All mixed up in the wash, hot water bleeding our colors

Okay, so I read an article where Isaiah Washington is complaining about being fired from "Grey's Anatomy" because people 'don't want to forgive a black man' (I'm paraphrasing, but that's the gist of it) for doing something wrong. In his case, being a homophobic jerk.

I totally take umbrage with this! Celebrities do bad stuff all the time, and personally, I don't forgive any of them, no matter what their color.

Some famous people I don't forgive:

Michael Richards, for being racist
Mel Gibson, for being an anti-semite
Ann Coulter, for being born
Robert Blake, for killing his wife
OJ Simpson, ditto
Paris Hilton, for single-handedly dragging the average American IQ down into the double-digits

On a happier note: IT'S FRIDAY! Which actually means quite little to me, as I work on Saturdays and Sundays. But, there's new "Degrassi" tonight, and I also got "Palindromes" from Netflix yesterday. Yeah, there's nothing like a Todd Solondz movie to cheer up your evening...

Be my devil angel, be my shooting star

This was too funny not to post... thanks Rebecca!

Mingle² - Online Dating

According to this dealy, I'm not even getting an 'R' rating for the occasional F-bomb; it's because I've used the words "porn," "dead," and "crap." Okay then.

And because I promised last time to do it in this entry: I was tagged by Karla to do a "Seven Random Facts about Me" thing - not "Seven Interesting Things," as I thought. Whew, that takes a load off. So, Seven Boring Random Facts About Me:

1. I can't whistle, roll my tongue, or burp on purpose. Hey, can I count this one as three facts?

2. In junior high, my lunch every day was either a really gross, bland cheeseburger, or a giant chocolate chip cookie. Damn, I miss those cookies.

3. I am 5'9", which a lot of people seem to think is pretty tall for a chick.

4. I love being awake in the morning before everyone else is up, but hate being awake at night when everyone else is already asleep. Scaredy-cat much?

5. I can tolerate fractions, but pretty much refuse to deal with decimals; also, I can do (or used to be able to do) algebra, but geometry was always way over my head.

6. The first CD I ever bought online was Remy Zero's self-titled debut album, from CD Now (which is now part of Amazon).

7. I kept an online journal in high school, and only took it off the site a year or so ago. Believe me, the web is a much better place without it.

The end! I tag... well, whoever wants to take it. I'm quite sure John and Rebecca both did this recently, and they are thusly excused. If you write your own Seven Random Facts, please let me know!

Forgotten touch, forbidden thought, we can never have enough

Yeah, it's been a few days. Stuff has been going on, but I haven't felt much like blogging - in fact, it's starting to feel kind of like a chore. That's not good.

Thursday night was the poetry reading. There weren't quite as many people as there were at the first two, but it was a decent turn out. I didn't take in my new poem; going over it again, I realized that it sucked really bad. I did have a pretty awesome glass of wine, though.

Friday, my mom and I went to see "1408." I was happy about how good it actually was. So many of Stephen King's great novels and stories are turned into surprisingly bad movies, but "1408" is better than passable. It's a fairly loose translation, but the short story was scary in a very quiet way that almost never gets done well onscreen. It doesn't hurt that I am in love with John Cusack and intend to marry him someday.

I managed to get the day off Saturday, and went to San Francisco Pride. I got there at ten, earlier than I thought I'd be - but not as early as I would've been if I didn't miss an exit on the drive to BART. You know how you look at online maps, and you think "Oh, Dealy 2 is pretty far away from Dealy 1," and then in real life, it isn't? That's what happened to me.

Anyway: Got to BART, got to San Francisco, looked around at all the booths before finding LS. The Vagina Lady wasn't there! I was totally bummed. There were a lot of booths selling cute clothes and such, but I didn't get any. The only thing I did end up buying that day was a $7 cosmopolitan. At least it was really yummy.

Oh! And there was this wacky booth called the Bay Area Intactivists (Not inactivists, which is how I read it the first 100 or so times) that was against circumcision. That's all fine and dandy, I guess, but some of their signs were too funny. Like, "Foreskin Pride," and "10 out of 10 babies oppose circumcision" (what about baby girls?). Granted, I wouldn't really know (not having a penis and all), but I don't think it's fair to compare circumcision to female genital mutilation. Anyway.

Sunday was not a day that started off well. I woke up at four (bad, but normal due to my weekend job) after a freaky dream about "Mulholland Drive" (good movie, but kinda scary), went to the bathroom (uh... good?), and came back into my room to get my bath towel only to see... on my wall... a beetle. But it wasn't like, "Oh, there's a beetle." This was a RADIOACTIVE beetle, on STEROIDS.

