that rosebud girl

bestest day in a while!

okay, so i was momentarily distracted by all the blinding tennessee orange. but i’m focused now. or whatever.

things were looking quite up today despite the tons of rain we got:

1. i got my taxes done. and i am extremely happy with the result.
2. i confirmed that i can indeed participate in two craft shows, one in april and one in may. sweeeeeeet!
3. i snagged a potential design client.
4. i ate one of the damn best burritos you can get in this town, and it was delivered to me at work so i didn’t have to walk in rain.

and this didn’t happen yesterday, but it was fab too: a shop is going to sell some of my cards on consignment. yeeeeeaah!

to top it all off, rumor has it that it’s supposed to snow in sacto tonight. i can’t even begin to tell you how excited that would make me. i want snow. even just flakes would make me the happiest human being ever.

back to work.

and i guess i should add no. 5 to the list: today is my friday. woot!

equality, isn’t it great?

here is one of the more entertaining things on the photo wires at work:

it’s tennessee coach pat summitt! like you’ve never seen her before. i usually see her on tv in sharp pantsuits and stiletto heels that look like they would kill you if you made a bad pass or something during a game.

but she’s harkening back to her cheerleader days here during a men’s game at tennessee. repaying the favor to men’s coach bruce pearl, who showed up shirtless and painted his body orange to cheer on the lady vols earlier this year.

the whole thing is hysterical, but that hat especially kills me.

if you must know, here was bruce pearl doing the great pumpkin thing earlier this year:

the sushi tour continues …

lisa and i chose another stop on our sushi tour of sacramento today … this time, we brought ed along.

we went to mana restaurant, near the arden fair mall. pretty good stuff. the chirashi was probably the best thing we got … it looked all pretty (the tuna was wrapped up in a flower-like fashion) and the fish was pretty danged good. tuna … mackerel … squid … octopus … some other white fish i couldn’t identify.

the rolls we got were pretty good too. one had crab and shrimp and cucumber … the other had soft shell crab and a host of other seafood. nice thumbs up there.

overall, probably three out of four stars. it’s no zen sushi (still our favorite on the sushi tour), but damn good nonetheless.

i am starting to like more kinds of raw fish. the mackerel was damn good. i was surprised by the octopus too. i’ve also determined that soft shell crab is quickly becoming one of my ingredients of choice in a sushi roll. mmmm. i want a spider roll now.

the only bad thing was that it rained like a mofo today. i know we need the rain, but it still sucks in copious amounts. that, and sacto roads are very holey and puddly.

those phightin’ phils …

it’s that time of year again … you know, when baseball folks wake from their slumber and trek to florida/arizona for spring training.

yes, baseball season is upon us (almost).

while i don’t like baseball nearly as much as i like football (football is far and away no. 1 in my book), a sportsphile like me needs something to bridge the void between the end of the nfl season and the start of another glorious usc season. so baseball is it. and following those wacky philadelphia phillies.

i became a phillies fan while living in delaware — something a certain person still can’t understand to this day — and occasionally, i like to read about the fightin’s … so i hop on over to a friend of a friend’s blog (which i can’t publicize … boo him).

in perusing his site tonight, i stumbled upon another blog that deals with all teams in baseball, but has whole sections devoted certain teams. of course i read about the phils. and it’s damn hilarious. i laughed so hard at work that i think everyone thought i was crazy. (well, they do anyway, but whatever.)

anyhow, check out the goods here: bugs & cranks — phillies-style.

psst, they’ve got other teams too if you’re not a phils fan. the whole damn thing is funny. just go read it already.

dude looks like a lady …

saw these on the wire today … the staff had a good laugh:

   

it’s barry zito as a woman. the giants do this “american idol” spoof during spring training and someone dresses up as paula abdul. barry zito did it this year (barry bonds did it last year).

absolutely hysterical.

i think barry makes a good woman, no?

if you want to see barry bonds as paula abdul from last year, click here.

kickin’ it old-school.

thanks to a heavy dose of the alternative on vh1 classic (electronic! new order! the lightning seeds!), i’ve been on this new waveish kick.

that, and it must be all the depeche mode i’ve been listening to … thanks, edgar.

anyhow, i had to create a new mix on my ipod called the middle school dance mix … because all that music really does take me back to those days of having a dance in the cafeteria with an a’ight dj and chillin’ with your friends in the wooden bleachers. and of course, you could perform the same swaying move to practically all these songs.

here’s the mix:

1. “the promise” by when in rome
2. “bizarre love triangle” by new order
3. “blue monday” by new order
4. “getting away with it” by electronic
5. “strangelove” by depeche mode
6. “policy of truth” by depeche mode
7. “enjoy the silence” by depeche mode
8. “personal jesus” by depeche mode
9. “living in oblivion” by anything box
10. “always” by erasure
11. “the ghost in you” by psychedelic furs

i realize that some of this music came out before i was in middle school, but you get the point.

