Goodbyes

Christianna's going home and Bob's moving to Chicago. It doesn't really feel like the end
of something, in the way that high school did, but I will be sad to have
my friends so far away all of a sudden. I'm glad I get to keep Pato for
a while.

Loudly announced for the Evil Suitemate to hear:

Roommate: So, how's that rash of yours doing?
Me: Shut up - at least I don't have head lice.

I don't think she pays any attention to us. Sad.

Blogging programs (with a brief side-note)

I like a lot of Movable Type's features (why do I feel like I have spiders in my hair? AAAAAAAAAAAH!) but Blogger Pro
has the advantage that you can post from any computer with internet access
- not just from a computer with the program installed. Then again, MT has
the advantage that you don't have to be connected to the Internet to make
a post, just to publish it. (Right? There isn't a lot of info on how
MT works on the FAQ page). And MT is cheaper than Blogger Pro. What do
I want, what do I want? Maybe I should wait until MT lets you post via email.
And figure out if I know what I'm doing enough to even install MT! What do you think of Blogger Pro or Movable Type?

Exams over!

Computer Science exam went pretty okay. One paper left to go and I'm finished with college. Wow.

Do you still remember what your last college (or high school) exam was?

The Tuesday This-or-That

Which is worse: a driver riding your bumper or someone pulling out in front of you with their car?
I think that someone pulling out in front of me is worse because I think
there's the potential for more damage there and there's less you can do.
With a car riding your bumper, you have the fear of being rear-ended. With
a car pulling out in front of you, you could hit them and be hit from behind.
Can you do 10 push ups? If you paid me, I probably could.
Do you bathe/shower in the morning or in the evening (or at all)?
I try to do it in the morning but it often ends up being the afternoon or
evening. I don't like to go to bed with wet hair because it goes in funny
directions in the morning and it's thin and straight enough that it's really
noticeable. Michael or Janet Jackson? Or? What means this "or"? They are very
clearly the same person, who was pumping out too many albums so they had
to create a second (and LaToya is a third) persona. Have you ever listened
to them? Looked at them? Watched them dance? They are the same person!
Which do you enjoy most? Your bedroom or living room? My bedroom is
my living room here. But at home I guess I prefer the family room because
that's where the family is. But just wait till I get my computer home! Bathroom or kitchen? I know what Alfie's answer is! But mine is kitchen. With the oven on. Mmm, toasty.
Crayons or markers? Crayons, generally. Markers are never even enough
and always bleed through. Depends what you're marking on, though, I suppose.
Markers for posterboard, crayons for coloring books. Leaves falling or flowers blooming? This is a Fall/Spring question in disguise. I like both but I guess I prefer Fall.
Fred and Wilma or Barney and Betty? I hate the Flintstones. I hate lots of cartoons.
Fame or fortune? I like Ashley's answer - fortune, because then you can buy fame.

Go ahead, call it a cocoon crash

My roommate
is funny. She always turns music on right before she leaves, as if to say
"There isn't enough music in your life, srah, so here is something for you
to enjoy." Hee hee.

The feeling of a crisp $10 bill in your hand after you've received your deposit on your never-used Honors Observatory key card and handed in your Honors Senior Evaluation full of reasons why the Honors Institute is in no way beneficial to Albion College or to me in particular.

Ah, I love the smell of refund in the afternoon. It smells like... freedom.

6 days.

Freshman year, a game of multilingual Uno broke out on our hall. French, Spanish, German, maybe even some Samoan found its way into the game as we called out numbers and colors and tried to translate things like "draw two" and "reverse". The only rule: no English. It was a level of multilingual fun we don't even get in I-House.

Did you notice that I have new little buttons for my daily (or weekly, depending on how you look at it) memes? Yessir. I made one for every day of the week - even the Friday Five, which already had one. That way I can link to the meme without doing it in the title. You'll just have to be patient and wait for the rest of them to be revealed.

