nichole's auxiliary storage

Test tube babies

When I was fish- and worm-sitting for Kayla, I noticed her feral spider plant too. I confess, I took some cuttings. I had this project in mind:

The first try ended in frustration. I was crimping transistors (also from the ReStore) together and trying to wrap them around lipless test tubes. Of course, the tubes kept slipping out.

I pilfered some lipped test tubes from my spice rack (looks good, is a pain in the ass) and finished the project at Kari's.

I like how the cuttings, stuck on the window, shade the room a tiny bit, and how I have to water them with a turkey baster.

Update: closeup.

Found something to quit

Being the Coffee Lady.

It's so obvious! I've minded the office coffee for almost 4 years, during which I've chipped in an aggregate 28% of the ten-person fund (JM forgive me! No more!), even while my coffee consumption has declined to a cup a day. Recipe for bitterness.

No more hounding people for money! No more seeing them gloat as they part with $3, as if they're Andrew Carnegie! No more surly co-op clerks!

This is dangerously close to work blogging. But it's all true; I've got spreadsheets.

June 30, 2005
VOLUNTEER JOB NOTICE 05/01

OPEN COFFEE FUND MANAGER POSITION

Effective immediately, there is an open Coffee Fund Manager position available.  Any Coffee Drinker or Good Citizen willing to take on these duties should contact Nichole as soon as possible.

Open Position: Coffee Fund Manager

Hours: 1 hour or less per week

Duties: Acquiring regular and decaffeinated coffee, filters, creamer, and replacement equipment; record keeping; fundraising; other duties as necessary.

Related: St. Mark's Place guy has an admirable goal.

I want it with "au jus"

This thread on eGullet piqued my interest.

It's hard to say whether restaurateurs or diners are more guilty of abusing the phrase. I've lost track of how many menus list beef dishes "with au jus," but it's a distinct majority.

My favorite so far is "and a side of au jus." Maybe JM can remember others...

Easy steps to excommunication

After my recent denominational realignment, I was looking for info about how to tell the Roman Catholic Church of my reception into the rock bottom Episcopal Church.

I probably spent more time looking for a form letter than writing my own from scratch. (That's just how lazy the web can make a person.) I wanted something like this, but maybe a little, I don't know, gentler? And totally different, actually.

So I wrote my own, very businesslike, letter to the last Catholic church I went to, and enclosed a copy of my reception certificate. I got a warm, congratulatory message back acknowledging the change and wishing me the best: "To be at home somewhere is all our hope."

Milwaukee librarian plugs summer reading

In the Journal-Sentinel: Better ways to get the best of summer (use bugmenot if you need a login).

To find your own magical time, Huston suggests bringing a book with you when you're out, using any waiting time to read.

Another way to get that reading in is to make a reading date with yourself, she suggests. Nothing wrong with ending a day of biking and gardening with a good read.

She gives a few recommendations, then the article moves on to tips for grilling, picking the best veggies, picnicking, outdoor concerts, and getting the most out of rummage sales.

People reject that

Madison Alder Konkel, from a pull quote in Isthmus' cover story of June 24:

When you're overly political or ambitious, people reject that. We don't want to follow people who are actively trying to be leaders.

On the one hand, I'm fond of citing the fact that, had Peter told Aslan he was ready to be king, it would prove he wasn't. On the other, allegories only go so far in small-time politics and just plain Getting Things Done. This attitude can go beyond polite to dysfunctional, and is very frustrating to work with.

Dineplexity

So there's this card in a draft of JM's game that reads "Movie A meets movie B." To the film geeks who wrote it, it's easy, but regular folks are stumped whenever it comes up.

On the other hand, if there were a Dineplexity card game about food, "Restaurant A meets restaurant B" would be fun. Guess it's all in what you know.

First fruits

Ten red berries today. So sour they set my teeth on edge - yes, I ate them all, all but one. Maybe I need to be more patient.

A good enough reminder as any to get out of the basement now and then this summer.

Have mercy

Ticket to Ride Europe is now online. Pardon me while I OD.

Big bugs

Finally heard from my brother again after some nerve-rattling quiet. He mentioned that the bugs in Iraq are getting bigger.

The biggest bugs I ever saw were at Hueco Tanks, Texas. Perhaps being 10 had something to do with it. (I doubt he'd remember the bugs, since he was a toddler then.) It didn't occur to me at the time, but the park looks to be great for climbing, too.

Anyway. I found his base newspaper. And some day-in-the-life stuff.

ConHugeCo

Library Journal: ILS Vendors Sirsi and Dynix To Merge.

Estimating makes an est of I and Ma

Why is it that other librarians tend to overestimate my technological skill, while other acquaintances underestimate it? And how can I exploit this tendency to my advantage?

(If I were a guy, I doubt I'd recognize the former*, and wouldn't fail to protest the latter.)

Gah, whatever. Caring about this is high on my quit list.

