ad absurdum

2011 Calendar

2010-11-15T10:09:00.001-07:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

Tumblr

2010-05-28T22:33:00.000-06:00

Tumblr: "

via http://www.tumblr.com/dashboard

Safety Fail

2010-04-24T14:19:00.000-06:00

From failblog.org:

Safety Fail:

This makes my heart race a little just looking at it.

we are what we pretend to be

2010-04-19T20:21:00.000-06:00

we are what we pretend to be: "

via http://championmess.tumblr.com/page/3

The $300,000 library fine Washington won't have to pay

2010-04-19T00:06:00.000-06:00

The $300,000 library fine Washington won't have to pay: "A New York library discovers two unreturned books checked out by George Washington that have accrued some $300,000 in fines for being 220 years late."

Prancing!

2010-01-04T19:30:00.001-07:00

Prancing!
Originally uploaded by susantharp

Because sometimes your ears itch

2010-01-03T20:45:00.001-07:00

Because sometimes your ears itch
Originally uploaded by susantharp

I'd never seen a deer do this.

Brigitte

2010-01-03T20:43:00.001-07:00

DSC_5086
Originally uploaded by susantharp

Just got back from a weekend up at the cabin with my parents and their traveling companions, Brigitte and Henri. Henri is terrified of the camera, so here's a shot of Brigitte.

Speaking of tree houses

2009-09-12T14:39:00.001-06:00

xkcd - A Webcomic - Brain

I want this tree house

2009-09-12T14:39:00.000-06:00

treehouses002s0oi.jpg (JPEG Image, 938x1024 pixels)

Go soak your head

2009-09-12T14:27:00.000-06:00

I gotta get this one in before tomorrow’s Day Without Cats hits — Cute Overload

Chips, $2.05

2009-09-01T22:08:00.003-06:00

Girl walks into the office kitchen. She is hungry and distracted, and she has three dollars in her pocket.

Girl inadvertently feeds a dollar into the soda machine. She remembers that chips don't come out of the soda machine, and she presses the coin return button. The machine returns 75 cents.

Girl feeds second dollar to the snack machine and selects B4, Sun Chips for 90 cents. (Outrageous, she thinks.) Alas, the bag of chips gets stuck and does not fall to the bottom of the machine. Girl despairs.

Girl feeds third her third dollar to the snack machine, hoping that selecting B4 again will yield two bags of chips. Girl's theory proves to be unsound.

Girl collects single bag of chips and change. Points awarded: Vending machines, 2; Girl, 0.

Estuary Stronghold: Pic 1

2009-07-13T11:48:00.001-06:00

Estuary Stronghold: Pic 1
Originally uploaded by Eggy Pop

Go look at the whole set. In fact, visit the whole photostream for this user. Incredible.

Llamas!

2009-07-08T12:00:00.001-06:00

DSC_4583
Originally uploaded by susantharp

Well, this is just a singular llama, but there are more llamas on flickr.

Melancholy

2009-06-09T18:23:00.001-06:00

Melancholy
Originally uploaded by susantharp

More about the baby aye aye

2009-05-08T18:58:00.002-06:00

From Zoo Borns:

The world's largest nocturnal primate, the aye-aye's strange looks and habits have led local villagers to consider them bad omens and kill them on site.

Giraffelet

2009-05-08T00:20:00.002-06:00

DSC_4132
Originally uploaded by susantharp

I went to the Denver Zoo yesterday, and I have new pictures on Flickr. There are baby geese, baby giraffes, and baby sheep. Later I'll remember what kind of sheep they were. Dall Sheep, maybe?

There's a new baby aye aye at the zoo, but I didn't see it yesterday. I'd never even heard of an aye aye until today.

Fireworks?

2009-02-02T21:16:00.002-07:00

Someone is setting off fireworks in my neighborhood. Groundhog Day tradition?

