Merry Pacmas

Oooh, Santa Comes to Pacland is on Boomerang! I think the citizens of Pacland may have to Power Up to help Santa make his schedule. This is just getting good.

The Worst Mall in America

The truth is that I block it out. Day to day I suppress the reality. I pretend everything is A-OKAY. But then I manage to delude myself. And one day, a day like today. I find myself merrily on my way to Ballston Common Mall.

This is a mall that has no stores. I suppose technically there are places that sell things, but who would want to own those things, I cannot fathom. They closed almost the whole third floor and turned it into a Sport & Health - a place with which Jac and I have a love/hate hate/hate relationship after a torrid affair there during our engagement.

There are a lot of places there that sell things I have only seen in malls - usually on carts in the middle of malls.

The first three floors of the parking garage are dedicated to "Monthly Parking". Eventually you wind up on the fourth floor. Which is of course trying to house a mall's full of cars. So after a while you wander upward.

We parked on the sixth floor. The mall has three floors. This meant taking an elevator - because there are NO stairs down to the mall floors. Where the hell am I? I don't know but I think I just saw a Minotaur. We started to wait. And then we waited. And then a whole lot more people showed up and waited with us. There was a lot of waiting going on. And some days later an elevator arrived. Hordes piled on. The elevator dinged ominously. We made it to the mall.

My first thought: thank God we finally made it to the mall. My second thought: what the hell am I doing here?

And the escalators were out. And a store randomly closed at 7pm. And there is a whole store devoted to bears. And then we waited a few more days and got to leave.

And they charged us money for the privilege.

A late late tribute

Being right is everything.
And everything else is crap.
~Peter Boyle as Frank Barone

That's awesome.

On the Other Side

Could it really be me, almost on the other side of three solid weeks of completely crazy work? I think it is. In 48 hours I'll be at the river, in the country, with one less house, a little more cashola, and something like 10 days off ahead of me.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Meanwhile, the next time you hear about a report to Congress. Hey, that might just be MINE. All I can say is that there's a Secretary somewhere whose voice sounds a lot like mine.

But while I was in Lynchburg last weekend I managed to squeeze in finding a few license plate pix. Yes, I am obsessed.

The Things We Do

I should have known yesterday when someone asked me, "Or are you taking the weekend off?"
That life is just too absurd. You are supposed to take the weekend off. It's abnormal to work every day in a week. I mean frankly, I think it's absurd that we work 5 days a week but that's a whole other rant.

This morning a teaming partner called and said we have trouble with a client (he's actually the one handling the client). Anyway, she's all in a tizzy and signed her email, "I am not pleased." So we have to scramble to get her a new product by 7:30 Monday morning. Lady, get an effing life, would ya?

And then there's the Mega Co. that emailed at 3 pm Friday needing a new graphic identity by Monday. Sure buddy. We're all over it.

So I popped out to the store to get client crap and there is not one parking space to be had in all the land.

When I returned, I noticed that our neighbor's interminable home construction project is underway this sunny Saturday. Why oh why can it not be cold and rainy? They are banging and sawing and generally making a ruckus. The county shows that they pulled their construction permit in May 2005. It is December 2006. Good Lord!













And the credit card sneaked over the limit again. Just resolved that a moment ago. And the chicks at the grocery store and the office store both didn't know what the heck they were doing. Ahhh, I'm feeling a good Moronblogging coming on.

Ah, holiday cheer.

And actually, I need to get this off my chest. It's been there for some time and honestly there's not much room there for grief-inducers. I watch Food Network more than a normal person should and of course Giada is one of the most abominable creatures known to man but there's a Holiday ad that's running now where this is what she says:



















"I guess my favorite food memory would have to be..."
"Christmastime, with all the people and warm cozy nights."

Or some crap. Can I just point out: THAT IS NOT A FOOD MEMORY. There is no food in that story. There is a temperature, and a time of year, but nothing about food. Freak.

Who Does This?

I have been knitting the whole year round and now that it is freezing cold out, I have no knits to keep me warm. They're all at the river. I am in the city. That is a problem.

Knitting Goddess

Damn, that is cool:










I have to confess, I probably would have picked another car, but that chick rocks. Great, now Jac is going to want me to knit him a car, or yet, a boat, for Christmas. I better start casting on.

looking over a 4 leaf clover

Am I crazy or are things starting to look up a bit?















But I have to say, Jessica let me down recently - well okay, probably like 15 years ago when they recorded this episode. I'd seen a spate of tie wearing women lately and Jess just put me over the edge.

Scrumptious Sunday with Spencer

I've been cooking, baking, and entertaining this way for years. Aw, that's Shamdra talking, but today I've been busy making batches of stuff to freeze for Christmas. It has finally cooled so it feels more like December than August which is nice. Jac decorated the tree today. Now I'm watching Desk Set so Jac reminds me of: