Kimberly, Chief Knit Wit

I'm Rarer Than I Thought...

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:40:05 GMT

HowManyOfMe.com

There are
895
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

Now I Can Breathe A Sigh Of Relief...

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 13:11:04 GMT

...I've just finished my first week at my new job. #whew#

I'm the new Production System Administrator at Fortius One, a Geographic Information Systems company that is looking to become the Google of GIS. We've just recently started work on the product-level release of GeoCommons, a geographic data mining tool, and GeoCommons Appliance, a standalone rackable computer system that companies needing GIS data in a closed system setting can install and use much like companies that use the Google appliance for their in-house search platforms.

Our company's founder often blogs about the latest developments in the GIS world. Check out Off The Map for more details.

I'm loving my job. Great place to work. :)

Where I've Been...

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 12:59:00 GMT

gacked from Facebook...

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Harrogate, England

Kissimmee, FL, USA

Laurel, MD, USA

Beverly Hills, CA, USA

Indianapolis, IN, USA

Create your own travel map or travel blog

Visit TripAdvisor.com

Wichita or Bust?

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 05:19:49 GMT

It was a bust.

Well, sort of.

My trip to Wichita on 2/14, for a job interview with Cargill Meat Services as their #2 IT person, was already off to an inauspicious start due to my car accident on 2/12, but I was trying to view the accident as a positive sign. After all, if I hadn't had the accident, I would have still needed to schedule a doctor's appointment w/ my GP because I was out of pain meds; the ER doc prescribed pain meds, so that was one positive outcome. If I hadn't had the accident, I'd have had to have paid for parking; now, with my car in the AA police impound lot, no BWI parking fees would be owed. See, a positive thing.

So, off to BWI I went, with a limo to take me there (total cost = $88, including tip; that was only slightly more than the taxi I'd had to take home from the hospital on 2/12, a comparable distance, so the limo was well worth it), and hopped a Northwest Airlines flight to Memphis, TN. Everything was running on schedule, I had 4 hours layover, so I got a Memphis pulled pork BBQ sandwich before my flight and then headed down to the gate to fly to Wichita from there.

The plane was a little late in arriving, but not too bad. The weather front that we'd all been worried about was now way to the north of Wichita, so the flight in ought not to be too bad.

We boarded a Canadair jet that the smaller commuter routes for Northwest use. I didn't know there was such a thing as "Sardine class", but hey, you learn something new every day.

The flight attendant announced over the loudspeaker that he was missing a "demo belt" and we couldn't take off without it, so could we all check our seatbelts to make sure it wasn't attached to them as an extender?

I thought this announcement was weird for two reasons: (1) Practically every flight attendant I've ever encountered carries their own demo equipment for this very reason (so that if one goes missing, you can still do the FAA required demo), and (2) Memphis is a Northwest hub, so it wasn't like it should be a major issue for someone to go fetch one from maintenance if one really was missing. However, it accomplished its goal: Everybody stopped watching the front of the plane while they checked their seatbelts.

Everybody, that is, except me. I noticed instead that while everyone was looking away, a maintenance guy hopped onto the plane.

Now, I've been in this exact situation before, where the flight attendants tried to distract the passengers from noticing the maintenance workers getting on the plane. They do this because (1) it can cause panic, and (2) the sight of maintenance workers on a plane means pretty bluntly that something's busted and it's something bigger than the crew itself can handle.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, we got an update: "Well, now we have a demo belt, but we've got some paperwork here that has to get done before we can push back. It'll be just a few more minutes."

Paperwork = "logging that maint had to get on the plane". This usually means "bad maint issue".

About 20 minutes later, we got the initial indication that things were not going well. "Ladies and gentlemen, we know you're anxious to get moving, but we've got a slight maintenance issue that we need to take care of. Give us a few more minutes."

"Slight maintenance issue" = "This plane ain't goin' nowhere and now we need to figure out what to do next."

Finally, the pilot came over the speakers. "Uh, ladies and gentlemen, we're sorry for the delay. This aircraft has a known maintenance issue. It comes up whenever we have to fly into icy conditions. It looks like the storm's over in Wichita, but once we get to Wichita, we'd have to re-evaluate whether it would be safe to continue on. Therefore, we're asking the airline right now whether they want to get us another plane or send this one on or what. Just hang in there."

Direct translation: "Yeah, we knew this plane was broken when we flew it in here. Probably won't make a difference getting into Wichita, but we won't be able to fly back out again, and I don't want to spend the night in Wichita. Sure, you guys are screwed, but, hey, at least you won't be stuck in Wichita."

Now, very few things make me completely and totally lose my cool any more, but incompetent airline personnel are guaranteed to be button-pushers. When moments later they told us to get off the plane, I told the captain bluntly: "The next announcement you guys had better make is 'We've got a replacement airplane', because if it isn't, the next person who'll be hearing from me is the Northwest Airlink manager in Memphis. I've got a job interview tomorrow morning in Wichita. If I don't get this job because of your airline screwing me over, you'd better be polishing up your resumes, because your total incompetence and lack of customer focus is definitely going to be brought up."

