I is erudite

Saw this on The Journal the Cats Wrote and decided to play along.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
6. Tag three people.

I'm going to ignore the last one, but here's what I came up with:

All such agreements, though, need to be modified to reflect the particular allocation of responsibilites between editor and contributors. Alternatively, in appropriate circumstances, publishers can use simpler forms (such as that in fig. 4.3), closer in style to journal author forms (see fig. 4.2). Finally, it is possible to use work-made-for-hire agreements for all these persons, although that is the least common solution.

The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. Riveting stuff, huh?

Man and his cat(s): a study in shadows

Dude having a heart-to-heart with Mao, and Bugsy's ear in the right foreground.

Thanks, Dubya

I was listening to Christmas in July on my drive home last night as well as on my drive in. I started thinking about how this will be my first Christmas without my mom (I began to feel like it really was Christmastime already), and I started crying right there in the car. Then I heard sirens coming up behind me, and in my sideview mirror saw a police car in the left lane. I was in the second-to-left lane. I thought, OK, a police car, what else is new? Then as it passed I saw it was followed by another, also blaring its siren and flashing its lights. Then a couple of nondescript black SUVs with heavily tinted windows, also flashing lights. Then one of those bulletproof-looking Cadillac-type limos with heavily tinted windows. Then a few more of the nondescript vehicles and two more cop cars bringing up the rear, all blaring the sirens and flashing the lights.

This is probably not unusual, given I was driving on the main bridge crossing from downtown Washington, D.C., into northern Virginia, very near the Pentagon and the airport and lots of government buildings and such. Was it the president? I have to admit, I get easily starstruck. One time my friend and I were getting a ride out of the U.S. Naval Observatory with a guy who worked there, and we had to stop because then-Vice President Gore's helicopter was landing in front of us. (The sitting VP lives at the Naval Observatory.) That was really, really cool.

Point is, the commotion got me so excited I forgot about feeling sorry for myself for being a half-orphan. So whether or not it was really you -- thanks, W!

Season's greetings!

I was a bit puzzled as I tuned into WASH-FM this morning on my drive to work, as my car's temperature indicator read about 86 degrees, to hear "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." Since it's one of my favorite Christmas songs, I had to keep it on. Anyway, my air conditioning was cranked up high enough to simulate Jack Frost nippin' at my nose. After the song ended, a pre-recorded voice announced that it was "Christmas in July."

Only five months left to shop!

It's summer

When my friend came for a girly weekend of chick flicks and shopping, summer officially began for me. That's because among the items I purchased were a new bathing suit and a new pair of wacky summer shoes.

Many of you know that even though I somehow manage to spend a lot of money, I don't like paying full-price for anything. I shop sales and use coupons. Everything I bought this weekend was from either a discount store or on clearance at a regular store. Like three boxes of Christmas cards at Hallmark at 50% off. So I was thrilled to find the aforementioned summery items at Marshall's. The bathing suit had a Speedo price tag of $56, and I bought it for $15. And the funky KangaROOS shoes, evidently a current style of theirs retailing for $55, were $20. And green! And polka-dotted! And a nice homage to my Australian mom. All in all, a good buy.

Food for thought

As I mentioned in the previous post, my visiting friend (former college roommate) and I watched some chick flicks this weekend. One was "The Notebook." We'd both seen it before, more than once. Clearly, I liked it enough to want to see it again. I think it's a nicely told story. Rich visuals, all that. But I don't cry at it. Everyone else (well, every other chick) seems to classify this as one of the most tearjerking of all chick flicks. Another friend turned out to have been watching it the same evening as we were (weird, since it wasn't on TV -- we watched it on On Demand and she watched on DVD) and e-mailed to say how she was "crying, crying, crying." I said, "funny, I never cry at that movie. I'll cry at 'Beaches' and 'Steel Magnolias', but not 'The Notebook.'" She said:

that's b/c you are stronger and get more heartache from women-based friendships than male-female relationships.

That's interesting. I think she might be right about the latter part, but does that really make me "stronger?" That is, stronger than women who get more emotional about male-female relationships?

Potpourri

As in the category on "Jeopardy" where they throw random stuff into the mix.

First, thanks to all who expressed their condolences, here or otherwise, on the death of my mom. I was a mess the first few days after it happened, and have gradually returned to a semi-normal existence since then, although as one friend pointed out, I'm changed forever by this. Not necessarily for the better or worse -- just changed.

In other news, what is up with a man deciding to leave his wife after nine-plus years of wedded bliss and three beautiful kids? Such is the situation with one of my closest friends and it hurts to see her hurting so much. Indeed, until my mom's death, this development was consuming most of my thoughts and concern. And is again as the immediate pain of mom's passing fades. In fact, I know my mom, who liked this friend a lot and was quite a feminist in a lot of ways, would be upset and concerned about this too. The problem is, no one saw it coming -- apparently not even the husband. He just realized one day recently that he'd been unhappy for years and didn't love her anymore and was tired of being underappreciated and taken for granted. That is all valid, BUT he unilaterally decided to end it, without giving his wife a chance to fix it on her end, which she was more than willing to do. Now she's facing a divorce and is struggling with the idea of raising the kids largely alone with no grownup companionship to counterbalance the kids, which was always an important part of her marriage. Plus she's worried about making ends meet financially, even with his promised contributions. I feel sad and angry and helpless all at the same time.

On the complete other end of the boys-are-stupid spectrum, another good friend was in town visiting me this weekend, and with The Dude in the room, she and I were discussing this woman's huge engagement ring we'd seen. I really didn't intend it to be any sort of hint or segue, but he said, "While we're on the subject, not that this is a concern for the immediate future..." and proceeded to talk about engagement rings with me! In front of my friend! She and I played it cool but after he left we were (or at least, I was) practically squealing. Of course, we were also in a generally girly mood having shopped and watched chick flicks all weekend. Hooray for girlfriends, especially those who fly out to visit you to cheer you up just after your mother has died. And also hooray for boyfriends who query your opinion of the two-months-salary rule.

Rest in peace

World's best mom.
1937-2006.

Renter woes

Did I mention my former landlord sucks? I finally emailed him to nag about my deposit, and he wrote:

the only thing I had to order was a carpet cleaning because of the cat piss and other spots. I did not get the bill for it yet - I'll place a call re the bill and I'll let you know - again sorry for the delay

First of all, it was not cat piss, it was cat barf. Second, it seems to me that carpet cleaning is part of a landlord's between-tenant duties and that stains on the carpet should be considered normal wear and tear. As Red Fraggle pointed out, what if I had kids instead of a cat? Kids make messes, but I bet I wouldn't have been held responsible then.

OK, fine. I decided to wait and see how much it was before I decided whether to complain. I'd rather get some money back than none at all (as in, if I complained, he might hold onto it indefinitely, making excuses). A few weeks later, still nothing, so I emailed again, and he responded:

Sorry, I have lost your email and could not find your new address - I was charged $345 for the carpet cleaning. So I will send you a check for 805. I also need the key to the mail box if you have it

Please send me you new home address

Ugh! I cannot take the utter illiteracy, but moreover, bull**** he couldn't find my email or mailing address. Utter malarkey. He is so slimy. And that seems quite an excessive amount for carpet cleaning for a one-bedroom apartment. But again, I decided I want $805 more than I want to fight forever for $1150, so I wrote back, giving him my work address to mail it to (since I work at a law firm and I thought that might scare him into not being a jerk), requesting a copy of the carpet-cleaning receipt, and telling him I left the only mailbox key on the counter with the others.

I cannot wait to be completely done with this guy.

Unfortunately, I actually really miss the old apartment. But with landlords like that...

I need to be a homeowner.