My roommate is funny. She always turns music on right before she leaves, as if to say "There isn't enough music in your life, srah, so here is something for you to enjoy." Hee hee.

Yechhh

My favorite musical artist, Andrew W.K., is in The Onion this week. Whenever I hear that name, I think of W.K. Kellogg, the cereal magnate.

"Why should I change my name? He's the one who sucks"

I don't remember ever hearing anything about Office Space
when it was out in theatres. Did anyone see it in the theatre or did it
just gain this cult following after it came out on video?

Name three movie musicals that involve people pretending to be cows or bulls. There may be more than the three I'm thinking of...

The Sunday Op-Ed

1)Thunderstorms
What is a great reason to have a big window with a great view? I had a view
of the back yard of Wesley freshman year and now I have a nice view of the
intersection by the Dow, which is also sort of nice in a storm, except for
the stupid frat boys running outside in the rain. We can always hope they'll
be struck by lightning. 2)Sex
What is not exactly the same as "gender" but I can never remember what the difference is?
I can't. I think one is biological and the other has to do with your sexual identity but I can't keep them apart. Anyone know?

3)Bubble Baths What's something I've never taken? When I was little,
I couldn't have them because I used to get bladder infections and there was
apparently some kind of connection. I think I've only had one bath total
since 1991 or whenever it was I got chicken pox.

I'm wandering around my site, fixing things, adding other things, tweaking things...

I haven't looked at some of my Projects in years, but I always love to see this picture of my grandma at school. In some ways she looks a lot like I did when I was younger and in some ways I think she's a lot cuter.

My grandma is cool. My Tudor-Stuart England professor was talking about how grandparents and grandchildren are often similar because everyone tries to raise their children the opposite of the way they were raised. You can see that between my grandma and my sister, who tease and pick on each other all the time because they're so much alike.

She has a lot of interesting stories, too, that come from her parents divorcing and her mother taking her back to Germany in 1930, at age one. She was American citizen in Germany during and after WWII, then went to the U.S. as an American citizen who only spoke German. It must have been quite difficult. I'm proud of her.

I'm hungry

What are you going to do about it?

7 days. One week to go till I'm sitting up there, either sweating in my graduation robes in the hot sun or with the rain running off my taller neighbor's mortarboard and all over me, while some investment-guy alum blathers on to us and PT lisps about how excellent our class is and rah rah Liberal Arts at Work. Can you tell I'm looking forward to it?

One day last summer someone signed the guestbook on my website, leaving their name as "John Hannah".

'Yeah right,' I snorted, and went on with my life. Then a few days later, he signed again, insisting it was him, saying that he liked the site, and that he'd like to contact me. So I left my email address in the guestbook, thinking 'What the hey'. By then there was some more information that made it sound more likely that it was actually him.

He did email me. He said he liked the site and and asked how I got involved. Through the information he shared, I came to believe that it really was John Hannah. So there I was at work, getting no work done and emailing back and forth with John Hannah. When I wasn't emailing back and forth, I was checking my email every two seconds to see if something new had come in. There were only three messages, but I still didn't get anything done all day.

In one of the messages, I mentioned that I was going to England soon and that I'd be going to see his friend Neil Dudgeon in a play he was in. Upon discovering that I'd be in London, he gave me the number of someone to contact at Twickenham Studios, where he was filming "The Memory of Water".

So when I got to England, I called and talked to this contact at Twickenham. We were calling back and forth all day, trying to set something up. Finally, it was discovered that John wouldn't even be filming on the day that I could come in. But that's okay, because he wanted to meet me, so he was going to come in especially for me.

!

So my London friend Denzylle, my sister and I went down to Twickenham and had to wait for the 2nd assistant director, one of the people I'd talked to on the phone. She walked into the room and shook my hand, and I noticed that someone had walked in with her. It was John Hannah! He looked strangely normal - I didn't recognize him at first. I think I expected him to be sparkly or have an odd glow, being a movie star and all.

We went to the little juice-bar thing next door and John bought us water and we talked for about 45 minutes about what he was working on then, what he'd just finished, what he's doing next... and he was interested in what I was doing, too. He asked "'Is this as weird for you as it is for me?" Um... probably more so.... He seemed quite amazed by some of the information we had about his work and kept going 'How did you know about THAT?'

Tom Wilkinson (In the Bedroom, The Full Monty, Shakespeare in Love, etc.), who's also in "The Memory of Water", came over for a minute, shook our hands, seemed to think having a website was pretty weird, and went upstairs to watch cricket.

Anyway, then we were done and we were getting ready to go and he kissed each of us on the cheek before we left. I almost fell over backwards and had to keep from squealing until we got out of hearing distance.

(geek)

8 days.

Last year in Grenoble I went out for a walk one day with nothing to do. Cheryl was out doing something else and I was bored so I wandered around downtown for a while and ended up on the quais of the Isère, just below the Bastille, one of the smaller of the mountains around Grenoble. So I decided to climb the Bastille. It's not like I needed climbing ropes or something - it's just a zig-zag walking path up the mountain. But since I hadn't really planned the expedition, I was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt, carrying my backpack, and hadn't had anything to drink since my morning cup of tea. And yet, I set off up the mountain. It really wasn't that hard until I started getting out from under the tree cover. By the time I reached the last set of steps to get to the top, I had to sit down because I was seeing stars. Then I had to scramble around and find myself something to drink so I didn't die of dehydration or heat stroke or stupidity or being out of shape or whatever it was that was killing me.

Climbing the Bastille is a lot more fun when you have someone with you and when you're prepared for it, as I found out this summer when I climbed it with my dad and a bottle of water on our summer trip to England and France.

My Poem Tag

Thanks to Krista for Photoshop help. Heh.

News from Albion

"people.albion.edu web sites can stay online for a year. So you have until next May to relocate your website."

That's nice. I could potentially wait until I have money. Not that I will have money next May. Sigh.

Picking on fictional characters

Just giving 'Enry a taste of his own prescriptive medicine...

"Look at her - a prisoner of the gutters;
Condemned by every syllable she utters.
By right she should be taken out and hung
For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue!"

Not that it has anything to do with Henry Higgins or GB Shaw - it's all Alan Lerner's fault.

Musical analysis?

Katie's Musical Trivia Quote made me put the My Fair Lady soundtrack on. Ah, Rex Harrison.

'Enry 'Iggins is such a prescriptive grammarian. Or a prescriptive phoneticist or something. He's pretty much just a jerk. Does anyone know if he was like that in Pygmalion? I've never read it, but I've seen the movie. Mmm, Leslie Howard.

Leslie Howard played Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind. What an unfortunate pair of androgynous first names.

Freeeeeeeeeeedooooooooooooom!

The other paper's not due until Monday. I declare today My Day. I will go scan things and play with Photoshop and maybe my Photos page will actually be linked to things.

I'm actually almost looking forward to it Episode I hopefully taught
us not to expect too much from the prequels and I think if we remember that,
Episode II should be pretty fun. My problem with Episode I was not Jar-Jar
Binks (although he was annoying) but the fact that everyone spoke English and there didn't seem to be much of a plot or character development.

Time has a review of Episode II here. It comes out May 16. I'll go see it, but I'm not camping outside. It'll be interesting to see if anyone does.

[link via reenhead]

Happified

Things that make me happy:

When Alfie and An update.

Yay!

Ding dong Tudor-Stuart England is dead. Crappy paper is handed in.
All done. I am also done with Spanish. One paper and one exam to go.
Woot!

