Tuesday, October 31, 2006

a new car!

and don't forget to have your pets spayed or neutered:

Bob Barker retiring in June from The Price Is Right

breathe keep breathing

So, I have good news--Foxy came through surgery ok! I just spoke with my mom and she's apparantly very groggy and looks very sad, probably because she doesn't really understand what happened today or why she now has 23 stitches and half the mammary ducts she did this morning. The tissue is being sent for biopsy so we'll know the type of cancer and whether chemotherapy would help, but often it does more harm than good in cats, since very few types of kitty cancer are receptive to such treatment. The one concern is that because it's so fast-growing and can spread so easily that it's already taken root in her liver and lungs, so she'll be in for x-rays frequently over the next few months to make sure things aren't progressing. But hopefully we've caught the nastiness, for now, anyway. It's probably going to come back someday, but maybe not for a few more years, if we're lucky.

I'm just glad she's okay. She's seriously the best kitty ever. And yeah, every pet owner says that, but I mean it. There's not a sweeter kitty alive, and I only wish I could be there to pet her and make her feel better.

not everyone can carry the weight of the world

yesssss. Go Stipe & co! From today's Rollingstone.com daily digest:

ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME NOMINEES ANNOUNCED
R.E.M., Patti Smith, Chic, the Dave Clark Five, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, The Ronettes, the Stooges, Joe Tex and Van Halen have been nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In January, five of the nine nominees will be selected and will participate in the induction ceremony on March 12th at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.


And here's one from the good ol' days:

Monday, October 30, 2006

still more kitten break

My kitty goes in for surgery tomorrow. She gets x-rays first to make sure the cancer isn't in her lungs, because if it is... no surgery, just a comfortable few more months. I really, really hope that's not the case. In the meantime, here are a few more gratuitious shots of cuteness. Sigh.



Thursday, October 26, 2006

climbing up the walls

In an effort to bring more lighthearted themes to the blog: a couple weeks ago, my morning routine was disturbed by a silverfish crawling up my roll of paper towels on my kitchen counter. I freaked, got the bug spray, and tried to douse him--but he crawled down the center of the tube before I could catch him, so I just sprayed the hell out of the center of my paper towels and forgot about it.

Until today, that is. Friend Erica is arriving this afternoon and in an effort to show that I don't live in total squalor I took the paper towels to the bathroom to clean a little bit. I go to put them back on the towel stand... and there's not one, but TWO dead silverfish, dried and stuck to the center of the stand. Ick ick ick ick ick. I didn't realize they traveled in pairs.

Seriously--don't these things majorly creep you out? I cannot STAND them. Ugh.

edited to add: I just killed a silverfish in my Gladware. MY GLADWARE. UGH. At least I made myself a nice home-cooked meal in the oven (acorn squash! so tasty and autumn-y!) rather than just microwaving stuff like I normally do. That's SOMEthing to be happy about. ugh. *shiver*

it was totally rockin'

crossposted at rererererererere for sheer awesomeness:

<<6. The bass player in "Booze Cruise," Hal Cragin, played in a band in NYC with which Office actor?
a. Melora Hardin
b. Rashida Jones
c. Kate Flannery
d. Creed Bratton
e. Ed Helms

Answer: c. Hal and I were in the band Mono Puff with John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants fame. We were in his solo band (you can hear me sing on the song "Extra Krispy" on the album, It's Fun to Steal).>>

Find out more at Kate Flannery's The Office quiz on her blog. (And watch the new episode rerun-of-the-season-opener tonight!)

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

kitten break

My dear, sweet, beautiful, bestest kitty in the world has cancer.

They're operating next Tuesday. The vet thinks it hasn't spread so hopefully she'll be ok, at least for a little while longer.

I know she won't live forever, but I'm really not ready to lose her yet. She's only about 10 years old (we got her as a pregnant stray at around age 2, so we don't know for sure). I feel like all my far-away schooling has kept me from being with her during her best years, and that makes me tremendously sad.

Please, pet owners--spay your kitties young. If you wait until they're older and have gone through heat/had kittens, they're much, much more likely to come down with this type of cancer in their later years (it's a nodule on her chest). I'm glad we've had such a wonderful time with such a sweet kitty, and I just want her to be strong enough to pull through this and have a few more good years. We do love her so very much.

Monday, October 23, 2006

catch a bit of rock music

oh, dear. they look exactly like the Bargainville liner notes (thanks to JJR on FHDC for the hookup):



Reminds me, though, as did my conversation with Vid this past weekend, that there really isn't another band like them. And I miss them, I do. Not actively or passionately, like I used to, but they brought a lot of joy into my life and opened a lot of doors, and for that, I'll always be grateful--if a bit wistfully so anymore.

