Commute, Interrupted.

After I woke up Thursday, it started snowing and it hasn't stopped since. Here's a picture I snapped just a few miles into the commute, before the roads were very much covered. Now there's a thick blanket of snow on all the roads, and I'm sure there's melted snow underneath which I expect will be a sheet of ice by drive time Friday. Halfway to work yesterday, I nearly slid into a ditch, so I called work and told them I was heading for the hacienda.

On the way back home, the world was blindingly white and this seemed eerie and hypnotic. I was amazed by the beauty of this rugged landscape with its mesquite brambles and pumpjacks encrusted in downy tufts of icing. I was so happy to be in the blinding white, rather than the dirty, grim sludge that city snow quickly turns into. This was actually quite peaceful.

Don't know if I'll make it in to work today, or not. I hate to miss work, but I don't want to spend half a day in a ditch in my car, so for now, me and the best dogs ever are safe, well-provisioned and warm at home. I hope this post finds you cozy and safe, as well. :)

When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing...

shopping report.



Found this lovely little pie vent for just a few measley dollars at Tuesday Morning. Now I'm going to have to bake a full-crust pie and put the little warblers through their paces...

Apparently, you set them on the bottom of the crust and build the pie's innards around them, including the crust on top. Then when the gooey goodness inside gets all steamy and molten, the gases can escape through their upturned beaks.

CUTE!

Valentine's Day is coming...

Not everyone goes for the big splash-out on Valentine's Day, but here's an adorable necklace for just under $200.

Folks who know me will recognize this is remarkably similar to a necklace I wear quite a bit. Mine is the brown diamonds with a row of white on the top of the drop. Praline got me that when she was just a wee puppy. She was not yet wise in the ways of shopping, or she would have gotten me the earrings, too. Anyhoo. Quite smart, indeed, and it was very dear of her to treat her mommy. It's pretty and unusual yet not too-too flash. I get compliments on it all the time.

Then again, if your gal is my kind of gal, on Valentine's Day, daub a little Hoppe's 9 behind your ears and present her with a nice little Colt's Python. She'll love you for it.

maybe this is nitpicking, but...

The past tense of forecast is forecast. Saw forecasted somewhere online today. *shiver*

For the Steampunk Home of My Dreams...

...or any dreamhome of mine, for that matter, I adore this lovely chandelier.

Of Mice and Spam Tins...

Bayou Renaissance Man has a post up about the cruel and unusual rigors of war in which an unfortunate lot of troops were compelled to eat only meals featuring spam for a spate of 42 days. Talk about trials in the wilderness...

This reminded me that one of the things I love about Seattle is that around Mardi Gras, they have a traditional Spam carving competition. I thought originally the Spam carving competition was associated with my beloved shop Ruby Montana's Pinto Pony (I still have my floaty pen from there!!!), but apparently it's a Seattle thing in general. By the way, here are photos from the 2007 competition over at Aardvark Art Glass, where an incredibly clever beadmaker shares her whimsy with the world.

Here are a couple previous entries. I thought the top was one half of a dogbone, but it apparently was Exhibit A from the trial of Lorena Spammit.

The other carving is Spamon, a fish prized in the Pacific Northwest where it valiantly swims-up-can to find its baby daddy, only to get reeled into a cold, cruel shopping trolley and finally to a grave of paperplate and over-processed bread product. Still, it's majestic to see them in their native habitat.

Sunday, Puppy Sunday: new little cousin

This wee little darling is the new puppeh over at Chez Tole. He was a rescue and a bit sicky at first, but he seems to feel better all the time, and is a whole 'nother critter from the one he was just a week ago. He has a jaunty gait and a velvety coat and promises to be a fun-loving, light-hearted little dog, which is always a blessing in any household, in my opinion. He chases the kids, and is even scratching at the door already when it's time to go out. [I hope he'll teach that trick to my leetle darlings.] I'm looking forward to him being big enough to hang with my dogs. I'll be shocked if he makes 10 pounds, but I still think he'll be in the league with the phlegmpups. You can see the wheels turning behind his eyes, and he's already learning how to work his mojo. Cutie-pie!!!