New old stuff

2009-01-11T23:00:00.001-07:00

Thrift
Originally uploaded by susantharp

I finally got myself a flickr pro account, so I've started uploading some pictures from my pre-flickr days. Enjoy.

Dry cleaning

2008-12-01T18:51:00.000-07:00

Me: "I need to drop off some dry cleaning."

Laundry-mat guy: "No, no dry cleaning."

Me: [wrinkles brow, looks at DRY CLEANING sign]

LMG: "Dry cleaning is broken."

Me: "Oh. Do you know of another place close?"

LMG: "Close? 10:30."

Me: "Do you know another dry cleaning place near here?"

LMG: "Dry cleaning broken. Maybe next week?"

Me: "Right, okay. Thank you."

Simon

2008-11-26T21:24:00.004-07:00

Five day weekend at Thanksgiving? It's like I don't work retail anymore. Oh, wait. I don't work retail anymore.

I'm in Dallas with my sister. She has a house and a cat and a dog, and I have pictures of some of those things on flickr. Okay, they're mostly dog pictures. Go see (click on the dog).

holga

2008-11-20T18:40:00.002-07:00

tracks
Originally uploaded by susantharp

so i got a holga. because who needs an advanced digital camera with a variety of lenses when you could take pictures through a plastic lens? there are more pictures on the flickr site, but this one was my favorite.

nala cat

2008-10-18T12:38:00.000-06:00

do you have a cat? brush your cat's teeth. please? brush them.

Florida

2008-10-09T19:23:00.000-06:00

Pictures from Florida here. Not that you would really know that it was Florida from the pictures. Katie and I went to the Animal Kingdom, which is nifty, and stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, which is also nifty. Where else can you sit on your balcony and watch the giraffes go by? (Except maybe in the places where giraffes actually live, but I can't get to those places in under four hours.)

Fall Hike

2008-09-22T20:54:00.000-06:00

A fall hike at Guanella Pass.

It's crowded here

2008-08-25T17:52:00.000-06:00

The invasion has begun.

Salutations

2008-07-11T22:31:00.000-06:00

Well tomorrow is good friday and sunday is easter so i will send you some poltry for your dinner if you care to eat them

April the 30 1912
is my Birthday I Will Bee 65 years old and can still wash knit, sew cook milk keep Hose
I wish you many Happy years
May God Bee with you till Wee met Again

Old Postcards

2008-07-10T23:43:00.000-06:00

The squirrels

2008-05-05T22:22:00.002-06:00

Spring in Denver

2008-04-23T23:06:00.002-06:00

Sushi

2008-02-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

Things in my fridge that are not food

2008-02-21T19:22:00.000-07:00

Two rolls black and white film
One roll infrared film
Japanese paper glue
Antibiotics for cat

nameless cat

2008-02-18T23:06:00.001-07:00

so i have another cat. a friend for nala, i hope. currently they are not on speaking terms. anyway, the cat came with the name aphrodite, which must go. but the cat is presently nameless. i need your input. what is the name of this cat?

Approval

2008-02-04T22:13:00.000-07:00

Nala also likes the new scanner.

Pack rat

2008-02-04T22:02:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I pick up bits of paper. And sometimes I keep them. And now I have a scanner, which means that I can share the better ones with you.

A two-page list:

This came from the sidewalk. No context, no indication of what the book said on the first 100 pages. Just a list. Green jello?

Scanner

2008-02-04T19:23:00.000-07:00

I bought a scanner. And now prints and negatives are going digital. What's that? Put that down. I wish to scan it.

Here's some Polaroid shots of downtown Denver:

If you wish to see more, clicking on an image should take you to the rest of the gallery.

New stuff, old stuff

2008-02-02T22:57:00.000-07:00

New thing: carved wooden belt buckle.

Old thing: went to Estes weeks ago with my parents. Saw lots of animals.

Some of them smiled for us.

Really old thing: this is a picture that I took years ago in England. I am posting it today for the enjoyment of my sister, who dreams about squirrels.

