Slim pickings

Whenever I see the phrase 'wasp-waisted' in a book, I think of the girls in the Minoan bull-jumping picture from my old art-history text book with the heads of wasps. It's wierd.




























In other non-news, the dogs went for their yearly vet exam this evening, so they are now walking around with their tails between their legs. To prevent any further intrusion, so to speak. Monster Mash has a lump on his leg that feels like a large, hard, round pea under his skin. It doesn't seem to bother him, but it scares the hell out of me. Have any other dog people seen anything like this? The vet only told me to keep an eye on it, but I'm still worried. However, that didn't stop me from using a sharpie to draw a pupil on it. Monster is not impressed with the new eyeball on his leg.

Why the hell not

This is my candidate. I even have bumper stickers.

We'll always have Paris...

I'm feeling nostalgic today. Of all the pictures I took in Paris, I think this is my favorite. Between the Seine, Notre Dame in the background, and the guy playing very French-sounding music on his accordion, it's like the essence of Paris. When I look back at our trip, my favorite parts were the times when we just wandered around aimlessly, got lost on the left bank, and sat on the steps to the quai eating crepes from street stands. Our trip was crowded with tourist attractions, which is certainly necessary, but now that I've checked off "seeing the Eiffel Tower," "visiting the Louvre," etc. from my list of Things To Do Before I Die, I think I would like to go back again and spend my time just enjoying the atmosphere. Next time I visit, I will spend days, rather than minutes at Shakespeare & Co, the bookstalls along the river, and the cafes.

I drank the Kool-Aid

Here's a great article in the Statesman about our flagship store turning one year old. Is it normal to be this enamored of the place where one works? Despite being occasionally irked by marketing types, I am completely convinced that I work for the greatest company in the entire universe.

Celebrity Encore

Dan Rather can kiss my granola-crunching, tree-hugging ass. I need to enter my Excel Trance(TM), but Mr. Rather is visiting and has caused the entire marketing department to enter a highly agitated state of bliss/panic. Its like the entire building is vibrating with manic PR energy. Plus, the entourage took up all of the good parking places. At least our new building is big enough. Once, Fortune magazine came to do a photo-shoot at the old building and the only place they could fit everything was the break room, and they completely blocked access to the refrigerators and my contraband Diet Vanilla Coke for several hours.

Wow, I'm grouchy today. The good news is that I no longer drink Diet Vanilla Coke, and I have an electric kettle at my desk for my tea, so invade away, TV people! I defy you!

Celebrity encounter

I have mentioned before that I help with the accounting for our two non-profit foundations. Last time I talked about the Whole Planet Foundation was because I had the chance to have lunch with my CEO and CFO because of it. Just now, the foundation's director, Philip, came by my desk to introduce me to Professor Muhammad Yunus, who founded the Grameen Bank. Luckily, this was completely unexpected, and I was too surprised to be nervous. I was excited from the beginning to get to work on this project, because I really believe in the missions of our Foundations, but they are turning out to have all kinds of cool extra benefits.

Pictures

We meant to go to the Kite Festival yesterday, but by the time we had breakfast, shaved dogs, did laundry, took showers, had lunch, called B's parents for the weekly chat, and got rid of some wasps nests outside, we missed it. We were, however, still in plenty of time to enjoy the massive snarl that is downtown Austin event traffic. So we ended up parking at the Amtrac station, next to some serious blight, and then meandering through about 4 miles of the trails. I find Austin beautiful all of the time, but springtime at Town Lake and Zilker is the highlight of my year. Pictures here.

Sebastian is a badass

Yup, that's a mohawk. This is the second year in a row that I've done this to him, but I think he really likes it. He gets very self-concious when he's all the way naked, but somehow that little ridge of hair makes him feel like he's still covered up. He pranced around the park yesterday with his tail and his nose up, and generally acted like the badass that he thinks he is.

Even more exciting than being an accountant!

So I've been working on knitting a sweater for close to a year now. I'm not even done with the first side because I chose a pattern that requires itsy-bitsy size two needles and lots of skinny stripes. This was an idiotic move on my part since this is my first sweater, but once you've bought all the needles and the 14 skeins of fancy expensive yarn, there's nothing to do but keep working away.

I keep taking breaks, however, to knit easy things like hats. Also, there has been quite the epidemic of pregnancy among my acquaintances lately, and tiny little hand-knit baby hats are a cute and quick present. I knitted the hat in the picture for myself because I liked the self-striping yarn so much, but now I'm thinking I might felt it down for a friend's son.

So there. I realized this morning that I have never blogged about my knitting before, and I apparently have a deep-seated need to out myself as one of the most boring people ever. But hey, buy me some yarn and I'll make you a hat!

Downtown

The inspection sticker on my truck expired last October. Today, I took it to the first place I found on Lamar Blvd., a seedy, rundown looking shop with only one other customer. I waited while a grizzly old man was finishing up an inspection for a very impatient woman. An old, slightly pimped Caddilac pulled up in front of the shop, and a young Hispanic man got out and went inside the tiny waiting room. A few minutes later, an elderly black man rode up on an ancient bicycle. He dropped the bike and hurried into the waiting room. When he passed me, I could see track marks on his arms. He was inside the room less than a minute. He came out, got back on his bike, and rode away. The grizzly old man finished the inspection, and he and the impatient lady entered the waiting room so that she could pay. I followed them. The young Hispanic man also came in. When they were done, the impatient lady hurried out and the young Hispanic man jerked his head at the grizzly old man, who said to me "My machine is broken. I cannot do any more inspections today." I said ok and left.