I had a brief moment where I had to decide between two things: Wake up my dad at four A.M. to kill a bug, or try to take this thing on by myself. I think we all know me well enough by now to know which one I did: Woke my dad! Seriously, when I think about that bug and it being in my room, I feel sick. Ugh. Ew. Enough. End paragraph now.

We had another (completely unattended) open house on Sunday. D'oh.

Yesterday was kind of an obnoxious day. First of all, it was Monday (not good), and I had to go into the office (yeah, still not good). And I was an emotional wreck for reasons that I didn't understand until today - yes, PMS. I must say, I'm not impressed with these meds Planned Parenthood gave me. Everything else that you don't want to hear about aside, my schedule is completely out of whack. It's most annoying.

Today was generally unremarkable, so we'll get on to... TV Notes!

"Rescue Me" - I've only watched the first episode of the new season so far, but it's good to have the very dark, very un-PC humor, back. Also the kickass music. I was hoping that Sheila would be dead, or even disfigured, but alas, Callie Thorne is still as beautiful as ever. From the season previews it looks like Johnny (Dean Winters) will be back at least once to freak out Tommy. Sweet!

"Big Love" - It took me a couple of the new episodes to do it, but I'm officially back into the show. Is it wrong that I want to be Bill Paxton's fourth wife? And I don't know what actor Matt Ross did, but Alby is starting to look... well, not un-sexy. Shut up.

"The 4400" - They're going to have to work hard to make this season better than the last one, but after only two new episodes, they already seem up to the challenge. So far we've had two neo-4400's with some pretty heavy abilities: one was a teenage misfit who suddenly got everyone to worship him, and the other was an autistic boy who made people's phobias come alive. And: Tom and Diana are working together again! Yay!

Entry over. I got tagged by Karla to do a "Seven interesting things about me" dealy, but I'm having a hard time coming up with stuff about me that is, you know, interesting. Next entry, promise!

Also, one of my favorite blogs looks like it's disappeared. I think she had a worry about someone she knew finding the (anonymous) blog; I hope that it's that, and nothing bad has happened. SoCal Sweetie, I hope you'll drop me an e-mail if you're at a new bloggie.

Also Part 2: Am I the only one having issues with Neatorama? When I go to the page, all the junk on top loads, but none of the actual entries... only white space. I forgot to check it at work today. Um, which isn't to say that I would actually spend time at work perusing various websites to un-bore me. Moi? A slacker? Please.

Do what you gotta do, and say what you gotta say

What is it with all the yodeling on TV tonight? First there was someone impersonating Patsy Montana (whoever that is) on "Next Best Thing," and now on "MythBusters" they are trying to cause an avalanche by yodeling. Okie dokie then. Also, what's up with Adam Savage growing his hair? If he's trying to disguise his receding hairline, it's not working... someone should tell him that big foreheads are sexy. Well, sometimes.

There are way too many shows on right now, and I'm having a hard time keeping up. I've yet to watch any of the new seasons of "Big Love" or "Rescue Me." Eh, I'll do it this afternoon.

My boss is back at the office, but things are still super-slow. I've gone in every day this week, but I'm going to work from home tomorrow. Hopefully my mom and I will be able to take in "1408" on Friday, now that I have read the story. It's pretty creepy; in fact, it has me kind of worried about my mini-vacay in August. For the record, if I ever saw a picture that changed, I would never look at a picture again!

The weekend went by pretty painlessly. I worked on Saturday, came home and cleaned, showered, and went to game night at MB's house. It was pretty awesome. LT and I left around 9:30 but I still didn't get to bed until almost 11... which made me pretty much totally incoherent the next morning. Whoops. There was no time for rest when I got home, as we had a Father's Day BBQ. Oh, there was so much food and it was so good! My favorites: chicken burgers, mango salsa, and the Texas sheetcake. Mmm, chocolate. My dad was pleased with his gift - a bunch of cookies and biscotti for his cookie jar.

I'm not going to have a relaxing weekend this one coming up, either. Saturday, I will be going to San Francisco Pride. I'm really glad my weekend boss was cool with me asking for the day off, and for finding someone to cover for me. Sunday, we're going to have another open house. What fun. All the work (cleaning) is done beforehand, of course, but I won't be able to come home and relax like I do. Wah.