Gravity

2008-02-02T22:30:00.000-07:00

I dropped my desk drawer on my toe today.

Post-holiday debreif

2008-01-05T23:52:00.000-07:00

It's January. Looks like I missed December altogether. No time for bloggery in December. But December is over, and my store ran all month without burning to the ground or being the site of some grizzly act of holiday-shopping-induced violence. So my first holiday retail management experience was largely successful. Exceeded some goals by a lot, missed others completely, and so it goes. New month, new year, new opportunities for success.

I celebrated Christmas away from home for the first time this year. But a little bit of Christmas in Missouri came to me. My friend Katie sent me Christmas eve in a box. Most of the provisions are now gone, except some remaining (and jealously guarded) pork tenderloin. Christmas morning was provided by my parents. I woke Nala up to enjoy the festivities. She was thrilled.

Mom made me a Christmas stocking and sent it along with gifts for Christmas morning. Nala helped herself to my new socks.

And the wrapping materials.

Spent the rest of a very snowy Christmas with friends (see below, snowy Christmas and friends):

My enemy

2007-12-01T22:20:00.001-07:00

Frontier 570

Black Friday cometh

2007-11-19T23:21:00.000-07:00

I should be writing interesting things about retail management, but I've discovered that the things I have to say about retail management are interesting only infrequently. I could tell you stories about ridiculous things done by my associates or idiotic things done by my predecessor. Then the things I have to say are interesting or, more likely, horrifying.

I got new glasses. And I have a cat and a great western shirt acquired at a thrift store.

Speaking of thrift stores, I found a Bert (of Sesame Street fame) Christmas tree ornament from 1977 at Goodwill on Saturday. I think it cost me a quarter. Worth every penny.

In other news, the weather forecast indicates that tomorrow brings snow. I do not approve that message.

New links

2007-11-05T13:06:00.001-07:00

My sister has a new blog: In the Making
Lots of people are having babies: Barr Family Chronicles, Audrey
Some folks are trying to make a difference in the world: Cammie is doing this.

Oh, and I have a new job. More on that later.

Attention all customers

2007-10-14T21:13:00.000-06:00

If you think that at some point in the future you might wish to return or exchange your expensive camera, please have the good sense not to write on the camera's box with permanent marker. Please? Okay, so you didn't write on the box? You let someone else write his contact info on your box while you were standing in my store? I see. We have paper, you know.

A note from the 27th floor

2007-10-13T21:15:00.000-06:00

I'm babysitting tonight. I haven't been here in several weeks, and now the little tyke is saying a great many things that sound like words. Sometimes she puts semi-comprehensible words into semi-comprehensible sentences. And bottles are out; sippy cups are in.

So here I am on the 27th floor noticing for the first time that I can see my store from here. But then last time I was here there were more buildings standing upright. The block across from the store is almost empty now. The vacant lot lacks character, but with the liqour store gone there are fewer people using the space between our two trash dumpsters as a public toilet. Progress.

Question: is there a word/phrase in Spanish that conveys the same meaning as "backwards-compatable?" It came up today, and I was somewhat at a loss.

Pictures of extremely tiny things

2007-10-13T07:58:00.000-06:00

Here

And we're back

2007-10-11T23:18:00.000-06:00

So my cousin pointed out that I haven't posted anything here in ages, and he's right. So I have these things to say:

1. I recently sold a camera to a pair of traveling Norwegian accordion players.

2. Today I got multiple compliments on my hair. I styled it as follows: a.) wake up and shower. b.) style hair with product, let entire day lapse. sleep when dark. c.) awaken eight minutes before needing to leave. d.) smash hair down with helmet. ride bike to work. e.) remove helmet. wait for complements.

3. The Rockies beat the Diamondbacks tonight. I've never lived in a place where pro athletic teams actually win stuff. (Sorry, ol' Royals and Cheifs.)

