Miscellany

A friend and I went shopping today, and she pointed out some Doc Martens sandals that were on sale. I've been wanting some of those for over a year now, so I bought two pairs:

I heart Merlin so very much. He's put up a bunch of new 5ives, and they're going very well with my morning coffee and Loverboy's "Working for the Weekend" on the stereo. My favorites include:

Five terrible fake Eve Ensler plays
Five things I find kind of hypnotic
Five things you must abandon immediately
Five things that almost always make a song better
Five things whose use by children kind of depresses me
Five things in my pediatrician’s waiting room
Five bastardizations of my first name
Five things that are always funny

• Had lunch at a Thai restaurant with Laurie today, the same one where I bit into a spring roll only to find a shiny new screw. I'm glad I gave them another chance.
• Got two care packages today: One was from my friend Andrea, of "Remember: It's not all gumbo," and consisted of some University of Alabama t-shirts and shorts and a CD she made for me. The other was from Mike and contained a necklace made at a summer camp out of twine and two beads. He says it provides "guaranteed good luck." :-)
• Discovered love of almond butter. I've been wanting to try it for a little while now so bought some when I went to the grocery store today. I could probably eat the whole jar inside of an hour, but I demonstrated the proper restraint and only had a spoonful.

Strangest news story I've read in a while...



Believing in Hell Has Its Benefits:

Economists searching for reasons why some nations are richer than others have found that those with a wide belief in hell are less corrupt and more prosperous, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Can you imagine, being at a meeting at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and saying, "Hey, everyone, I've got a great idea for a study..." The story is quite close to what one finds in The Onion, which, incidentally, has some good stories today. I'm going to save the latter of the two for possible use in this fall's first-year composition class. I've found that using an extended example of a "Baby! I've changed! Pleeease take me back!! Remember the time we [...] It could be like that again!" argument is a great and fun way to introduce the rhetorical appeals -- but you have to ham it up. :)

Thanks to Jeff's recent post about Freecycle, I joined the Twin Cities Freecycle Yahoo! group. I've already figured out that I'll use it more for giving stuff away than for scoring stuff; I responded quickly to a woman who was giving away a bunch of dishes, cups, glasses, pots, and pans, but someone had beaten me to it (the Twin Cities group has 2236 members, so it was bound to happen). Still, like Jeff, I'm fascinated with the random things people are giving away. On the Twin Cities list:

• Fisher Price Little People Farm (barn only, no little people or little animals)
• The Hunt for Red October board game
• Electric Cat Litter Box, with most of a 40-lb. bucket of clumping litter, self-feeding and watering dishes, several plastic trays for litter box, and an unopened bag of Iams Active Maturity/Hairball Prevention cat food (there's a sad story behind this, I'm sure :-( )
• Empty wine jug, once contained Carlo Rossi wine
• Two van seats, from a 1997 GMC van (useful, perhaps, for a child's fort, the giver suggests)

You're not a dog at all! You're a CAT! Aloof and
lazy, you nonetheless rule the world.


What kind of dog are you?
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Via Palmer. :)

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm having big problems with my hosting company. My blog and email will be down for hours, then back up for a minute, then down again. Maybe THIS time it's back up for good, but in case not, please know I'm not doing a Chun. I'm most likely going to change hosting services once I use up my time (I'm paid out for the next few months).