Hec, will y'all need some babysitting tomorrow? I'll have time after work, if need be.

Just home from the hairdresser's. Hung out at the bar with her for a bit post-haircut, sipping on a bitters-and-soda. I finally told her that I wanted a real drink, so I needed to go home!

The point is, though, that I love riding. I love being on the bike, I love taking those corners and accelerating down the straightaways, I even love the tension of always having to scan 12 seconds ahead. It's so wonderful. I think I'm going to go down to Pacifica this weekend.

Haircut pictures, pretty please?

Which JZ must love when she's feeling so oogy.

JZ's is feeling much better after a four hour afternoon nap.

I love being on the bike, I love taking those corners and accelerating down the straightaways, I even love the tension of always having to scan 12 seconds ahead. It's so wonderful. I think I'm going to go down to Pacifica this weekend.

That's great!

::still living in a constant state of motorcycle anxiety::

Haircut pictures, pretty please?

Oh yeah, that too.

My mom wore glasses and I'm told that I was simply fascinated with them.

The only time I've worn contacts was during Emmett's babyhood. He snapped two of my glasses in half.

high school - mostly I was confused. I had friends , I just didn't get how everything worked. about a month or so before I graduated I decided I no longer cared how it worked.

I applied to 5 colleges - got in all 5 - ( one was yours DavidS) but I think I ended up at the right place. College was fun

But I am gonna go with Steph - I like my life way more now.

Oh great. My irrational mind has come up with a rational reason why the "ghosts" go away when I turn on the lights. Because ghosts cannot be perceived with the eyes. Therefore giving my eyes more details of the natural world to perceive makes the "spirit world" go away.

Either that or I'm really still afraid of the dark.

one was yours DavidS

Oooh, you never told me that, you scamp.

I'd go with B, Laga. But I am a big wet blanket that way.

congratulations Meara and Nicole!

it is an obnoxious east coast hour. can't sleep. Iris got sick & I was in Baltimore, not here, for the day. guilt. guilt translating into work worries. my brain makes odd connections.

Sparky - wonderful! Maybe they'll come visit sometime (er, unless you told them what the threadcount was - sorry about that... workingonit)! It would be fun to have them over... we need our mower sharpened. Sorry about the open house. sucks.

Very early '90s, I pretty much ignored the lovely people in college counseling; applied to 2 schools, did portfolio days at some more. Got in at three mid-range portfolio schools without application (early admission/early decision heyday), was laughed at by RISD for not being serious enough, ignored at Cooper Union [well, it was _free_], and accepted early at Virginia, where Charles Wright and Rita Dove were. Didn't much care what school #2 did after that. Didn't much care what any of my teachers did after that either. Nov. 1989-June 1990 = heavenly non-stressed state. I can't remember what that feels like now.

it seems like the costs of applications to schools have skyrocketed and that the claim that schools want only serious applicants and are pricing the cost accordingly is a little hollow. Esp. in light of the USA Today ranking stuff. I refuse to do the math on college cost for Iris. Nope. Not gonna. Can't make me.

wow today was far too busy and long. Just skimmy-caught up on 210 posts. Lesse if I can highlight some things.

OK... Fay. I think I'm swooning for your posts. They bring a smile, and I swear, it's not because of the nakie thoughts. Who knew I'd start such a thread with the 300.

WindSparrow. Have you heard of or tried Xylitol as a sweetner? Its natural, not chemically made. And apparently quite popular in China and parts of Europe. I confess, I have never tried it before, but heard you can use it like sugar in baking. Diabetics digest it fine, and doesn't rot your teeth. Wiki quote:

"Xylitol was first derived from Birch trees in Finland in the 19th century and was first popularized in Europe as a safe sweetener for diabetics that would not impact insulin levels."

As for schools. I graduated HS in 1989. I'm pretty sure I applied to 3 schools. But for the life of me can't recall the 3rd. Elizabethtown College was my 1st choice, and I got in. SUNY New Paltz my back up, which I got accepted to, and immediatly poo poo'd the thought (despite my mothers urging and excitement... maybe because it was 20 min up the interstate, and not 4 hours across state lines). But for the life of me, can't recall the 3rd or if I got in. But I know it was 3, because the HS said "YOU SHOULD DO 3" much like others had said earlier.

Either way, I **LOVED** E-town College. For you east coasters with kids, I'd say look at their program. Small school, 1500 students, and always ranked good in USN&WR.

OK, nuff product placement, themz bitches ain't paying me ;-)

O, and I totally envy Nicole's raise. I found out my raise today, and I wish it was half as much as hers. By the theaters math, I got a 'better than average' raise (as the average was 3%/week, and mine was 3.125%). But then I noticed my contract was shorter than last years, and mentioned that it cuts my "raise" in half. My boss agrees I am underpaid. agrees with all the bullet points I have presented. Said I did a real good job with talking about it at my review with his boss. But said it was the wrong person, as the corner office makes that decision. Apparently my salary is "in the middle" of the salaries for my job level, so bloody unlikely of getting 'extra attention' to raise it, when there are folks lower than me that needs the attention. If only I didn't like my job, I'd leave. :: sigh :: My boss did say wait until the musical is up, as it looks like I'm doing a great job so far, and then use that as a stepping stone to stroke corner office into at least listening to my plea.

/whine

Time for bed now. And a longer day of work tomorrow.

When the ads for 300 started coming out I wasn't aware it was based on a non-historic book so I was sitting there going WTF and accumulating anachronisms.

Is the book wildly non-historic? I'm not an expert on the period myself, but I thought the book was pretty good. Certainly not jarring the way the movie was, with the campness and the monsters and the whole LoTR-wannabe vibe.

I have a blog friend who watched it in the theater like three times because she was all "Gerard Butler! SQUEEE!!!" And I look at his pictures and think, "Really? Squee? Not seeing it."

Yeah - funny, that. My former flatmate was a huge Gerard Butler fan after Phantom of the Opera. (The movie was her first encounter with the show. The BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice was her first encounter with Jane Austen. This makes for a weird cognitive dissonance, when you're geeking out over things.) Anyway, because she's mad into him we saw quite a few of his movies, and although he's not my cup of tea as a lust-object, I can see the whole 'He's a big strapping bloke' side of things. And I'd recommend Dear Frankie... as a really rather sweet little not-too-saccharine Scottish chickflickish movie which is worth checking out. He's rather good in that, and so's the rest of the cast.

I understood that you had to take the highest ranked one that wanted you, but I'm not sure how that was enforced. Of course, if you were Oxbridge (Oxford or Cambridge) you got to have an elaborate system plonked on top of that, and I'm guessing no one ranked them lower than 1st, ever.

I think that the UCAS board probably make it happen. You had to rank them in order of preference, and then they could reject you out of hand on the basis of your results in the mocks, or they could make you a conditional offer. And then the one nearest the top of the list whose conditional offer you achieve HAS to take you, iirc. (Or they can make you an unconditional offer, or something laughable, like two Es.)

Oxford and Cambridge, of course, make their own rules.