

That seems very irrational to me.

My laptop has now jumped to the front of the line in the saga for the worst-appliance-in-the-apartment. A couple of weeks ago both batteries (I kept a backup) died completely. I put in an order with Apple and planned to have no problem working, seeing as how it’s supposed to work using the power cord.

Litany of issues: a) my computer doesn’t like only using the cord and routinely shuts down completely—for no f—ing reason, b) this always happens when I am editing twelve images at once (and haven’t saved) or am composing some sort of nonsense for someone (again, not having saved), c) which means I have to save every two seconds (or when I remember… erm) and c) since they no longer make Powerbook stuff, I am still waiting for them to ship the new battery—and as of yesterday, that won’t be for another one-two weeks.

Sweet. mother. of. all. that. is. holy.

In up news, I spent part of the day catching up on all things Moo-in-NZ and am happy to report he’s still just as funny and just as unlucky in love.

😀

Late last night we realized the fridge is out again. Nice, hmm? We’re not sure if it’s the same problem as before (first the relay switch, then the compressor), or if it’s a new problem altogether.

I vote new problem, ’cause there really isn’t anything as fun as dealing with a dying refrigerator for a month.

That, coupled with the fact that we just like to sleep, meant we were running about fifteen minutes late this morning. We were to be at the train station at 11AM to pick up somebody. Sadly, that somebody was sick and stayed home… but not without sending me an email early this morning letting me know she wasn’t coming.

Which was nice, but doesn’t really help when you’re running late and you forget to check your email (something I almost never forget to do). An hour later, we headed back home, irritated at myself for not saving her phone number and slightly concerned that something happened.

Lo and behold, all is well and now I’m ensconced at home, changing the blog and being swarmed by kitties. (It’s cold today.)

Update: also, I burned a candle all the way down and then it became a flaming ball of fire. FYI, don’t use water to put out flaming hot glass candles. All sorts of problems.

And double refresh the site, as the new CSS only shows up if you do. 🙂

Company to grow custom cats that won’t cause sneezing… and they’re only $4,000!

The utter randomness of that, seriously.

I accepted a full-time job today. It’s only 50 miles away, and part of the agreement is that I’ll work from home twice a week… 15% rev share isn’t too shabby either…. and all together I’ve been insanely bored, so I’m looking forward to it.

Kinda.