Prononcer palabras Denz was commenting about peanut butter ice cream
(blechhh!) and the idea of hard-to-find flavors reminded me that when my
family went to France this summer we had bergamot flavored ice cream in Nancy.
Bergamot is the flavo(u)ring in Earl Grey tea. Mmm. The first bite was
exquisite and it sort of went downhill from there. Disappointing. Is it
ber-ga-mo or ber-ga-mott? Yo no sé. I just flipped to my dictionary to
find the pronunciation (answer: it's not in there) and discovered they have
one of those security tags in there, stuck right in the middle of one of
the pages. Greaaaat. I very delicately removed it and managed not to lose
any words. My 2020-page 100 pound French/English dictionary tells me, as
far as I can make out from the phonemic characters, that the T is pronounced
both in French and English. That was what was confusing me - I was pretty
sure the T was pronounced in French but I wasn't sure if it was in English
as well. Thank you for joining my thought process.

Lucky me, I'm one of my favorites

My Dave Matthews Song is... This quiz was created by Krazy K. Take it here!

Well-traveled old bag My duffle bag went to France and it didn't
take me along. Antoine's brother used it while he was here and ended up
taking it back with him and mailing it back to the US. So my bag has been
to a part of France I've never been to. Harrumph. It can just stay in that
dark closet as punishment.

For a second I was scared it would be wrong...

Take the What High School Stereotype Are You? quiz.

I bet most bloggers would get the Geek or Outsider.

[via Blogatelle]

Lego srah

Hooray! I'd seen these before but never found a link to the site. Now you too can become a Lego.

At left is srah as she sees herself.

You can also see a few more lovely creations: srah as she could be, srah as she hopes not to be, and El Patito.

[via Blogatelle]

Solution (?) to procrastination problem I should be writing a paper,
but I want to play with my web site. I am being good in that I am not allowing
myself to play with the web site until I finish the paper. I am being bad
in that I am not actually writing the paper. C'mon, srah. If you behave
yourself now, you can have a treat later. Nah, that's alright, I don't
want the treat that bad...

srah.com is taken

If I were to have my own domain name, what do you suppose it should be? Suggestions? How did you pick your domain name?

Procrastination I can't write a paper. It's daytime out. I think
the daylight hours would be much better spent scanning pictures in Rob Lab
and playing with Photoshop on the fourth floor of the KC. Not going outside
or anything. I don't wanna write a paper. I feel done.

The Thursday Threesome

Onesome. The Good.
Read a good book lately? Recommend a recent read - as well as your favorite book of all time....
I would say my favorite book so far is either Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris or The Falls by Ian Rankin. I read Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s Breakfast of Champions rather recently and it was entertaining.

Twosome. The Bad. Was it so bad that you couldn't watch anymore? Tell
us about a bad movie - did you leave or suffer through it? (Videos can count,
too)
I left during The Limey (sorry, An!) and I returned Sweethearts to the video store about five minutes in. I like movies that are so bad they make you laugh, like Where the Heart Is or Enemy at the Gates.

Threesome. And The Ugly. And then things turned ugly.... Oh, have a day
(or date) seem to go so horribly wrong it can only be described as "ugly"?
Tell us all about it...
Thankfully I haven't had one recently so I can't think of one. But I know it's happened...

Baldwin Outside... Inside "It's like Baldwin... without the selection."
Picnics on the Quad are affectionately known around here as "Baldwin Outside".
Our picnic today was moved inside due to a chance of rain. Thus, Baldwin
Outside... Inside. Baldwin outside is usually pretty good and there's plenty
of chips and bottled drinks to steal. But when you move it into Baldwin,
you realize how much it sucks compared to Baldwin's usual offerings. I stole
a bag of chips on principle and for tradition's sake, rather than because
I actually wanted them.

Whazzat?

And in English...

While mixing the salad, I heard the telephone ringing. I dropped the
salad bowl and ran quickly to the living room, where I found it was only
the TV and the phone wasn't really ringing. I swore a little and went back
to the kitchen, where I found an elephant eating my salad. I scolded him
and asked him politely to leave my apartment. He refused and continued to
eat my salad and step on my kitchen chairs.

I was drowning! I was drowning in a sea of orange. Then someone hit
me on the back and I was able to finish my breakfast in peace.

The guy across from her rubbed his moustache distractedly. She watched him without him noticing.
"Can I borrow your pencil?" she asked him.
"I didn't kill her..." he murmured.

