February 01, 2005
My new favorite
How genius! An area within a site dedicated to finding out what the hell the name of that damn song is. Y'know-- that one that catches your ear while playing during any movie trailer.
Click here to check it out, or to post if you have some mystery song stuck in your brain.
This could have made my life a lot easier when I was searching out The Blower's Daughter.
Last night I finally found what I was currently looking for; Franz Ferdinand's 40 ft.
Posted by Ensie at 06:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 30, 2005
Featuring Me!
Head on over to Joe.My.God. to read Flaming Son of "Gay, Gayer, Gayest", in which my very own comment made the list of gayest moments.
Posted by Ensie at 08:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
What?
From the looks I'm getting, it appears that excitedly offering to do your sister and her boyfriend's taxes isn't normal.
Posted by Ensie at 05:08 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Sunset Over the Rooftops
Posted by Ensie at 05:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress
I've just finished reading Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress by Susan Jane Gilman and I loved it. Aside from being a great writer, Gilman's life feel so familiar to anyone who ever, well, grew up. Although the experiences are unique (who else dances naked in a hippie movie at age four or gets to meet the object of their awkward teenage desire?), the feelings that accompany them are universal.
I found my favorite passage in the first chapter:
Better yet was the four o'clock arrival of the ice cream man. I suspect the London Blitz generated less hysteria and mayhem. As soon as we heard the bells on the Good Humor truck jiggling up the road, every single kid under the age of twelve went insane. "Ice cream!" we shrieked. Dashing out of the water, we raced over to our parents, snatched money out of their hands before they could finish saying and get a Creamsicle for your father, please, then zoomed up the hill barefoot and screaming. It wasn't so much the ice cream man arriving as the ice cream messiah.
Excuse me, I now must drive to my work on my day off to pick up Kiss My Tiara.
Posted by Ensie at 04:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 27, 2005
The day my cell phone saved me, or at least saved my car
I had to leave Bob's Hogs yesterday for an offsite sale. An offsite sale involves loading up my car with books, taking them, um, offsite, and selling them. It's a nice way to spend time out of the store.
Being the safe driver that I am, when I merged onto the freeway I noticed that there was a fire engine with light blazing just a few hundred yards behind me. I couldn't pull over to the right, as no one else was stopping and the right lane was an "exit only" lane. I decided to take the next exit, then get back on the freeway immediately, allowing the fire engine to pull ahead of me.
Red light at the cross street intersection.
As I waited to travel from the exit ramp to the on-ramp, I fiddled with my cell phone. I had good news about Frinklin's new job and needed to tell someone.
Mom's phone...no answer.
Sister's phone...no answer.
Dad's phone...doh! The light has been green all this time!
I barely touched my toes to the gas pedal when, from the left, a small greenish sedan ran the red light crossing the intersection. The driver slammed on his brakes after realizing what he had done. I took a moment more to recover, sitting through another round of yellow-red-green before feeling comfortable enough to continue on. All I could think was, my cell phone just saved me!
Posted by Ensie at 06:38 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
January 24, 2005
If you thought today sucked, you're right!
According to a recent study, today, January 24th, is the most depressing day of the year. There's a complicated formula used to establish today as the worst day in which debt peaks, the weather sucks, the holiday excitement wears off, and New Years resolutions fail.
Posted by Ensie at 07:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
January 22, 2005
The Finslippy Controversy
Go over to Finslippy and declare your support in her comments! She's been harrassed and mocked by idiots and removed a post that another blogger distorted on his site. The great thing about blogging is that you can simply write about whatever you like--your kids included. It is truly unfortunate that other bloggers, unhappy with the fact that a "mommy blogger" was recognized for being funny, have bullied her into censoring her work.
Posted by Ensie at 10:59 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Kitz, Thumbs Up. Ritz, Thumbs Down.
