Ready for the next stage...

Hi folks. Apologies for not blogging sooner...

This last Saturday was the final Farmers' Market of the Season. And I got 3 great pieces of press out of it being the final market. That's my name in the local papers 5 or 6 times in 6 months (I'm turning into raincoaster!)

I've got my government job interview today -- I'm hoping the interviewers (at least 1) will be dressed in a costume. It would definitely relax me.

And no. I'm not in a costume. I'm dressed up, but not the same.

Then I'm off to Vancouver for a couple of days -- see some friends, buy some Korean groceries, check out my favourite consignment store, catch my favourite local band, and oh yes, drink some wine and/or beer!

If you're one of my friends reading this, and live in the GVRD, and I haven't called you, trust me, I haven't really called anyone. I'll be checking my email, so drop me a line -- or leave me a note here and I'll find you. (Metro has promised to feed the cats for a few days, so I have time!)

TTFN

Lori

Freaky...

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 216 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Okay, so I'm not in the States, but it's still a weird thing to think.

Thanks (I think), Nag.

Lori

The 80s

On the weekend, Metro and I picked up a $6.99 copy of Flashdance. Good ol' 1983. Irene Cara and that fabulous song.

Did it stand the test of time? Uh...yes and no. It's still a pretty good sports film that made me wish it had some better production value and spent more time on the secondary characters. But, OMG, the plot of the romance was a little disturbing.

She's 18, and works days as a welder, nights as an exotic dancer (ie. she keeps her clothes on, but dances hot). He's her 30-something boss, who doesn't know her from Adam, but sees her dancing one night at the club, finds out she's his employee, and starts essentially stalking and harassing her at work. Ew. Once you get past that creepiness, the romance is fine and sexy (classic restaurant scene of her eating lobster...).

I must admit, I have in my collection a number of 80s flicks. And that wonderful homage to the 80s, The Wedding Singer. Adam Sandler is hit or miss, but this one was a hit. We watched that one again last week. Sandler is a little heavy handed with the references....like when the roommate throws the Rubiks Cube aside, saying "No one will ever solve this!" -- it's a little much.


Ever solve the Rubiks Cube? Here's the solution.

Have fun. And just say NO to legwarmers and headbands...

Lori

So, what's going on?

It's been awhile since I posted any personal updates...You all know that I've got a bit of heat in the house now. The cats are happy. Still want to go outside, but happy. We've got wild (and not so wild) animals galore.

On Hallowe'en day I've got an interview for the government job. Mixed feelings about it, but still interested in that one. (Still wondering if I should wear a costume to the interview? Any thoughts? Although, I am thinking I'll go as a Responsible Adult.) Other than that, I've been busy:

• Consulted on a local store's marketing plan.
  
• Hired to produce a forum on Food Security (a complex issue -- check out this website for some info). So, I'm busy on that front until the end of November.
  
• The Farmers' Market has two weeks left -- tomorrow morning is the second last of the season.
• Ran into an administrator at the College who, when she found out my background, expressed a need for an instructor for their TESL program (essentially teaching people how to teach English as a Second Language).
  

It's the Project Lady thing...C'mon people. Help me out. What do I call myself? I need a business name.

Of course, once I get focussed on that big project, I'll get a second interview with the government. Should happen by the New Year, glacial slow as they are.

Lori

What is room temperature?

I typed those words into Google, and got:

Definitions of Room Temperature on the Web:

This is an often quoted figure of around 20°C.
www.air-conditioning-directory.co.uk/glossary.htm

used colloquially to mean the ordinary temperature one is accustomed to find in dwellings. Technically it can mean the temperature of (l) a room in which a refrigerator is being operated or tested; (2) a room being conditioned for the occupant's comfort
www.learn.londonmet.ac.uk/packages/clear/glossary/glosmtor.html

It's the temperature at which red wine is served. A hundred years ago homes were much cooler and room temperature was 16 -17°C, which is ideal for wine.
www.mynrma.com.au/afw_winespeak.asp

the normal temperature of room in which people live
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Room temperature, in laboratory reports, is taken to be roughly 21–23 degrees Celsius (70–73 degrees Fahrenheit), or 294–296 kelvins. The "standard" room temperature is 22 °C (72 °F or 295 K).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_temperature

So, since our furnace is set to 61 F, or 16 C, I'm good for a bottle of wine, but I still want to wear mittens when I work at the computer.

If I turn the heat up, and *gasp* forget to turn it back down before my honey gets home, I have to deal with the ensuing argument. So I just don't bother, and try to type faster to keep the blood flowing.

Am I alone in this?

Mine! Mine! Mine!

Nothing could be more absurd than this. Dibs!!

Scarlett Johansen is putting out an album of Tom Waits covers.

Huh?

We know she can act. Yes. True. But can she sing??

I do believe that only a woman can do justice to a Tom Waits song...there's not temptation to try to actually sing like Tom. This amazing woman does a wonderful job with it (sorry, her Tom Waits tune is only live at this point...)

Wait and see, I guess.

Lori

Great car chase scenes

I like a good car chase -- in movies only please.

Last night, Metro and I watched Ronin again, a very good movie, with probably the best car chase scene in movie history. Watch it on YouTube to refresh your memory, or to appreciate it for the first time:



Watch for my favourite details: the way the various people put their seatbelts on...the sweat, the fear, the exhaustion...

