Thursday, September 28, 2006

Tonight is triviaoke again. Did we win last week? Yes, yes we did. A three-peat, if you will. Tonight we will try to continue our streak. Eventually our luck will run out, but we will try to forestall the inevitable as long as we can.

What else has been up? I bought Lego Star Wars 2 (the original trilogy) and have been playing it and making my right arm and shoulder hurt. So that's been fun. I also looked at a funky little house out in the country today. I can barely afford it, and it needs some cosmetic work (in my opinion, forest-green carpet doesn't match lavender-painted walls, but maybe that's just me). It's in Williamsburg. The house is on the Mill River, and you have to cross the river on a wood bridge to get to the house. The setting is gorgeous, and I could do the cosmetic work while living there, but am worried (yet again) about getting all weird if I live alone in a house in the woods. I'm not scared of getting killed by a psycho or mauled by a bear, just that I'll, you know, rename myself "Starlight" and start wearing clothes I've fashioned out of newspaper and sing to myself all the time (I mean, more often than I already do). What do you all think?

Friday, September 22, 2006

"Open letters" are always a fun blog trope, so here goes.

Dear middle-aged crazy guy on Main Street Wednesday night,

I know we haven't been officially introduced, so I apologize if this letter seems somewhat forward. When you first saw me walking down the street, I was deeply engrossed in playing a game on my cell phone. For all you knew, I might have been typing an important text message, or about to make a phone call, but that's not important now. As I paused on my journey to get through a tricky part of the game, you took the opportunity to walk right up to me and say "hello," a greeting I returned in a tone of voice that was meant to convey "I am responding to be polite, but would rather our interaction not continue." My tone was lost on you, as you continued to stand there staring at me, and you said something I didn't catch -- maybe a name, like Adriana, or Angela -- I couldn't understand it so I ignored you, still staring at my phone. Despite my unwillingness to even make eye contact, you then gestured grandly at the door of the Quizno's, saying, "Would you care for a bite to eat?"

Here is where I made my error. I am going to be totally honest here, you were a little scary with the hovering and the social awkwardness, so to get you to bug off right away, I said "No!" in a tone that was meant to sound a little bit less snotty than it actually did.

After I darted right upstairs and re-emerged on the street 20 minutes later with my boyfriend, you must have seen me pass as you were leaving the Quizno's, bag in hand (I am glad you got right back on that horse and got yourself a tasty, toasty sub! Good for you!). I didn't see you, but I had no hard feelings, and truthfully felt a little bad about not being a little nicer to you. I felt bad, that is, until we walked half a block and a full container of soft drink exploded at my feet. You heard me yell, "What the fuck!?" and I'm pretty sure you heard "I think that was the guy who asked me to dinner!" as you hurried away from us, practically running across the street. Since you were too cowardly to turn around after you'd thrown your icy sugar-water bomb, I'll tell you that you successfully splashed soda all over my legs. Bravo.

Now, I accept responsibility for my inappropriately-crabby answer. And I am also very sympathetic for the mentally ill, so here is some advice. First, if you say hello to a total stranger and the person either doesn't answer, or answers but doesn't smile or really even look at you, it's best to simply move on. Second, when you get rebuffed, remember that there's always other fish in the sea. There's no need to get angry. You may feel disappointed, or frustrated. Try expressing your feelings by writing in a journal, say. Throwing soda is never, ever appropriate.

Listen, approaching strangers on the street is tricky business -- especially if you have anger issues -- so you should probably stick to other ways of enlarging your social circle. Talk to your case worker for some alternatives.

Very sincerely,
debl

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Some acceptable names for my future nephew:

Max
Ryan
Elliot
Miles
Jake
Aaron
Benjamin

Some unacceptable names for my future nephew:

Rodney
Jorge
Jesus
Adolph
Lando
Christian
Damon
Herschel


Just to put my vote in there.

By the way, I keep forgetting to mention my team's unstoppable first-place winning streak at Triviaoke at the WWII Club (two wins counts as a streak, right?). We have unseated scarily-smart teamSenor Cardgage, who smells of pea soup. Our team, The Rug Burns, has all areas of expertise covered:

me: art history, animals
L: current events, movies & TV
H: music, world history
J: science, math, anagrams and other logic puzzles

There are definitely expertise-overlaps, and we are all, of course, proficient in odds n' ends and pop culture. Alone we are weak, but together we are strong! Come and add to our winnings have fun with us! We are actually quite modest and graceful winners.

Monday, September 18, 2006


My 2.5-year-old niece Lula rocked it on the drums at a wedding yesterday.

We were all thrilled, as we want her to grow up to be a drummer (I know, "you can't do both").

Thursday, September 14, 2006

I have been holding out on you a little bit. I swear I do not actually spend all of my free time looking at my foster kittens, but I did sign up on youTube to upload some crappy videos of them in action. Only go if you really like kittens, because there's no plot, or funny ending, or music, or editing. Here is a clip of all three of them waking up from a nap this afternoon. Once you click on the link, click on my youtube name for others.

Friday, September 08, 2006

I have some kittens here. They are very cute. They tear around the apartment like little fuzzy demons. They leap into the air after the cat dancer (tm) and pounce on each other and wrestle and run run run. They will get a toy in their mouth and carry it around, growling, while the others chase them.

Here's the trio of furry joy:
triokittens

A close-up of the tabby, who has a cold (getting better, now that I squirt antibiotics down her throat twice a day):
tabby

The black fluffster (really more of a very dark brown):
blackfluff

And finally, adorable macro paw!
paw

I still don't think I'll keep any of them, though I am rather fond of the tabby, and maybe the tabby and the b/w would be a good pair, except I think they are both female and I've yet to see a successful female pair of cats. By success, I mean cats who sleep all curled up together, like my pair of male cats did growing up. D and K's cats are male/female and they also snorgle together. Of course I could always give them back at the end of the month, like I'm supposed to, and start anew with other kittens, or an adult cat... Decisions will have to be made.
I have a few more pics up of the kitties at my gallery (on the top of the links on the right) plus bigger versions of the snaps above. Check 'em out for a nice kitteny dose of lurve.