The dogs met in the park.
"Tonight, the humans will begin to suffer the injustice and oppression that we have endured for years...

I looked the tiger right in the eyes.
"What is a tiger doing in Africa?" I asked.
"Mind your own business," the tiger replied, montypythonly.

"I don't much like these brussels sprouts," he said, hitting me on the head.
"I'm sorry," I cried, "but you knew from the beginning that I had never had any training as a chef."
He punched me in my nose, which made a "honk".
"You'll never be a chef," he replied, "You'll never be anything but a damned clown."
I left his home that day and began my journey in the world of unemployment on big, floppy foot.

My best friend was window shopping but I was licking the windows.
"Geez, you're strange," she reproached me.
"You say that because you never thought of it."
"You're right, you know," she agreed, approaching the window with her tongue.

I wish I could still write in the passé simple I spent my last French
class writing little stories to keep myself from going mad. Forgive the
grammatical errors – it’s been a while since I learned anything. En mélangeant la salade, j’ai entendu le téléphone qui sonnait. J’ai
laissé tomber le saladier et couru les pieds au cou jusqu’au salon, où j’ai
trouvé que ce n’était que la télévision et qu'en fait mon téléphone ne sonnait
pas. J’ai émis quelques gros mots et je suis rentrée dans la cuisine, où
j’ai trouvé un éléphant en train de manger ma salade. Je l’ai grondé et
l’ai demandé poliment de quitter mon appartement. Il a refusé et a continué
à manger ma salade et à marcher sur les chaises de ma cuisine.

Je noyais ! Je noyais dans une mer d’orange. Puis mon m’a claqué sur le dos et j’ai pu finir mon petit déjeuner en paix.

Le mec en face d’elle frottait sa moustache d’un air distrait. Elle le regardait sans qu’il ne se rende compte.
- Je peux vous emprunter le crayon en papier ?, elle lui a demandé.
- Je ne l’ai pas tuée…, il a marmonné.

Les chiens se sont réunis dans le parc.
- Ce soir, les humains vont commencer à souffrir de l’injustice et l’oppression que nous avons subis depuis des lustres…

J’ai regardé le tigre droit aux yeux.
- Qu’est-ce qu’un tigre fait en Afrique ?, j’ai demandé.
- Occupe-toi de tes oignons, m’a répondu le tigre, d’un air montypythonien.

- Je n’aime pas trop ces choux de Bruxelles, il m’a dit en me frappant
la tête. - Je m’excuse, j’ai pleuré, mais vous saviez depuis le début que
je n’avais jamais eu de la formation en tant que chef de cuisine. Il m’a
donné un coup de poing au nez, qui a fait un grand « honk ». - Vous ne serez
jamais chef de cuisine, il m’a répondu, Vous ne serez jamais qu’un clown
maudit. Je suis ce jour-là parti de chez lui et j’ai commencé mon voyage
dans le monde de chômage à extrêmement grand pied.

Ma meilleure copine faisait de la lèche-vitrines mais moi, je léchais la vitrine.
- Punaise, t’es bizarre, elle m’a reproché.
- Tu dis ça parce que tu n’y avais pas pensé.
- Tu as raison, tu sais, elle m’a accordé en s’approchant la langue vers la fenêtre.

Mysterious noise

Every time the wind blows hard, something in our room makes a noise that sounds like mooing.

Spanish evaluation We had to do a Spanish evaluation test and if
we did well on that, we don't have to take the final exam. I placed into
Spanish 301. What an effective test. But no final for me!

Woo hoo!

Last day of classes for srah!

If you could speak any known human language in the world, what would it be, and what would you do with that ability?
Spanish, and I would use it to communicate in Chile this summer. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

How about any known animal language? Why would you want to be able to speak with that particular animal?
I can't think of a single animal I'd like to communicate with. I think we get along just fine at this point.

