Happy Halloween! Freaky Friday Five

1. What was your first Halloween costume? I think I was Raggedy Anne when I was 4.

2. What was your best costume and why? Probably Princess Leah. I dressed up as her in first grade (costume sewed by Mom) and again for 1999, 2000, and 2001 (when you're in different locations 3 years in a row, you can wear the same costume; especially when it took so long to sew by hand). It's my favorite because I love the character, and the costume turned out really well.

3. Did you ever play a trick on someone who didn't give you a treat? No.

4. Do you have any Halloween traditions? (ie: Family pumpkin carving, special dinner before trick or treating, etc.) I've always carved pumpkins, but the last couple years, Jeff and I have really taken it up a notch.

5. Share your favorite scary story...real or legend! I can't think of a favorite, although when I lived in Richmond, I heard that my house was haunted. Sometimes when falling asleep, I'd smell a fragrance, and I think that was the ghost. It's wasn't scary, actually.

The photo is from 2 years ago. This year, I dressed at le Tour de France at our party last weekend. Today, I'm Wednesday from the Addams Family, and will be joining Uncle Fester, Lurch, Morticia, Gomez, and Cousin IT at lunch. Between the costumes and the candy, I have a feeling that very little work will actually get done today.

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Doing the Time Warp

Between Max's RHPS post and Brigita's reference to the Naro, I can't help but remember the first time I saw the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I think I was 14 and a sophmore in high school. I went with my friends Nancy and Alison, and Alison's boyfriend drove us to the old theatre (complete with balcony and stage) in his world-famous-el-Camino. I can't believe my parents let me go, in retrospect, into downtown Norfolk at night (was it a school night?) to see such a movie. During the pre-show I was carried on stage by a regular after admitting that I was a RHPS "virgin." I loved the movie, although was a little shocked by parts (and by the live actors' costumes), and probably didn't understand a great bit of it. We had rice and toast and newspapers (prepped by Alison) and I was wearing all black, so fit in more or less. In college, they showed the film outside every year on Halloween, and I always went, surprised to find so few people who knew what to bring or what to say. I don't think I've been since (I went once on a school break), but every now and then remember how much fun it is to go, and how I'd love to take Jeff, a "virgin" who probably won't get carried on stage. If only I could stay awake past 11 pm.

It's Raining Nostalgia

It's fall, it's Seattle, it's dark and rainy. (Well, it wasn't rainy today, but since I arrived and left work in the dark without leaving the building in between, it doesn't matter much.)

After a crazy day of meetings (it's performance management time!), I'm at home catching up on what happened on line today, and listening to music. I have Alanis Morresette's Jaged Little Pill in the CD exchanger right now. It's amazing how it takes me right back to October 1995, my first fall in Washington State, when I listened to this CD for weeks on end.

My So Called Collection

Despite many customer complaints, Another Universe has really come through for me. I paid for the complete set of My So Called Life about 1 1/2 (? can't really remember) years ago, and considered it a risk. After all, I just don't order things on line unless I'm pretty confident I'm working with a reputable company. While waiting for the disks to be available, I bought the t-shirt, which arrived immediately. I received the DVD's last fall, which is the right time to watch MSCL. I have vivid memories of watching the show when it first aired in my first real grown up apartment in Newport RI in the very memorable (for me) fall of 1994. I never really expected to get the lunch box and bonus disk, so when they arrived this week, I was pleasantly surprised. I don't know what I'm going to do with the lunch box (ebay?), but it's cool that I've gotten everything and more that I paid for all that time ago. Guess low expectations sometimes pay off.

Note: While googling for links for this post, I ran into one of Kris' posts about her issues with Another Universe. I ordered based off of one of her earlier posts, so I found it kinda funny that her site was in the top 10 of google links.

Friday Five

Yes, it's Saturday here, but I'm at the office, finally working on appraisals due at 5 am on Monday morning (1 down, 2 to go), so I need a little bloggin' break.

1. Name five things in your refrigerator. Beer (a couple of pumpkin ones for falloween along with some cider and pale ale); yoghurt (I always buy it and don't eat enough of it); cheese (blue, chedder, pepper jack), Odwalla Wellness (have been feeling slightly coldish for the last week or so); about 2 dozen kinds of condiments / sauces / salsas - current favorite is corriander (cilantro) chutney - it adds kick to almost anything.