When I visited Washington a few weeks ago, we visited Kitz Camera in Puyallup. It was great. I had to print some wedding reception photos from CDs and went on Christmas Eve. I was really pleased with the Kitz experience. The sales staff was friendly and helpful and the prices seemed relatively reasonable. I walked out with a bunch of great photos printed on matte paper (this is important, because I like it), which made great Christmas gifts for a few family members.
Since then, I've been trying to find time to get to Ritz Camera (different name, same company) here in San Diego to duplicate my CD to photo printing experience. Today, I finally made it, but I was far from pleased, and returned home today without any printed pictures.
I started out by packing up 6 CDs of both the trip to Seattle and my wedding reception photos. I have two photo albums that I want to fill with these pictures, and I needed a couple to put into frames for the 'rents. When I got to Ritz, I loaded all my photos into the machine, selected what I wanted, and took my paper printouts of what I ordered to the sales associate. I was then told that my 63 4X6 prints would be 29 cents each, but my 50 5X7 prints would be $2.99 EACH. I asked him why a 4-sqare inch increase in size was a 10 time increase in price and received the following answer, "I don't set the prices. I just work here."
Um, I know. I tried to be polite, but the guy was just an asshole. I asked if each store set their own prices, as these were higher than they were in Washington. I was rewarded with the "duh" expression and, "Every store is different."
OK. I didn't want to adjust my order as I had spent 20 minutes picking the images I wanted and I needed those prints. I live an hour away from their store, so I was promised my pictures in an hour and went on my way. I skipped a couple of more costly errands, as it now appeared that my expected $30 pictures would now be running me approximately $180, ate some lunch, and ran to the grocery store. I hustled back to pick up my prints as my groceries defrosted in the trunk of the car.
I watched the same clerk ring up my $183.97 (!!) pictures as I opened the envelope he handed to me. I only looked at the first print before I noticed a problem.
"Are these all glossy?" I asked, apparently stupidly.
"Yes," he sighed. "That's our default."
"So that's different in all your stores as well? I have to specifiy? Why didn't you ask what I wanted?"
"So you don't want them? We can reprint them but it will take another hour."
Unexpectedly, he had given me an out.
"No, I have groceries in the car and an hour drive home. I can't wait."
As pissed as I am that I don't have my photos (which I'll be printing all in the 4X6 size and on specified matte paper when I find another Ritz Camera store), I'm quite pleased that I managed to skip the most expensive photo printing EVER. I'm still mystified as to the lack of standard processing in each store. I don't have a degree in marketing, but isn't one of the big rules of retail that customers like consistency between locations?
I'm sure they immediately removed a photo of me, circled my face with red ink, and wrote "DO NOT ACCEPT ORDERS FROM THIS WOMAN!" on it.
Posted by Ensie at 10:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 21, 2005
Buy Blue
Found a new site today, Buyblue.org.
This organization rates businesses on their political contributions. Obviously they would like people to use their site to encourage folks to buy from "blue" companies. This site also allows those who would prefer to purchase from red contributors to see who supports their cause. The site allows you to search by the name of the company or by the type of industry.
It's an interesting idea, unfortunately most people (including me) probably don't pay enough attention to religiously visit only specific stores that may (or may not) agree with me politically.
Posted by Ensie at 10:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
January 20, 2005
Application Completed
I've applied for a job in Washington. Comence freaking out...now.
Posted by Ensie at 05:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Thank you!
This is my public thank you to my husband, Frinklin, who spent 10 minutes at Michaels* this evening on his way home from work, waiting for me to get home to read the label to identify the type of yarn I needed to finish a scarf for a birthday present tomorrow.
Next time, I'll just buy two skeins.
*I'm no grammar expert, but shouldn't there be an apostrophe? "Michael's" instead of "Michaels"?**
**Oh crap. I bet the question mark should go within the quotes or something, further demonstrating my non-grammar expert status.
