Category: etc.

(I removed this post. We inadvertantly discovered the real person in a link in the comments section. Which is funny, actually, if you saw the name.)

Oh, all right. I took it with one of those one-time use cameras and I am the world’s most-hopeful-she’ll-improve-with-minimal-effort photographer. Eh. And MB is not wearing a jumper. Nor is he shaped like a giant rectangle. But lemme tell ya, that man has the best calves I’ve ever seen.

Welcome! Because The Anchoress made such lovely comments on her site today about this blog’s design, I just wanted to put a link up here to Apothegm Designs, the people I worked with on this design — in particular, phin from Apothegm Designs. There’s a button in my sidebar for them, but it’s kind of far down.

So go check them out. And feel free to look around, but disregard this post.

It does not apply to you! 😉

Have you seen the Nissan commercial that uses that song “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath? It plays out here constantly. And every time I hear it, I start singing along with the lyrics that Nephew #2 wrote to it when he was 10. I don’t remember them all, but I remember enough to sing along with the commercial. So I present them to you, so you can sing along, too.

Here it is, Afghan Man:

I am Afghan Man

Trying hard to find Osama’s digs

Okay. That’s all I remember. He’d play it on his turquoise-colored electric guitar with the amps turned up to this awful, glorious distortion. I remember the heavy emphasis on eating rats and twigs, all very raw, very survivalist. I think the deal was that Afghan Man was going rogue to find and kill Osama. I thought it was a very valid notion. Plus, with the distortion and the turquoise, the whole experience was truly magnificent.

Rock on, Afghan Man.

Do you ever just sit around and say, “Hey, I wonder if — just given the chance — I could place all 50 states on a blank map of the United States”?

Well, here’s your chance.

Um, I scored 82% and had an “average error” of 32 miles. Hey, it’s harder than you think to just stick, say, Missouri in exactly the right spot on a blank map.

I love these learning games. I mean, who doesn’t relish the chance to learn just how iggnernt they really are?

I got this from Sheila, who got it here.

It’s the From the Stacks Winter Book Challenge and here’s how it works:

If you are anything like me your stack of purchased to-be-read books is teetering over. So for this challenge we would be reading 5 books that we have already purchased, have been meaning to get to, have been sitting on the nightstand and haven’t read before. No going out and buying new books. No getting sidetracked by the lure of the holiday bookstore displays.

Okay. So I’m in. And excited! Oh, and the challenge runs from November 1 to January 30. Here are my picks:

1. Atonement, Ian McEwan

2. Anne of Avonlea, L.M. Montgomery

3. American Brutus, Michael Kauffman (already reading)

4. The Professor and The Madman, Simon Winchester

5. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Ffffffforde. Yeah, I’m pretty sure there are 7 f’s in ol’ Jasper’s name. And this one is assuming I can find this book. It’s somewhere around here.

— An interesting — and apparently widespread –– theory from a photographer friend of MB’s who frequently does wedding photography:

Brides and grooms who are cake smashers are more likely to get divorced.

He — the photographer friend — says this is a theory widely believed amongst wedding professionals who witness many a cake smashing and later hear through the grapevine of said cake-smashing couple’s tragic estrangement. Sad, no?

Britney and K-Fed were cake smashers. So … there you have it. Theory proven.

I’d link to a photo, if I could find one, so you’ll just have to take my word because, um …. I saw their cakesmashing video on TV.

My Beloved and I, on the other hand, were NOT cake smashers. We lovingly — oh! soo lovingly, kinda nauseating, actually — fed each other bites of cake while loved ones gathered ’round and booed us. Jerks.

So, fess up, people. Cake smashers or cake feeeeders?

— Also, just another bit of business here. Anyone else have a list of people your spouse is absolutely NOT allowed to marry if you cack it? I mean, it’s not just me, right? RIGHT? Seriously, the line of women jonesing for My Beloved after I crump it would start right at my casket and end only when my outraged spirit rises up and obliterates them all. Gotta watch my (dead) back, you know.

— And finally — brethrrrenn — is it sexual harrassment if the dude is gay? I mean, can a gay dude say to you– girls — oh, something like, “I need something hard to write on. Let me use your ass?” Or perhaps, whilst staring lasers at your chest, “Wow. I didn’t know you had all THAT under your apron.” Or perhaps, creatively, “You are very sexy.” Why is it that societal standards seem different about this if the person is gay? The urge to kick in the nuts and sue is the same, right? Men, would you be less upset if a gay dude said these things to your wife/girlfriend?

Or, hypothetically, of course — what if the dude is, um, elderly? Like 80 years old? And constantly flirts with you and “wants to go the beach with you,” ew, and “would never let you go if he were 20 years younger” (20?? Hon, try 40) Or actually PINCHES YOU ON THE CHEEK — YOUR PERSONAL CHEEK — LAST SATURDAY WHEN HE CAME INTO YOUR PLACE OF MEAGER EMPLOYMENT JUST TO SEE YOU???

Hypothetically, of course.

Okay. That’s all. Just had these totally random and hypothetical thoughts banging around in my brain.

From Helen Ficalora, 14k gold alphabet charms. All letters available in yellow, white, or pink gold. $85 – $95.

(Chain not included, but I’d put it on a ribbon, actually. A pretty silk ribbon.)

Aren’t they purty?

Just here to help, peeps. 😉

I’ll be sending out your Word*Pie coffee winnings on THURSDAY, Nov. 9. Sorry for the delay!!

Sincerely,

Your procrastinating Word*Pie hostess
(I better get on that, Crackie!)