(But for the uninitiated? They didn't always look so ridiculous, promise.)

not saying not charmed at all

early morning blog! mostly because I zonked out at 11pm last night and tried to get up really early today to make up for it... but ended up snoozing 45 minutes anyway. (I think this always happens, honestly.) Wedding was beautiful. Seeing my college friends again was SO MUCH FUN. Annapolis was charming. And I'm absolutely terrified about how far behind in everything I am.

Nevertheless, here's a fantastic article/book review from Salon about iPod's 5th birthday and Steven Levy's new tome about its success. I find the article particularly resonating because I was literally saying this exact thing to Supermarj in the car yesterday:

"Listening to an album you've never heard before is work; it requires time, patience, and attention. You can't do it half-assed. But when you play your new album on your iPod, there's always the lure of all those other tracks, and your mind drifts to all that familiar music, all that stuff you know and don't need to work to appreciate. So you inevitably start playing the same stuff over and over."

This phenomenon (coupled with how relentlessly busy I am) is why I didn't have any new artists to tell my friends about when they asked at the wedding reception who they should be listening to. I sang the Decemberists' praises, of course, but what did I listen to on the plane on the way over? Why, Sufjan's "Majesty Snowbird," which is a new song but not a new artist (and not even released yet--it was a live cut--so it definitely didn't count), then R.E.M.'s "Make It All Okay" (listening to songs by alphebetical order), then I wanted to hear EFO's "Baltimore," given where I was flying, and it was followed shortly thereafter by Blur's "Bang" and R.E.M again ("Bang and Blame"), then four versions of "Crazy" (by Gnarls Barkley, R.E.M. a third time, Tori Amos and Seal)... and nothing remotely resembling an up-and-coming new artist to tell my friends about. Sigh. I truly fear that my musical attention span is shot, and there's not a thing I can do about it.

Time to go to class. Hard to believe it's the last week in October. The next month is going to be crazy-go-nuts, I fear.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

think I'll write a book

oh, and in case you were wondering how hot my fellow college senior singing group ladies are, three years later?

SO hot:



Thank you, law firms, for paying for my plane ticket out there two weekends ago. I'm really, really glad I got to see everyone again. And since I might be back in New Haven for New Year's...? Any law firm want to pay for that ticket, too? Yeah, I didn't think so. Oh, well.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

I'm not tired, I just sleep

I am so glad that for the first time in three weeks (and only the second time since Sept 1) I don't have to get up early Thursday morning and go to the airport.

(I have to get up early Friday morning and go to the airport... but my interview portfolio is staying behind, because I don't think anyone at my college suitemate's wedding wants my resume.)

Anyway, I'm constantly busy but I feel like I'm not doing anything interesting. That's not totally true: I saw two excellent but incredibly different concerts last weekend. Beck was Saturday, and he was awesome, puppets and all. I've had "Devil's Haircut" in my head all afternoon and the concert was days ago. So entertaining on so many levels. Sunday was Ellis Paul, who played and played (and played), and while I might've preferred a shorter, more cohesive setlist, he was incredibly entertaining (and since Schuba's pours such excellent Guinness, I treated myself and the Boy to a couple rounds). But I'm just so behind in everything that it's hard to feel any great sense of accomplishment about anything, so I suppose I ought to go get something done this evening (like more research for my journal comment, or staring off into space, or whatever).

[Oh, and confidential to Rimbo: no, I haven't forgotten about your CD review. But the editors of the law school newspaper are also 2Ls, and my guess is that they're too busy to put out a full issue right now. As soon as I get word that they're taking submissions, I'll get on it, promise.]

Friday, October 13, 2006

double dutch to a real double duchess

so, hi.

I haven't been around much lately, both literally and figuratively. I'm blogging now, in fact, from the worst hotel room in NYC. (That's probably an exaggeration, but my room is wee, there is ONE outlet, and the bathroom is so dim I had to go to my interview this morning wondering whether my blush looked appropriate or clownish, because I couldn't tell.)

But I've had some pretty great run-ins with PA music recently, so that's what I'm going to blather on about:

First--Quizno's. I've said it before and I'll say it again: this sub chain plays good freaking music. I walked in on Tegan and Sara and walked out on Tracy Bonham's gorgeous "Something Beautiful," smoked turkey-on-focaccia-no-onions-and-half-sauce-please in hand.

Next--Starbucks at 53rd (?) and 8th. They had some kind of bizarre trip-hop going when I walked in, but they switched it to Elvis Costello and XTC's "Senses Working Overtime" right before I left for my interview, which I (rightly) took as an auspicious sign for how my day would turn out.