I saw the worst and funniest thing on the news earlier. It was an item about a Bay area woman who is missing (along with her friend who is a priest; mmm hmmm!) up in Oregon somewhere. She works in a local coroner's office, and just as the reporter voiceovers that everyone there is really upset, they have a shot of the people from the coroner's office smiling and laughing. I could understand this mistake being made if it was live, but you think the editors would've caught this going over the video. Duh!

"Pickles? I'm huuuuuuuuuungry"

I've been watching the Food Network all morning, for some reason... and it is making me want to stuff my face with yumminess. First, I saw some show about this couple who opened an old-fashioned family diner and they had about a million different kinds of grilled cheese sandwiches. They stole my idea! Then I saw some guy - I think the Food Detective? - eating these hogmongous sandwiches made with challah bread. Drool.

I was originally going to work today, but I went in on Wednesday instead because I needed some stuff I don't have on my computer at home. Okie dokie then. It was funny, the secretary had her two little girls there and they were cracking me up. One of them got mad at the other and said, "Hey!" And the other replies, "HAY is for HORSES." Eh, maybe you had to be there, but it was cute.

Though I am fairly stocked up on clothes by now, I went to Fashion Bug in search of more jeans/pants. I'm in between two sizes, which is kind of annoying. The bigger size is a bit too big, and while the small size isn't too small, they're tighter than I'm used to wearing... and make my thighs look un-good (more so than usual). Anyway, I never did get any jeans, but I did find two cute tops. One is kinda crinkly with fall-ish colors (light tan, some orange and brown) and the other is super cute: white with this kinda light teal, and a bunch of dots in the blue, brown, and orange. It almost looks like a loaf of Wonder Bread.

The dotty top reminds me of two things: I haven't had Wonder Bread in hella days, and when I was in junior high, I read this great book about a girl who wore this dotty dress on the first day of junior high (or maybe even high school) and they totally mocked her because it made her look like... a loaf of Wonder Bread.

I get nostalgic sometimes about the books I used to read as a kid/teen that I don't have anymore, and can't remember enough about to find them again. Included:

- The aforementioned Wonder Bread girl
- This one about a super-tall blond girl that everyone called Bean Pole (that might be the title)
- Book about this kid in New York who starts hanging out (for some reason) with a vampire kid about his age. The vampire also had a younger sister who had a crush on the regular kid (I think named Tony), and was always made that her brother made fun of her because she didn't have her adult teeth yet
- This boy who starts junior high, and on the first day he meets and befriends all these weird "monster" kids. There's a vampire, two frankenstein kids, and... more that I forget.
- "Adventures in Babysitting" (based on the movie) that was slightly more kid-friendly and PC. Like, instead of Brad calling Thor a "homo" he just calls him a jerk. The book was actually quite good, almost as awesome as the movie. I'm still pissed that they're doing a remake, though.

Speaking of remakes... I just learned like last week that Rob Zombie is doing a remake of "Halloween." That's just not right. What is he going to do next - "Nightmare on Elm Street?"

Oh man, the other night I started watching the worst TV show and could not look away: "Next Best Thing," where three judges ruthlessly mock celebrity impersonators, most of whom deserve said mocking. There were countless Elvises, a Denzel Washington that I unfortunately missed, a couple Dolly Partons, a parade of Joan Rivers', two Stevie Nicks' (WTF?) and... Freddy Krueger! I was scared. Haha, there was also a Christopher Walken who did a pretty good voice, but looked nothing like him.

I've been staying up way too late - and by too late I mean like eleven. I was up until almost midnight on Wednesday night, trying to produce four pages for writer's club. I was bone tired but persevered, and had a quite enjoyable time at the meeting on Thursday morning. It was funny, one lady called me "Yolanda" for some reason. I don't get called that as often as I get called Yvette or Evelyn, but it's definitely up there. Honestly, to be on the safe side, I think I'm just going to start responding to any "Y" name that I hear.

It's been super hot the last couple days, but I've beat the heat by not going out in it. Pretty good plan, huh? I was out Wednesday and Thursday, but back home (in both cases) by 1:00.

So I never really got around to cooking this week, but I did make a tres leches cake last night. Yum yum. And I had some extra pound cake left over, some of which I devoured after spreading Nutella on top. Diet, what's that?

I stopped by the grocery store yesterday to pick up the ingredients for the cake as well as other stuff - including this great beef salad with blue cheese dressing. I was somewhat worried about the dressing* but it was quite delicious. I saw Cutie when I was there, but I have decided to officially give up on him. I've never seen him smile or say hello or barely look at anyone, and even my time is too valuable to waste it on such assholes.

