I absolutely hate the word “blog”

So go here instead: http://virginiaroberts.com

Sun and Jin have the exact same comforter set as we do.

Question: does this make us candidates?

Q: What the heck do you use to muddle sliced fruit into a giant pitcher of sangría, whose surface area is too large for any standard mojito muddler?
Read the rest…

We just spotted this little vehicle when we were at brunch this weekend. I normally don’t love cars that are totally 100% decked out in marketing hype — too flashy for my taste.

However, Grant spotted this nifty little detail on the side: a built-in card holder! Kinda cool, different, and WAY more welcome than finding unsolicited fliers stuck to my windshield.

I actually grabbed a card to see how well it worked.  (Mildly damp, but still totally functional and no leaky/streaky ink problems.)  And I called the business to see if they would give me the name of the vendor who set up this little card thingy — I just might try and fanagle one for my biz, too!

ETA: They cost $10 if you hunt for a deal, and I just affixed a red one to my car this afternoon. :)

So there’s this stupid little head shop in Fremont and Lake City called Piece of Mind.  Now you MIGHT think that’s a cute little pun, but let’s examine things closer.  Take a look at their logo to the left.

So that’s a PEACE symbol, right? Like, world peace, peace on earth, peace and goodwill. Or PEACE of MIND. So you see, the name PIECE OF MIND would only be a good pun if the interpretation of the homonym /pIs/ that they were going for was, in fact, the PIECE meaning. I.e. a piece of pie, let me give you a piece of my mind, etc. FOR EXAMPLE.

So unless they’re trying to indicate that their shop, instead of giving one ‘piece of mind’, actually somehow robs them of a small piece of their mind, then they’re clearly not quite grasping the concept here.  And if, in fact, the whole piece thing IS in fact their desired marketing angle, then God help us all.

As another case study, let’s take a looksie at an example of a GOOD pun using the term /pIs/: Peace a Pizza, whose logo and name ACTUALLY MAKE SENSE.  Because, you see, traditionally you eat a PIECE of pizza, so changing their name to reflect the PEACE meaning instead is actually a valid pun here, that’s witty and consistent with their logo and branding.  Please take note, stoners of Seattle. Put down the pipe and pick up a thesaurus.

GOD THIS INFURIATES ME SO MUCH EVERY TIME I DRIVE BY THE PLACE.  Thank you for letting me get it off my chest, Imaginary Readers.  All better now.

Grant’s stepmother has this fabulous Arco Lamp in her living room, which she got after her mother told her she could buy “one lamp” for her first apartment (or something like that).  So she went out and bought a MoMA-designed, $900 (at the time!) lamp with a marble base.  Her mother learned to be more specific, and she got a fabulous artistic conversation piece that really lights up any room.  And I LOVE that lamp.  And Grant hates it.

Lately, we’ve been seeing them pop up more and more — a furniture store around the corner has one in their window display, as does the local Design Within Reach shop.  And every time I see one out there, I of course point it out so Grant will realize that these items are beautiful and that other people enjoy them and that his opinion is very, very wrong.

The latest and greatest such occasion was this weekend.  We decided to re-watch Iron Man just for the heck of it.  And do you know what’s featured in that first breathtaking panorama shot of Tony Stark’s house?  (Aside from a half-naked blonde Vanity Fair reporter?)

That’s right, bitches.  It’s THE ARCO LAMP.  Eat that, Grant Roberts.

…Such threatening remarks kind of lose their potency when we’re talking about an item that we can neither afford nor fit in our apartment.  But still.  Someday, somehow, I will own one of these lamps, and I will force Grant to look at it every now and then just on principle.  I’m not yet sure what the principle is, but hey — I’m pleased to know that I have similar taste to Tony Stark.  Even though he’s fictional.  What do you say I end this post about a friggin’ lamp now, before it gets any more tangential and weird?  Okay then.

Today at Nintendo they changed all the lights in my department to these bright white more ‘natural’ ones, and and everyone has been alternately cringing or jumping for joy.  I don’t feel particularly strong about it, but I seem to be the only one.  One thing is for certain: It is a LOT brighter around here now.

The really creepy part is when you leave the department to run to the restroom or something, and then come back.  It’s almost blinding when you re-enter the Bright Zone — like some kind of freaky sci-fi setting.  I feel like mutants are going to bust in through the windows at any moment.  I wonder if crap like this is ever the inspiration for movies about zombies, etc.?  I could definitely see these lights causing mutations in certain individuals.

Man, I hate shopping — I love merchandise, don’t get me wrong.  I just hate lines, parking, fitting rooms, etc.  So I adore the Internet for such things, especially since my inner miser has forced me to become extremely savvy about how to get free shipping deals.  But sometimes, Internet shopping bites you in the ass.

We recently did some Christmas shopping at Ballard Designs, where we came across this really cool-seeming bone playing card deck.

Sadly, it turned out to kind of suck. Aside from the crappy pixelated printing that in no way fits the antique feel, and the total lack of the alleged storage box, we failed to realize that these cards come with two holders so players can set them like Scrabble tiles.  TWO. Who the frack plays a two-man game of poker?   You don’t buy HUNDRED DOLLAR BONE PLAYING CARDS to play a game of GO FISH, Ballard Designs.

Every time I’ve had to spell something over the phone using words to clarify each letter, I’ve failed miserably.  Not at the spelling part, mind you — at the clarification part.  I never learned the NATO Phonetic Alphabet or any other useful and easily memorizable way of doing things, so I always panic and make up the weirdest words on the spot.  Here are some actual examples that I recall having used, much to the amusement and/or confusion of the person on the other end of the line:

A as in Alfred (always used in conjunction with H, below)
B as in Bat (because NOTHING else sounds like “bat”, right?  Totally safe choice)
C as in chlamydia (I kid you not, it was the first thing that popped into my mind.  I think I’d just watched a CSI rerun or something.); also C as in clavicle
D as in Delphi; D as in dingo
E as in Euclid (total failure — of COURSE they put a U when I did this.  Also, who the foxtrot remembers geometry names and also works at a call center?)
F as in frog
G as in gorilla (sensing a theme); also G as in guano (see B, above)
H as in Hitchcock (see A)
I as in Iggy Pop (and I don’t even listen to his music)
N as in Nigeria
R as in roulette; R as in red (another smashingly clear choice)
U as in Uganda
X as in xylophone
Z as in Zimbabwe

…and so on and so forth.  So the other day, when a post-ROTC coworker of mine exclaimed “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!” over something on my computer screen, I immediately hijacked him from his actual work and made him teach me the entire NATO alphabet thingy and force me to repeat it back to him until I had it down pat.  So now I’m theoretically able to communicate the spelling of awkward names much more easily (except for ones containing the letter K — I always forget that one, because “kilo” is NOT A WHOLE WORD, people!  Sheesh!).

Never been prouder.  Victor Alpha out.

Theoretically, I won’t be working insane hours after this week… which means I might actually be able to blog again soon! I know you can barely contain your excitement, Imaginary Readers, but do your best. :)