4. I would like a Holga for Christmas, please. Thanks.

5. I am out of things to say. I have many pictures to share, but not tonight.

6. Oh, one more thing. Today my store got a call from someone in Mexico. I was asked to take the call, as I speak Spanish. Unfortunately, I really don't understand Spanish when it is spoken to me over the phone.

My occupation

2007-08-31T18:43:00.000-06:00

http://xkcd.com/309/

My customers, in stick-figure form.

Wish list

2007-08-20T23:00:00.000-06:00

want.

Los Domingos

2007-07-15T22:10:00.000-06:00

I've made a habit of selling cameras in Spanish on Sundays. Adds an extra dimension to the whole sales process. There is no subtlety whatsoever, just grammatically mangled discourse.

Problem solved

2007-06-27T00:21:00.000-06:00

While living in a shared townhouse in Aurora, I learned about the magical powers of the Key Hook. If keys are always returned to the Key Hook, no one has to run around the house checking pockets, bags, tables, and couch cushions for missing keys. Novel. So I installed my own Key Hook just after moving to into this apartment. Two dollars well spent. I also have a Bike Hook. (Not that I'm likely to misplace the bike.) But because I prefer taking the bike to driving the car, I frequently lose track of where I've last parked the trusty Buick. And so behold: the Marker Board, whose advanced car-locating functions are unparalleled.

For the birds

2007-06-26T13:44:00.000-06:00

More about HawkQuest, the nice folks who brought the birds on Saturday: http://www.hawkquest.org/. And a link to the Xcel Energy BirdCams.

Digicat

2007-06-26T13:30:00.001-06:00

Here's a photo Mom took of Henri, one of the three kittens living in the barn.

Bird Watching

2007-06-26T11:45:00.002-06:00

These are some of the pictures I took on Saturday at HawkQuest:

Mishaps

2007-06-22T21:37:00.000-06:00

The button fell of my pants at work today. That was pretty fun. I taped 'em up with packing tape and went down to the store to find a sewing kit. I had a big return at the end of the day, so my sales for the day ended up below zero.

Tomorrow is HawkQuest. I'll be down at Bear Creek State Park taking pictures of birds and helping customers with their cameras. Expect new pictures soon.

there was an old woman who lied to my boss...

2007-06-19T20:02:00.000-06:00

Another indicator that I would rather not remain in retail sales long-term:

On Monday, I met a couple traveling from Texas to Colorado to see their new grandson. How sweet. They were, of course, equipped with the digital camera their daughter had given them for Christmas. They packed it in their checked luggage. They were shocked and amazed that it had BROKEN in transit. The LCD cracked, obscuring most of the screen. The camera had also stopped taking pictures, though it was still possible to view images already stored in the camera's memory.

I helped them:
Transfer images stored within the camera onto a removable card (without being able to read most of the text on the screen, I should add)
Order prints of their images
Pick out a replacement digital camera (the least expensive one we sell)
Learn how to use the new camera
Customize the new camera to suit their needs
Identify a store location near their home for future reference

Though their purchase was quite small, I spent a significant amount of time with the customers. I got the woman a stool to sit on because she has trouble with her feet. I showed her how to use the self timer three times (because she ASKED three times). She apologized for asking so many questions and thanked me for my time.

The woman and her husband left with their purchase, discovered they had a $30 parking ticket, and returned to the store. They found the store manager and told him the following tale of woe: They had told me all along that they only had an hour to spend in the store, and I had taken up all of that hour and more by going on and on about the camera they wanted to buy. Therefore the store should pay for the parking ticket. He refused their request and sent them on their way. When he shared their story with me, I think my soul hardened a little. I know a lot of very jaded people who only deal with customers when there's a reasonable financial incentive for doing so. I try to provide quality customer service regardless. But when you lie to my manager about how I've treated you, you chip away at my willingness to help those who come after you. Good work, folks.

What lies beneath

2007-06-18T08:13:00.000-06:00

So I cleaned up my finger a bit, and lo and behold, there's a new nail already growing underneath the crushed one. This looks very strange.

