I’m totally stuck on this riddle.
yei h nwrt h is ide
tp ntease otefrtrdl
that’s all it says. No instruction.

Of course, I’m not seeing it until Sunday. But I’m still excited. It’s getting really good reviews, too. A darker and moodier film. Oooooo….
Louise, Anastasia and I were standing around talking about things that scared us as kids, things that still scare us. For me, I have an irrational fear of sharks. I mean, really irrational. I was, as a kid, absolutely convinced they could come up through the drain of a pool. And consequently, I did not like being alone in swimming pools. I guess I was safe if someone else is there. Any body of water, and a shark could potentially show up. This fear is sooo deep seated in my psyche, I still don’t really like being alone in swimming pools. I refuse to give into it, of course. But there is just something there, that sort of nagging feeling. It’s dumb, I know. Blame Steven Speilberg.
I was the kind of kid who learned what to fear quickly. I loved dogs, then one day I was standing at the bus stop, waiting for a school bus, and the dog I was petting just turned and attacked. I was only six, I didn’t know you were supposed to stand your ground and yell at them. So I ran up my street screaming. The absolute wrong thing to do. Then they think it’s a game! The dog ran right along with me, biting me as we went. From then on, I was terrified of strange dogs. It’s as easy as that. They simply were not to be trusted. Dogs I knew were ok. But I was always wary when my bike through strange neighborhoods. It took a long time to get over that. I’m not completely over it. I am still wary of strange dogs. But not terrified.
Horses, same thing. I liked horses, didn’t love them, but they were ok. Imaginary horses played a strong part in the games of make believe I played with my friends. [mine was all grey, with a really long mane and tail, named Stormy]. But one day, I think I was about 7, we were out on Moür Moür’s ranch, visiting Lady, her horse. A horse I’d ridden many times. I thought of her as a family pet. I don’t know what her deal was, but she freaked out. She started kicking and bucking, damn near kicked Mike the ranch hand’s head off. Then she turned around and bit my stepdad. Took a huge hunk of flesh off his back. Well, there you go. Horses are big, mean, scary, untrustworthy animals. I still don’t like them. That is to say, I can appreciate their beauty from afar, but you won’t see me on the same side of a fence as one. I keep thinking that it would be a very empowering step, to take horse back riding lessons. To conquer that fear. But then I think… nyah… horses are smelly.
Some fears don’t even occur to you until you’ve grown up. And that, for me, is the fear of being buried alive. I’m somewhat claustrophobic now, I wasn’t when I was a kid. I don’t like being closed in. I don’t like sitting in the window seat on airplanes. And it’s taken years to finally get over my need to sit on the aisle at movie. Although, I still like to sit on the aisle because then I can jump up and run to the bathroom, wiki wiki, without bothering anyone. But probably the scariest thing I can think of, is waking up in a coffin, six feet under. Oh man… I panic just thinking about it. My entire family knows to burn me when I die. I don’t buy any of that embalming shit. No sir. Just not safe enough. I want half my ashes spread at the library, and the other half at Barnes and Noble.
Wow, this post makes me feel like a big sissy. Maybe later I will write about all the many brave things I’ve done. Chasing bank robbers…. confronting car thieves… moving to Oklahoma. All 100% true.

On Neil Gaiman’s journal, he posted a link to riddleplanet.com Well, there goes my work ethic. How am I supposed to resist that? It’s a good thing I got a fair amount of work done this morning. Right now, I am working on this riddle: Twelve white ponies, on a red hill. We always move, but we always stand still. What are we? The hell if I know. Yet.
Today we get to have ice cream out in the courtyard. Because one year ago we launched some policy or procedure and now it’s been a year. So we get ice cream. Lovely how that works, huh? We traditionally have ice cream soirees out in the court yard in the summer time. But this one is for a select few, and it’s Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream. And, right now, it’s all we are living for.
I hate it when I end a sentence in a preposition. phooey. Today’s title is actually a quote from some video game, but I couldn’t resist it. I’m saucy!
EDIT: the answer to the above riddle is in the comments section.

Check out the photo credit. They spelled in wrong tho… it’s E-V-I-L-D-E-B.

A building directly across from us, on Lake Union, just caught fire. When we first noticed it, we just saw great billows of smoke, but it wasn’t long before we could see the blaze. And who do you think had the presence of mind to take pictures? EvilDeb! That’s right. Although, she was chanting “fire! fire! fire!” while she did it.
Here are the pictures, click the thumbnails for bigger images. Really BIG images. Probably too big to see in your browser window. Sorry.



