Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Dorrie and the Weather Box by Patricia Coombs

was one of my favorite books when I was young. We recently found our battered, written-on, cover-missing copy on my mother's bookshelf. The illustrations were probably the best part, with Gink the cat, the big witch, angry androgynous Cook, and the swirly orange sky. I realized it was part of a series, but I don't think I have seen any of the other books:

1 Dorrie's Magic
2 Dorrie and the Blue Witch
3 Dorrie's Play
4 Dorrie and the Weather Box
5 Dorrie and the Witch Doctor
6 Dorrie and the Wizard's Spell
7 Dorrie and the Haunted House
8 Dorrie and the Birthday Eggs
9 Dorrie and the Goblin
10 Dorrie and the Fortune Teller
11 Dorrie and the Amazing Magic Elixir
12 Dorrie and the Witch's Imp
13 Dorrie and the Halloween Plot
14 Dorrie and the Dreamyard Monsters
15 Dorrie and the Screebit Ghost
16 Dorris and the Witchville Fair
17 Dorrie and the Witch's Camp
18 Dorrie and the Museum Case
19 Dorrie and the Pin Witch
20 Dorrie and the Haunted Schoolhouse

Cash or Credit?

In the past month or so I have purchased a video iPod (Samwise), got contacts (today) and bought new shoes (some comfy green New Balances). It's strikes me as odd since these are all little things I wear, one for entertainment, one for health and one for comfort.

Friday, February 17, 2006

The goverment changed my birthday

While trying to file my taxes online this year, I find out that Social Security has my birthday wrong, so I had to go the local office yesterday and show them my birth certificate to prove it to them. I had been to that same office two years ago to request a new card, so I knew what to expect. Or did I? My memories from last time included a metal detector and a room full of about 50 adults and 60 children. The first thing you do is stand in line to see a receptionist, who gives you a number and verifies you have everything you need. When it came time for me to get my number, both of the women working the windows got up and walked away. So, there I sat for a few minutes looking at 5 empty windows, until a woman returned to give me my number, look everything up and glance at my forms.

Then it was time to sit, wait and enjoy the people watching which consisted of:
A man who sat right next to my niece despite at least 15 other seats being open
An angry older couple with a man who nearly went into the woman's bathroom
A worker looking at her computer screen as if everything was suddenly written in Russian
A cute little girl who kept handing us brochures
In those brochures, there are such useful definitions as "Retirement - when you retire" and "Death - when you die"
More than one conflict over the line and usage of windows
A building worker replacing nearly every light bulb in the place
A man wearing a hat that was way too small for him


An hour later, my turn came and I explained the deal. They assured me no one would be able to apply for anything in my name, which doesn't really comfort me, since you hear about people getting welfare checks for dead people and collecting 5 SSI checks through fraud. But, they will be investigating what happened, and I may or may not find out why the date was changed. It's funny, since I have to go through all of this to correct it, but it probably just took a keystroke for it to be changed in the first place.

Monday, February 06, 2006

Be still my heart

Kevin Smith is coming to my hometown. I missed him once at the UofM and never really thought I'd see him in person. But my tickets have been purchased!

Friday, February 03, 2006

You are all right now!

Last night I finished watching She's Having a Baby and realized how much of my family's vocabulary was inspired by this movie. We always laugh at the parents with the mining gear at the foot of the bed, instructing the kids on how better to conceive, but there are so many other hilarious parts, like her dad griping about wanting a grandchild so he can have a picture of it on his desk at work, and her mother reliving the pain of labor which makes her husband say, "You are all right now!"

Other great parts of the movie:
The steak that fell in the grass, blood raw on one side and burnt to a crisp on the other
Alec Baldwin's lovely girlfriend
Jake stripping down to put on scrubs
the angry photographer, "I can't work like this!"
"He'd probably end up working on a loading dock and hating every minute of it."
the grouper, smelt and swordfish
"You burned the dog!"
"NetSu? We own that,"
the cross-eyed boy with the impetigo
Jake spraying dental floss and his underwear with breath spray
the random people at the end suggesting baby names

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Back on the Interweb

A few weeks ago my computer stopped letting me log on. It would get to the Welcome screen (which it should have bypassed) and when I select which acct I want to log in under, it would show the desktop for a few seconds and then immediately log out and go back to the welcome screen. I tried several things and was about to bring it in when I remembered that my cubicle neighbor suggested it might be a problem with my spyware/adware programs. I uninstalled them both and got back in last night!