Look, up in the sky!

There's just something so wonderful about the Goodyear blimp hanging over the skyline.

Black and white and read all over

First, a little bit about me.

I am not a morning person. I always mean to wake up early enough to take the bus to work, where I can leisurely read the paper, but then I do not. Instead, I drive to work.

But I still want to know the morning's news. And since there are many traffic lights on my commute, I read the paper on my way in. Mostly when I'm stopped at said lights, but so as not to lose my place, I drive with the paper in one hand, in my lap, where it sometimes flops over the steering wheel. This is how I arrive most mornings.

I work in a building without a parking lot, and frequently chat with the guy at the block-away lot whom I pay each morning to watch over my car. Mostly, it's just a good morning, but sometimes we wish each other happy weekends or talk about traffic. Or he warns me that I really should get up early enough to take the bus because there's some concert or game and the cost of the parking lot will go up tremendously the next day. I like him very much for giving me these warnings. We also occasionally laugh at the other drivers who slip on the ice when they get out of their cars. But that's just because people falling is funny, as long as they aren't hurt and they aren't you.

But this morning, I was a little nervous. You see, I was going to be on the radio to discuss a story I had written. And while I knew what there was to know about my story, I wanted to be well-informed about the stories the other guests were discussing, too. So while the paper was on my lap as I drove in, I was not reading it so as not to clutter my mind with information that would not be useful for on-the-air.

Of course, then, it's today that parking lot man chooses to tell me: "I love how you're always reading the paper."

I laughed, and told him it was the only time I had a chance. And wished him a good day.

It eased my pre-radio jitters.

Orange you glad?

I was walking into work yesterday when a guy holding his lunch passed me -- a container of pasta in his left hand, an orange in his right.

And as he walked, he tossed the orange up and down, again and again, into the air and back to his hand.

It looked so effortless. I would have dropped the orange.

You got the right one, baby

Someone had drawn a large winking smiley face, in red marker, on the back of a Pepsi truck I drove past the other day.

I'm a Coke loyalist, but it was still pretty cool.

Everything's better in British

Even corrections. Take, for example, this e-mail:

Apologies for our mailing system’s spell-check wrongly correcting Andrew Sentance’s name which of course is not spelt Sentence. Feel free to subject me to the kind of vitriol I deserve for not turning it off first.

Yes, that's all it said.

In a winter wonderland

I caught snowflakes with my tongue today.

Joy

Two of my very best friends had very good things happen to them this weekend. Engagement rings and babies -- oh my!

I had a successful potluck and movie marathon. But that hardly compares. So, dudes: Congratulations! I'm excited for both of you, and for all involved.

Tresses

I discovered last weekend that my brother and I have practically the same haircut. His is just slightly shorter. He did not think this was as funny as I did.

And today I saw a guy with curly, chin-length hair dash between a store and his car. His hair bounced. It was fantastic.

For your reading pleasure

A friend from college, Voracious_Boot, has taken to chronicling her mother's care packages, e-mails and phone calls at shitmymomsendsme.blogspot.com -- I find it hysterical. Maybe you will, too.

Vowels

I spent way too much time today (really: any time at all) looking for words that have all five vowels after typing "Sequoia" and realizing that it has all five vowels.

That sparked a conversation at work about how "Sequoia" would be a very expensive word on "Wheel of Fortune" and the enjoyment that can be derived from reading words backwards.

Go ahead, try it. I'll wait.

Some all-vowel words (and other fun language facts) here and here.

Oh, shovelers

I've been meaning to say so for days, but people with snow shovels, plows and salt have been making my life so much happier as of late. Walking on a clean sidewalk and driving on a cleared street -- the joy that comes from that mid-winter cannot be overstated.

I didn't have my camera with me when I ventured a little further into snowbelt territory today, but the trees had what looked like a foot of snow on their branches. In many cases, it looked like someone had tossed a white sheet or a big, fluffy blanket over the trees -- you could just see the shape of them and the tips of branches underneath a glistening pile of snow.

Winter weather

When I look out the window, I feel as if I'm in a snow globe. The clumps of flakes are drifting every which way.

It almost looks like a gentle swarm of moths has taken to the sky.

ahhh, sweet Christmas.

Several Amazing things happened this Christmas for me, which I feel that I should share.

1) I was blessed with Christmas Ale from one very awesome friend up North. Not only this, but I got to share this blessing with 3 new people. I am not sure that I have quite converted them to Great Lakes Minions yet, but I feel the seed has been planted.

2) I had an amazing "Christmas Part 2" Dinner with my family on the 27th of Reuben and Christmas Ale. A Real Cleveland Christmas despite not being able to travel up north this year.