*Bad salad dressings are the only foods that give me heartburn, or make me feel ugh. I'm super-picky about the brands I use and where I order salads from because of that.

Oh god, now Tyler Florence is making bruschetta. I think if I don't eat soon I'm going to die of anticipation.

Some things I know, and some things I don't

I just watched the pilot for the new HBO series "John from Cincinnati." I like it! Not unpredictably, since it's from David Milch who also gave us "Deadwood," it is delightfully vulgar. JfC is a lot more charming, though, because John (Austin Nichols - who is this guy and why is his weird, tall hair really cute?) is so playful and childlike. Certainly, he couldn't make the lives of the Yost family any worse. I was prepared not to like this - who cares about surfers? - but then before "Deadwood," I was definitely not interested in the old west.

In other news:

- I finally found something for my dad for Father's Day!

- Today I randomly remembered these cookies we always used to get. Well, cookie mix; it was a Ghiradelli (sp?) shortbread mix that you stirred up with butter, baked them, then stuck a chocolate kiss inside while it was still warm. God, these cookies were the best ever! I don't know why I thought of them today, but now that I remember them (it's been hella days) I can think of nothing else. I thought we bought them at Costco, but turns out they were from Sam's Club, to which we no longer belong... d'oh!

- Yesterday, I saw the trailer for Michael Moore's "Sicko." The list of movies I want to see keeps getting longer by the minute... which I guess is good, because I have 13 to go to meet my annual quota.

- I had such a great breakfast this morning: a peach, raspberry yogurt, and a jalapeno bagel! And that's kinda healthy, right?

- There's a stoplight on my way to work that it's hard to see the green arrow on. I mean, the only way you know that this light is green, is because it's no longer red. This morning I ended up behind a car with Georgia plates that I had to honk at because they couldn't tell the light was green. I hate honking. It makes me feel like a jerk. But I also hate not, you know, driving when I'm trying to drive.

- I just remembered I forgot to note my thoughts on a couple finales... so, thoughts:

"The Shield" Since the next season will be the last one, I will temporarily forgive them for not really resolving anything with this one. Though it seemed awfully short, I enjoyed this last season a lot. Franka Potente as the Armenian mob boss' daughter was good, and there was a great shocking moment when whatever-his-name-was gave Vic the picture of Aceveda. My issues with this season: Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker) wasn't around long enough; Antwon wasn't around hardly at all (but then, Anthony Anderson has his own show now); and I am impatiently waiting for Shane to get his comeuppance for killing Lem.

"The Sopranos" I like that Melfi gave Tony the boot... years late, but anyway. I also love how AJ gets all passionate about politics and joining the Army, then easily forgets about it when offered a pretty sweet job on a new movie. I really love the weird-ass cat that stares at Chris' picture all day, which freaks out Paulie - who, for some reason, I expected to turn out as a rat, but either he wasn't or they never said. I didn't love Agent Harris' gross-furry chest. And I approve of the open ending... there was just minutes of this great tension, and then, over! What happens next? You have to imagine it, and that's kinda fun.

Also, I identify with Meadow more than ever after seeing her poor attempts at parallel parking.

You'll never have to run away, you'll always have a friend to play

Random observations:

- It is really hard to type with a dog sitting on your lap (which I am currently doing).

- I took a typing test today and scored 103 WPM. Back in January, I scored 104. You know what the one less word I didn't type is? Egyptians. I don't know why, but that's a hard word to type fast, and it totally dragged me down in the test today.

- This weekend at work, I started reading Stephen King's short story collection "Everything's Eventual." It reminded me that, while he has some kickass novels, I really love his stories the most. Oh, and "Autopsy Room 4" is the hands-down scariest story I have ever read in my life.

- I watched "Let's Go to Prison" over the weekend (yay Netflix!) and now I'll think of it every time I hear Technotronic's "Move This." That's not necessarily a bad thing. The movie is dumb, but charming. I'm somewhat annoyed it didn't have a hot man kiss, unless I missed one when I ran into the kitchen for some tempura vegetables. Chomp!

- My mom got me hooked on "The Next Food Network Star." D'oh. Did you ever notice that every American reality show has to feature at least one attractive woman with a foreign accent? What's up with that?