The green house boat, next to the burning building did catch fire, but I don’t know how much damage was done. See the police boat, angling up to the buildings, with the spray of water shooting out? He saved the day. I don’t think the street fire trucks could have gotten down there so quickly. The fire boat didn’t show up until the fire was out.
So my whole dept stood, with our noses pressed to the glass and watched the whole thing. From smoke to ash. And now work seems anticlimactic. I think we should run over there and visit the firemen!!

and while I am at home retrieving my glasses…
Today is Pru’s second birthday!!

Happy birthday, Baby Kitty.

I am wearing my contacts today. I can’t see a damn thing on the computer. They are soft contacts, and in reality, my eyes are too fucked up for soft contacts. Astigmatism and such. The eye doctor says I need spectacles for computer work. Because my eyes are working to hard to focus. This also happens when I am trying to watch a movie. The spectacles would relax my eyes, the way my existing glasses do. I can’t believe I need specs to wear when I am wearing contacts. I rarely wear my contacts to work. But it was such a nice sunny day, I wanted to wear sunglasses.
On Sunday, Louise and I went to the grand opening of the new Seattle Public Library Central Branch. This is a big deal. This new library has been getting a lot of press. Louise even saw an article in this month’s W magazine. My favorite headline was from the NY Times that read “Library puts on fishnets and hits the disco.” Although I didn’t read the article because it required a subscription. And I’m against that, as a rule. Anyway, it’s a very striking and modern building. Some people don’t like it, because of that fact. Because it does not look like any other building around it. So what, I say. The other buildings are boring! Others, like me, like it. And inside? Oh it’s wonderful. Nothing traditional about it. There are more computers in that library than you can shake a stick at. The non-fiction stacks are on a “spiral” which means you don’t have to keep going downstairs to the next stack. The floors slope down for several floors, in a spiral. It’s crazy! There is an auditorium, too. It’s huge. For a library. Louise was took pictures, mostly of the flooring, she was very enamored with all the different flooring. But the picts are not up on her website yet. She said she’d put them up last night. But you can see some pictures here.
It was brilliant booky goodness, and it was hard to resist petting all the new books.

As if I were not lazy enough already, with the help of my iPod I can now lie around and “read” with my eyes closed.
If people really do have spirit animals or guides, I’m positive mine must be the sloth.

You know, I haven’t felt much like writing, the last few days. It’s not like I didn’t have anything to talk about. I kept trying to write about Texas State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who has denied a Texas Unitarian church tax exempt status, stating that the UU church is not really a religious organization, for tax purposes because it “does not have one system of belief.” And to further clarify, the comptroller’s top attorney says “..or any organization to qualify as a religion, members must have “simply a belief in God, or gods, or a higher power,”” I’ve been trying to write about it for days, because it’s made me really angry, and also concerned. The state’s court system has overruled her decision, but she is planning to go to the Supreme Court, if necessary. Because, and we quote, “”Otherwise, any wannabe cult who dresses up and parades down Sixth Street on Halloween will be applying for an exemption,” Oh nice, comparing my faith with any wannabe cult member. Whom, by the way, would probably be welcome at my church. Because we do have one system of belief, and that is the inherent value in the search for truth, regardless of it’s source. And we do have a belief in a higher power, namely the human spirit. We believe in ourselves. That’s pretty damn high, when you think about it.

I lost my glasses. They are somewhere around here. I know I had them yesterday. I just don’t know where I put them when I took them off… so I’m wearing my contacts. Which makes things a bit blurry.
I was kinda cleaning, which for me means that I was slowly picking things up for about five minutes, finding some book I love and deciding to read it again. And I came across some notes I took while in a two day Project Management class. In which I discovered I am so NOT suited to manage projects. And, I believe project management is responsible for a large majority of the corporate speak out there. Marketing being responsible for the rest of it. Through out the notes, Evildeb and I would write back and forth to each other, in my notebook. Below is an example of me using some of my new proj. managspeak. I think I was telling her I was thirsty, and that I wanted to bail early.
Me: I could be 50% with 72oz. in 3 seconds. Because I’m GOOD with the soda pop. Damn near professional.
Evildeb: You are very efficient. You’ve optimized your resources.
Me: I might be padding my estimate a bit.
Evildeb: That’s ok, if you are in the right Phase.
Me: It’s a low confidence estimate. I have no discipline, I want to leave right now.
Evildeb: I was just thinking the same thing.
Me: So, we are in sync?
Evidleb: I’m Justin Timberlake.