Long story short: No replacement airplane. No real effort made to get 50+ passengers booked on other flights to Wichita. (I rebooked myself onto the American Airlines flight from MEM to DFW to ICT.) No effort made to get our luggage on the one NWA available flight to Wichita that night (it was full, so no people, but they promised us they'd put all our luggage onto that flight; yet another empty promise because when we reached ICT, the luggage wasn't there and was, in fact, still in Memphis.) Worse, now it was after midnight, so no hotel shuttle was running, and my reservation had been auto-cancelled.

So, here I am in Wichita, job interview at noon, with no clothes other than the clothes on my back, no hotel room, no extra money, and no rental car. I am a basket case. Literally. I'm sobbing out of control, absolutely certain that God hates me. I finally got the Northwest Airlink luggage clerk to take a lost luggage report (he was actually quite nice--I think he understood how bad the Memphis end had screwed up) and headed back down to the shuttle wait area to call the hotel again and see if they had a room of any kind available and what the best way to get there would be.

Fortunately, God either doesn't hate me or He pities old folks, infants, and cripples, because He sent a guardian angel in the person of Jamie, the night clerk at the Holiday Inn who was just getting off work when I called to inquire about the hotel shuttle. She noticed that I had no reservation--it had been auto-cancelled--so she pulled out the folio for me, put it aside, and said that she would be there in a few minutes to pick me up. Moments later, she arrived at the airport, loaded the van with my luggage and helped me climb into it, then drove me back to the hotel and checked me in personally before heading home for the night. I was still weeping, but finally got enough pain meds in me to relax my body and went to sleep.

Next morning: Still no luggage. Northwest Airlink didn't answer their phones. I know from checking the airline schedule that the next flight from MEM to ICT isn't due in until around noon, which is when I have my interview. Fortunately, the clothes I wore the day before aren't too casual looking and are still presentable, so I get a shower, spend a few extra minutes fixing my hair and makeup to compensate for the lack of appropriate business attire, and then called the front desk for a shuttle ride to CMS.

The interviews at CMS couldn't have gone any better, and I walked out of there sure that I had at least made a good impression, and knowing that if I didn't get the job, it wasn't because I didn't give that interview everything I had. I returned from the interview to find my luggage at the front desk, delivered 2 hours after the interview started. Thanks, NWA Airlink folks. I had dinner in my room--a big beefy burger, cheese sticks, and a hot fudge brownie sundae--and got into bed to get some sleep for the flight out the next morning.

The NWA Airlink folks were just as bad in Wichita as they'd been in Memphis. At one point, I was seated next to a woman with Down's Syndrome, traveling by herself, who also had a hearing problem and didn't understand what was being said by the attendant who was giving instructions about "only 1 carry-on per person--and ladies, if you're carrying a purse, that is your carry-on..."

I was trying to explain, "The plane is small, so they don't have room for extra bags inside the cabin. Take your duffle bag over to him and get a green ticket, and they'll put it under the plane for you..." when the attendant looked over at me and said, "Hush!"

I looked at him oddly, but quieted down and said nothing else.

He continued his announcement, put the microphone down, and smiled at the folks in line to get their bags tagged.

I shrugged, then decided to demonstrate by example what to do. I came over and presented my carry-on for tagging.

He immediately stopped smiling. "Ma'am, you were too loud, and nobody could hear what I was saying."

I tried to explain that the woman I was with was hearing-impaired and I was repeating for her sake, but he cut me off again. "You were too loud, that was why she couldn't hear. Show some respect."

I backed off and said, "O.K., fine."

He ticketed my bag and made me carry it to the gate--this even after the announcement was made to allow "passengers needing assistance should come forward at this time". Now, I can carry my own bag--that wasn't the problem. The problem was the out-and-out rudeness.

And, as I discovered later, he was just as rude to poor Lisa, the woman I'd been trying to help earlier, because she didn't understand that she was supposed to let him tag her extra bag. When she tried explaining that it was because she couldn't hear him, he said that was because I'd been too loud--but she corrected him quickly and said that I wasn't too loud; in fact, the only reason she knew to come up with her bag was because she'd heard me say that much before I got cut off. "He was SO mean!" she told me when she got on the plane.

We arrived at Memphis uneventfully about an hour later. I told the crew on the plane that I needed a wheelchair at the gate--knowing we were going to land in terminal A but my flight was due to leave from terminal B, I knew I couldn't walk that far without help. They said they would notify Memphis before we arrived.

See if you can guess what WASN'T waiting for me when I arrived in Memphis. Go on, take a wild guess.

