LolaGeek

I guess you were expecting a Linky Thursday today, don’t be disappointed. I only have one link at the moment, so I’ll just hang onto it for next week.

Catch-up time… Last weekend GG went down to work at his parents’ shop for the weekend to make some extra money (usually he just goes for holidays [4th of July, Labor Day, Pony Penning - which, btw, I'd thought about going to this year, but remembered that after attending in 2005 I decided I never need to go again. Way too many people on that little island]). Meanwhile, I worked on some stuff around the house.

Yesterday was my brother’s birthday, but I wasn’t expecting to see him mid-week. However, he called me Tuesday afternoon and said he was coming out to visit the next day, and could he stop by? So I ran out to buy him a present :o) Pretty much any book about Civil War history or zombies will make him happy. Anyway, we had a nice little visit yesterday – luckily I was working from home, so he could just drop in whenever. Then I went to play a concert about an hour west of us, and GG went to play a round of golf with A, who came to visit in an attempt to do as much fun stuff as possible before MB goes back to work (next week!) and he is a babysitter for the rest of the summer. (Though really, if it’s your own child, is it really babysitting?)

Trader Joe’s has the best new popsicles. They are layered, strawberry, lemonade, and raspberry. So yummy. I have popsicle molds now, so I think I can make my own! And I have 6 molds, which beats TJ’s box of 4..!

I am literally booked solid with meetings today. I am free 12-12:30, so I may have time to eat a cracker. But doing regular work? Forget it. …Oh update, one of my meetings was canceled “due to popular demand!” Anyway, I have a four-day weekend coming up, so I shouldn’t complain…

Tally Hall‘s second album is finally out, and it was well worth the wait. I have listened to it in its entirety about 20 times since last night, and it continues to amaze me. And while the individual tracks are each fabulous, you really need to listen to the entire thing from beginning to end for full effect (“Fate of the Stars” is seriously gorgeous and amazing). If you’re still on the fence about purchasing it, the entire album is available to stream for free until Thursday – so check it out!

I’ve been super busy lately, but hopefully things slow down soon. (Don’t I say that a lot?) My huge project at work that I’d been on since February has finally wrapped up, in that the training has been deployed and now it’s just a matter of making sure people complete it. We were supposed to have our group meeting (in PA this time! no travel for me!) at the end of June, but it’s been postponed – and I kind of wouldn’t be surprised if it got postponed again as we get closer to the new date. So hard to make plans with this group.

Is everyone waiting for me to comment on the Duggar Grandson? I liked the special. Anna is seriously amazing. The scene where she was holding Mackynzie on the couch, crying, saying her baby was coming, was one of the most touching things I have ever seen. Josh did nothing for his image by going for a nap moments before the baby arrived, but it doesn’t really matter, he’s a man, so he already has +1000 points in their culture.

Top 10 Bodega Cats Keeping Cool: I like #2 … even though she is clearly the same cat as #5!

Paula Deen: Butter Intervention: If you like Paula Deen and/or “Intervention,” you will enjoy this. “You’re using that stationery I got you!” “It’s a butter wrapper, Mama.”

The Best of States, the Worst of States: Really interesting infographics of what the states are best and worst at. Connecticut has the cleanest teeth! Washington has the most bestiality!

Web Design History: Aww, the internet is so old!

Go the F**k to Sleep – read by Samuel L. Jackson: I posted this book a couple weeks ago, but it was quickly removed from the internet. But now it’s back – with some fabulous narration!

GG and I celebrated our anniversary yesterday, a couple days early. Our actual anniversary is tomorrow, but we wanted to go to Tastebuds, and they’re closed on Mondays, so Saturday it was! We got up to New Hope a couple hours early, since the weather was kind of nice, and we wanted to walk around a bit. A lot of other people had the same idea, it was pretty crowded. Plus, it was raining a little, hard enough for me to pull out my umbrella at one point. We got to visit Butter, the resident cat at Farley’s, who is a little more laid back every time we see him. This time he was in his usual sleeping spot, under the rack of greeting cards. I bent down to pet him and he immediately rolled over for tummy scratches.

We headed to the restaurant but still had a bit of time to kill, so we continued walking up the street, which I guess we’d never done before, and stumbled across one of New Hope’s “pocket parks.” Apparently there are a few of them in town, but we have never come across one before. This one stretched across the block between Bridge Street and Ferry Street, parallel to the train tracks. We entered from the Ferry Street side, and there were some sponsored pavers dedicated to different people (some of them were amusing, but this group was my favorite), then a little water feature, where we took some pictures, a little seating area with benches, and a gazebo. It was cute, but there were so many rules posted! You basically can walk on the pavers or sit on the benches, but don’t try to touch anything else!

