Overheard

"It's a good thing I don't like cocaine as much as I like animal crackers."

Smart cars

Are just so fricking adorable.

I want to go to there.

Because who doesn't need wenches and mead?

Scottish pirate metal!

Support your local newspaper

Considering all of the newspaper tumult, this makes me happy.

So does the fact that my local paper can do this and this, even while this and this are going on.

I could ramble on for a while, but I won't. And this one isn't happy, but you Atlanta folks should know this.

So, for the ending-happy: this zebra was found on the side of the road a year ago -- and is apparently doing well. Amazingly, it was not the first zebra in the news at the time. I believe there was another escaped one on the highway. And of course, zebra-kidnapping makes for a great prank (as long as you aren't a zebra owner, that is).

The zebras' names, by the way, are Evidence (which is what the police called the highway one) and Barcode. Which should be self-explanatory.

Happy spring

Yes, yes... I know the equinox was Friday. But it's hard to believe it's spring when it's in the 30s and you put on a sweater in the morning.

Which is why I can wish you a happy one, at last.

Driving home, it was warm enough to open the moon roof (what a funny phrase, moon roof). And so I did.

Sun + wind + no snow. Yay!

(I've selectively forgotten that there tends to be a late-March/April snowstorm each year. I'm hoping the elements will, too.)

It has come to my attention...

...that Pandora is not the household name it should be.

So let me tell you of its amazingness!

(It's amazing.)

Pandora lets you create a radio station based on songs or artists that you like -- it doesn't play only Madonna, for example, but it plays songs that are similar musically to what Madonna's doing. You can make your radio station Madonna-broad, and get songs like her total repertoire, or Like-a-Virgin-narrow, and only get songs similar to that one. You can mix Madonna and Billy Joel and Metallica and see what comes out.

And the cool thing is that it plays a lot of stuff from people you've never heard of. So you get to discover people!

If you hear a song you like, you can buy it. You can also share radio stations that you think other people would enjoy. And you constantly tweak them by giving specific songs thumbs-up or -down, or moving them to a different station.

Let me know if you join -- I'm happy to share some of my more-favorite stations to get you started.

Limbo is the new Hell

There's a thread on the Grad Cafe dedicated to the creative expression of the pain of waiting for grad school acceptance letters through haikus (whew! Did that make sense?). First, asking members of the forum to compose haikus on such a topic is utterly wonderful in itself. Second, someone posted this haiku:

One letter today
Never been so sad to see
Grandma's birthday card

I know it's really quite tragic, but I can't help but take a disturbing, sadistic pleasure in that hopeful grad student's situation -- maybe because I know so well the disappointment therein. (And I know at least 2 other people on here who can also identify with this whole process!)

On an unrelated note, the latest episode of Dollhouse featured a song by Greg Laswell. Although this is not that song, I have to post it because I can't help but feel warm and hopeful and comforted when I listen to it; it's an assertion of the goodness in people (even though really, it boils down be to a simple love song). Listen to it, focus on the lyrics, and I dare you to disagree with me.

I've been delinquent

Sorry, all you seekers of joy!

It's tardy, but I was most excited by last weekend's rash of named days -- Friday the 13th, Pi Day, the Ides of March and St. Patrick's Day, nearly all in a row.

And on St. Patrick's Day, the top of the Terminal Tower was green-lit and happy. Toora Loora Loora was on the Big Band station, followed by other Irish music. And there were drunken, green-clad people everywhere downtown -- including a guy in a Leprechaun costume and a gigantic green mohawk.

It was pretty snazzy to see so many people bouncing around, even if I did have to work through it.

Other awesome things: fantastic hot chocolate, the converging of friends from four states for makeshift reunions, Clue, international films, the making of new friends and the reconnecting with old ones -- and finding out they're worth reconnecting with, Gail Collins, Pandora and this song.

It doesn't make up for my absence, but maybe it's enough to tide you over for the inevitable next one.

Epic WIN!!

(From the ever-so-wonderful Fail Blog.)

But wait, there's more!

And today, for Theresa, the same bumper sticker... but with a squirrel!

Moose!

You know those oval bumper stickers with letters that represent all the totally awesome places you've vacationed and I haven't? Yeah, those. They're kind of annoying.

But the one I saw today was kind of awesome.

It was a yellow oval with a black moose in it. That's all.

Kristy and Jennie will most appreciate my joy. So will Chrys and Christy, by proxy.

It looks like red celery

I really like rhubarb.

So I made some tonight.

(It smells good, but I wasn't hungry anymore by the time it finished... so it's on tomorrow's menu.)

There are a ton of things you can do with it, but the easiest: Wash and cut a few stalks. Add to boiling water that just covers the pieces. Keep on low heat, stirring until the rhubarb pieces break up. Add sugar to taste (rhubarb is really tart, so it depends on how much you like that). When the pieces are really stringy, add some sliced strawberries. Stir. Remove from heat (cool, if you want) and enjoy!

Mmm, tasty.

Dancing fountain

I went to a play Friday night, and had some time to kill before I headed over to Playhouse Square. So I went to Tower City, Cleveland's downtown mall, to watch the dancing fountain for a little while. The video isn't awesome, but you get the idea -- it shoots water in time to classical music. There's room to sit around the base and you can't see it, but spotlights focus on the water. It's really pretty cool.

And the play wasn't too shabby, either.

Too funny for words.

Said Arielle to me: "I don't want to be a bad influence on you!"

(Placing it in context, I had offered to take her to a strip club and get her drunk by doing tequila shots from the bosom of one of the girls there.)

awesomeness

Edible Book Festival 

Combining my two greatest passions.

Enough said : )

Sunny day

Sweeping the -- clouds away...

Today, I met Rosita from Sesame Street. (Don't worry, she wasn't around when we were kids. You aren't missing out on some integral part of your childhood.) That brings my Sesame Street total to three (if you count Big Bird and Oscar as two, even though they're voiced by the same person... which I totally do).

The pre-school class that performed with her was loving it. She was pretty fantastic.

Then my iPod did a really good job of playing all the Sesame Street songs while I was listening at work... including, yes, the Oscar ballad "I Love Trash."

Which was performed at my college graduation.

After which the person I sat next to and I turned to each other and said, "I think I can die happy now."

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?

Not the numbskulls

Bumper sticker on the car in front of me for part of the drive home:

Forget Life. Play Snood.

My college roommate (hi!) has a Snood T-shirt. She also used to think that you were graded on speed, not how many Snoods you knocked down, so she would play rapid-fire games on my computer (it's easier with a desktop mouse) and shout things like "No!!! The monsters are going to eat me!"

It was all very funny.

And you can get the bumper sticker on that second site, btw.