3) My boyfriends family has completely brought me in to the fold. I recieved a "Santa Bag" from them this year. A tradition that they have had since the boys were little (mind you, the youngest boy is now 31.) Andy's sister in law also got one this year. She married in to the family 9 years ago. I felt rather special and loved.

4) My boyfriend, in a moment of weakness, has agreed to let me get a full sized tree for the house tomorrow. My slow takover of Christmas has begun.

For a Christmas Spent away from home and my family of origin (parents and sis were in Cleve with the extended family on Xmas day.) It was really quite nice and heartwarming. Even going in to work from 5-10 was kind of nice.

Bring it to the public's awareness!

Yesterday, while driving through Atlanta on the Downtown Connector, I saw a large billboard that said, "Google this: puppy mills."
Enough said.

It makes me happy

When people who I like like each other. And there's been a good bit of that in recent weeks.

Super awesome dark chocolate also makes me happy. Yum.

A happy 2010 to all y'all!

Hodgepodge

Yesterday, I saw a car with Christmas lights -- lit up -- strung through and around the roof rack.

There was a flock of birds that looked like an amoeba, pulsing in and out as the fowl dodged about in the wind.

In the mailbox, there was a Christmas card from our mail carrier. Also, in Sunday's paper, one from the delivery person.

Holidays are a great time for real mail. And visitors who are returning to see family. Sometimes, those visitors even have boxes of awesomeness.

Business-class flights include free alcohol.

I've just finished the first 24 hours of what will be an amazing week of delicious Indian food and fantastic friends. And a fluffy dog.

Good tidings, y'all.

And then we eat it

See this house? It's a pretty impressive house, right?

Now... imagine it made out of candy.

All the more amazing, right?

I went to the Cleveland Botanical Garden with a friend today to see the gingerbread houses (I can't seem to find pictures from this year's, and neither of us brought a camera), and was expecting some impressive work -- like the gingerbread treehouse, for example, or some pretty cute gingerbread churches. But we also saw that house. And it was amazing.

Also exciting? My brand new hat (It's the Yeti, but in Monster blue).

Regret the error

When journalists make mistakes in their work, they're supposed to acknowledge and fix those mistakes at the next possible opportunity -- in the next day's paper, by fixing it in an online story, by announcing the mistake on-air. I can really only speak for newspapers, but most, if not all, have a space for those corrections, often on page two.

There's a great Web site that tracks corrections, called Regret the Error. It gets the name from the last sentence of many corrections, which is often the publication saying that it does, in fact, regret having made the error.

They're often entertaining and interesting reads. But I want to call your attention to the 2009 best-of list.

The funny doesn't really start until four screens down (skip the fact-checking part unless you're inherently interested in that sort of thing and start with the Correction of the Year).

I'll let you read the correction itself, which is most unfortunate. And a number of the corrections contained in the list (or more appropriately, the mistakes that were made that led to the corrections being on that list) were hysterical. But the thing that made me laugh out loud while sitting at work was a Twitter meme referring to that correction of the year. Its hashtag is #washingtonpostcorrections and in case they're off the screen by the time you search it, it includes such gems as:

• PamPF99 Please note that The Monkees are in fact believers, and not heretics as reported. The Post regrets the error. #washingtonpostcorrections
• mistabaka: Mo money does not, as was reported, bring mo problems, we regret the error. #washingtonpostcorrections
• cobrown: Snoop Dogg did not, as we reported, contract the plague. It was his chronic that was bubonic. #washingtonpostcorrections
• jsmooth995: George Clinton has assured us his roof remains intact, and he takes fire safety quite seriously. #washingtonpostcorrections
• sethlipkin There is, in fact, a mountain high enough. The Post regrets the error. #washingtonpostcorrections
• nolamomma Dr. Dre is IN Public Enemy. He is not considered by law enforcement to be A public enemy. #washingtonpostcorrections

You get the picture.

And some real corrections (from the best-of) to whet your palate:

Toronto Sun: A headline on page one of the Toronto Sun yesterday was both inaccurate and misleading. In fact, as the story reported, the mother of a boy involved in a high school fight in Keswick said her son “said something stupid.” She did not say nor imply he was stupid. The Sun regrets the error and apologizes to the boy and his family.

Los Angeles Times: Bear sighting: An item in the National Briefing in Sunday’s Section A said a bear wandered into a grocery story in Hayward, Wis., on Friday and headed for the beer cooler. It was Thursday.

On Dasher, on Dancer...

Better, even, than seeing a mounted policeman?

A mounted policeman whose horse is wearing a Santa cap.

And as an added bonus: a Prius with the license plate "MO MPG."

Text message from my brother

You should start wearing a wwjd bracelet and whenever you look at it think, what would Jared do? :)