2. Name five things in your freezer. Ice, chocolate chips (if they haven't been snacked away), frozen veggies (spinach, green beans, squash, brussel sprouts), Jeff's chili, butter

3. Name five things under your kitchen sink. Paper towels, garbage disposal, dishwashing liquid, britta filters, cleaning supplies

4. Name five things around your computer. Tissues, nalgene bottle full of water, phone, pens, stacks of papers

5. Name five things in your medicine cabinet. Tylenol, ibuprofen, Harry Potter band aids, neosporan, allergy spray

Shh... I know it's wrong, but I just don't like...

Max asks the excellent question: what don't you like that you're supposed to? We all have a list of those things that we are embarrassed to admit we like (Britney Spears music, the Real World, Killian's Red, for example), but it's more interesting to think of what we just can't get behind, despite overwhelming acclaim. Here are some of mine:

Ernest Hemingway - he treats all women as 2 dimensional beings
Bruce Springsteen - I just can't listen to an entire one of his songs
Jaws - this goes along with Moby Dick, except one's a book from the 19th century and the other is a movie from the 20th
Martinis - this includes girly ones like Cosmos
Nirvana - I don't mind the music, but don't understand the matyrdom of Kurt Cobain
Correct spelling - okay, I'm just making excuses for laziness here, but...

What are yours?

Death Cookies


No, not these. These are lovely chocolate chip cookies made to go into a care package for a friend at sea.

Death cookies are what a friend of my sister calls the round, plant filled medians that are in the center of intersections in my neighborhood. These intersections don't have stop signs, so they are supposed to be treated like traffic circles, except they're not. I find them very confusing, as do most other drivers (they're in most Seattle neighborhoods). It's not too often that you and another car end up at them at the same time, but I approach them slowly, just in case. The other day while running, I saw 4 cars approach a death cookie at the same time, each from a different direction. The drivers all rose to the challenge of the cookie, and each entered simultaniously, slowly, and it was beautiful to watch.

Speaking of beauty and death, I saw Kill Bill today. Instead of trying to review the film myself, I'll let Ebert speak for me. I will add, however, that this film could almost be the pilot of Fox Force Five, the acting debut of Pulp Fiction's Mia Wallace.

On an unrelated note, Jeff wore his Ravenclaw scarf for the first time today. It looks great, if I say so myself.

It's Friday; here's Five

1. Do you watch sports? If so, which ones? Sure, but not avidly. I enjoy watching the Olympics, particularly swimming. I like watching baseball in person, but not on television. I like having football on, but it's rare that I"ll actually follow the action. I also watch Duke basketball. College basketball is terrific; I don't think much of pro ball, however. I'm pretty psyched about the World Series this year; I might watch that for the first time in a long time.

2. What/who are your favorite sports teams and/or favorite athletes? Well, the Duke Blue Devils (basketball) is my favorite team, of course. I'm a Seattle Mariners (baseball) fan and a Washington Redskins (football) fan

3. Are there any sports you hate? Hockey when it turns into a brawl. Anything, in fact, that is more about anger than strategy and skill. I attended a hockey game once and heard some little kids yelling at the team to "fight" and "hit him" and was sickened by that.

4. Have you ever been to a sports event? Yes. I watched lots of girls soccer when I was a kid because my sister played from the age of 5 on. I used to love going to the occasional USNA football game when I was a girl. I watched various high school sporting events. I've been to several minor and more major league baseball games.

5. Do/did you play any sports (in school or other)? How long did you play? I did gymnastics for almost 10 years until I hit my teens and my body changed. I played softball from 4th - 11th grades, fast pitch in junior high and high school, and played field hockey for 2 years in school. Since then, I've played softball occasionally (last spring I played on a friend's company team). Now, I run, bike, and swim, but don't do much in the way of team sports.

Not the most interesting 5 ever. Too many yes or no type questions.

It's not about Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Moderation

More and more I'm coming to believe that the American dream of wanting to have it all is the cause of a lot of our current problems.

First (of course) the California recall. Some attribute Arnold's overwhelming victory to the recent increase in car registration fees. Arnold said he would eliminate this tax, increase education funding, and not raise other taxes. Unless Arnold plans to fund California's educational system personally (as he did his campaign), how is he going to do this? Californians seem to think he can, because they want to have it all.