*This led to a totally unscientific, yet fun, related Google exercise, in which I found it written that women tend to overestimate:

1. their risk of breast cancer
2. a man’s desire for long-term romance
3. their body size
4. the number of childbearing years they have left
5. the frequency of their Pap smears
6. how much blood they lose during their periods
7. the effectiveness of [a knee to the groin]
8. problematic circumstances

while men tend to overestimate:

1. their looks, abilities, strength, fitness, and self-worth
2. the number of sexual partners they've had
3. the strength of spirits and beer
4. their value in the singles "marketplace"
5. the merit of their [housekeeping] activity
6. their better spatial "instincts"
7. their driving ability and resilience
8. how many fruits and vegetables they consume

Re: my quitting talk

Really, it's just belated spring cleaning and not a call for drastic change. Every summer, I think about quitting the projects that have ceased to be rewarding, but which I've tolerated all winter after starting with a burst of energy in the fall.

Sure, recent disappointments are part of it, and I feel justified in a little moping (which will cease forthwith). But rebudgeting my energy every June is a long-standing pattern. Could be tipped off by the draw of the outdoors or a kind of sun-mania.

I used to try to stay awake all night on the summer solstice. Last time I made it must have been the late 90's. I read Fear and Loathing cover to cover, then passed out after taking the dog for a walk.

I read somewhere that in Bogota (?), there's a nightclub that celebrates New Year's Eve every month.

Merry Wives

Can't get enough APT. We went again last weekend to see Merry Wives of Windsor (excellent) and I got proof of the intriguing donor plate in the third row.

My sister pointed out a more jovial example.

Season of small fruits

"We are a little saddened, because we begin to see the interval between our hopes and their fulfillment. The prospect of the heavens is taken away, and we are presented with a few small berries."

Last straw

Last night I had a tantrum, complete with cussing in front of a member of the clergy. Strictly speaking, it was on behalf of someone else who just suffered a major disappointment, but there have been more disappointments around Chez Nichole lately than I care to recount.

So I'm gonna quit.

Something big.

Not sure what yet. I'm starting by re-reading Evan Harris' The Quit.

Bloggable things I've recently quit:

1. Paying in more than my share of the coffee fund
2. Working the hardest (part of a general wilting-prevention program)
3. 20% of my blogroll

Bloggable things I have yet to quit:

1. Using the dryer instead of the (new!) clothesline
2. Being nice to mean people, and vice versa
3. Not having a dog (sorry, JM, I know, a mutt's moot...)

Is this random blog stumble a sign?

Have you quit anything lately?

"Intriguing proposition" nixed?

Looks like the first few episodes of Morgan Spurlock's cable show, 30 Days (previously), will not include one where prosecuting attorneys live in a prison. Instead, there are six smaller-scale scenarios: Minimum Wage (Nickel and Dimed?), Anti-Aging, Muslims and America, Straight/Gay, Off the Grid (House series?), and Binge Drinking Mom. Thanks to Wallo World for the reminder.

In the meantime, I've learned a bit about a Christian organization called Kairos Prison Ministry, whose volunteers live in prison for three days, meeting and studying with inmates. Not enough of the fish-out-of-water setting a reality show craves, I guess.

Tartuffe at APT

All that we most revere, he uses
To cloak his plots and camouflage his ruses.

Went to American Players Theatre to see Tartuffe last weekend. It was great (though my sister, who works there, says she prefers Merry Wives). The actors played their parts big, big, big, which is good when you're acting through a thunderstorm. Their tenacity, and that of whatever kept their hair up, is to be commended.

I was good and didn't bring the camera, a decision I regretted when I noticed that the donation plate on the seat in front of us (stage right, row C) read, "An Enemy of the People."

Huh. All three of the library's first-floor copies are out, but five more languish in storage. Wonder if any of the librarians have noticed.

Unobjectionable odors of State St.

I've used cocoa bean hull mulch in our garden, so now when walking past the State Street planters I'm reminded of the aroma of home.

That, and Jamba Juice smells like kids' chewable aspirin.

Pendulum

Interesting NPR story this morning about some Maine islands deciding whether to dissociate from the mainland towns that govern them. It reminded me of the power struggles in library consortia (among other things), where libraries often give up some local control to reap the benefits of pooled resources. The story signed off with the observation that some seceded islands are now foundering, and considering rejoining the mainland.

That's my Gorman

OK, now I'm embarassed. What a dolt.

Poor Matt

I don't even know him (or do I??) but his story of driving Modest Mouse in his cab, with its graciously-handled ending, makes me feel bad for him.

So how was the show? Muggy and full of 19-year-olds, some in puffy trucker hats, who sang along with "Float On" and probably think Isaac Brock wrote the line, "Laugh hard, it's a long way to the bank." They led off with three songs from "Good News" and I left at 9:30 like the ambivalent, sleepy CvB fan I am. Sorry, Matt.

Bees

Good signs in the raspberry patch.

(Can you tell I've been on vacation this week? I forgot how nice it is to slow down.)

This is my favorite - click to enlarge.

Spotted in jail

This sign:

STOP! The deputy desk is not an information booth! Fill out a request slip!

And a container full of Kemp's milk caps, worth five cents each in donations to schools.

Also heard:

As two workers left a kitchen, the first one out: Lights.
Second: Camera.
First: No, I mean you forgot to get the lights.

Guard arriving: You're just glad you're outta here.
Guard departing: Yeah. I don't have to listen to anybody cry tonight.

Obvious

Before I balk at paying $1.50 for a half-pound tomato (left) at the farmer's market, I will remember what $2.49/lb. gets at the supermarket (four like the one on the right).

If you have one of those DigiScents smell-modems, hook it up now. I'm trying this new whiffcasting thing people are talking about.