I got off the plane, checked my watch, knew I had to be down at the other gate within the next 45 minutes, and was none too pleased to see no wheelchair within sight (even though the crew assured me they'd been told by Memphis one would be waiting for me at the top of the jetway). I decided to wait a few minutes, hoping they were just running behind.

Lisa came off the plane behind me. "Where's your wheelchair?" she said, looking annoyed. "I heard them say they were getting you one..."

"It's not here," I sighed. "Oh, well."

"That's not fair!" she said, then found the nearest gate attendant and demanded to know where my chair was. They called for another one, and she came over to me and looked happy.

I thanked her profusely, offered to buy her a soda (she'd been upset that they hadn't let her have the entire can of soda on the plane), and asked where she was going next.

"Gate A-12," she said, "but they won't tell me where that is. They keep pointing all sorts of ways but won't say where it is."

I can understand her confusion, and I've flown out of Memphis a gazillion times. Gates A-4 through A-10 are down below the main gate levels because they serve the smaller NWA Airlink flights; gate A-12 is the first gate up on the main level above, but if you aren't familiar with the layout, all the pointing toward some vague area "up there" doesn't make sense because (1) you can't really see the gates above, and (2) the escalators are also just out of visual range, so if you don't know they're over there, you might not be able to figure out how to get upstairs. "Tell you what," I said, "I have to go right past gate A-12 on the way to my next flight, so I'll walk with you."

"Where's your chair?" she said in frustration. "They said they were sending one..."

"I know," I reassured. "It's O.K. We'll probably run into them along the way. Let's start walking."

Sure enough, we were almost to the escalators when the wheelchair finally arrived. I got in it, then urged her to come with us up the elevators to the main level. (I also instructed my pusher to take us right to A-12 first.) We arrived at A-12, I gave her some money for a soda ("since I won't have time to stop and have one with you"), we exchanged a hug, and went our separate ways. I was reminded of the Bible verse about not forgetting to entertain strangers "for thereby some have entertained angels unawares" (Hebrews 13:2). Thanks for the Angel, God.

The remainder of the trip home was uneventful.

So, Wichita or Bust? Well, I got both. I got to Wichita. But the job was a bust.

I did, however, get a surprise a couple of days ago: A callback from Cargill's corporate offices. They're interested in me for a position at their Minneapolis headquarters.

So, Wichita or Bust? Or What?

Who knows?

Scarlet's Search for the Perfect Lipstick: Estee Lauder Electric Intense Lip Creme, #726 ("Fury")

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:32:28 GMT

Sometimes, after experimenting with new choices, it's best to go back to old standbys. Though I love trying out the new brands on the market--AWAKE, Napoleon Perdis, InsertHotMakeupBrandHere--I'm reminded every so often that the reason such brands as Estée Lauder are still around is that they make really quality products. I've almost never been disappointed by an Estée Lauder lipstick, and been very surprised by several as to their high quality and lasting nature. Here's a look at one of Estée's more recent line changes, the "Electric Intense" lipsticks, in color #726, "Fury".

The short version: The name's right on--this is a bright, furious red. It's electric, intense, long-lasting, and darned attractive to boot.

(Off to my beauty blog for more...)

Scarlet's Search for the Perfect Lipstick: AWAKE Lip Gloss Brilliance Stardom Collection ("Fairly Pi

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:11:17 GMT

When purchasing Christmas gifts, I usually tried to take advantage of sales going on to pick up brands of cosmetics I might not have tried previously. Such was the case in this purchase, a gift-boxed collection of AWAKE Cosmetics' Stardom Color series. The box, a fiberboard box with a slab of cedar in the base, covered with metallic red and silver cardstock covering and light padding, with a sheet of etched plexiglass (with the AWAKE logo, an unfurling fern leaf) in the lid. The box is gorgeous. The items in it are quite pretty, though rather small, even for samples. In the sample selection is a tube of AWAKE's Lip Gloss Brilliance in "Fairly Pink".

The short version: Don't bother. Pretty exterior, lacking product.

(Follow the (fake) jump cut to my beauty blog...)

Scarlet's Hunt for the Perfect Lipstick: A Quintet from Maybelline New York

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:32:26 GMT

I've become something of a lipstick snob during this hunting process, I'll admit. I miss the old days when I thought of "lipstick" as just something you pick up in aisle 15 along with the rest of the health/beauty supplies. There are some great lipsticks in the aisles of Target, Walmart, grocery stores, etc. But most of them can't hold a candle to their counterparts at department stores.

Case in point: This quintet from Maybelline New York. They're not bad lipsticks, but they're also not good lipsticks, and for the money I spent to buy these five tubes, I could have gotten a tube or two of my favorite M-A-C colors. I remember wearing Maybelline as a kid. But I don't remember the heavy cucumber taste or the distinct lack of appreciable weartime.

Anyway, onto the reviews...