Finally--my hotel room might suck, but the lobby is posh as hell, and in the elevator? Kaiser Chiefs' "I Was Born to Be a Dancer." Not my fave song on the album, but it did remind me that I haven't listened to them in awhile and I could stand to do so. Like, right now.

Also, I'm totally tipsy on one glass of wine. I'm the world's cheapest date.

Goodbye, New York. We'll see each other again next summer, I'm sure, or possibly sooner, if I decide I need to "meet more people" someplace prior to Dec. 1. Now, the hard part of deciding begins, and I don't know what I'm going to do. Sigh.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

he's got a dirty mind

Grey's Anatomy? Playing the Pipettes right now.

Supermarj is right--the producers of this show and I seem to be on the exact same musical wavelength.

Also? I give really punchy interviews on 3 hours of sleep. Here's to hoping it's seen as "endearing" and not "bizarre."

mc escher's my favorite mc

Since Weird Al's enjoying his highest Billboard debut ever with Straight Outta Lynwood, I figured it was as good a time as any to redirect you to one person's take on The 10 Best Weird Al Videos of All Time.

Oh, and for something completely different:



(can you tell I turned in my paper and actually get to spend time hanging out with friends this weekend? hooray!)

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

filibuster vigilantly

It's late, I'm tired, and I have miles to go (well, at least a half-mile, give or take a few yards) on my Supreme Court paper before I sleep. But I thought you would all be pleased to know that the LaGuardia mouse is still alive! Though upon closer inspection I'm pretty sure it was a different mouse, because I think tonight's mousie was a little smaller. But still. The wildlife is definitely the best part of flying out of an empty terminal on American's last flight of the day (though it actually left on time at 8:20pm, not a delightfully delayed 11:30pm).

The not-so-best part of flying American? When your 6:05 am flight is cancelled but you only find out when you arrive at the airport, after having woken up at 4. Ugh. I can't believe I'm not in bed right now.

Monday, October 02, 2006

the hardest part

You win some, you lose some. From today's rollingstone.com mailer:

* COLDPLAY is contemplating a five-year break so that members of the band can focus on their families. "It's going to be a long, long time before you hear a new album from us," frontman CHRIS MARTIN told reporters. "We've done a few things, but we're all enjoying having families at the moment."

* All the rumors and broken promises regarding GUNS N' ROSES' long-delayed "Chinese Democracy" may soon result in an actual record. A press release announcing dates for the band's North American fall tour (which kicks off October 20th in Jacksonville, Florida) alluded to a possible release before the end of the year. "The only comment at this time is that there are thirteen Tuesdays left between now and the end of the year," the statement read cryptically.

Also, you may or may not notice that last night's rant is missing. I'm not in the habit of deleting posts, really, but it felt bitchier than necessary, so it's gone. I'm feeling a little more in control of things, too, though the paper's still not done and will probably have to be worked on tomorrow while I travel, which will SUCK. guh. Anyway. Happy monday--hope it's not pouring down rain where you are.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

trading her MG for a white Chrysler LeBaron

I'm really starting to get used to this high-roller lifestyle.

In the past week, thanks to a law firm reception and 3 alumni weekend events here at the law school, I've had so much good wine, good hors d'oeuvres, good entrees and AMAZING desserts that I'm not sure I'm going to be able to return to my microwaved-veggie-burger-and-space-rice monotony without some kicking and screaming. Seriously, there was a chocolate fountain last night. One of the 1Ls working the event with me commented that he felt like he'd crashed somebody's wedding. It's always a little awkward as a student volunteer wandering around the alumni reunion--the alums are almost universally way more interested in talking with their former classmates than with you, but you're there anyway, eating their stuffed chicken and lemon tarts and drinking their wine and cocktails. Hard to beat a free meal and a $15 gift card to Barnes & Noble, though (even if it does mean that the short paper I intended to have done by this afternoon has yet to really get off the ground. Sigh).

I also raced for the cure yesterday morning, which was a ton of fun--I've never participated in a 5K race before, and oh, the swag you get afterwards! The downside was, of course, the fact that I'm pretty sure the last time I went running was before CEDARPOINT OMG, and I didn't pace myself very well. I was all GO GO GO at the start of the race, but after passing the first mile marker I felt like I was going to throw up and had to cut waaaay back. Averaged a 10-min mile, which is nothing to scream from the rooftops, but it's still an accomplishment in my book.

Need to hit the store if I want soda to drink and lunchmeat to eat in the coming week... though I suppose I'm going to be gone so much that it probably doesn't matter whether I stock up or not. It was so nice just being HOME this weekend. I don't want to go to the airport again! I don't want to! I have classes and papers and out of class work and the new TV season to watch and and and... gah. Being a 2L sucks. Someone tell me how it came to be October already? *sigh*