No longer posting photos of my finger

2007-06-17T23:38:00.000-06:00

My nail has started falling apart. Just above the cuticle there is an area (maybe 2x3mm) that simply has no nail. Photobooth cannot do justice to how tremendously disgusting this looks. I am tempted to take a nice macro shot with my digital camera, but looking at my finger actually nauseates me. Seriously. I now have to keep it covered with a bandage so I don't have to see it.

Ick.

2007-06-11T22:48:00.000-06:00

Now I am disgusted by my own hand. Check out the dent!

Inventory

2007-06-08T18:52:00.000-06:00

My pockets currently contain the following items:

Cell phone
Flash drive
Ink pens (2)
Sharpie marker
Receipts (2)
Stack of red clearance price cards
Discount pricing chart
Calculator
Chapstick
Store key

My feet are tired. Twelve hours of tent sale madness.

Progress

2007-06-04T23:18:00.000-06:00

There was a request for a squished finger update:

Rocky Mountain National Park

2007-06-01T23:10:00.000-06:00

Ouch.

2007-05-23T22:40:00.000-06:00

Mashed my finger in between two cabinet doors...

More from the Nikkormat

2007-05-20T23:35:00.000-06:00

Film

2007-05-19T21:10:00.000-06:00

Busy day at the camera shop. We were short-handed for awhile, and one customer actually yelled at another customer when he tried to ask me for help. She insisted that she was next. And maybe she was. I hadn't been paying attention to either of them as I was busy selling a phone to someone who didn't talk. Not kidding. Anyway, if you want to make me eager to help you, please, please, PLEASE be rude to all the people around you.

Mom brought me a Nikkormat. And that's been fun.

Dear National Weather Service

2007-04-12T15:25:00.000-06:00

I find your prediction for the next few days both offensive and unacceptable. Please reconsider your position.

Late Afternoon: A 40 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 47. East wind between 9 and 11 mph.

Tonight: Periods of snow. The snow could be heavy at times. Low around 28. East wind 8 to 17 mph becoming north. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 7 inches possible.

Friday: Periods of snow. High near 37. North northeast wind 6 to 9 mph increasing to between 14 and 17 mph. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 7 inches possible.

Chilly April afternoon

2007-04-11T20:05:00.000-06:00

It looks like spring... but it's supposed to snow again tomorrow.

Oh, and Nala says hi:

One more thing about Easter

2007-04-08T15:31:00.000-06:00

It's snowing. Here. Today. All day. Indoor Easter picnic, anyone?

Happy Easter

2007-04-08T14:40:00.000-06:00

I met up with Tyler for a traditional Easter Sunday sushi lunch. The afternoon promises an indoor Easter picnic, complete with limeade and enchiladas. And then off to church for Easter service. Happy Easter, friends.

Crucifixus etiam pro nobis; sub Pontio Pilato passus, et sepultus est. Et resurrexit tertia die, secundum Scripturas. Et ascendit in coelum: sedet ad dexteram Patris. Et iterum venturus est cum gloria judicare vivos et mortuos. cujus regni non erit finis.

Spring snow

2007-03-29T21:20:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I washed my winter things: hats, coats, scarves, etc. Today it snowed. Must be my fault in some sort of Murphy's Law of Weather kind of way.

A week in review

2007-03-29T18:27:00.000-06:00

San Francisco banned non-recyclable plastic bags. And good for them. I'm somewhat troubled by the idea of making single-use products out of materials that last forever. And Burger King is adopting a cage-free policy on pork and poultry.

From the department of tremendously bad ideas: A Ukrainian utility company used Stalin's image to encourage payment of energy bills. Billboards saying "Those who do not pay for heating will be punished!" appeared in the eastern city last week. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

I took the GRE last week and did inventory at the store. I also got soaked in the rain and misplaced my keys for several days. I lost my name badge too. I've found those things, but now I can't find the can opener.

It's snowing here. I have pictures, but I haven't put them online yet. More later.

Weekend

2007-03-15T11:05:00.000-06:00

It's Thursday, which means that my week begins anew tomorrow. From now on, my weekends take place midweek: Wednesday and Thursday. Yesterday I waited around for UPS to show up with something from Budget and then I went for a hike at Apex with Molly. It was almost 70 degrees yesterday - gorgeous weather for being outdoors.

Today is a day for studying, which means I'd better leave home and all its distractions. Me + books + Penn St. Perk, I think. But first:

Nala and I are enjoying a new computer - a MacBook complete with iSight camera:

Photos from home

2007-03-11T23:10:00.000-06:00

I took my camera with me to work today and sent some pictures to the lab to be printed. Only then did it occur to me that during my week in Missouri I didn't take any pictures of my family. I did however take pictures of Nala and also the donkeys that live in the pasture behind the house.

Home

2007-03-11T09:07:00.000-06:00

I write to you once again from the relative comfort of my own home in (sunny?) Colorado. The week passed far too quickly, but it was worth the long drive anyhow. Worthwhile in my opinion, at least. You'll have to ask Nala for her take on our travels. If left in her carrier while we drove, she cried inconsolably. If I let her out, she was content to hide underneath the driver's seat and remain there for hours.

My parents' house offered fantastic new horizons for Nala. More room to run, more places to hide her toys, more laps to sit in, and more windows for watching the world go by. One window offered occasional sightings of a neighborhood cat; the other window permitted Nala a view of the pastures behind the house. It's calving time, and, in addition to cows and new calves, there are also two donkeys in the fields. The view from my apartment is less scenic. People walking their dogs, mostly.

I have pictures to post and more to write, but I have to be at work soon, so that's all for now.

Going to...

2007-03-03T01:13:00.000-07:00

Transition

2007-03-01T10:06:00.000-07:00

Out with the old, in with the new, and all that. I am no longer an Inventory Manager for Avis Budget Group. I am now a Manager in Training for Wolf Camera. Key difference: I no longer need to wake up before five am.

I'm heading east on Saturday. Missouri awaits. Nala is coming along for the trip, and we are driving. This should be an adventure. Today we are going to take a practice car ride.

Little did you know...

2007-02-25T13:35:00.000-07:00

Famous Paintings of llamas

Listen up, Peeps

2007-02-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

Enter Our Peeps Diorama Contest - washingtonpost.com

Three more days

2007-02-24T11:45:00.000-07:00

Yup, that's all I have to say about that.

New pics

2007-02-16T21:07:00.000-07:00

It was supposed to be 50 today, but at 2:30 it was snowing, so I think we may have missed the high.

Kitchen hint

2007-02-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

If you keep a loaf of bread on the same shelf as an open pack of Orbit gum, your toast will be alarmingly minty fresh. You must decide for yourself whether or not this is desirable.

Best mail day ever

2007-02-13T08:18:00.000-07:00

I got two packages yesterday: one at work and one at home. The one at work was full of chocolate, a perk of managing inventory for a Budget dealership in Hershey, PA. The one at home contained the following item:

Let's be precise. The matress, bed frame, pillows, and stuffed duck were not in the box, but the quilt was! My sister made it for me.

Here Nala investigates the new aquisition. It came with a small ammount of cat fur from Lucky, Katie's cat. When I left this morning, Nala was busy adding some of her hairs to the collection.

And this is a squirrel that my cousin Melinda made. I think the purple polka dot squirrel goes oh so nicely with the new quilt.

Business as usual.

Happy Valentine's, Sad Monster

2007-02-10T21:23:00.000-07:00

Made my first relief print today:

Meininger's Art Supply hosts free art workshops on occasion. Today was printmaking. We made Valentine's Day Cards. You can see how Sad Monster would win over even the coldest of hearts.

Progressive dinner

2007-02-08T22:44:00.000-07:00

Had loads of people in my apartment tonight for appetizers. Found our main course at the next house and dessert at the last. Quote of the evening: "I think Greg put a lentil in my ear. Can you check?"