Second: prescription drugs. I heard at story on NPR the other day about a company that imports drugs from Canada for Americans who can't afford their drugs. Now, I'm all for affordable medications, but since Canadian drugs are subsidized by National Health, aren't we just robbing the Canadian tax payers? If we really want affordable health care, why do Americans always vote for the guy who will cut taxes? How do you pay for subsidized health care without taxes?

Finally, obesity. Americans seem to think that we can eat at Micky D's every day and still look like those models in the Ralph Laren ads. We're looking for the magic pill that will allow us to eat whatever we want and still wear a size 6. Look around; seems like fast food is winning.

I'm right here with the rest of American citizens, living in my mortaged tax shelter paid in part by my government sponsored education with a remote control in one hand and an ice cream cone in the other. So I'll just say thank you; I'm ready to sign the check.

Just another one of those days

Head cold + appraisal time + diet issues = cranky Trish

Guess this arrived in my inbox at the right time.

And it Begins

We're just entering into year end appraisal time at the office, which means year end procrastination time for me. On the list for today: my self-appraisal (I hate writing this) and provide feedback for 1/2 dozen or so other people. Next week, I write the appraisals for my direct reports. This year the timeline is greatly condensed, so I can't procrastinate too long.

As for today (a "no meeting day" to faciliate the process), it could be a big surfin' Tuesday.

Getting Buff

I watched Buff Brides tonight on television (after watching the show advertised all weekend while watching Trading Spaces). It was very sweet. It followed 2 women who were about 3 months from their weddings, each wanted to lose 20 pounds before the Big Day. While neither quite got to their goal weight, both made significant, very noticable progress. It was pretty inspiring. It was also nice to see their supportive fiances, who weren't pushing their brides-to-be to be thinner, but were encouraging them to do what they needed to be happy.

I'm once again trying to lose a few (20 would be perfect; I'd be happy with 10) pounds after having gained a bunch over the summer. I tried Atkins again, this time for 4 days before giving it up. If I looked at another egg, I would have been sick. The new plan is to go back to the slowly-but-surely path, and this time give up snacking at night and sweets all of the time. This is a more realistic plan to stick with, but still hard.

I'm starting to run more again, which is going pretty well. It will get harder as the days get shorter (today was the first day that was dark when I left the house and dark when I returned). Now I'll have to make time during the work day to run. These days I spend most of my time in meetings with Richmond, especially during the lunch hour. I'm thinking that it might work to run at the end of the Virginia business day, at 2 or 3 pm, then I can get back to the office for a couple of hours when things are quiet. It's great to note that some of my favorite bloggers are also getting more into running these days; I can be virtually motivated.

This is starting to sound too much like a pre-teen diary. Ack!

Blogger Bore

I've been doing very little blogging of late; it seems that I've been vacilating between busy (stressed) and boring (recovering) lately, leaving very little inspiration and energy for good posts. But, if you don't have anything good to say, then just ramble on anyway.

Fall has finally come to Seattle. Not in that nice, sunny crisp days kinda way, but in a foggy damp and cool kinda way. The leaves are starting to change and fall, and the chesnuts have fallen. My most frequent running route these days is the loop around my neighborhood, and part of the loop is lined with chesnut trees. The street is absolutely covered with the fuzzy green burs and crushed nut meats. Last year I ran into chesnut gatherers, but I have yet to see them this year.

Some weekend highlights:
- Saturday bike ride on the Burke Gilman trail with friends
- big tasty lunch at the 5 Spot (mmm... grilled cheese)
- the realization that varnishing is fun; much more fun than sanding
- finally catching What Not to Wear on BBC America
- eating Jeff's amazing chili - first batch of the season
- napping with the cat on a lazy grey afternoon

The Friday Five

1. What vehicle do you drive? VW Jetta TDI

2. How long have you had it? One year (almost exactly).

3. What is the coolest feature on your vehicle? It's a diesel. I get almost 50 miles on a gallon of gas. I have a pretty long car commute, and don't have to fill up very often (considering).

4. What is the most annoying thing about your vehicle? The fact that I still have 36 months of payments left before it's mine. I need to start paying that down faster. Other than that, only the fact that everyone else has the same car.

5. If money were no object, what vehicle would you be driving right now? I'm pretty happy with my Jetta. I do love older Jaguars. If time, energy, and know-how were no object, I'd like a restored BMW 2002, pre-1975, manual transmission. I really like to admire nice cars, but don't feel the need to drive them. I don't want to have something that I can't park on the street or in crowded lots without feeling nervous.