(Click here to follow the (fake) jumpcut...)

Ketchup (Catsup?) Time

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:24:04 GMT

It's been a while since I've updated. Much has happened in my life since the last update.

My last update was two days before I headed out for a job interview, probably the most important event in my unemployed life to that point.

Things got a little weird after that.

Actually, they got a lot weird.

Let's start with that afternoon: I headed out after making that post to the hairdresser to get my hair done for my upcoming trip to Wichita, KS (which was where that company was headquartered). If you live in the MD/DC/VA area, you'll remember 02/12/2008 as the date of the worst ice storm this region had seen in years. The rain started while I was getting my hair colored to hide the big skunk white streak that was glowing on the top of my head. All the while I was getting my hair done, the folks at Alexander's of Annapolis were coming in from the parking lot, saying, "Wow, it's nasty out there. Be careful when you step outside--it's icing up really fast." Indeed, on the drive home, I was really noticing how icy overpasses were. Still, I grew up in Indiana and learned to drive on ice and snow; as long as the roads are kept up properly, it's not that bad.

Coming across Rt. 32 West at around 1545, as I crested the slight hill of the overpass over MD 170, I noticed a cop ahead of me working an accident scene on my side of the highway just across the overpass. I slowed down as I came across the bridge.

The next thing I knew, my back end was swerving. And sliding. And spinning. And weaving. And I realized at that moment I had zero control over my car, and the SUV in the lane next to me had a similar lack of control.

They say, in the moments before you die/are seriously injured/etc., you see your entire life flash before your eyes. Not me. I saw instead a 180-degree panorama: To my right was the SUV, who was sliding toward me as I was sliding toward him. To my left was the guardrail. In that fraction of a second, my mind realized three things:

I was going to hit something; there was no way out of it.
If I hit the SUV, I'd probably be dead because the SUV is a lot bigger than I am.
If I hit the guardrail, I might actually live through it.

In that fraction of a second of thought, I remember distinctly flicking the steering wheel to the left.

I slammed into the guardrail at a 45-degree angle a blink of an eye later. My airbag did not deploy. The top of my head slammed the "A" post (the part of the frame where the driver's door and the windshield meet). My car bounced along the guardrail for a few feet, and my jaw impacted the driver's window next. I came to a stop about two bounces later.

Fortunately, the cop working the accident was standing on the opposite side of the guardrail, so the only person my car hurt was me. But I knew I'd been hurt. I didn't black out, but I spent the next few minutes staring through a strange grey fog. The cop, after determining I'd been hurt, called for an ambulance and then urged me to move my car forward a few feet (because, as he explained, I was the second person who'd hit that guardrail in exactly that same spot since he'd started working the accident 15 minutes ago), then told me to get out of the car (see above reason). I did both. The policeman helped me out of my car and over the guardrail to sit in his waiting patrol car; it was probably not more than a minute or so later that I heard #screech# #crash# #crunch#, and I looked up to see a larger car skid out crossing the bridge, try to slam on the brakes, crash into the exact spot on the guardrail I'd hit, and then crunch into my back end. If I'd stayed in the car, I'd likely be dead, or at the very least hurt far more seriously.

The ambulance arrived momentarily, and I insisted I needed to go to the hospital (I was still seeing grey). The medics took me after seeing my blood pressure looking very low from shock, though when I arrived at Baltimore Washington Med Center @ North Arundel my BP had stabilized. We heard from the charge nurse at the ambulance entrance that there were 19 MVA victims inbound for North Arundel. By the time I got through Triage about 30 minutes later, that number had jumped to nearly 30 inbound. Because the hospital was rapidly running out of space in its ER, patients were being placed on gurneys or in wheelchairs or even on cots in the hallways, temporary dividers and masking tape "bay numbers" marking positions for patients needing treatment. Because I'd been early in arriving, I got an actual gurney in slot #6 in the first hallway, and was able to get some sleep while waiting for the doctors to get around to assess their patients. (No lie, it looked like something out of M*A*S*H.) Two hours after my arrival, the paramedics who delivered me stopped off briefly to check on me, saying that they had to rush back out because there were now 57 calls for ambulance assistance in AA County but only 35 ambulances in total.

As bad as all of that sounds, I was actually very fortunate. Though I'd hit my head pretty hard, there was no evidence of a concussion or signs of brain bleeds or skull fractures. My jaw also made it intact. My CFS and FM were now combining to give me heavy muscle spasms on my left side, though, so I was in serious pain for quite a while until the nurse gave me 2mg Dilaudid to cut the pain. Around midnight, the doctor sent me home w/ pain killer prescriptions, a 3-day low dose Fentanyl patch to cut the muscle soreness over the next few days, and instructions to spend the next day resting but to otherwise enjoy my trip to Wichita.

