Snowball Dogs

Despite the occasional mention of the dogs and the cat, I haven't really properly introduced all the animals in this space. I think each of them deserve their own post, starting with Ellie, as the one-year anniversary of her adoption is fast approaching.

In the meantime, however, here are the two dogs, Annie (black/tan) and Ellie (tan/white), enjoying the season's first measurable snow:

Crafting with Leftovers

I love it when my mom comes to visit, because she often comes bearing gifts. Sometimes, when I’m lucky, those gifts are home-related. A few months ago, she came through with some garage-sale finds, including this lovely framed portrait of…some flowers:

She picked it up with the understanding I’d probably change out the contents, because hey, a frame’s a frame. Figuring I’d get inspired enough to do so, I happily accepted.

After stalling for months because I couldn’t figure out what images I’d want to put in the 8” x 10” mats, the proverbial light bulb appeared over my head this afternoon and I decided to get to work. And because I am lazy resourceful, I flipped this cheap find completely with stuff I happened to have around the house.

Study Time!

Caught the tail end of this one on CNN this morning:

Study: Hyper-texting teens more likely to smoke, drink, have sex

FTA:

All that texting and social networking by teenagers could come back to byte them.

A new study by the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine links poor health behaviors -- including smoking, drinking and sexual activity -- to hyper-texting and hyper-networking.

I'm so glad someone conducted a big fancy study to tell us that kids who have more social interaction are exposed to more experiences. I mean, that's not what the story says the data shows, but really, what other logical conclusions could be drawn from these results?

On "Borderline" Comedy

"And you guys wonder why Dave Chappelle quit and went to Africa. Wanna know why? It was because of dumb fans."

I've heard this from more than one comic. Chris Hardwick threw out a variation on the theme on a recent Nerdist podcast. His comments were more to the effect that Chappelle quit at the height of his game because the tongue-in-cheek racial comedy he delivered with the intention of satirizing racists was embraced and non-ironically co-opted by, well, racists.

Smugly Rocking My "I Voted" Sticker

I rolled out of bed bright and early expecting a long detour, but even after stopping to vote and to get coffee, I STILL made it to work earlier than I typically do.

I think that says more about my all-around punctuality than it does about how long it took me to vote, but turnout at my polling place did appear to drop off remarkably from the presidential election two years ago. It was my first time voting in a mid-term (yeah, I know), so I guess I didn't really have a frame of reference. Still, I waited in line for something like an hour - 20-30 minutes of that actually outside in the cold - in '08, whereas this morning there were three whole people ahead of me. Almost two hours into the day, I was the 35th voter at the polling place.

So today I will be proudly displaying my "I Vote/I Count" sticker, on my purse, which sits under my desk most of the day. Maybe tonight I will exercise my newly codified right to purchase alcohol on election day, just because I can. Welcome to the 21st century, Indiana!*


*Now how 'bout we legalize Sunday carry-out sales.

Tourist in my own town

Taking advantage of an unseasonably warm late October, my parents drove down from South Bend last weekend for a visit. The weather promised to be mid-70s and rain-free, so we decided to hit downtown in the middle of the afternoon and see what there was to see.

The parents, the sister, the husband and I all met up and started off with a great late lunch at Palomino. It was a first for me, and while I'd love to make it back soon, it might have been a bit on the fancy side for the boy, who has the palate of a nine-year-old. He made do with a burger (minus veggies) and fries. I had a perfectly portioned tomato/pesto/mozzarella panini with a side salad of field greens with goat cheese and pumpkin seeds dressed with olive oil and topped with a lemon wedge. I took a wild guess that the lemon was meant to be squeezed over the salad to finish the dressing, which met with reasonable success. Mom had the same salad and was a bit mystified by it, so she took my lead, to mixed results. The goat cheese was a little out of her comfort zone as well, but, baby steps, I guess.

Next up on the rotation was a walk along the canal, which I'm ashamed to admit was also a first for me, even after four years as a Naptowner. We spent some time at the Medal of Honor recipients memorial, which in addition to being fascinating and humbling, is also just plain pretty. We continued along the canal walk onward to White River State Park, past the museums and down the sculpture path until we turned around at the zoo. All the while I was kicking myself for not having taken advantage of such a beautiful, culture-fied resource right in my own downtown. What else had I been missing out on for so long?

My Unsolicited 2 Cents on Ugly Websites

As I'm working through the editorial proofs for our upcoming magazine, I have the unenviable task of verifying the contact info for every company that's credited on the featured projects. My first stop in most cases is Google, in hopes of tracking down a professional company website with complete contact information.

Believe it or not, not every company has made it a priority to establish such a website. (Thankfully, the primary offenders here are not companies in our industry, but rather their project partners.)

After browsing something like 50 websites over the past week or so, many of which feature a few key common threads of badness, I feel prepared to launch a crusade against these common offenses.

Better Than A Live Mouse

Oh, Princess Annie.

Princess Annie brought a dead mouse into the living room today.

Inside the Wedding, Part 0: The Prologue

I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was a reluctant wedding planner, but I wouldn’t go and say I dove in headfirst, either.

It was a means to an end. I was engaged and I needed to be married, and for that, there would need to be a wedding. So we picked a venue and set a date to look forward to, and one by one we knocked out all the little details that came marching along in the interim.

I wasn’t one of those girls who grew up dreaming of her wedding day, so I entered the planning game with no expectations and vowed (ha) to keep it no-frills. I set out with a long list of “don’t”s, most of which I pulled from the traditional lists of “do” s: no church, no religion, no anti-feminist rituals or language, and no regarding the day as the most important day of my life.

Along the way, I broke my own rules once or twice and started sweating the small stuff – a common trap for me when faced with creative decisions that can contain infinite levels of nuance if you allow them to. And a few times, I had to remind myself that I wasn’t competing to have the best wedding any of my guests (and frankly anyone ever) had ever attended.

But I more or less managed to keep my head about me while doing most of the work myself, and if I may say so, managed to pull off a pretty sweet event. And I even had just a little bit of fun in the process.