Kitty

2007-01-27T20:14:00.001-07:00

The saddest monster

2007-01-24T11:43:00.000-07:00

I knew her before she was famous

2007-01-16T16:43:00.000-07:00

Article display page - theday.com

Temperature in Denver

2007-01-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

"It goes to eleven."

Wildlife sighting at the airport

2007-01-10T07:51:00.000-07:00

I saw a rabbit in the DIA parking garage this weekend. It seemed a little unnatural for a wild thing to be hopping around a gigantic concrete structure. Stranger still was the fact that it was pulling old wads of gum up off the pavement with its teeth. Tiny furry janitor.

Blizzard, round eleventy-seven

2007-01-07T20:36:00.000-07:00

Anybody tired of snow yet? My two-way street only has one pair of ruts for traffic traveling in both directions. My shoes have grown jealous of my boots, the only footwear I've worn for weeks. Garbage collection is spotty at best. And strong winds are now relocating all of the snow that people have worked so very hard to pile out of the way. So, naturally, I'm thrilled to hear that there's more on the way on Thursday.

I owe you more snow pictures. I don't have any from this week, but use your imagination. Nothing has changed much.

Around the office:

On the way to Wolf:

An oldie, but a goodie (taken 12/21/2006):

No Hassle

2006-12-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

I get a lot of credit card applications. If I burned them, I could keep my building warm. If I stuck them on my walls, I would have wall paper like no one else's. Until recently, I was foolishly chucking them in the bin. Then my friend Chad pointed out that they all come with postage paid envelopes. He suggested tearing up junk mail and sending it back to the company. A good thought. By rejecting their card, I control my own spending. By using their envelopes, I control theirs also. On special days, I get applications from multiple companies, ideally with fake versions of the cards they'd like me to use. On these days I can switch the envelopes and send the cards to the opposite companies. Today, however, I felt like the Capital One application deserved a little extra effort. I drew them a Viking on their own disclosure sheet and mailed it back to them.

Snow Day

2006-12-21T17:52:00.000-07:00

(Yes, that is my car under the mound of snow.)

Winter Sports

2006-12-21T17:48:00.000-07:00

Winter

2006-12-20T19:22:00.000-07:00

I don't like to lend credence to vicious rumors, but perhaps winter is here.

These were taken midday. There's rather a lot more on the ground now, and plenty more coming.

Out and about on Saturday

2006-12-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

Writing prompt

2006-12-13T22:16:00.000-07:00

Your short story submissions are welcome in the comment section. The story must incorporate, but need not be limited to, one of the above photos.

Snapshots

2006-12-11T21:24:00.000-07:00

"Well, my dear, I think you are a mess."

2006-12-05T19:19:00.000-07:00

It was very cold on Saturday morning, and I wasn't keen to get out of bed a moment before I had to, so I drove to Budget. The meters on Sherman Street are free on Saturday. Why not drive? The weather turned a little warmer during the day, and the clouds had all but disappeared by afternoon. The air was crisp and fresh as I walked out the door at the end of my work day. I exited onto the corner of Lincoln and Colfax, headed south until I came to 12th and then turned eastward. I stopped a few places on along the way, took a few pictures, and enjoyed the fact that I didn't have to return to Budget until Monday morning. I was blissfully unaware of the error of my ways.

I spent Saturday evening working on a project that kept me up late, so I decided to attend the evening service at church and use the morning to sleep. I was scheduled to work at 11 am at Wolf Camera, so eventually I pulled myself out of bed, got ready, and walked out the door at 10:30, giving me plenty of time to get to work. As I walked down the apartment stairs to the sidewalk I tried to remember where I'd parked the previous day. I looked down the street to the south, where I tend to park, but did not see my car. I checked the north end of the street. No car. Surely I am overlooking it, I thought. I couldn't remember needing to park around the corner lately. This is ridiculous, I thought. You can't just lose a car. No, let's be sensible. Where did you have it last? Well, I drove it to work yesterday, remember? And then I -

Oh.