If you type "best car chase scene" into Google, you get a bunch of people who vote for the 1968 Steve McQueen movie Bullitt. Hmm...muscle cars, serious damn cornering, and some real stomach-heaving in-the-car perspective going down the San Francisco hills. Here it is:



Whew!

If you're not into violence, there's always the wonderful Yugo car chase near the end of Drowning Mona. Or there's always Kyle and Cartman's Big Wheel chase in the episode "Cartoon Wars Part 1" from Season 10 (which you can find here, with all of the other episodes).

What's your favourite car chase?

Lori

I've been judged!

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno Test

I just got a copy of Dante's Divine Comedy, just read Canto I of Inferno (while in the hot tub, of course!), and then found this test. I'm looking forward to reading about my level of hell...

Lori

Trading favours, and Horses

I'm actively trading favours with a colleague of mine here. I've volunteered Metro and I to drive slightly inebriated patrons of her wine festival events home, and she has introduced me to a business man who now seems to be a patron/client of mine.

She also did me a fabulous favour today...we were coming from a workshop we'd both attended on Marketing on the Cheap (essentially), and I was ranting about how I needed a...gimmick, a thang, to be able to refer to myself as.

"I'm more than just an event coordinator! I'm doing marketing for buddy there! And I'm going to be doing some writing..." I ranted.

She encouraged me with a friendly: "Hmm...."

"It's like I'm the project lady," I went on.

She just looked at me with a tilt of her head, a little knowing grin that went all the way to her eyes.

Oh. I thought. The Project Lady. It's not an elegant business name, but it's a place to start. For now, it's a great mental...harness for what I seem to be positioning myself as.

So, folks, help me out. What should I call myself?

And while you're contemplating that, I'll go back to the harnesses -- or lack thereof. Last night, while driving these tipsy wine festival people home, I (safely) drove past a little herd of deer on the side of the road, nibbling grass and drinking from the lake.

Yikes.

Back on the highway, now with Metro in the car with me, we were buzzing into town at 11 p.m., and I suddenly found myself slamming on the brakes in a herd of wild horses.

I kid you not. At least 6 of them.

Amid the smell of burning rubber, I slowly drove on, turned around, and parked on the other side of the road, all lights ablazin', to try to warn anyone else coming along. Metro jumped on the phone to call the various authorities.

Turns out, no one does nothin'...except maybe call the local band office.

Horses. And bears. And deer. And racoons. And beavers. And...?

Lori

Teddy Bears' Picnic

Well, we got home in good time from our roadtrip. We saw some beautiful country -- the Grand Coulee Dam, the Columbia River Gorge...gorgeous. [And how many people have contemplated the connection between the noun 'gorge' (or the verb!), and the adjective 'gorgeous'? Here's a pleasant little bit of etymology to satisfy your curiosity.]

One picture from somewhere along the road:
So, home again. And yesterday, while I was having a bit of tea with my cat-sitter and friend, Creatrix, who'd had her own trying weekend (read about it here), Metro suddenly yells: "There's a bear!"

And so there was...sauntering around the neighbourhood, or in this case, across the street from us:
Neighbours taking pictures, the local authorities not wanting to do anything, the bear a little nervous...

That's enough to wake you up.

Lori

Happy Thanksgiving!

Metro and I are off this long weekend, down to the States actually, where they don't know it's Canadian Thanksgiving...so no turkey for us!

This is just a filler post, so that when people come to visit, the first thing they see is not some boys peeing on mommy's plants!

Ick.

Have a great weekend!

Lori

Make Mommy Proud!

A group of pictures online -- Sons That Make Their Parents Proud is really just hysterical...in both senses of the word.









Why would anyone want a boy, knowing what they are like?








And why don't little girls have this get-in-trouble gene??











[More funny/scary pictures online at the link above.]

Lori

"Paint a Pygmy"

One memorable Saturday afternoon, hanging out with the gang in Mel's house, we all started substituting the word 'pygmy' in song titles. Why? I have no idea. It just seemed like a good idea at the time. But it's one of those stories that is hard to tell, because until you actually do something like this yourself, it's not funny. This was funny. We laughed and laughed and laughed...you just had to be there.

Found something today that reminded me of that day: Top 204 Star Wars Lines Improved by Replacing a Word with "Pants"

Enjoy.

Lori

Oedipus, the movie

...as, uh, performed by vegetables.

'Tis dark, moody & tragic, and vaguely pornographic...all in 8 minutes.

I never considered cauliflower to be cute before this!

Enjoy.

Lori

"Friday's child is loving and giving..."

Do you know what day of the week you were born on? C'mon, guess. You have a 1 in 7 chance of getting it right.

Then go and check, here.

I was born on a Friday.

Yeah, I know. Not very exciting.

Lori

How did no one notice?

From the Independent Online:

Two Catholic priests in Florida stand accused of embezzling $8.6m (£4.6m) from their parishioners over a 42-year period and spending the money on holiday houses, luxury travel, gambling in Las Vegas casinos and secret girlfriends.

Laundering money from the collection plates...$8.6 million!?! That's over $204,761 a year for the 42-year peoriod. Let's examine this. So, that would be $3937.69 per week of worship. Almost $4,000 a week for 42 years.

Hmm. No chance here that it started as a small peccadillo and morphed into something huge. It was just huge.

And no one noticed?

Lori