Holy Crap!

Over the last month, I have been a woman obsessed! My current obsession? The BBC series Jekyll.

Only 6 episodes long, I missed the first one, but caught the second one by accident. After 10 minutes, I was hooked. I started telling everyone to watch Jekyll. On Wednesday, I saw episode 5, and yesterday, the DVD of the show I ordered from Amazon showed up, so last night I watched episode 6.

WOW! wow. It's all I can say. After episode six ended, I actually muttered the words, "Holy crap."

I don't think I've ever seen anything that intelligent, well acted, well scripted, well lit (for crying out loud!) on tv!

I'm off to meet Chant for breakfast today, and as I got her hooked on Jekyll, I'm bringing the DVD and she simply MUST watch it before Monday so I have someone to talk to it about!!

Coffee!
I love coffee. I really do. I love it as much as I love Portia, and that's alot (she's so darn cute). Jenge and I brew a pot every morning. Chances are at least 1 (if not 3) pot gets brewed at the office, and most evenings I make a pot when I get home from work too. It's how I relax, it's how I get going, it's how I escape. I use coffee as my shield - I cannot possibly roll out of bed and get dressed and go to work immediately, I must drink that cup of coffee first. And it cannot be rushed, or I might burn my tongue.

There are two kinds of coffee drinkers out there. The ones like me, who turn to coffee as a beverage just about any time of day. Thankfuly, I work with these kind of coffee drinkers. No one bats an eyelash if you start crying because the only coffee that's left in the office is the Emergency-only-if-your-life-depends-on-it can of Maxwell House. The second kind of coffee drinkers are those who think they love coffee as much as the rest of us, but have been known to go days, nay weeks without a sip of the lovely brew. I'm not saying they don't love it, I'm just saying they aren't as... dedicated as the rest of us.

My all time record for coffees per day was back when I worked for the Mother Ship, Starbucks. On an average working day, I would have at least 3 cups of coffee and 8 shots of espresso. And sleep like a baby at night. Working your ass off all day will do that to you. Right now, it's 10pm and I'm wishing I could have a cup of coffee. I'm not worried about caffeine keeping my up. My only concerns are
a) I don't have time before bed to drink more than 1 cup from the pot (although my cup is 20oz) and that just seems like a waste of good coffee
b) I'll be getting up all night to go to the bathroom.

I miss my carafe coffee pot. That machine brewed the coffee right into a stainless steel carafe that would keep the coffee warm all day. If I still had it, I could be drinking this morning's coffee right now - and it would taste just as good. Instead I'm staring at our current glass coffee pot wondering how bad it would taste to microwave some life into that bad boy.

It's Love!

Last Sunday I was sitting at my computer updating my ipod Mini. I must have blacked out for a few minutes and Evil Margarita took over, because the next thing I knew, I was printing out the invoice for a new iPod classic in black (I would have taken his picture, but my camera batteries are kaput). He arrived on Friday and it's been love ever since. I named him Mr. Big, since he will hold 20000 songs! I don't even know 20000 songs. In fact, my computer currently only has 1411 songs, but whatever. Since I got Mr. Big, I have spent about 8 hrs this weekend trying to find album artwork for all the stuff in my iTunes library. The only snag seems to be some sort of an iTunes glitch in which some songs will not let me modify the artwork, but I think I'm about 90% there. I've also downloaded two books to listen to on my morning commute. And I put my Mexico pictures on him so that I have somethign to cheer me up when I am sad about the monotony of work. And you know what? Mr. Big is not even 10% full. AMAZING! He's so handsome and shiny. I will have to knit him a cozy so he doesn't get my grimy fingerprints all over his shiny black and silver casing. I think he's man enough to handle pink and chocolate brown.

Mathology

I have a math degree. I am horrible with numbers.

These two statements, despite your first thought, are not mutually exclusive. When in the math faculty, I rarely had to use numbers. If I did, they were not bigger than 10. Or they were irrational numbers or numbers as words: pi, e, the sqauare root of 2, cos of 0, epsilon.

When people find out I have a math degree, they automatically assume I am good with numbers and some even bark out a question like, "What's the square root of 5692?" - Got me. But if you have a calculator, I'm wicked awesome with a number pad due to my time as a safeway cashier.

Like any good grade school student, I memorized my multiplication tables up to 12*12, and because I like numbers, I know 13*13, 14*14, 15*15 - just cuz I think it's fun. I factor in my head when I can't sleep at night, bringing all numbers down to their prime factors. It's very relaxing and distracting. You try getting upset about deadlines at work when you are trying to break down 120 in your head (120=2*3*4*5 - which actually fascinates me because other than it's prime factorization, I see nothing else extraordinary about 120 but there you have it). But splitting the cheque, knowing how much to tip, or figuring out 3% of my paycheck for my health benefits, and I'm reaching for my trusty keyboard calculator.

I'm more interested in how math forumlas work, why they work, why they are true all the time, and how it is that anyone ever possibly figured out imaginary numbers (no joke! they exist!) than trying to figure out how much is left in my bank account.

I leave you with this thought:
It is not the job of mathematicians... to do correct arithmetical operations. It is the job of bank accountants. ~Samuil Shchatunovski

What a way to start a week...
Raise your hand if you suffer from Sunday night insomnia.

Are we so used to passing out exhausted after working all day that two days of doing nothing (aka: grocery shopping, laundry, vaccuuming, lawn work, socializing, hobbies, reading and watching telly) screws us over so much so that we can't fall asleep? I was up until at least 2am last night (which was when I stopped checking the clock). Even Portia, tired of my tossing and turning, was like, 'Do you mind? I'm trying to get some shut eye here!' Is it because we don't want the weekend to end? Some studies have even suggested that Catholics suffer the most from this Sunday night insomnia as they ponder with copious amounts of guilt all the things they didn't get completed on the weekend.

All I know is, it's a crummy way to start my week.

Affairs, Exile, Poison...Another day at Meerkat Manor!

I've seen the ads for this show over the past couple of months, and I have to say, I was dying to watch it. I tuned in tonight for 2 episodes on Access - and boy was it fun! The show follows a family of Meerkats, The Whiskers, as they try to survive. Narrated by Bill Nighy, tonight's two episodes were jam packed!
Flower, the Whisker matriarch, exiled her daughter, Mozart for having pups. As the matriarch of the pack, only Flower is allowed to have kids. Mozart got beaten up and then exiled for having a litter. Alone, with no one to groom her, and no one to watch over her while she forages, can she survive??
Mitch, big bully pup of Flower, got greedy and stole food from another pup. But after eating too much scorpion, he go sick. Will he make it through the night?
Tosca, another of Flower's daughters, also made the terrible mistake of having her own pups. She was beaten up and exiled as well. Luckily, she had Mozart to keep her company.
But then! Flower has a new litter of pups, and Mozart uses that small weakness to get back in the pack! Mitch survives the night! Tosca is still exiled. And in a terribly naughty move, Mozart hooks up with Carlos from a rival pack. Flower, too busy foraging after giving birth doesn't appear to know - but the rest of the pack does. Will Mozart repeat her terrible mistake and give birth again?
Tune in to Meerkat Manor to find out!