Thanks for the birthday wishes, all. And in return, a picture of Grace with her face finally clear of non-Grace-bits. [link] She was asleep, so I didn't get any other poses yet.

Nilly, thanks as usual for your wonderful annual post, and of course you have never offended me.

Congrats to PM and DH!

At one job, we had to dress up for Halloween, and I always went as an extra from The Road Warrior.

I really like JZ's Miss Information. I may have to borrow that idea. As it is, I have a plaque at my cube that says "Complaint Department". If someone comments on it or tries to complain, I tell them "No, you give me a topic and I complain".

I swear, if it was possible and at least one person would get it, I'd go as the files and records character. Because that's what I'm expected to be. Know. Something.

Ah, sweet Grace.

You should totally do that -- on the inside!

Going as the Burger King a couple of years ago was fun, but I still think the matching Lindsey and Lilah costumes Kristen and I did for Halloween in Vegas was the best time I've had playing dress-up.

Blue Man nursery school

Two of the three founders of Blue Man Group have started a nursery school. The Blue Man Creativity Center opened last week with 43 enrollees aged two to four. It sounds like a cross between a Reggio Emilia school and an acid trip. From The New Yorker:

Every day at the center will end with a ritual called Glow Time, during which the shades are lowered, the regular lights are turned off, and black lights are turned on, illuminating the parts of the room (including work created by the students) that have been painted with special UV paint. The collection of Blue Man-inspired educational gewgaws on hand is a far cry from flash cards and Play-Doh. There’s a hypnotic Bubble Machine, with kid-controlled colored lights; a futuristic Water Machine, with a mini-whirlpool; and a trippy installation, left over from the B.M.G.’s 2003 tour, of giant computer-animated dragonflies that can be made to light up, flap their wings, and fly. The Tree House, whose slide deposits kids in the Texture Pit, looks like fun. So does the OMi-Beam machine, a computerized rig made up of eight ceiling-mounted halogen lamps, loudspeakers, and a video monitor (there is only one other OMi-Beam machine in the country, at Madame Tussaud’s). Colored beams create pools of light on the floor, and by waving a reflective wand through the beams kids can produce any number of sounds, from musical instruments to the calls of barnyard animals and samples of pop hits from the nineteen-eighties (one is Fatboy Slim’s “Rockafeller Skank”).

15 minutes into Gossip Girl. wow. i think i finally am not the target demo for one of these shows. it's so bad!

I haven't watched GG yet, but I'm obligated to, since part of it was shot in my neighborhood.

Most awesomest clock evah! [link]

OK, it's Photoshopped. But still, it's a scathing indictment of... stuff....