oy vey with the snow and the wind

This picture shows the snow on the ground outside my window, and the snow that has been caught by the trees, but unfortunately it does not catch the snowflakes that are whizzing by my window, completely horizontally.*

I may be stuck at work today if this keeps up, in which case I will have to eat paper, drink water from a device I fashion outside my window that will catch the melting snowflakes that may never melt at this rate, and contact Mike via morse code on an old transponder that I will find laying in some obscure storage closet. (I really have no idea what a transponder is or does, or if that is even a real thing.) Hopefully I will make it home safely, but the quietness at the office this time of year really does make my imagination go crazy. It happened last year too- I remember devising escape routes from the Union if any bad guys happened to show up to ruin our Christmas cheer.

*I apologize for the poor quality photo taken from my cell phone. In just a few short days I will hopefully have a Kodak Z612 digital camera in my possession, and my photos will be so beautiful that they will make you cry.

LiLo

Red pen corrections of a recent Lindsey Lohan email diatribe: http://gofugyourself.typepad.com/go_fug_yourself/2006/12/confessions_of_.html

I really don't know what she's talking about, but this was just too funny not to share.

toxic accountants

What I just overheard one (male) professor say to another (male) professor right outside my office:

"You're like the Britney Spears of the Accounting department".

And no, he didn't mean that he married his backup dancer, or that he became a baby factory, or that he suddenly lost any speck of judgment he had left and started hanging out with Paris Hilton.

fermentation

Random internet spotting: 50 weird uses for vinegar

My favorites from the list:

9. Keep chickens from pecking each other. Put a little in their drinking water.

Dem dang ol chickens. I ask you- what in the world does vinegar do that calms chickens to a mild, pacifist way of life? Do the Amish drink vinegar?

20. Feel good. A teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in a glass of water, with a bit of honey added for flavor, will take the edge off your appetite and give you an overall healthy feeling.

Your face may pucker up so tight that you cannot even see out of your eyes, but boy will you feel gooood.

38. Get rid of cooking smells. Let simmer a small pot of vinegar and water solution.

No longer will my house smell like garlic and herbs and other foods (that some would say are delicious), instead it will be filled with the delectable aroma of cooking vinegar. My husband has made sushi in our house, and I can certainly vouch for the fact that heated vinegar is not a pleasant smell.

45. Take grease off suede. Dip a toothbrush in vinegar and gently brush over grease spot.

The next time you go to the diner in your blue suede shoes and accidentally drop your 50-cent patty melt, remember- a little vinegar will do the trick.

glory to the newborn King

For about 3 hours this morning, I had "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" merrily playing over and over like a broken record in my head. The most wonderful time being the one where snow falls, and sleighbells ring (are ya listenin?), and Folgers still plays the commercial where the little girl discovers that her older brother Peter is home for the holidays, and they open the can of coffee and give it a marvelous sniff, and the whole family wakes up to the aroma of delicious brewing java. God, I love that commercial.

I've already got the bug. My biological clock must have aligned itself with that of the retailers, because I was ready for Christmas at about 10 p.m. on Halloween night. I have the insatiable urge to watch movies like Muppet's Christmas Carol and the Grinch, and cozy up to some hot chocolate (with peppermint schnapps, perhaps). I am desperately trying to hold out until a more reasonable time to break out the Sinata Christmas carols, but I am barely hanging on. Actually, the Nativity fast begins next Wednesday, so we may be putting up our Christmas tree quite soon. Glorious Christmas tree!

But I have to admit that most of my inclinations right now have to do with the typical, Americana version of Christmas, and unfortunately not the actual "reason for the season". This needs to change quickly, because I know that by about Dec 20th, I will be ready to tell Rudolph where he can stick his bright red nose.

brown bagging it

Work is slow enough today that I can take my lunch break, and print out a few online crossword puzzles to amuse myself for an hour. Nothing could make me happier right now, except maybe my couch, a blanket, and the movie Babe. For some odd reason I really enjoy a talking pig and his talking animal friends- especially the singing mice.

I think I'll go eat my lunch and do my crossword puzzle, but first I just have to make some small comments about the news of the weekend.

Ted Haggard- what a sad turn of events, for so many reasons. Is it possible to remain humble and true to yourself when you have thousands of followers and a fairly strong tie to the White House and politics in general? There has to be a better way to deal with these kinds of issues- they are rampant in the churches- pornography, secret homosexual lives, etc. Sexuality in general seems to be a massive problem. And it's not a bad thing in its essence. I wish I knew what had to be done, or how we could approach this without the stigma. I know that there are some Orthodox writings on all of this, and I intend to seek them out. Mr. Haggard started a church that was fairly instrumental in my becoming a Christian, and regardless how little of a connection that I have to it now, I am sad for this church. This is not the first spiritual leader I have seen experiencing such a downfall, and the last one was much closer to me. It's hard, but really not surprising in some ways.

Saddam Hussein- yeah, he's done some pretty crappy stuff. And I'm not one to try and compare numbers when it comes to death tolls, but there are some much bigger fish that we could be putting our money and energy into. Some of those bigger fish get our money and energy in the form of support, and that's no good.

Enough of this, time to work on something that I can solve.