Finally it was time for dinner, and once again we had a great experience. The guys there are so nice, and I can’t believe that for the limited number of times we’ve been there (I think we’re only up to four or five now, in five years), they remember us! I had an amazing artichoke flan (served with some roasted tomato sauce, which I wish there was more of because it was really great with the flan), while GG decided to be adventurous and had smoked trout-stuffed eggs with pickled onions, which sounds like something an old man would eat if he wanted to switch things up from his usual liver sandwich, but GG seemed to enjoy them and was even discussing the contrast of flavors with the owners. Then I had the asparagus and wild mushroom ravioli in parmesan broth, which I was looking forward to because asparagus ravioli in parmesan broth was the first meal I’d had here and it was life-changing, but I guess it’s like a junkie chasing a high because nothing will ever compare to the first time. And GG had a pork chop with smoked chili glaze, which I tried and it was yummy, but what I really liked on his plate was the mashed potatoes! When I saw the tres leches cake was on their dessert menu, I of course had to order that, and it was amazing (served with perfectly ripe strawberries, too). GG was still feeling adventurous, and I convinced him to try the coconut milk panacotta with tamarind sauce, which sounded like something he’d really enjoy. He did eat all of it, but I think it wasn’t what he was expecting. The owners asked him if he’d order it again and he was like, “mmmm… probably not.” Haha!

I’d had kind of a low-grade headache all day, and some switch just flipped as we were wrapping up dinner, suddenly I couldn’t even see straight, my headache was so bad. As soon as we were done I just wanted to go home. I tried to sleep in the car, then when we got home I fell asleep for a few hours on the sofa, and then I went to bed. Even when I woke up this morning the headache wasn’t completely gone. Ugh. I’ll blame the barometric pressure.

Unrelated story: I have a Seagate external hard drive that automatically backs up all my files every week. For the last couple weeks, I’ve been getting an error message that the backup wasn’t successful, but I hadn’t looked into it yet. Last night it didn’t even start creating the backup, as the computer apparently didn’t recognize that the drive was plugged in, and the light was just flashing. So today, I went to move the hard drive and accidentally dropped it! I wanted to check and just see that it wasn’t damaged, so I plugged it in… the computer recognized it. I went to run a backup and it worked! Weird! So I guess it’s okay now?

I was awakened at 4:30 yesterday morning by some liquid splattering across my face. I quickly realized that a cat had just been peeing in the middle of our bed and continued to pee as it jumped off the bed, spraying across my face. SUPER YUCK. Also, totally unacceptable. Of course by the time I was alert and had a light on, he or she had run away, so we have no idea who it was. All three of them are suspects. They each have their motives and certain other weird behavior in their history.

I have owned cats my entire life, and have never had a cat who sprayed on the bed. I know it’s kind of a common thing for cats to do to show they’re displeased, though. But any cat I’ve heard of who does this does not do it while people are sleeping in the bed! That is the worst part!

So I immediately threw all the sheets in the wash… and both GG’s and my pajamas (we both got splattered). Our memory foam mattress topper was unfortunately beyond saving. But luckily that did protect the mattress from getting ruined. Not wanting to leave the bed bare all day, we made sort of a mat of trash bags taped together to protect the mattress. On my way home from work, I picked up some of those pee pads you get for incontinent old people or kids who wet the bed, and I’ve used six of them to completely cover the mattress, with our sheets on top. So this way, if it happens again (but it better not happen again), I’ll only have to wash sheets and the pads should protect everything else… We hope.

No bad cat behavior last night, though they did wake us at 4:15 AM for a weird snuggle session. Maybe they were apologetic?

In other news, I have this huge project at work that’s supposed to be wrapping up this week. I’ve been working on it since February, but wasn’t really involved in the development part of the work. Now that we’re at the end, everything is in my hands, and of course there have been problems at literally every step of the way now. And some of the people who I need to work with are just so unhelpful. I explained my timeline and when I needed to have the work finished to one of them and they literally said, “Oh, well, it’s nice to have goals.” Though I have to say, the majority of my coworkers and the people I have interacted with on this project have been so amazingly helpful, despite numerous challenges.

* The title of this post is of course a reference to one of my favorite ATHF characters, MC Pee Pants. “I want candy, bubble gum and taffy…”

I Regret to Inform You That My Wedding to Captain Von Trapp Has Been Canceled.: “Her wardrobe is made of curtains. She’s definitely not a gold digger or anything.” I need to remember to read McSweeney’s more.

NOPRAH: This was created “in observance of the last day of The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Just stick with it to the end. No, there is no point, it’s art.

Snakes – The Office: “We had a ball writing on each other’s dry erase boards … All your friends are 37″ – Oh my gosh, it’s totally true!

Vintage Posters of Major Online Brands: If you like the internet and/or classic graphic design, you will enjoy these posters. They range from WWII-era propeganda (I love “Someone Tweeted!”) to some wacky midcentury designs (LinkedIn: A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have). Really great.