Besides that, the show has a guy who always wears a hat. It was reminding me of someone, and it took me awhile to figure out who: the guy who plays Turtle on "Entourage." They look a lot alike, especially with the hat. They also have an almost-triplet in one of the hopeful directors from "On the Lot." If you don't believe me:





Furthermore, I am freaked out by the fact that they all have names starting with J. Ack!

Don't wanna fight, don't wanna die, just wanna hear you cry

After seeing this commercial for "Hostel: Part 2" on VH1 over and over, I finally noticed that Roger Bart and Bijou Phillips are in the movie. That makes me want to see it - well, not less, because I couldn't not to want to see it any less. Or something. My point: I wish this movie, and the original, and - now that I think of it - Eli Roth himself, would go away. These movies seriously disturb and upset me, which is kind of bizarre considering that I have been a horror movie fan since childhood... but anyway.

Another bad commercial: KWOD plays this obnoxious one for Cal Expo horse racing at least 100 times a day. It's people with super-weird voices saying, "Dollar beer, dollar dogs, DOLLAR BEER, DOLLAR DOGS!" I like cheap hot dogs and beer as much as the next person (okay, not really) but the ad is so obnoxious.

What else, what else? As I think I mentioned, Boss J is away on business dealies through the end of next week, and there is very little for me to do at the office. I didn't go in Wednesday or yesterday, but managed a couple hours this morning.

Wednesday, I went to Mervyn's in search of various clothing. All of the tops fell into two categories: I either owned them already, or they were hideously ugly. Seriously. Yesterday, I spent the day first thinking about writing, then actually writing, then went to writer's club. It was pretty awesome.

I have no idea what to get my dad for Father's Day. For his birthday last month, I got him a Lowe's gift card. The only idea I can think of now is... a Home Depot card, which is clearly not interesting. Guys are hard to shop for - you all really need to work on that.

I've become re-addicted to Sudoku. I bought a cheap book of puzzles at Target to have another thing to do on the weekend job, but I've been working on it at home, too. They all seem to be at an "easy level," which is good because otherwise I'd get frustrated and probably throw the book away. That's generally my way of avoiding things that make me feel dumb.

Since I'll be home most of next week, I need to do some cooking. Nothing I've eaten lately has been particularly good, probably because it's all been sandwiches and cereal. Oh, and quesadillas. I've been fantasizing about sauteed veggies and pasta, mmm. I've also already scheduled my typing test for Monday, and I'm going to the morning writer's club on Thursday - whoo hoo! I get to work with Katrina and PrisonBoy again. I mean, I know I should finish that story for myself, but having to share it at club really motivates me to work on it.

Poor Pepe has been limping around on three legs today! He hasn't cried or anything, and doesn't have something stuck in his paw, but he's just walking about all crooked and holding up his right front leg. Aw... hurt animals make me sad. His legs seem to trouble him a bit in cold weather, but it sure ain't cold anymore. I saw a brief news report this morning about a storm in Chicago that has hella people camping out at O'Hare. How could anyone stand to live in that weather? Okay, so we've got earthquakes here in California, but significant ones almost never happen. Oh, and we supposedly have a drought right now, but, eh.

I'm sleepy. I've been sleepy since I woke up, I think, even though I slept very well last night. I even had a couple dreams - weird ones, as usual, but dreams. Let's just say they involved quilts, crawling on my hands and knees through a construction zone, and being framed for murder by a white supremacist. Wait, where's the phone number for that therapist again...?

I was thinking big while I was combing my hair

Two jobs notwithstanding, I have spent way too much money over the last few days. I've been to the movies twice, paid a few bills, and went to the Bath and Body Works semi-annual sale. Whew! To fill you in:

- I saw "Mr. Brooks" with MB over the weekend. I can't talk too much about the movie without giving stuff away, so I won't. Basic premise: Earl Brooks (Kevin Costner) is this nice, respectable businessman who has this freaky alter ego/split personality deal where he likes to kill people. That's probably one of the most overused plots in films and in books, but this movie is seriously twisted. I've said all I can say, except that if you're into thrillers, you should quite see it.

- Then, I saw "Knocked Up" yesterday with LT. It was okay; funny, but not hilarious. My biggest regret about seeing it: I stupidly bought a pretzel/soda combo that cost more than my matinee ticket, and it was absolutely the worst pretzel I've ever had! It was hot, I'll grant them that, but it was also soggy, tasteless, and had none of those wonderfully unhealthy salt flakes! I had a few bites and threw it away, leaving me with only my cherry Coke. I forgot how huge medium-sized sodas at the movies are...

