forgotten pumpkins

These particular pumpkins are from the fall of 2006. At least I think so anyway. I completely forgot about them until recently. Anyway, I liked them. I hope you do as well.

Personally speaking, it makes me want fall again. I think I just need to develop some system where I spend part of the year in South America. When people speak of me they'll say, "oh, she's Falling in Agerntina... she'll be back soon enough." I would have a slight twinge of regret since our spring is their fall, but it would pass. I'm sure.

disaster averted

Things almost went horribly, disastrously wrong today. I negligently forgot to purchase coffee at the store yesterday. Thus this morning I made a mad dash to the store to procure some beans.

It was touch and go for moment there.

The Sopranos; or, shopping for new hats.

Last weekend I accomplished something very important. I finished watching The Sopranos. My friend and I have pushed through all 6 seasons in the last 8 months or so. Though many things stand out (Pauly Walnuts to any woman crying: "Dry those peeps" or Sil's hair which is a blog post on its own), one particular episode really captured my attention.... well, to be fair, one hat captured my attention. In episode 76 Carmela and Rosalie go to Paris* and Carmela makes the most brilliant tourist impulse buy: the dark olive wool felt fedora. The hat is FANTASTIC. The entire episode I kept asking where that hat was, no thought given to the beautiful shots of the city. Unable to find any pictures of Carmela in the hat online and completely obsessed, my friend rented the dvd again so I could make everyone's life better through documentation. Anyway, I found similar hats online, but they're all wrong with their big labels, or band all the way around, or bad color. I'll dig a bit more, but if anyone knows of a great place to find crushable wool felt fedoras then give me a hollar. In the meantime, please enjoy those I've posted.


*KFR, I'm convinced you would have had a better time if you had mob money to spend in Paris.

---Vicarious travel shots ---

Beer Turtle!

Beer Turtle!??? "What fresh hell is this?", you might ask. Well, your guess is almost as good as mine. I received this lovely little turtle/bottle opener/black & tan maker in the mail not long after Christmas. No note, no clue, no nuttin' except for the packing list from the warehouse. I don't know who its from, though I have two excellent suspects. Unfortunately, neither of them remember making the purchase and both could probably be convinced of it if I tried hard enough.

I do know, however, that this little lovely does make a delicious black & tan. I bring this up for a reason. The first is the mystery. Its not often one receives mysterious packages in the mail. The second is because I love all kinds of beer and was recently asked what my favorite beer is. I never realized that this could be a panic inducing question, but there I was; stammering, sweating, looking at the floor. I have no idea what my favorite beer is. I do love me a Schwelmer Pils, but I see myself more as a beer tourist. I have cities that I love to go back to, but I don't know that I'd want to live there. And I love exploring new places too much to settle down. When I go home to my parents house I try to find some delicious Roslyn or Brookside Beer, from the Roslyn Brewing Company. On vacation with the fam in Yellowstone and the Tetons last summer the beer of choice was Trout Slayer. And it fit. It worked. It captured the moment. Since the beer turtle magically appeared in my mailbox the Black & Tan once again holds sway in my heart... I thought I had left it behind in college. Anyway, what does the black & tan say? Am I of two minds about beer? About life? Any other existential beer crises out there?

Bah.

WRONG!; or, real world uses for "unaccaptable" and other deserved denials

At home over Thanksgiving my sister and I went out with an old friend and her good friend. We had a grand time; scoping out changes to the city, catching up, and generally drinking more than we should have (I don't think that was just me). Anyway, we were in this new bar that was having a soft opening before the big official opening the next day. Oh-so-hip. Seated in a crescent shaped booth, we enjoyed a commanding view of the patrons. From out of nowhere some Asshat glides over and exchanges some cryptic words with our Friend's Friend (pointedly ignoring S and I) and then immediately returns to his friends.

Now, my sister and I didn't really know Friend's Friend before this evening began. But she was entertaining and engaging and our friend's friend. Given these three things my sister and I could quite plainly see that she was much cooler than this fellow and he was Up To No Good.

We immediately quizzed her on the asshat situation at hand and she spilled the beans on her broken heart. Asshat Up To No Good returned to our table and tried his oh-so-hip-oh-so-skeezy tactic yet again. Wrong! While Friend's Friend tried to nicely rebuff his efforts, S and I moved into action. I quite plainly told Asshat Up To No Good, "Unacceptable." While still confused by my statement, my glorious sister formed an "X" with her crossed arms and made a noise like he'd just guessed wrong on $100,000 Pyramid. It only took him a fraction of a second to recover and reply, "I know what you're up to." Good. We're all on the same page, then. Move along.

I tell this story as both a real word demonstration of "Unacceptable!" and to offer up alternatives. For worst case scenarios, the "X"-crossed-arms-with-buzzer-noise is always a possibility. A variation of the crossed arms is a simple thumbs-down with buzzer noise. Use the thumbs down for bad ideas, idiotic statements, idiotic people, or any combination of the three.

Make sure you use your power for good.

Pepe, the King Prawn

Unacceptable!

Unacceptable! is the word of the year, methinks. And this is only a positive thing. You see, when someone says "unacceptable" they're making a bold statement. Something is unsatisfactory and they're saying as much. None of this wishy-washy business. Some examples:

• self critique: "I haven't updated my blog for almost two weeks! UNACCEPTABLE!"
• technical: your interweb crashes? UNACCEPTABLE!
• competitive: don't like someone's Go Fish card request? UNACCEPTABLE!
• exclamatory: UNACCEPTABLE! as curse word alternative
• medical: feel a migraine or cold coming on? UNACCEPTABLE!

As I explained to V in an email late last month, "unacceptable" is a necessary word to say as many of us (particularly women) aren't taught to move about the world in such a forceful way. Once you're comfortable with it in everyday settings, try it on for size, etc., it doesn't take much to use it in truly appropriate situations.

Additionally, the pronunciation is also quite entertaining to play around with. I quite fancy this particular way: UN!-acceptable --> say the "UN" bit loudly almost whisper the rest. Or say it really, really fast. Give it a whirl. I promise you won't be disappointed.