now all i need is “pure” from the lightning seeds and i’m all set.

i also realize i should have actually danced more during these dances. i think i was too shy and wimpy. hard to believe, but yes, i was once a shy puppy …

bug extermination.

the one thing about working with the web that sucks is fixing bugs. really. one misplaced space/comma/apostrophe/symbol makes the whole damn thing stop working. and then it becomes this never ending search for what the hell the matter is.

i have been working on a shop for someone for quite some time now, and i’m in the late stages. i’m thisclose to going live. but i kept running into one problem — the cart didn’t work.

i finally figured out that problem this morning — stupid me, i uploaded the wrong file — only to find there were about 20 other things that went wrong.

but after hours upon hours of searching, i think i finally worked the kinks out. yay.

i like having that great sense of accomplishment.

today has to be the most productive holiday i’ve had in ages. i managed to get a bunch of projects updated. woohoo!

*chest puffing with pride*

scary as hell …

… is this photo:

this is carrot top at the the nba all-star weekend celebrity game, which i think was saturday.

worst. hair. ever.

i’ve been trying to find a photo of wayne newton wearing this god-awful jacket during his pregame performance today, but the wires are being unkind to me in that regard.

but one scary photo probably is enough for today.

at least my day has not been scary. it has been quite nice, actually. it involved lots of homemade soup — i made clam chowder, lisa brought some cheese/potato/rice soup. mmmm mmmm good. though i think we put campbell’s to shame.

police cars, ambulances and news trucks, oh my!

(that has to be one of the longest titles ever.)

anyway, as i’m driving to the tax office this morning, i hit a slowdown at a red light. now, that’s not a very momentous event, except that this red light was in a residential area that really doesn’t have traffic jams.

the light turns green and everyone in front of me inches forward slowly. as i get near the front, i notice that one lane is closed and there are cops all over the place at an apartment complex that is right at the light. topping it all off, every frickin’ news truck in town is on the scene. there’s even a guy doing a stand-up shot by the street.

i get to the office and check out the paper online, and it turns out to be this.

crazy.

a good day and a v-day rant.

okay, let me start off with the rant.

today is valentine’s day. now, if you’ve known me long enough, you will know that i do not give a shit about valentine’s day. i hate it. (and yes, this is coming from a married person.)

and of course, i get on the light rail today and some really young couple sits in front of me. the guy is really tall, the chick real petite, so of course she fits real nicely against his chest.

well, i’m sitting in my seat, groovin’ to the ipod, minding my own business and knitting (always knitting, of course), and at some point, they get all lovey-dovey. and they make out intermittently right in front of me. and they were on the train a while. we’re talking at least 30 minutes or so. and they’re smooching and whatever in front of me. and i’m close enough that an errant wave of my knitting needle is going to poke the dude in the eye. i can see into his nostrils, for crying out loud!

anyhow, i was wishing one of two things:

1. i had someone to talk to on the cell phone, because i would have said quite loudly, “yeah, i think the dude in front of me is going to get lucky tonight. i’d check in nine months to see if this chick is poppin’ out a kid.”

2. i had a kid, say 6 or 7 or so, who was real smart and mischevious, so he/she could turn to me and say in a loud clear voice, “mommy, i think those people are making babies in front of us.”

keep your damn hands to yourself in public. we do not need to see you putting your tongue down someone’s throat. honestly. and i speak for all the single folks out there who don’t want to feel like a third wheel.

[/rant]

besides the couple and their overactive lips, it was an excellent day.

lisa and i ate some sushi at a joint called zen sushi, and it was fab. it’s probably the best sushi joint we’ve tried so far on our sushi tour of sacramento. definitely worth coming back. we had some yummy rolls packed with all sorts of seafood — including one with soft shell crab. and we had some maguro nigiri — it was probably the largest piece of tuna i’ve ever seen sitting on a ball of rice.

we also shopped. i bought a new wallet (finally).

the day was also full of interesting observations:

• on my way to the train station this morning, a bunch of dudes were standing on the street near an intersection, throwing piles of wood into the back of their truck. i guess their ties broke in the back and all the wood fell out. it was kind of comedic. i almost thought about taking a picture with my cell phone (i was at a really long red light), but i couldn’t find the phone.
• one of the fountains at the mall was foaming up. some punk kids probably threw soap into it.
• on our way to the mall, we drove by the greyhound bus station … and the police were in the middle of arresting someone. they had the dude face down on the sidewalk and were cuffing him up. of course, everyone and their mother on the sidewalk was staring at the dude getting arrested.

and despite my hate of v-day, ed is cooking tonight. prime rib, here i come. yeah, i bet you’re jealous. *nyah*