My New Part Time Gig...

... Is full of little statues and the like. It is a sushi restaurant. The figurines keep me occupied.

Do you have an odd trinkets at work?

New (For Me) Ben & Jerry's

Ok, so about once every other week, we buy some pints of ice cream and chow down. This week it was on and we bought Banana Split and Milk & Cookies.

Milk & Cookies is just slightly glorified cookies and cream. Definitely not one to add to my roster. Banana Split, on the other hand, is yummy and gooey and yum in a cardboard pint. The banana and strawberry ice creams merge deliciously and the walnuts, fudge chunks, and gooey fudge swirl take it over the top. Yummmmmmmyyyyyy!

I still will stand by Chunky Monkey as all time fave. Sorry this is so short! I'm typing from my phone.

What gourmet ice cream is your favorite?

A Retro Review: Digital Fortress

I know lots of people are Dan Brown fans. My mother is one of those people. I have a nook and lots of time, right now, so I figured I would give it a try. Sort of one of those "Mom reads these books and she doesn't read a whole lot, so it should be okay, right?" Plus, I wanted to read his few books in order (not succession, that is far too large for Mr. Brown) which took me to his first: Digital Fortress.

Published in 1998, Dan Brown's first novel takes place in Seville, Spain and in DC at the NSA's headquarters. The two main characters, Susan Fletcher and David Becker, are working two sides of a problem that include computer algorithms and encoded rings. The story starts simply enough: Becker, a linguist, gets called to pick up a passkey from someone in Spain. Meanwhile, Fletcher does what she does best and attempts to break a code that has the NSA's main computer - TRANSLTR - stuck in an endless loop typical of a virus. Why no one had checked the encryption key it was processing for mutation strings sooner is beyond me, but that is the way the story rolls.

Anyway... there are car/bus/Vespa chases, a fight, murders left and right, a hit man, and a Catholic church in this book. Of course, our hero tag team saves the day, the second in command goes crazy and stuff, everything fits at the last second.... blah blah.

Personally, I couldn't get into this book. It should not have taken me this long to read the almost 300 pages of ridiculously simplistic text. The fact that they are all supposed to be the best in the country at what they do leads me to question where they are recruiting from. I have never see this level of conversation for the degree of scholastic achievement they have. Not to say that people from a certain scholarly level are held to a higher standard than most. Not at all. I just expect them to be able to communicate to each other in a more proficient way. The conversations on Dawson's Creek were far more intellectually stimulating. Also, weak plot twists and super predictability left me a bit saddened. I have read teen books with more umph. Fear Street, anyone?

I was hoping to get something out of this and was left looking at a last page wondering if that was the rough draft.

Sadly, I will continue to read his books and hope that this was just a bad first book. I look forward to my next book: Angels and Demons. I hear it's pretty good!

A Silly, Wonderful Day...

I really had an awkward sort of nice day. It started with the realization that this was the end of a very large chapter of my life. Not only am I leaving Skyland on a positive note with a clearer frame of mind and a better outlook on life, but I am also returning to my island of misfit toys sans a few things I had when I left... There's a lot and it is greatly personal so feel free to get a hold of me some other way to inquire, thank you. Besides the emotional dichotomy I am facing, I know now that I have the strength needed to get through it all.

Anyway, back to my day... I realized that I am ok at a few different things and that was nice, I cried a lot during my last session, DBT was all cheer-leading statements and also made me a wreck, picked up some awesome thing I created from the greenhouse with some extras and got some presents for myself (I made them). The day ended with a blondie (type of brownie) that I received.

Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. It was nice to be up and down for the right reasons instead of for no reason at all. I DID get to wear my new hair bow! You can see it on Facebook or Google+. I made it last night. It was like I was wrapping my self up and presenting the polished up new Mimi to the world. I have a few dents, but I run better than ever!

Fun With Hair Clips

Fig 1. Just a few.

So, I have a lot of hair pieces. It started years ago with barrettes and fun clips til I was well into high school, then putting actual flowers in my hair every day. Then came fake flower clips. This lasted for a while and I lost a lot of them to random acts of silly. Then I started making them. Now: addiction.


I can be seasonal or match an outfit. I have to say I am a bit disgusted with it. I blame it on being someplace with not much to do.

Boredom  will do it, assuredly.


This box is what I have "acquired" this past 5 months. I don't  know what happened, but I think it started in a craft store. I slipped walking in and walked out with sass in feathers, paper, and yarn. Let me show you some of the ones I have done!

Spencer's Cousin

I have a dog that I think is related to this animal. The resemblance was so remarkable it took me a second to determine whether or not to post here or on Potspoon! today! I refer to the dog as a Sabre-toothed chihuahua, and this is refered to as a sabre-toothed squirrel. Pretty similar in looks though I'll admit, Spencer does not have rodent teeth, he does have an under-bite with pretty large fangs.

Fig. 1 artist illustration of squirrel.

Fig. 2. Spencer

See what I mean?

Tibetan Buddhist Temple

Tibetan festival from recently:
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