Stuff I Love This Week

Spring temperatures and lovely breezes. Not so much the high wind gusts that we've had, but definitely the gentle breezes, which bring with them...

The scent of blossoming flowers and trees. It's lovely this time of year, not overpowering like it is sometimes on summer evenings.

Cornershop. British band enjoying popularity in late 1990s techno scene, even though they rise far above techno. And what classic lyrics. "Every body needs a bosom for a pillow/Mine's only 45." Damn right.

Salsitas chips. These are delicious. They actually taste like some heretofore unknown variety of Doritos, but as I'm lactose intolerant, I can't have Doritos. So I turned to Salsitas, and they are delish. But I wouldn't recommend getting up close and personal with anyone after eating them.

Stuff White People Like. See link to the right. Hilarious stuff. If you, like Rob, read an entry and say, "This has a slight Republican bent to it," you don't get it, and should stop reading immediately, because they are probably mocking you.

Writing exercises. Will. Finish. Novel. Uhhhhhh... as soon as I dust off the rough draft and refresh my memory as to what the stupid thing is even about. Singer? Rock star? Some kind of scandalous love affair? Actually, it sounds really entertaining. I wish someone else would just write it already.

"Just A Little Bit (Ooh Aah)" - Gina G. Sometimes, driving in my car, I want it to sound like a gay night club circa summer of 1999, and this song cranked to eleven helps set the tone for that.

Remniscing about the summer of 1999. 1999 was a really great year for me, right up there with 1985 and 1993, and the summer was particularly great. Thousands of cocktails were consumed, many gay night clubs were visited, many a great dance move was busted out, and insurance was still an interesting career choice (and easy to do with a hangover).

Andrew Lloyd Webber on American Idol. What's great about Andrew Lloyd Webber doing the mentoring on American Idol is that... well, yes, he IS Andrew Lloyd Webber, and he actually had sound advice for the contestants, advice which made sense and was easy to put into practice. I mean, who would have thought that Syesha actually had a personality in there somewhere? Fascinating.

Chicken chili. Sorry, but my chicken chili is too awesome not to mention. We've eaten this dish pretty much weekly since last August when I made it up, and I thought for sure we'd all be sick of it by now, but the fact is, it's awesome and delicious and everyone I've ever fed it to loves it. Loves. It.

Microserfs. It's been a long while since I've read this book, but I picked it up the other night because there was a certain passage I wanted to locate, which we are considering having read at our wedding. And it is still as awesome as ever. Even though it is set very firmly in 1993, it is still timeless in a lot of ways. Generation X was merely a rough draft for Microserfs. Douglas Coupland is the shizzle.

The awesome jeans I got at Target last week. Plus they were on clearance, so not only do they fit perfectly, they also cost only $13.99. That rocks!

Facebook. I know, I'm addicted.

Rob.

Daniel.

Emails from Dolor.

In Which I Take Back Taking It Back

The other day I got a voice message from a Sexy British Male Voice following up on something he had emailed to me, and today when we finally spoke, I was swooning over terms like "occurrence based liability" and "claims made coverage" and "pollution liability" and "premium options." Oh, and "aggregate limits" -- that one was really hot. So it seems that the Sexy British Male Voice can even make insurance exciting.

I want to go work in his office.

Mariah Carey Night is Totally Lost On Me

Of all the mentors the producers of American Idol could choose, the one that would make me the most indifferent is Mariah Carey. Talk about a bunch of songs I could care less about -- these would be them. It's like I don't even care -- I have no emotion invested in tonight's Idol proceedings. I don't even care that Simon was mean to two of my faves. Because the whole thing is like, snoooooorrrrrrrrre. At least some other mentor would annoy me to death (for example, Jennifer Lopez, last year, who is SO not qualified to be giving anyone else singing tips, let alone a group of people who are better singers than she will ever be), or capture my mild interest (I hear Neil Diamond will be mentoring this season, so I'm hoping one of the contestants will kick out "Sweet Caroline"). But Mariah Carey... does nothing for me. One way or the other. I find now that I am old that her shriek thing doesn't even bother me. It used to fill me with unspeakable rage, but now, I'm just chill with it -- it's her shtick, and everyone needs shtick every now and then. Her ubertight clothing doesn't even get my goat like it once did. Could it be that the afternoon I once spent watching Glitter actually softened my heart towards her? I have no idea. I'm just like whatever.

But you know what? I would totally hug Mariah Carey, like all the contestants did. She looks like she has really nice-smelling hair.

Update

I watched Fools Rush In last night, again. For the second time in two weeks. Rob had been out with his friend at a pub quiz and came in about 20 minutes into the movie, and said, "Uhh, honey, you're watching it again." As though it was some annoying habit he'd discussed with me previously and I'd said make sure to tell me next time I'm doing it, and so he was telling me in case I didn't notice.

I was able to turn it off after only an hour, though. So I'm making progress.