Clockwise from bottom left: Polly, Henry, and Harriet
It’s not often that all three of them are close enough to get a group photo at the same time that I have a camera in my hands. I love the way Harriet is looking over her shoulder at Henry, who has an ever so slightly evil glint in her left eye. Miss Brown knows that cats are bad news.
Polkadottie
One of the quirks that the late Polkadottie never outgrew was a taste for headphone cords. Eventually, no matter how careful I was, every pair of headphones I bought would be demolished by her. Maybe it’s a tortie cat thing? Polly has now killed three pairs of headphones. The first time was a learning experience, the second time was my fault for not putting my iPod away, but the third time? The horrid little brat got into my bag and pulled out the headphones.
Polly
When did “myself” become an acceptable substitute for “I” and “me”? I am constantly hearing folks saying things like, “Myself and John did blah blah blah.” Or “You should have talked to John and myself about blah blah blah.” WTF?! Knock it off, people!
Storms freak me the hell out. (Thanks, mom!) Not so badly now that I have a nice, big basement to go to, but still, they’re scary. It’s especially creepy when the sky suddenly gets dark and the trees along the back edge of the field behind my building start dancing.
Now that the worst of it is over, this will be a good afternoon to drink hot chocolate and finish my book.
I planted several of these last year, and all of them came up this spring, but so far, only one has bloomed.
In other news, that staff meeting and the training BS we have to go through? I got to work this morning, and there was an email from our unit supervisor requiring us to read the FAQ (it’s a wiki, actually) on using our computers. We will have to give a short explanation of what we learned from it at our next unit meeting, this Wednesday. My head nearly explodiated!
1. I read the damned wiki when it was first made available.
2. Because I am one of the few people who finished the ridiculous Web 2.0 assignment (the one in which we were supposed to set up a blog and post photos to Flickr), and because I use them every damned day, I long ago subscribed to the RSS feed for the damned wiki. And I actually look when it’s updated, which is kind of pointless, because it’s almost always a stylistic edit, not anything to do with actual content. But I do look!
This means that I’m not going to read the damned wiki, because I already have. Nor am I going to learn anything from it, because I have actually done what we were told to do a goddamn year ago. Apparently, some folks have not acquainted themselves with the damned wiki, though, so there will be the equivalent of a test.
We are not amused.
Also on the list of things that we are unamused about is the coworker whose daughter is pregnant, and who keeps giving everyone in the department hourly updates on how dilated said daughter’s cervix is. I think I can safely say that’s one of those things that’s near the top of the list of Stuff I Do Not Need to Know. I understand she’s excited about her grandbaby being born, and I understand that’s something that’s perfectly appropriate to share between good friends, but we are coworkers, not good friends, and that sort of thing is therefore definitely TMI.
Beyond that, though, is the larger issue of women’s bodies being treated like public property, especially when those bodies are pregnant. Too many people don’t think twice about offering unasked for advice to pregnant women, or sharing their own birth horror stories with them, or invading their personal space to touch their bellies. It seems that my coworker’s sharing of her daughter’s labor progress falls somewhere in there. It’s kind of private and shouldn’t be for public consumption. If people want a progress report, a simple, “Nothing yet,” should suffice.
No roll of toilet paper is safe from Miss Henry.
Before
After
Tony’s gone, so hopefully no one will mind me putting this photo up. It’s another one my mom scanned, and one I’d never seen before. I love it! It’s pretty damaged, though, so I spent a couple of hours in Photoshop, trying to repair the worst of it.
(Photo by Cal Meineke)
Clarisse Perry Lord 1878-1940
My mom just got back from visiting my grandparents. While she was there, she scanned a few more photos. This one of my great grandma Nell was in a frame, hidden behind another photo.
red paper boat 