A few days later, I found out my beautiful bright red 2007 Pontiac G6, the car I bought to celebrate my growing independence from my ex in September 2007, was totaled by the accident. The body shop made the initial call to total it when they found $12K worth of damage after removing only the outer paneling off to inspect the frame; the tech who was working on my car said of the frame damage, "I've got to be honest with you--I wouldn't want this car back. The frame on the driver's side is just toast. And that's not even the worst damage--the heart of the electrical system, including the battery mounts, were sheared off when that part of the frame got trashed, which means you're also looking at major electrical system repair." A day later, the State Farm Total Loss Team agreed to total the car once they saw that the frame on the driver's side was pretty much irreparable and the battery and wiring mounts were also damaged beyond repair. Not the thing I wanted to hear when I knew I hadn't gotten the job in Wichita and was rapidly running out of settlement money from AOL.

Still, though, it could have been far worse. I seriously could be dead right now. I could still be in the hospital. I could have had a less-than-honorable insurance adjuster refusing to total my car so that I'd be forced to drive an unsafe car.

Instead, I'm safe at home, uninjured by the accident, getting effective medical treatment for the first time for my illness (Ankylosing Spondylitis, or AS for short--yep, it's another auto-immune disease) from a competent specialist (long but good story, best told later), and being thankful to be alive. Praise God.

Still, though, maybe we could have gotten all of this across to me without hitting my head, wrecking my car, etc., eh, God?

Maybe?

Nah, probably not.

Job Interview Thursday -- VERY Promising

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:04:23 GMT

120 days into my life as an ex-AOL programmer, I'm two days away from an interview as an IT Applications Manager with a major U.S. corporation (not saying more than that right now). Wish me luck. :)

Writer's Block: An Artist Is...

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 06:12:24 GMT

Do you consider yourself an artist?

View 89 Answers

Yes, I do.

I make art with yarn.

I create art through silly plotline stories involving Spider-Man rescuing Asian fashion dolls or Picking up chicks, superhero style.

I make word-art with fanfiction I've written solo and with others.

I make art more accessible by writing, rewriting, cleaning up, etc. various Wikipedia articles. My most recent article rescue is a practically-complete rewrite of the entry for TV Cooking Show Host Lidia Bastianich.

I used to turn 60 GB of raw data from a 3-letter ISP per day into 1.5 GB of formatted and reported data, many referred to by others as my "art with perl".

I used to work sci-fi conventions and create artistic makeup. Today, I continue the tradition with my wonderful model for my adult-sized knits.

Does that make me an artist? Maybe.

Happiness is...

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:24:54 GMT

...a new replacement TiVo remote.

# reclines to watch TV #

36-Question Meme

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:54:06 GMT

Gacked from htbthomas...

IF YOU'RE ON MY FRIENDS LIST, I want to know 36 things about you. I don't care if we never talk, or if we already know everything about each other. Short and sweet is fine ... You're on my list, so I want to know you better!

BE HONEST! COPY FROM HERE THEN SEND DIRECTLY TO ME IN A COMMENT THEN, REPOST THE EMPTY QUESTIONS.

1) Are you currently in a serious relationship?

2) What was your dream growing up?

3) What talent do you wish you had?

4) If I bought you a drink what would it be?

5) Favorite vegetable?

6) What was the last book you read?

7) What zodiac sign are you?

8) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.

9) Worst Habit?

10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?

11) What is your favorite sport?

12) Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?

13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?

14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?

15) Tell me one weird fact about you.

16) Do you have any pets?

17) What if i showed up at your house unexpectedly?

18) What was your first impression of me?

19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?

20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?

21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?

22) What color eyes do you have?

23) Ever been arrested?

24) Bottle or can soda?

25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?

27) What's your favorite place to hang at?

28) Do you believe in ghosts?

29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?

30) Do you swear a lot?

31) Biggest pet peeve?

32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?

33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?

35) Do you believe in God?

36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?

(Yes, I know 26 and 34 are missing. Feel free to make up your own Q&A.)

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:54:20 GMT

What have you made using your own two hands?

Brought to you by HP

View 252 Answers

Barbie dresses. Lots and lots of Barbie dresses.

Scarves, shawls, hair ornaments.

Cross-stitching.

Fanfiction. Lots and lots and lots of fanfiction.

A mess of my house.

Movie Predicts Super Bowl XLII Final Score?

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:56:58 GMT

I Am Legend Predicts Super Bowl XLII Score?

Unlike the supposed Back To The Future "Marlins Win World Series" prediction (which is false), this one actually stands a chance of being true--we'll know for sure by Sunday night. Barb at snopes.com does a good job of breaking it down.

#sigh#

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:36:08 GMT

My hope for a pure Conservative Republican in the White House in 2009 is dead.

Fred Thompson Announces Withdrawal From Presidential Race

Most of you know I'm a Conservative Republican, a proud Reagan Republican since my childhood days (Mom's longtime companion was state chairman of the Republican party and a personal friend of Ronald Reagan). Most of you probably know I can't stand the remaining parade of RINOs--particularly John McCain--running for the office in 2008.

Here's how much I hate McCain: If you put a gun to my head and said I had to choose between McCain or Hillary Clinton, I'd tell you to just go ahead and pull the trigger.

Mike Huckabee is Arkansasian for "John McCain Wannabe"--check his record. He may claim to be conservative, but his record paints a picture of a political triangularist who is almost more liberal than Bill Clinton, and that takes some doing.

Mitt Romney claims to be conservative, but when you come from a state where Ted Kennedy and John Kerry represent the "mainstream" position, it doesn't take much effort to be to the right of that.

Obi-Fred Thompsoni, you were my only hope.

#sigh#

Haven't Posted In A While.

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 03:43:06 GMT

I'm not dead, though sometimes I feel that way.

Christmas was hard on me emotionally this year; it was the first anniversary of my divorce. (Actually, technically, the divorce was finalized on the 27th. But I digress.) It's also hard to be out of a job this time of year. I'm hopeful that some opportunities that came up near the end of 2007 manifest in 2008. Money isn't the issue--Thank God for the WARN act and 60 days of pay--but I could do without worrying that I won't get the promised paycheck from a company that would just as soon be rid of its financial obligation to me and 2000 of my closest friends and workmates. (And I miss said workmates, including my former officemate, who kept me sane and laughing throughout even the worst moments at the company.)

Family was in town--Mom arrived on the 19th and stayed until the 2nd; Rob came up from DC on the 24th and the 31st and stayed until the evening hours on the following day both times. That meant I was going crazy trying to clean up the rest of the house after the junk folks had cleared out the basement, and my body would not let me do the work.

My body has gone into full-blown rebellion lately. My GP, Dr. AwesomelyWonderful, was concerned about the long-term effects of steroids on my system (I was on 20 mg of Prednisone per day for Polymyalgia Rheumatica), so we made a stepdown plan: Go from 20 to 15 over a weekend, then 15 to 10, take a SED rate reading after a few days at 10 (to measure if the SED rate, which measures overall inflammation in the body, changes at all on the lower dose), then go from 10 to 5 to 0 in the space of the next week. So I'm now at 0 mg prednisone and have been for 3 days. I'm already noticing the roundness of my face is starting to fade--yay, no more risk of developing Cushing's Disease--and I've dropped 3 pounds in 3 days (water retention from the 'roids), but my back and shoulders are in so much pain that it's becoming nearly impossible to be out of bed and doing anything. All I have to do is bend over to pick something up, and my back seizes (right at the place where I have the worst nerve sheath tumors) so badly that it won't stop until I lie down. Same thing for lifting anything onto my shoulders. And I have headaches, so bad that I want to put a drill through my head. Women with PR tend to have severe headaches due to the increased SED rate and the spasming of the shoulder muscles causing muscle spasms and blood vessel irritation, and I can attest to that.

And, oh-by-the-way, I took a header in Georgetown the Saturday before Christmas. Yep, I fell down like a pile of bricks--smack-dab on the sidewalk on 29th St. NW approaching K Street. As near as I can tell from the injury pattern on my body, I apparently stepped onto an uneven section of the sidewalk on my left foot, which does not flex normally. I lost my balance and tried to correct with my right leg, only to have it hit a similar uneven section, causing my right foot to completely flex 90 degrees inward, in a direction ankles don't normally bend. With both my legs unable to catch their footing, I went down hard on my left side. I was disoriented and panicked (Mom was trying to send Rob to go get the car and I was calling out, "NoNoDon'tGoNoNo..." or something like that) for about 45 seconds, then finally began to calm down. After that, I took a look around, palpated my right ankle trying to feel for a break (I have broken this one before, so I know what that feels like), figured out that the worst I'd done was sprain it like Heck, then managed to get to my knees and then to my feet. I am bruised like all-get-out on my left leg and right ankle and have deep bruises on my hips as well, but I'm alive and reasonably well. (Mom said Rob was freaked out by my fall and mentioned to her that he had no idea I'd "gotten that bad" and that he wasn't prepared for me to "be so sick...she's way too young to die..." I felt bad about scaring him. Heck, those falls scare me, and I'm used to them. I fell 4 times cleaning the house before Mom's arrival. (One time I landed hard on a grocery sack full of breakfast cereals; I looked up and said, "God, is this your way of telling me that cereal is good for me?")

Anyway, Christmas ended up being nice--Mom and Rob both worked their tails off to help me get some rest and get better. I'm glad to have my house back, but I'll miss them.

Happy New Year, All. May 2008 be a darned sight better than 2007.

Countdown To Christmas

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:16:43 GMT

Christmas will be here in 7 days. My mom arrives in 2 days. My house is a mess. My fridge is empty.