- I had book club on Sunday, which was fun. I almost didn't go because I got home late from work, and kinda forgot to go over the discussion guide, but went and had a good time.

- Yesterday was the first day of the Bath and Body Works sale! I arrived a few minutes before opening and found, to my relief, that I wasn't the only one impatient for it to get started. My loot includes: Buttercream frosting lotion, blackberry room spray (smells like red Kool Aid, yum!), "plumping" (yeah right) apple lip gloss, sandalwood rose bath foam, two sparkly Goldie nail polishes, pineapple lotion, and two sample-sized Savannah Bee dealies (mint julep lotion, which smells much better than you'd think, and a really great hand cream).

With all this spendifying I did, it's too bad that my boss is going to be gone from tomorrow through the end of next week and that I'll have less hours. I'll have some things I can work on, of course, but not very much. There's also some issue going on with the new website, and who knows when that'll be resolved? Le sigh.

Some of my plans for this week: Go to Mervyn's (I'm suddenly finding myself low on socks and underwear), get another typing test done (my last was back in January, and I should get a more current one since my job hunt is still pretty much on), and... wow, something that totally fell out of my brain.

I also need to get back on the writing horse. I have produced exactly nada since finishing my last story two weeks or so ago. I even missed a whole week of doing morning pages, eep.

One last: I'm excited about "1408," a movie with John Cusack as some guy investigating this haunted hotel room. Besides having one of my favorite actors, it is actually based on a Stephen King story! I thought, "Damn, I haven't read that one!" and then checked the copy of "Everything's Eventual" I bought at the library book sale, and - it's in there! So, I'll be ready. (You have to read the book or story first, so you can rip the movie up if it sucks, duh.)

You think we're in the movies, but the movies never moved me

I've had an okay week, with a few adventures... mostly food-related somehow. On Monday (Memorial Day) we had Chinese food for dinner (as yummy as a BBQ and less work); on Tuesday I made a brilliant steak quiche; and on Wednesday, I went to dinner at Chili's with LS and JH. I forgot how hogmongous the margaritas are... mmm. We shared the apple tart dessert and it was so good even if I was already a mite too full from the Monterey chicken.

We stopped by Fashion Bug afterwards and I actually found a cute pair of pajama pants! They are pink with cherries, and are actually pants - not capris, which I hate. It was sweet, I told my mom when I got home about how there was another pair I wanted (pink with hears) but didn't get, and she got them for me the next day! Aw. I think now I will finally dump (and by dump I mean give away) these other sweatpants I have that are way too huge for me. I am determined that 2007 should be the year I say goodbye to frumpiness.

Besides all the aforementioned stuff, I haven't been up to anything except for work. I do have a lively weekend planned; work both days, going to the movies with MB tomorrow, and my second book club meeting on Sunday.

I did take today off, and went to a library book sale and Target with my mom. The Antioch library is always having pretty good sales* and this one didn't start until noon (yay for not having to get up and around hella early), so we went. But it was busy. Seriously, when I saw how many people were there, I almost turned around and walked back out the door. I'm glad I didn't, because I found some awesome books:

- Books 2 and 3 of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" series (I already own numbers 1 and 4)
- More Stephen King: "Gerald's Game" (I started that once but never finished it), "Everything's Eventual," and his "On Writing" book
- George Carlin's "Brain Droppings." I love George Carlin and this is my favorite book by him! Well, of the few I've read; I still haven't gotten around to, "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?" or whatever it's called.
- Laurie Halse Anderson's "Speak," which I am already halfway through.

Seven books for four dollars! (Actually three-fifty, because they were 50 cents each, but I graciously let them keep my change.) You can't do better than that.**

*They always used to have these brilliant "Dollar a box" sales, where you could really clean up, but not lately. Wah.

**This sale reminded me of an article I read recently, about this man who had so many books he couldn't even give them away, so he started burning them. Said burning prompted book lovers to "rescue" what they could. Aw.

We got these new cable boxes from Comcast that are really small. Compared to the old boxes, anyway. The old boxes were, say, the size of a clunky-ish VCR; the new ones are about the size of a discman. They've eliminated the digital clock on the front of it, so now I have no idea what time it is when I wake up in the middle of the night. D'oh?

I hate the Meineke commercial where the guy presents three women in bridal gowns to his parents and is all, "Which one should I marry?" I know it's just a commercial, but the idea of it still irks me. If I was one of those chicks, I'd take my bouquet and beat the crap out of him. This is probably why I don't work in advertising (and, maybe, why I'm single).