I don't know what I'd do with it...

...but I'm sure I could think of something. If I had vast sums of cash to blow on wots-its, I'd totally get one of these:

music expresses what's best in us.

I truly believe that. Beautifully crafted songs are eternally fresh, and this kind of sincerity is hard to fake. Lovely sounds. Fall At Your Feet be Neil Finn of Crowded House, accompanied by Graham Gouldman of 10cc and Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera.

I promise this won't turn into a-pup-a-day, but...

It's been really cold here, and the puppies have been curled up and shivering on the sofa for two days. I decided I wanted them closer, so I set them up a little nest on a chair next to mine, and they curled up and snuggled. Was very cute and a very soothing effect to have them near at hand for occasional petting as I was on the phone all day. Am quickly discovering that in light of my workaholic tendencies, I'm going to be working a whole-whole-bunch. Will be good for the bank account, and I'm getting a lot accomplished, and helping out the new folks who have hired in the last month or so. The day flies by when I'm at home, and I'm near windows and not cooped up in a fluorescent veal pen. Much better, this way. I promise I'll blog about something besides pups and work sometime soon-- there's always school! I'm actually looking forward to going back to bellydance class this summer when the semester is over. :)

Wow. One quarter of this year is already over. How???

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Behold, the stately Chiweenie:

Let's face it-- Taco Schnitzel is so WINNING!

I'm loving being home with the babies, and I'm doing much better work without the chaos of the office. The pups seem very pleased, too. Why does it not disappoint me that I'm out of the loop on the office gossip? :)- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Are you tired of the same old movies?

Apparently a bit of Christine got away. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this trailer. If the movie is terrible, I'll be disappointed. Or not.



h/t to Tolewyn

Sunday, Puppy Sunday: mommy works from home now

Here's where the pups spend most of the day perched, power- napping.


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Sexy Librarians?

Damn skippy!

Of course we all know how totally hawt librarians are. :)

The divine folks at Sublime Stitching have come out with a whole raft of Sexy Librarian embroidery patterns. These patterns are on sale for 50% off now, too. Also, there's Meaty Meats which shows a little love to bacon, which has been woefully neglected in the annals of embroidery. The vital organs one sort of vexes me because I stitched a heart about 8 years ago and never went anywhere with that, but I had grandiose plans for stitching a visceral body of work. Ah well. Pirates!

OH, and weenie dogs! Weenie dog embroidery? What could be more fetching? Well, Chiweenie embroidery, but nobody's perfect.

Yes, it's sublime. Me likey!

plumb tuckered out.

First day working from home started with a hiccup, but it was a good day. It took nearly two hours for the tech guy to get it all up and running, but then I worked steadily and the quiet and calm of the house had a great effect on my ability to concentrate and resolve issues, and the day was great. At lunch, I walked down to the post office and over to downtown, and came back and munched a salad, then got back on the phones. The weather was incredibly beautiful, and the day seemed to pass very quickly.

It was a very good day. :)

House keeping.

Thanks to all you lovely people who gave me information on Napier's Number in previous post. Turns out (as you well know) you were exactly right. :) Being an adherent to the loosey-goosey arts, I certainly appreciate the toothsome symmetry of the exact sciences, even if I can't entirely wrap my brain around same. Thanks again!

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I'm up into the wee hours tidying up the house. An IT guy from work will be here mid-morning tomorrow to get my computer all set up for working from home. *cautiously optimistic squeeing here*

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Strangely, on the eve of starting to work from home, I interviewed yesterday for a promotion. I think I'm unlikely to land the job, but I was complimented the interviewer said he was pleased I applied. I won't be hurt for someone else to get the job-- I only care that they give it to someone who knows our department, and I think they've got a great field of candidates from which to choose. Still, it was nice to feel like they were excited about me as a candidate.



I'm excited about working from home. :)

Okay, this may be the teeniest bit whiney, but...

I've been working diligently on my homework. Tuesday was 3 hours, and Monday was 1. I'm averaging something like 5 hours' work for each class session. When I get something wrong (I check my answers in the back of the book), I go over it again and again until I know how to come up with the right answer. I've done very very well with calculating interest rates. So how's come I can't get it right with the continuously compounded rate? Every single time, I get just a smidge off (like 11 to 13 cents off). I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I blame Texas Instruments. Or I'd like to. This is how the machines take over, right? A bunch of pocket calculators, bored with the sheer inanity of their under-use, start talking to one another about how idiotic their handlers are and soon they'll be herding us into cattle cars or somesuch and whacking us on the palms with sapient pearwood slide-rules.

Okay. I know it's completely anal of me, but I want that last .25 percent of a point on my grade for my online homework. I'm scared later in the semester something will come along that's harder than what I've done so far, and then I'll need every jot and tittle of points to hold on to my A.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? *vexation*

Bonus hounds: naptime mit puppehs

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Who says all is fair in love and war?

I was dismayed to see the news article about American service personnel posing a la hunting trophy poses with dead (alleged) civilians in Afghanistan. I'm not making an excuse for what looks downright tasteless and disappointing. I say looks, and not only that, this is such a tiny fragment of what our armed forces are doing overseas. In our if-it-bleeds,-it-leads media culture, perception is reality and someone very desperately wants everyone to see how ugly Americans really are.

Since the camera was invented, it has been used to document the demise of ne'er do wells. It was common in the old west for former bad guys, pining for the fjords, to pose for formal photography, sometimes with solemn lawmen redolent of the gravity and dignity called for on that occasion. This practice was carried well into the 20th century. Google images bonnie, clyde and dead and see what you find.

Further, just yesterday, I read a news article in the British press about gallows humour, and that-- however tasteless-- humour is and was ever thus a method for dealing with having experienced (or heard about) unimaginable horrors.

In that vein, I will say this: I don't know what the men in the photos experienced that led to that moment, and I am heartsick at the atrocity of it all, but I'm also not going to judge them where I don't know the whole story.

I will, however, be awaiting the spittle-flecked vitriolic harangues from the Village Voice decrying the president because he knew, he knew he HAD TO HAVE known! He was IN on it! He encouraged them to behave thusly.

Yeah, I know: *crickets*

Will Cindy Sheehan be flying to exotic locales to protest outside whatever posh hotel is hosting the Great One? Somehow, I think not.

Meanwhile, I remember images of thronging masses of Somalis celebrating in the street as the mangled corpse of an American was dragged through the village nearly 20 years ago. The locals cheered and celebrated. Meanwhile, we're supposed to be the good-natured, slow-to-anger, grin-and-bear-it sort. Somehow, a corpse block-party and step show looks far more barbaric to me than a few instances of an individual posing with long-pig that has given up the ghost. In scale of atrocity, these are light-years apart, in my book.

War is an ugly thing wherein people are assigned the odious task of breaking things and killing people. If we send men and women to go about the business of carrying on a campaign, then I think we need to stay out of the way and let them do their job.

Am I dreaming???

Test #2 results. *squeeeeee!*


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I be lovin' this SO HARD!

Over at The Smoking Gun, they've got these wonderful match-up games. No lie, I can fiddle with these endlessly. There's match the perp mugshot to the article they allegedly stole. Then there's match the perp to the crime they are accused of having committed. Then there's match the perp to the article with which they allegedly assaulted someone. Then there's my personal favorite - match the mugshot to the tattoo(s). FUN!