Oh dear.

"Terry? Yeah, this is Susan. I'm going to be a few minutes late today. I, um, forgot to bring my car home yesterday. Hm? Oh, about a mile and a half. No, Sherry's going to give me a ride over there. Right, thanks."

I kept checking my watch, wondering just how late I was going to be. Clearly I wasn't thinking very hard about the watch the first few times I glanced at it. Eventually I noticed that by my watch it was still 10:30 and, in fact, would continue to be until the watch found the will to live again. I took it off and left it in my car.

The rest of the day was fairly tame, aside from spilling hot chocolate on my pant leg at church. Monday was similarly uneventful. And then it was Tuesday. Oh Tuesday.

I woke up late this morning. Very late. I was subsequently late to work. Very late. I ran my reports, got my transfer drivers on the road, and finally settled in for the day. I reached into my bag for the strawberry yogurt that was going to be breakfast. Horizon has started putting their yogurt in more environmentally-friendly containers. They use significantly less plastic and have foil lids only. And I commend them for their concern for our natural world. If only I shared their foresight. I had carelessly thrown my container of yogurt in my canvas shoulder bag, along with a Larabar, an apple, my wallet, some Sudafed, and half a dozen CDs due back to the library tomorrow. One of these items punctured the foil lid during the trek to work, thereby coating the contents of my bag with organic strawberry yogurt.

I stood at the sink in the breakroom for sometime cleaning up my mess and trying to explain myself to the parade of people coming in for coffee. Nancy, who had already heard about how I misplaced a Buick, summarized my predicament. "Well, my dear, I think you are a mess." She added, "At least you're likeable." She took her coffee and breakfast back to her office, and I threw my bag in the sink with some warm water and dish soap. (It is now drying under my desk. I carried my things home in a little plastic sack.)

The rest of the day had the potential to be normal. And it was for awhile. And then Matt called to tell me that a dealer had just called him with an unusual concern. A truck that I had moved from one dealership to another yesterday had arrived with a cab full of vomit. Vomit? Yes, Susan, vomit. Well, whose vomit? The permutations of the possible sequence of events boggles the mind. Did the dealer pencil-whip the 10 point inspection form, completely overlooking the fact that the last customer had tossed his cookies in the passenger seat? If so, why would the driver get in the truck and drive it more than a hundred miles without mentioning the vomit to anyone? Or did the transfer driver lose his lunch somewhere in hilly Pennsylvania? Why not just deal with it? Don't you think someone will eventuallynotice? Was this just a random act of vandalism? Baffling. Completely baffling.

Matt was incensed, the sending dealer eagerly offered up copies of the 10 point form, the lead driver claimed the truck was already in that condition when the team picked up the keys, and the District Manager proclaimed the time has come for greater accountability from transfer vendors. As for me, I located a handful of ten foot trucks for a dealer, set up the moves, and hoped that none of the trucks would show up full of vomit. And then I went home, mentally noting that my car was parked close to my apartment and stopping along the way to give the library their strawberry yogurt flavored CDs.

On a day like today, comfort food seemed appropriate for dinner. And what could be more comforting than the starchy, creamy goodness of macaroni and cheese? So I cooked the noodles and drained them, opting to forego the use of the colander, which wasn't clean. I carefully held the lid on the pot leaving a small gap for the water to drain. And then, not so carefully, I dropped the lid and all the noodles in the sink.

Curiouser and curiouser

2006-12-04T21:06:00.000-07:00

Need a hand?

2006-12-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

Snow day

2006-11-29T16:56:00.000-07:00

I'm off work today. Not because of the snow, of course, but because I have to work on Saturday. I walked to the library and then to the grocery store. I returned home only to discover that I need to go back to the grocery store because I didn't get everything I was supposed to. I'll tackle that as soon as I am done posting snow pictures: