Odds and Ends
Absentee Blogger
Jul 17th
I am a bad blogger. I promised an update during the long weekend and didn’t deliver. I apologize. Lots. I even had a fun post about shoes drafted that I never bothered to post. Some day soon. Promises.
It has been super hot here the last few weeks. We haven’t hardly had a chance to enjoy our kickass patio set we bought because the heat and humidity has been so oppressive. Such is life in Maryland. Our in ground garden has been pretty productive now that we’ve fended off the deer and weeded it. Our container garden has not done as well. Note to other container gardeners: ceramic pots create too much heat and cook the roots of your plants. Next year we’re going to fork over the cash and go with some whiskey barrel pots instead.
The most exciting thing was the earthquake yesterday. It woke Trey and I both up at 5am when it happened. I remember my cat growling waking me up. Apparently, Trey woke up and asked why the headboard was shaking. I told him the whole house was shaking and that it was an earthquake and to go back to sleep (I do not remember saying this, but he swears I did). He told me it wasn’t an earthquake, this is Maryland, it was just a low-flying plane. When he got up and checked the Internet, my earthquake claims were confirmed.
It is a little known fact that there is a very large, dangerous fault line underneath the Eastern seaboard. It is often forgotten because it is not very active at all. We’ve been hearing a few more reports of other earthquakes steadily moving west. Like dominoes.
Next week, we head to San Diego for our honeymoon. This includes two days at the San Diego Comic-Con. We are very excited. Trey gleefully enjoys telling people where we’re going for our honeymoon. Then, even more gleefully, he enjoys telling people that it was MY idea to go to Comic-Con for a honeymoon. I am the nerd girl. It is true.
So, that’s really all I’ve got going on. Work has been picking up in busy-ness rather steadily the last few weeks. Planning for the honeymoon has consumed a lot of my leisure Internet time. Sitting down and writing has not been foremost on my mind, sadly. I hope I’ll have more to say post Comic-Con.
Radio Silence
Jul 2nd
It’s been quiet here in the country the last week or so. I’ve had to drive in to the office every day this week which is soul crushing and draining to say the least. There’s a very good reason I take full advantage of my ability to work from home.
Any of the time I’d normally use for blogging has otherwise been occupied with commuting this week. It stinks. I promise some fun stuff next week. There’s a bunch of different ideas floating around my head wanting out. And the spam has been hilarious the last two weeks too.
For now I just have to shout out to my friends who have unknowingly made this week bearable, the tiny victories of finding Chinese food that delivers and the caffeine consumed miraculously keeping me awake.
I would be a horrible wife for not also giving love to my husband who has suppressed his own bad day dealings to comfort me. His week has sucked just as much but he’s let me be the whiny one. I win at life because I married that guy.
Miscellaneous Happenings
Jun 7th
By the above picture, you can probably guess what happened there. That was Saturday. I was headed out to crash Trey’s bachelor party and I decided, “What the hell? It’s a week before the wedding, I’ll just throw my phone on the concrete steps in front of the house and see what happens!” (Not really. It fell out of my purse.)
Surprisingly, I did not cry. This is a big deal for me.
I drove to a Verizon dealer near the house. They were closed. So, then I had to use the very broken phone to find an alternate Verizon location. That was exciting! Shards in the fingers are not so good . . .
So, it definitely still works, but is incredibly difficult to deal with. My replacement should be arriving on Tuesday (aka tomorrow)
In other, more better news! More >
Spam Day
May 26th
I’ve decided to update the Weird Spam page once a week. It has been updated. And there were some weird ones this week.
Frightening, really.
Weird Spam
May 17th
I swear, I get some of the weirdest spam comments on the site. I’ve considered copying and pasting them to a “Funny Spam” Page. . . I think I just may do that. Whee! I keep deleting the comments, though, so I’ll have to start the page when I get more funny comment spam. Hooray! A plan, I has one!
Comcast Causes Earth-Shattering Kaboom
Apr 30th
So, I’m a nerd girl — In the country — (It is the name of the blog, after all) and as such a nerd country girl, I work from home. My needs are simple when working from home:
- Solid, fast Internet connection
- A comfortable work area
- Land line telephone with speaker phone and mute functions
- Electricity
These are not complex or intricate demands. Yet, at several points in the day, today I lacked 50% of those things. As amusing it would have been had my chair just up and collapsed from under me and as tragic as having no electricity would have been, those two requirements to remain steadfast and true today.
Thanks to dear old Comcast, my phone and Internet went on walkabout for several hours this afternoon. Not only did they take their post-lunchtime sabbatical, they decided it would be a fine time to do so during a conference call.
When my work laptop loses lan connection as ungracefully as the modem deciding it is tired and wants to take a nap, I get one of these:
So, it came as no surprise to me that when I lost connection, it took me an hour of cajoling my work laptop into shutting down gracefully before having to give up the ghost and holding down the power button and start from a fresh reboot.
Needless to say, I got kinda angry.
Hopefully the weekend will prove to have better things in store.
BioShock 2: Art Deco Zombie Atlantis
Apr 23rd
In April of 2008, I bought BioShock for PC while out and about on a week-long training trip for work. I needed something to do with my evenings in my hotel room because the Internet connection was AWFUL and playing WoW was limited to Fishing because the latency was untenable. BioShock was my entertainment for a few days. The game itself is very fast, having ~10 hours of play in it. But those 10 hours are creeeeepy. It is a very immersive game (and submersive, considering the underwater setting of Rapture (see title of post)). I only have fond memories of the awesome of the game and my single lamentation was it was too short.
Squirrel Tales: An Introduction
Apr 15th
Soooo, yeah. How to start explaining this one? Well, I’m already outed as a big nerd in the fact that I am over 30 and have an entire room in my house dedicated to my and HTB’s comic book collection and the fact that I’ve been playing World of Warcraft for 4 1/2 years. How can this admission possibly be nerdier?
I also used to LARP. That stands for Live Action Role Playing. Whenever questioned in public as a group what we were up to, we’d say “Impromptu Theater” which was technically true. It is all improvised and vaguely theatrical when people aren’t being dumbasses. I shouldn’t dig on it too bad. It’s how I made all my friends and significant others. Who I all adore. But it’s still somewhat embarrassing.
What does any of this have to do with squirrels? In one game I played a kind of magical creature who was part animal. That animal? Squirrel. No fur suits were worn. Ever. Ew. Not that kind of squirrel “roleplay”. Really it was an excuse to be loud, obnoxious, immature, and occasionally adorable. So. . . . I was myself with a character sheet 
basically. I wasn’t ever a very good LARPer. I do find squirrels incredibly cute.
Yes, I know they are vermin. Yes, I know they are a nuisance. And yes, I recently discovered, they are really aggressive in my neighborhood. So, squirrels subject to the natural selection of neighborhood Volkswagons is a blessing not a sadness. I still think squirrels are awesome.
One day, while browsing around Modcloth a few months failing to find a dress to wear to my rehearsal dinner, I started looking at the house stuff section of the website. That is when I came upon the glory of the Nuts About Snacks Dish.
But it was OUT OF STOCK! NOOO!!! So, I did what any reasonable person would do. I put in my informations in the little box that begged, pathetically, for them to tell me when this epitome of squirrelly glory would be available again. And then I promptly forgot about it. How often does something out of stock come back in stock again? Really?
Oh, me of little faith. For shame. I got the e-mail yesterday that my beloved (and utterly forgotten about) squirrel candy dish was back in stock waiting for me to purchase hims. And purchase hims I did. He has shipped and soon will be here for me to store snackable noms within and serve to guests and woodland creatures.
Thank you, Modcloth. You are <3
A Blue Family in Red Country
Mar 26th
I live in Frederick County, Maryland. Many people will tell you, Maryland is, traditionally, a Democratic state. With a few exceptions (I’m looking at you Michael Steele) we elect to the left of the political spectrum. Lately, it has not been overwhelmingly so, but it is still pretty reliable.
The population is concentrated in the middle of the state, closest to the District. I’ve noticed those centrally located counties are the most culturally, politically, and economically diverse. That’s the blue part of The Old Line State. Frederick County is not in the blue part of Maryland.
Wedding Invitation Design Experiments
Mar 21st
I’m getting married in June. I am Captain Procrastination as well as Captain I-can-do-it-all-myself. These two things? They are not a good combination. These are important details, remember them for later. Needless to say, my invitations are not yet in the mail. Nor are they printed. They are, however, designed, finally.
I am one of those people who knows enough about Adobe’s products to be dangerous. I could have gone to one of the multiple very cool, funky, interesting wedding invitation sites and ordered some very, very cool wedding invitations. I also know enough about printing and the wedding stationery business to be just as dangerous. First, I know the difference between engraved invitations, thermographed invitations, and letterpress invitations. I also know they are are all RIDICULOUSLY expensive! Gorgeous! But ridiculously expensive all the same. I’m working on wedding number two, here, so a) I get to pay for everything myself and b) I’m not spending a ton of money on formal/traditional wedding invitations.
So, my basic plan is this: Design my invitations; send the paper and design off with the fiancé to work where they will be professionally printed and die-cut at an incredible discount; assemble, address, and mail off the invitations; profit. Naturally, my first steps would be to rough out an invitation idea and find myself some paper.
