HATE.

i am filled with rage. i realize that it's not fair for me to feel entitled to a early dismissal, just because the weather is dodgy. i mean, that means that i don't mind swindling my non-profit employer out of hard-earned cash. but i don't mind. and i do feel entitled. and NOW that it is 3:15 and there has been NO EMAIL FROM OFFICE SERVICES i am getting m-i-i-i-i-ghtily pissed off. the snow has been faltering for some time, but i've seen early dismissals here for a slight sneezing of dry snow - let alone inches of wet gloopy icy mush and sn0w. bastards. i blame it all on the fact that we have a new CEO and he is trying to play hardball with us. we'll see about THAT.

oh snowy day

i am not going to get much work done today. i'll tell you that right now. the snow is just too pretty! and too long overdue. it doesn't help that one whole wall of my office is a giant window. it's just too easy to sit here and stare, wishing for sledding hills... snow ice cream... moon boots... forts. unfortunately i live in washington, DC and by nightfall the snow will be a mushy mess of half-melted sleety grey yuck. it doesn't often get cold enough here for snow to really last. every couple of years we get royally dumped on. but that generally only happens when my parents come to visit, and they aren't coming here any time soon.

currently i am praying that we get to go home early. it's pretty much guaranteed that we will leave *early* - it's just a question of when. i am guessing it will be 3:00, but i am not-so-secretly praying that it will be 1:00. fat chance.

in other news, maddie is 8 weeks old! i just can't believe it. she gets cuter every day, as evidenced by:


that little face just kills me. i need to plan my next visit home...

so scott left for park city, utah this morning, for the slamdance film festival. he and eric are showing "las historias mas sexy del mundo, II." man, he's pretty excited. i can't wait to hear about all his adventures when he returns... it is in the same city and at the same time as the sundance film festival, and there is some overlap. maybe there will be star sightings! shit! i forgot to remind him to take the camera.... grrrr.... maybe he remembered? not likely. he was pretty frazzled, getting stuff ready at the last minute.

oh yeah, and i finally got out aunt judy's old sewing machine over the weekend. i was deathly ill with a monster cold, but i managed to sew a DUVET COVER. what???! i couldn't manage to shower for two days, or put on real clothes... but i sewed a patchwork DUVET COVER? that's just messed up. i blame the fever. but it looks pretty nice. i should take a picture. i had a huge box of fabric that came from the mother of one of scott's friends. most of the fabric was gross old-lady stuff - but there was a nice selection of soft corduroy. i made 15"x15" squares of dark purple and dark blue, and alternated in a nice pattern. then i backed it with a white flannel sheet that i had laying around. the result is a heavier cover than i had before, and much much warmer and cozier all around. success! and without a pattern, no less. i should get an award.

at the moment i am reasonably obsessed with the clothes on this website: http://www.mina-perhonen.jp/

and my new 2008 work calendar, the "crackpot calendar, 2008"

lovely stuff! maybe i'll sew more this afternoon, during the snow day (the snow day that had BETTER arrive, that is...). scott is gone until next tuesday, and michele (new housemate) is leaving too - so i have the whole house to myself! for a long weekend! yaaaaaaaaa-hooooo!

hmm. lunchtime has arrived, and i packed some homemade curried split-pea/sweet potato soup. it's hungry-time.

New pictures of Maddie!

okay, so i stole these from jessie and david's blog

i couldn't resist! she looks so absolutely sweet and silly.

new pictures!

i uploaded a bunch of old pictures from the 'puter last night - and took some new ones of nilsson! here's the nilsson set: nilsson pictures!

2008

okay, so maybe this will be a year where i actually do stuff that i say i will, like: post more regularly; start working out again; do shit on time, rather than late; be less redundant in speech and action; take more pictures; be creative. all sorts of things. maybe? here's to hoping!

if i had to sum up 2007 in an awkwardly worded sentence, it would be: the year in which i fucked up significantly less things in my life, learned to knit, and got a niece. ! of course, the year was much more than that, and in some ways less. but that first part about f-ing up less things - that covers a LOT of territory, and it is a change that i hope to repeat each year. and learning to knit - that falls under a yearly resolve to be more creative, and i hope to continue more this year. and my niece, madeline, well that's just a perfect way to end a year. :) bessie and david are just doing a great job already, and maddie is just as cute as can be. i'm just sad that i am so far away.

so i've been busy for the past month...

our previous renter moved out, and new one moved in. that involved a shit-ton of work to get her bedroom and bathroom looking good. the old renter was one dirty dirty slob at times. i borrowed julie's carpet steam-cleaner and used up hours of my life cleaning the carpet. i almost threw up the first time i emptied the water cannister. the waste water was blacker than wonder woman's hair. about 6 or 7 cannisters later, the water was the color of a nice grey wool sweater that i have and i declared it was clean enough. then the painting and cleaning. all in all, it took a week - a week in which i should have been doing christmas shopping and addressing holiday cards. you can probably guess which went by the wayside this year...

poor old duchess passed away the day after thanksgiving. rest in peace, duchess. we hadn't planned on getting another pet anytime soon... but some friends of ours found a little wild kitty in the storm sewer in front of their building, and we ended up adopting a very sweet grey and white chubby little one-eyed furball - now named nilsson. yes, one-eyed! the vet suspected that he had a massive infection at birth, which shriveled his right eye. there is still a lingering infection in the ear and nostril on that same side, and his widdle baby teefers on the right side are decayed. but the ear and nose are clearing up and once his big teeth come in he should be fine. poor little kitty! we finally got a new memory card for the camera, so i'll try and get some pictures tonight. he is extremely friendly and feisty and purrs almost non-stop. little stinker.

i had a terrific christmas visit at my folks in ohio. scott got to come for a few days this year, so after 3+ years dating - we spent our first christmas together! yay for that. there was much merry-making, card playing, baby kissing, and general holiday goodness. we spent new years eve at our friend ian's house. i stayed up way too late and drank a smidgen too much sparkling wine - but hey. what are new years eve's for, if not for that?

and now i am back at work for the first time in a week and a half. i am pretty much brain-dead and just farting around on the computer - but i am putting on a good show of getting stuff done. i've developed a system over the years: the day before i leave for vacation, i clean up all mysterious abandoned piles of crap, do some filing. then i put sticky-notes on absolutely EVERYTHING, stating what the next action is for each item. even if it may be obvious: "proof, then return to so-and-so" or "finish list and mail letters" or "catalog and put in archive." then i leave a pile of 7 or 8 easy tasks on my desk. that way if i get hit by a bus, then there aren't any mysteries - and - i have a totally scripted day for my first day or two back in the office. plus, just having a super-clean office makes me look more productive for that first day back. bonus! so today i've done 5 of my scripted tasks, and can prolly knock off one or two more. that, plus tooling around on the internet, makes for a reasonably busy first day back without having to use my brain at all. yay, me.