More pictures. Because I can't stop taking them. :)

Garden gnome rain gauge

Sunset...

... as interpreted by the computer.

Clouds...

... as interpreted by the computer (very cool, no?)

I'm so mean for not letting him go out!

Screen door/rain self portrait ;)

Birds I wish I had taken photos of this week:

• The little pink chirp things that like my birdfeeder (and that Spike loves to watch!)
• The black bird that was chasing a hawk over the parking lot at work
• The bald eagle that flew low over the cars as I sat in traffic on the bridge over the river.

I'm thinking about moving my furniture this weekend. Well, I've been thinking about it for a long time. I think about it all the time, actually. I almost never get around to doing it though because it means I have to do all that extra vacuuming (mopboards and stuff) and deal with the giant pile of computer cables back in the corner. I'm ready to see things from a new angle though.

I've started being mean at work. Well, I don't think I'm really being mean, but I feel like I'm being mean. I get ignored a lot here. I've been told that I need to pretty much tell people that they've got a certain period of time to respond to my request and if I don't hear from them I'm just going to do what I want (well, not just what I want... you know.). I hate doing that, but people always respond. and I'm tired of being ignored.

Today's walk with the ladies from work - http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=187062

I thought the cop was cute until I saw him eat. It was really disappointing.

I've been busy this week. I can't remember what I've actually done, but I know I've been busy. Let's see... I visited my mom in the hospital after her hip replacement surgery (she's doing great except for the whole not being about to go anywhere thing. and I think she'd like to be able to put on her own socks. Good thing it's (almost!) summer and she can wear sandals, huh?), I baked cookies, I went on three hour long walks, I finished my super fancy cabled sweater sleeve, and somehow managed to buy gas at $2.59 a gallon without even waiting for the price to go down. It's been a pretty good week.

They're not space age cookies. I just like the tin foil/no clean up way to bake.

Poor Spike can never catch that laser beam no matter how hard he tries.

He was a little offended that I would post such a ridiculous photo of him, so here he is being serious. (are you happy now, cat?)

Check this out - it's the route I walked today at lunch (we went three times around the block there!). The satellite picture must be old - the building I work in doesn't even exist yet according to this picture! http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=177207 How cool is that?!?

T$ - you'll always be OPRTLC to me! and you too, Doug! ;)

I'm overwhelmed all of a sudden. I had a meeting this morning where it was me vs. 13 other people. Ok, really it wasn't like that, but it sure felt that way. I asked if we could fix the help feature - when you click on "Help" you get a message saying something about not connecting to a database. I asked 1) do we have any help information? 2) can we either move the files to where the program is looking for them OR change the program so it looks for the help files where they are? I had 10 people tell me "That's just how it works! We can't change it." and one person saying "I want to know this too!" and two people who just looked completely confused.

Excuse me while I go bang my head against the wall for a minute.

And then I was going to look for three-column blog templates so I can make this thing do what I want it to do and instead I ended up wanting Firefox and wanting to completely make up my own template and figure out what that del.ici.ous thing is (I probably didn't even get those periods right!) and it's all too much stuff.

So I'm just going to post pictures instead.

It's not actually crashing. It just looks like it.

Garlic cheeseburger!

Secret spy pic of a strange looking woman. look closely - she's got two faces! so she looks strange in real life and in pictures! cool! Nice shot, Scott! Although, it kind of looks like she was turning to look at the camera. I sure hope she didn't notice that we were taking her picture!

The gnome at night.

Re: Garden Gnomes

I've turned into a garden gnome pimp or something. I told the women I work with that I bought a little garden gnome rain gauge at Target. They both said that they hadn't seen those at their Targets in the dollar section. I enthused "They're really cute! and only a dollar!" They both whipped out cash and asked if I'd pick up rain gauges for them. Of course I said "Sure! I'm always at Target!" This sucks because I was planning on not going to Target this week at all. I usually go to Target at least 3 times a week (sad, I know) and I always end up spending money when I go. I can walk in thinking I'm only going to buy milk and bread and ice cream (it's a staple at my house. Spike loves it. (yeah, I know, pathetic attempt to justify buy/eating ice cream. but it's true!)) and I walk out with ice cream, pink barrettes, a brown "Rock 'n Roll will never die!" t-shirt with a skull printed on it, and a garden gnome rain gauge. The next morning when I'm fixing my coffee and there's no milk I realize - crud, I have to go to Target again! And then, secretly, part of me jumps up and down, squealing with glee. I get to go to Target again!

I wish I could take good pictures.

http://www.abeautifulrevolution.com/photos/glorious_britannia/index.html

He seems to have a detached and almost hard view of things. Maybe it's the headless people walking or the fact that almost no one in his photos is looking at the camera. None of them seem to be smiling at the guy taking pictures - they seem to be strangers.

I remember feeling detached in London - does everyone? Physically the city seems hard and cold but the people seemed nice enough. I'm not sure if I could say I've been there twice - technically it was two times, but it was bookends for a longer trip that started and ended there. The first time I was there for less than 24 hours. I was completely exhausted and nervous about being in a strange place on my own. I don't know about you, but when I've only had 4 hours worth of sleep in two whole days I get really, really stupid. Knowing that a lack of sleep makes me stupid is makes things worse, too, because I can't trust myself to make any decisions because I know I'm probably making bad ones. So I was tired, nervous and second guessing everything I said or did. I couldn't even figure out how to make a phone call, I had to ask someone else to do it for me. That's how stupid I was that day. But I have to say the people were really very nice (and willing to help a completely crazy and stupid American tourist dial the phone, which was certainly not part of their job description). It was a very surreal day - I just felt completely out of context. And that's how this guy's photos feel to me.

Three strange things in London:

• Watching the queen on tv giving a speech, hitting the mute button and then being able to actually faintly hear the noise of the crowd cheering in response.
  
  
• Standing inside a small photo developing place watching a big black bird fly around inside, knocking over picture frames and packages of film, while the two people working behind the counter shrieked and flapped their hands. They had no idea how to get it back out the door.
  
  
• The cab driver called me sweetheart. Most people had been avoiding me for the past few days since I was continuously coughing up something nasty and green but he smiled at me, called me sweetheart and put my suitcase in the trunk for me (although he probably would have called it "the boot" or something else). I nearly asked if he'd hug me in exchange for the £20 note I was planning on using to buy exotic English Dramamine and magazines with at the airport.

They're firing a cannon off in front of the capitol building today. We can't figure out why, but it's really loud and makes me jump every time they do it. It's not often that you hear cannon fire around here.

See, I tried to make this more interesting than a vitamin report since people actually are reading this. lol Now you guys all have to get a blog of your own. (except for Erin, who already has one. (and I read it, Erin!)) so there.