I squee'd. Imogen Heap won a Grammy.

Any more, award ceremonies are so rife with unsurprising outcomes that I haven't bothered to watch them in yonks. I was, however, delighted to learn that my beloved Imogen Heap won a Grammy last week for best album production. Her win was historic in that she is the first female ever to have won this category for engineering her own album. Then again, she's been programming since she was a wee lass, so it's unsurprising she is a whiz at it. :)

She wore a Twitter dress, which was a bit more understated than her previous Grammy appearance with the frog-and-lilypad affair. I thought the lilypad thing was cute, and it captured the whimsical maverick spirit I associate with her music. Apparently, she'd thought the Grammys were a fancy dress occasion for sartorial license. I'm on team Imogen in that respect. The large eye-shaped cowl you see around her neck from this's week's Grammys is an LED light strip which has a live feed looping of Twitter comments from her fans. At the same time, her clear handbag held a little tv which was showing live feed of images sent by her fans. She said she wanted to bring her fans onto the red carpet with her.

Imogen is a remarkable artist and I think she would be doing this even if she never made a penny off it. After a launch with the industry that wanted to bend her unerring vision to executive wills [still yielding the enjoyable I Megaphone (clever anagram for her name, btw)], she sold her London flat to raise the money for her own small studio in which to produce music to her own standards, the lovechild of which was the superb Speak For Yourself. Quite, dear. That makes it so much more gratifying to me that she is recognized by the music industry in spite of itself.

Side note to all of this is that despite some very, very good things happening, the last few weeks have been a pins-and-needles affair for me. I've kept Immi's Ellipse on constant rotation in me chariot, and it's been cathartic to sing-- and occasionally howl-- along. Superb cd, this is. Here's a link to Ellipse where it's currently $10.89. Bargain.

On December 2, Imogen was on stage at Webster Hall in NYC when she learned she'd been nominated for this award. Here's a video of Her Adorableness. You can see her girlish delight at being nominated, even musing "I wonder what I've been nominated for". And this is exactly how she is on stage. She chats sweetly as she fiddles with cables and gets things set up for each new song, and I always feel like it would be perfectly natural if she turns around with a huge tray of pretty, flowery mismatched cups of tea to make everyone feel at home. What a darling soul.

I'm thrilled for her. Truly, I am. I'm smiling.

loose ends and other housecleanery...

If I may quote myself from December 22:

And for the record, I think Britany Murphy died of pneumonia. That crap will kill ya.

LA Coroner has listed pneumonia as a contributing factor in Brittany Murphy's death.

Nasty business, that. Okay, yeah, so there was some dope involved, too, but BM was a professional. You know, like Ron Wood[meant to say Keef Richards here, but wits were too addled. whoopsie.]. She should have been able to spool out the junkie starlet trip for, well, for a little while longer.

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Nothing new to tell re: my job, but I'm sure it will all be fine. :)

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When I was in school I played flute and I tended to get ulcers, probably from a vitamin deficiency among other things. One music teacher told me the fastest remedy was to pack salt in the ulcers and I would. It's been many years since I've had ulcers, but I found myself hosting one of the little blighters this week. Yes, I packed the salt in, and though I remembered this had been painful in my youth, I did not recall how extraordinarily painful it truly was. This was not crashing waves of pain with a pulsing ebb, nor was it even a pile-driver to the gums. Oh no. This was a freight train of agony, a lone blister of the apocalypse. This was pain beyond exquisite. This was the annihilating flame of a relentless oxygen lance with its attendant fires rivaling that of the planet's molten core. Ouchie! Finally, the pain does settle down to something of a dull roar and relents to a rather anemic throb for a bit before going completely, mercifully numb.

This set me to wondering that if salt as a folk remedy was widely known, I could surely read about it and other homey, folksy canker sore cures on the internet, right?

So I googled mouth ulcer home remedy.