Posted by Ensie at 05:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 19, 2005
Santa Ana Weather
As taken as I was with the mountains near Seattle, it's days like the last couple that take my breath away. I live one hour from the ocean, and this is the view 5 minutes from my house:
All photos were taken from my car on the 5 MPH drive into work this morning. That darker blue strip in the back below the sky? That's the ocean. Although you can't make it out in the pictures, there's actually an island off the coast that you could also see quite clearly. It's amazing what's under all that pollution.
Continue reading "Santa Ana Weather"
Posted by Ensie at 09:55 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Another Rerun?!?
Another Lost rerun next week?!? We've only had two or three episodes since the last month-long stretch of reruns. ABC'c current schedule sucks.
Is Claire still pregnant? Where has she been? What happened to her? And just why didn't they go out looking for her, aside from the homicidal crazy Ethan who strung Charlie up, I mean.
How is Walt special? He reads the polar bear comic book and polar bears appear. He reads about birds in Australia and a bird flies into the window. If he was dreaming about plane crashes before they went down, well, that's a little freaky.
Black rock? What black rock? How can I be expected to remember what the hell the crazy French Woman said?
Why is Boone so obsessed with Locke all of a sudden?
When will ABC put Lost back on a consistant schedule?!?
Posted by Ensie at 09:43 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
January 18, 2005
Real Life Adventures
Nothing scares the crap out of you like sitting in your office totally alone as you read your email when out of nowhere the theme to The Exorcist starts playing.
After I finished changing into some dry undies I found the owner of that cell phone and punched her.
Posted by Ensie at 07:33 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
January 17, 2005
Monster
I posted my resume on Monster.com today, looking for jobs in Tacoma. I'm hoping that I can stay with Bob's Hogs, however, if the right opportunity comes along with another company, I'd be willing to change jobs.
Little did I know that applying for an actual position would cause a total emotional breakdown. Apparently I haven't fully convinced myself to move yet.
Posted by Ensie at 08:02 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Observation
People who back into parking spaces in crowded parking lots are assholes.
Posted by Ensie at 08:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 14, 2005
Gotta Love Guilty Pleasures
From Frinklin, but pretty much everyone has it up...
CD I have in my car that I roll up the windows to listen to:
Not that I'm ashamed, I'm proud of my Elton John, but no one wants to hear me shrieking, "B-B-B-Benny and the Jets!" at the top of my lungs.
Book I read flat so no one could see the title:
Again, I'm not bothered to read it in public but other people seem to be disturbed, so I usually keep 'em on the DL--any of the Dykes to Watch Out For titles.
Crappiest song ever sung at karaoke:
I'm a traditionalist--I Will Survive!
Bad movie I watch repeatedly:
Which bad movie won't I watch repeatedly?
The Hot Chick. Every time it's on cable I'm inexplicably transfixed by it.
Article of clothing I love though I know it's wrong:
I have a few too many tank tops in my closet. Plus there's that ill-advised "Vagitarian" shirt I bought at gay pride a few years ago. It cracks me up although I'm ashamed to wear it.
What I order at the bar when no one is listening:
Gimmie a Midori sour and keep 'em coming! Such a frou-frou drink.
Fast food item I adore:
Wendy's chicken strips are heavenly.
A TV show that is a good example of the downfall of civilization that I love anyway:
This season? Probably The Biggest Loser. Although I did sit through more than one episode of The Swan. As wrong as I know they are, I can't look away!
Posted by Ensie at 09:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Update! The thing has been found!
Richard at Pearly Gates so incredibly found my poorly described anti-plagiarism tool!
Check out Copyscape and enter your own site or archive pages to see if your work shows up anyplace else online.
Posted by Ensie at 09:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Possibly Simultaneously the Most Frightening and Most Hilarious Thing I've Seen
I love Curly McDimple and her willingness to post horrific images of David Hasselhoff doing things I don't ever want to see him doing again.
You have all been warned.
Posted by Ensie at 09:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