Not all of that is bad, though.

I spent the weekend with 4 guys from 1-800-GOT-JUNK having the basement cleaned out. If you recall, in the early summer of 2006, we had a flood in our basement due to the air conditioner's condenser unit failing, allowing all of the condensed water to spill out and flood the basement with about 1/2" or more of water all over the floor. Then-husband jcsbimp had to buy a shop-vac to clean up the water before the repairman could get in and fix the problem with the condenser. It took months for the contents of the basement to dry out. During that stretch, of course, we got divorced, I had ups and downs with my health, and I eventually lost my job.

Finally, though, as the end of 2007 approached, I decided it was time to take care of the basement once and for all. I went to 1800gotjunk.com and booked an appointment. They came out on Friday to evaluate the basement (and some other areas I wanted them to cover), then came back Saturday and Sunday to clear out the basement. They also hauled away excess boxes from the kitchen, entryway, dining room, and living room, as well as the food from my fridge that had become "questionable" from the many weather-related power outages we've had this week (thus, the "empty fridge"--it literally is empty). $1200 well spent, IMO.

My house is still a mess. Now, however, I have room to clean up, box up, and store downstairs during the holidays. :)

Now, if I could just get motivated to do that instead of napping...

Best Christmas News Ever

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:02:50 GMT

Test results are back from my recent MRI.

No new tumors. No changes in existing tumors.

#happydance#

Scarlet's Hunt for the Perfect Lipstick: Avon Flavor Saver "Lip Glosses"; Lipstick Loungewear

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 03:11:32 GMT

I'll admit it. I get fooled by online advertising too sometimes. I buy stuff that I look at and say, "Now, wait, that's not what the description said it was..." all the time. Case in point: Three lip glosses from Avon's "Flavor Savers" series. I bought them even though their tube looked just like a Chap-Stick tube.

(Side note: Growing up, we didn't use Chap-Stick in my house. My mother was an Avon Lady for a while, and she got addicted to Avon's Care Deeply Lip Balm; when she left Avon, she still would make a mass purchase of Care Deeply once a year, and we got several tubes in our Christmas stockings. I got addicted, too. I also found it made an excellent cork grease for my clarinet as I went through college on a band scholarship.)

Anyway, the lip glosses. Avon's lip gloss tubes tend to be small anyway and look like lip balm tubes with their tops on, so I figured this was just another example, and I ordered them.

I got...three flavored lip balms.

After my initial "Wow, you're really dumb" self-chastisement, I actually tried them.

No, they're not lip glosses, not by a long shot. That said, they're darned good lip balms, and a better choice than any flavored balm out there.

(Follow the fake jumpcut to my Fashionista blog...)

As for loungewear, O.K., this is clearly just a frivolous purchase. But they're warm in winter, so they're worth it.

(That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

Victoria's Secret has a sale going on with their flannel pajamas.

I know. Victoria's Secret and flannel PJs. The two don't mesh.

Or do they?

(Behold, loungewear for your inner Lipstick Queen...)

Evita

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:15:08 GMT

One night while bored/unable to sleep/etc., I encountered the 1996 film of Evita, starring Madonna, Antonio Banderas, and Jonathan Pryce. I'd always heard the film was weak in terms of comparison to the stage play, Madonna confirmed she couldn't act, etc., so I tended to avoid it.

Boy, was I mistaken. This is a really good film, made all the better by some great casting and great rewriting choices. I got it on DVD and have now seen it about a dozen times. Here are my impressions of the movie, good, bad, and indifferent...