Rich meat food, that. *shudder* There were plenty links which extolled the virtue of my beloved salt, and many which mentioned other cures, but there was one which just blew my tiny little mind. Someone posted that they most prefer to glom an ice cube onto the ulcer and leave it there until it sticks, and then to peel away the ulcer from your mouth. They mention this is really painful and may bleed. A lot.

*blink* *blink*

Um, ew.

The efficacy of the salt thing justifies its use, in my humble opinion. Just 24 hours later, my ulcer is nearly gone. Peeling away a layer of-- admittedly--diseased flesh does not seem the proper course to me, unless you are an absolute masochist. Why not wear a hair shirt and flog the crap out of yourself while you're at it?

No thanks. I'll stick with my mere oxygen lance, thank you very much.

When it rains, it pours. Er. Um. Poors.

Wow. Apologies for the cliffhanger factor yesterday-- sorry! -- didn't mean to be all cryptic. Also, electric service has been spotty in the area, so getting my posts up with the usual regularity may be more challenging for the coming days. My electric svc has been fine, but I suspect my ISP is having power issyoos.

I haven't mentioned it in a while, but I started my temp job for Big Corporation in May, and I expected it to be about a 6 month long job interview. It has turned into 10 months of sometimes spirit-crushing interview, but yesterday began the process to screen me for offical employment with the company. I have to take a[nother] drug test and pass a[nother] background check, and then it'll be official. I've only known about this news since Tuesday afternoon. Then, like clockwork, Wednesday morning, someone from a company with a job I really want called to offer me a job, but the offer was about 30% lower in pay than I'd hoped for, and would be a cut in pay from present job, at that. Then, 30 minutes later, another job I applied for called to ask me to come in for some testing for the job.


The pity of it is that at the end of the day, I have to choose which job based on money and health benefits, rather than which I would most prefer, necessarily.

Whatever I do, I'm resolved to feel I made the best of choices and move forward with it. It's kind of a strange moment, though, for them all to happen at once. I interviewed for the other job offer nearly 2 months ago, so it's really ironic they should come in with an offer AFTER Big Corporation finally ponied up and asked me to go to the Prom with them. If they'd offered me that job a week ago, I'd have been sorely tempted, but the drop in pay is probably going to be the dealbreaker.

My puppies have to eat. I'll keep you posted, and thanks for the crossed fingers. I love you people!

good news coming, no time to talk...

...looks like something is brewing in the job front. more news soon.

Have a great day!

More funny from Terry Pratchett

I'm reading the Fifth Elephant right now, and the repartee between the officers of the Watch has the ring of authenticity about it. Knowing a few LEOs, I can just hear the following exchange:

"Corporal Nobbs!"
...
"Coming, Captain!" shouted Nobby. He pulled open the bottom drawer of his battered and stained desk and took out a packet of chocolate biscuits, some of which he arranged daintily on a plate.

"Does me no good at all to seeyou acting like this," Stronginthearm went on, winking at the other dwarfs. "You've got it in you to be a really bad copper, Nobby. Breaks my heart to see you throwin' it all away to become a really bad waitress."

Ode to Joy, Beaker-style

I [heart] electric skillet!

I'm sorry I don't have a photograph, but it was over so fast. New household acquisition this weekend was an electric skillet, and I made a traditional southern Italian braised chicken dish with peppers and the house is perfumed with such sweet glory. Yum.

It's been too long since I made this, but I'll be making it again very soon. The puppies were losing their minds as I cooked it- hopping from foot to foot. At the end of the meal, I took the heel of a bread loaf and soaked up all the yummy goodness from the electric skillet and cut it into wee bits and divvied it betwixt their foodbowls. Lucky hounds.

This recipe comes from a book a friend of mine got when living in Scotland in the early 70s, and i can't find a recipe on the net which parallels it, so in a week or two I will cook it again, take pictures before it gets nommed to death, and will post the recipe. Toe-curling goodness, I promise.

This is going to be a good week. Make the most of it!