sunny blizzard

~E~ There were few customers in the store, and not much to do. I was bored. I slowly made my way up and down the aisles of my department tucking in shoelaces, rearranging sizes, grabbing a misplaced pair of shoes and returning them to their rightful place. The store manager approached. A surly middle-aged man that no one liked, with a bad reddish-colored haircut and ugly polyester pants. He pushed up his large square plastic-rimmed glasses. "This is Miss Rose," he managed to say in a not-too-unpleasant tone. The woman next to him was ageless. She had white hair and skin so thin and white that I thought I would see right through her if I looked straight at her. She greeted me and indicated a table of our cheap loss-leader men's sneakers. She then turned her attention to the pen and paper in her hand. Well, sort of. She - someone - began writing. Size 6 1/2, 2 pairs Size 7, 5 pairs Size 7 1/2, 3 pairs Size 8, 7 pairs and on. "Oh,", Miss Rose gasped. "Oh De...

~E~ After seeing this movie, I'm not sure what the big buzz was all about. While enjoyable, it was fairly cliche and predictable and I have a feeling it's one of those forgettable movies as well. What made the biggest impression on me were the slums and how huge they were. That anyone could pull themselves out of a life like that in a legitimate fashion is almost unthinkable; that anyone living there would turn to crime to survive and possibly prosper seems a given. The journey of the main characters begins when their mother is murdered; they are suddenly on their own. Some of the movies more amusing scenes actually come out of the different situations the boys take advantage of to earn (or steal) a living. I particularly enjoyed how they managed to get by once they come upon the Taj Mahal. The main thread of the movie is Jamal trying to reunite with his lost love, Latika. They are 6 or 7 when they meet and Jamal takes her in along with his brother. They're separated a bit ...

~E~ I'm going to tattoo a sunrise on my lower back so I can tell people the sun shines out my ass.

~E~ This is getting ridiculous. Three personal email addresses. Cell phone voicemail Home phone voicemail Work phone voicemail Cell phone online account for me Cell phone online account for Daughter Online accounts for: Utilities Water Online banking 401K Tivo Work computer log-in Three websites I need to access for my job Various blogger accounts (posting comments at other blogs/news sites), around 3 or 4 Facebook Evite account Cyclespages Irish Dance School site Newegg Thinkgeek QVC Gaelsong Shopirish Etsy Avis rent-a-car Kim and Jason Lemonade Stand itunes Flickr Photobucket Library That's thirty three so far. Thirty three passwords to come up with and remember. I'm sure I've forgotten other accounts or reasons to have a password, and I know most sites will email you if you've forgotten your password but doesn't this seem a bit out of hand? I also have to remember various user names on a lot of these sites. It's a chance to get creative but it's also one ...

~E~ "What we did this weekend" Al's birthday was Friday, so Daughter and I put our minds together and decided to make him the cake of his dreams. We worked very hard on it, literally hours, and I think our hard work paid off. Behold, the kitty litter cake. Al had a smile on his face when we unveiled it, so presumably he was happy about it... Later in the weekend, I prepared myself a delicious soft pretzel. Now, I love soft pretzels and will go so far as to eat the subpar pretzels available at hockey games, but the kind we heat up at home are my favorites. This is a delicious hot soft pretzel. This is a not-so-delicious hot pretzel whose life ended in clouds of black smoke coating everything in my house. Poor thing. And finally, as a grand finale, Daughter and I made these awesome oatmeal fudge cookies, filled with chocolaty goodness. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

~E~ On our first day in Ireland, my parents and I forced ourselves to wash up and make our way out of the B&B and into the real world. Our eyes sandy and bleary from the long plane trip, feeling rumpled and in need of a shower, we stumbled down the stairs and into our rental car. Our destination was downtown Ennis. The city was having a fleadh that weekend, a fine arts festival that involved the entire city. It included plays, concerts, dance exhibitions and was a perfect start to our stay in Ireland. Having found out there was a parade a bit later, Mom, Dad and I staked out a spot on a curb to watch. The sky, surprisingly (haha) was a bit cloudy but we stuck it out anyway. The parade did eventually begin. It was kind of a sorry affair, and we heard people talking about it and saying that not every one had shown up. They stopped the parade a few times because of rain, and finally just gave up on it altogether. It wasn't disappointing at all - we were in frackin' Ireland, pe...

~E~ Remember that feeling of righteous indignation you had at age 13, when the teacher refused to believe it was not you talking and giggling at the back of class? Yeah. I was at an intersection I've driven through thousands of times, waiting to turn right. I had a red, and the traffic coming on the left was reaching the end of it's cycle; I watched as their light turned yellow, then red. I waited a few moments to let the usual fly-thru-the-light jerkoffs go through, then I pulled out. And suddenly there was a car there, a small scrunch sound and I thought what the F?? They pulled over, I pulled over and before I was even out of the car the guy was calling the police. Who actually came. I looked at his brand new expensive van and I couldn't see any damage, just a spot that looked like maybe a very VERY shallow scrape. I asked which direction he had been coming from, and when he told me I said "you ran the red light!" which he of course denied. Him and his stupid l...