First, it really does help when viewing the movie to forget that there was ever a stage play called Evita. A lot of the bad reviews I read on line were full of "They did (insert scene/song/set) here) different than the play!" as if ALW/TR's play was the Holy Bible or something. My advice if you've been avoiding the movie because you don't want to feel that way is to just forget about the stage play and instead enjoy a broad, sweeping epic film about a larger-than-life controversial figure who changed the world as she knew it.
Whoever decided to turn the character of Che back into the Everyman narrator he was originally envisioned to be when the play first debuted years ago (the decision to turn Che into Che Guevara, Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, was a gradual evolution during pre-West End performances) should be given a medal. It's pure genius. It allows so much more flexibility in how and where Che is used in the movie, and in fact makes him not just an Everyman, but also a pseudo-conscience/devil's advocate/etc. for Evita throughout the movie. It doesn't hurt that Antonio Banderas plays him, and he makes not only great eye candy but can actually sing (more on that in a moment).
O.K., Madonna really can't act. Let's get that out in the open. However, she does a very impressive physical impersonation of Eva Duarte de Peron. Reportedly Madonna watched and listened to archival recordings of Eva from radio, movies, and newsreels to get the look, the hand gestures, and the vocal inflections down pat, and it's clear her homework paid off. It doesn't hurt that Eva wasn't a good actress, either, so it's not as if Madonna has to be convincingly portraying, say, Meryl Streep. That said, Madonna actually can sing, and she does a very good job with some very difficult musical material, though it's clear there were key changes made to fit the songs into her somewhat limited vocal range (this is especially obvious in "A New Argentina", pitched so low that Jonathan Pryce has trouble as Juan hitting all the low notes and has to effectively talk-sing his part of the song). By the end of the movie, as the dying Evita stands on the balcony of the Casa Rosada giving the Renouncement to the Peronistas, it's hard to imagine anybody else portraying Evita.
With all that said, part of the "fun" of watching this movie with a cynical eye is to try and figure out which scenes were filmed after Madonna found out she was pregnant with her daughter Lourdes. (Hint: Any scene where Evita is hidden inside an oversized fur coat or some other oversized clothing object, shot from behind, or shot waist-up. The wedding scene between Eva and Juan features Eva holding her wedding bouquet at her hip, just in front of her belly; reportedly this was one of the first scenes shot where her pregnancy had begun to show enough to be noticeable onscreen.) Even then, this masquerade is an interesting hat-tip to real life: By the time Juan Peron was running for his second term, Eva was so sick with end-stage cervical cancer that she only weighed about 75 lbs. and had no strength to walk or stand on her own; when the couple did one last public parade standing and waving to the crowds in a motorcade, Eva's oversized fur coat hid a steel and plaster stand that allowed her to stand up in the motorcade.
Antonio Banderas can sing. Man, can he sing. He hits all the right notes--literally and figuratively--as Che, and is especially powerful in "The Lady's Got Potential" and "Oh What A Circus". His thick Spanish accent occasionally gets in the way of being able to understand some of the more complex lyrics, but that's a minor complaint. He's fantastic.
Jonathan Pryce can sing, too, for that matter, and proves it in the few solos Juan Peron has, but he suffers in duets with Evita because of the key change necessary so that Madonna could sing the part (Pryce's very nice baritone ends up bottoming out and he has to talk-sing his part several times); this is especially obvious in "A New Argentina". Pryce also studied Juan Peron on film and gets Peron's mannerisms and speech patterns down perfectly--the victory speech on the balcony of Casa Rosada is almost chilling in its resemblence to the real Juan Peron. However, if he could have buried his British accent a bit more, it would have been that much better.
There are several changes to the musical performances (as well as the musical content) in the transition from stage to film. Gone is the musical chairs number "The Art of the Possible" that symbolized the power shifts within the GOU (one line of it survives, sung by Che after Peron addresses the crowd at the San Juan concert), replaced by "The Lady's Got Potential", a song cut from the play in its early stages. Personally, "The Lady's Got Potential" is a song that better survives translation to stage to screen, and it better draws the necessary parallels of Eva's rise from "backstreet girl" to one of the richest stars in Argentina, alongside Colonel Peron's rise through the ranks of the GOU to become Argentina's Vice President, culminating in their meeting on January 22, 1944. Shifting "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" away from a lament by Peron's teenage mistress to a lament by the teenage Eva is another stroke of genius. And the addition of "You Must Love Me" is brilliant and beautiful.
The visuals are just beautiful. The huge crowd scenes, especially, are staged perfectly.

I enjoyed this movie. If you haven't seen it, give it a shot.

New Stuffie

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:59:58 GMT

Meet Harley, my newest Goldie stuffie:

Newly discovered amid the cold air: Stuffies help hold heat near the body during sleep.

#cuddles#

Scarlet's Hunt for the Perfect Lipstick: A Duo from M-A-C

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:31:12 GMT

Didn't hear anything from doctor yet. Will call when the office opens at 0830.

Meantime, here's my latest lipstick reviews for M-A-C's "Fanplastico" Lacquer and "Russian Red" Tinted Lipglass.

(Follow the fake jump cut to my fashionista blog...)

Rehab, Coming To Reality TV Near You

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 21:47:37 GMT

Celebs Enter Rehab with Dr. Drew

As Craig Ferguson is fond of saying, "I got nothin'."

It Slices! It Dices! It Makes Julienne Fries!

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 21:13:04 GMT

As-Seen-On-TV Items: Do They Work?

O.K., first, it's scary that I own some of these.

That said, the One-Touch Can Opener is the best ASoTV thing I ever bought; it works exactly as advertised. (I've bought it as gifts for friends and they now swear by it, too.) And, even though there's a "con" about having to reset it, that's not true; if you let it run all the way through its 20-second cutting cycle without interrupting it, it never needs resetting.

Not Sure I Could Follow These...

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 04:50:23 GMT

In 2008, kimberlyknits resolves to...

Connect with my inner makeup.
Start a perfume fund.
Keep my fanfiction clean.
Cut down on my knitting.
Find a new obitsu.
Spend less time on spider-man.