Have you ever had your own made up language, either by yourself or with someone else?
Like Katie's, my family seems to communicate entirely in quotes. Alex and I started making up a language based on Spanish à la Onion, but we didn't get very far.

Describe a recent dream.
I dreamt I was being pressed to cheat on the Patito, but I didn't give in.

10 days.

One weekend last fall, Ligia, Juan, Alex and I all ended up at I-House with a bag of marshmallows and a can of Pringles. Juan put a little Pringle hat on top of a marshmallow head and then went to find a way to make it stay. Gradually, Marshmallowstein was born. He had a straw for a body and two more for legs, toothpick arms, and later even had clothing. Our artistic creation lived in Ligia's refrigerator for months afterwards.

You may be shocked and surprised!

... but probably not.

100 things about me

As if I knew what that meant

I listen to a lot of Melissa Ferrick, but not on purpose.

which Melissa Ferrick song are you?

[via the Roommate]

This is a very difficult test to take

In honor of my Tudor-Stuart England class and the 5-page Historiography (whazzat?) that I'm supposed to be writing today...

I would be Catherine Parr.

[via Secret Garden]

Ketchup

Hey, remember the dead guy in the bushes? Turns out he was just passed out drunk, if you were still wondering. And I got a 3.5 on that stupid excuse for a paper I wrote on Ulster. I don't know yet how I did on my CS presentation. Anything else you want to know that I left hanging?

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to John Hannah, who is 40 today!

11 days.

In the spirit of yesterday's cannibalistic song posting, I will post another making-fun-of-people song, which also happens to be a memory from my four years at Albion. This is a song I wrote for Mary Grace, the very stupid girl in my Europe Since 1500 class. It can be sung to the tune of "Amazing Grace".

Oh Mary Grace, I wonder why
this class drags on so slow.
It is because we must explain
the things that you don't know.

Oh Mary Grace, put down your hand.
Don't share your point of view
I hate to say that Adam D**tz
is not as dumb as you.

Oh Mary Grace, you taught us 'bout
the Inquisition - wow!
I didn't know The Church was much
more murd'rous then than now.

Oh Mary Grace, how dumb thou art,
up front in History.
I understand better than than you
a film I didn't see.

Oh Mary Grace, your curly hair
does nothing to conceal
that underneath that fluffy mane's
a hamster on a wheel.

The Tuesday This-or-That

Is your mouse pad plain or decorated? My mousepad came from the museum Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, where John Hannah
does all of the voice-over narrations. I thought it would be clever if my
souvenir from there was computer-related, being website manager and all. Do you own a web cam? Yes or no? Nay.
Which do you do use more often online: email or search? Hmmm, that's a good question. Probably email.
Do you use HTML coding, WYSIWYG editor, or something else to create your web pages?
I use Netscape Composter for the JH site because that's how I started it.
I really ought to move on to something else because it's a pain to start
it up when I don't already have it running. I used FrontPage for my website
redesign. I probably could have done it in Notepad, but I get confused when
it comes to tables and I like to be able to see the way things are arranged.
Do you forward chain emails? Noooooo.
Do you forward those mushy stories that take 20 minutes to read? I don't even read them, most of the time.
How large is your monitor: 14", larger, or smaller? I don't know, so I'll guess 14".
Do you have a mouse with a scroller, one with two buttons, one with three? Two buttons and a scroller. The scroller makes me happy and I always try to use it on rodents that don't have one.
Do you listen to music while surfing the web? Yes or no? Sometimes mp3s or my roommate's music. Sometimes I'll actually get up and go across the room to turn music on...
How often do you clear your cookies, or cache? Would that speed things up? I suppose I should do it more often...

Nothing goes with a clarinet quite like a martini

The Band Quiz By Rahel

I hate clarinets, except in Peter and the Wolf.

[via Rien d'Importance]

Peeved

Pet peeve of the Random Blog Quotes
writer: People who have no contact information at all on their blog. No
email, no comments, no guestbook. Yargh. I'm going to quote you and it's
your fault you didn't let me contact you first.

O Wise One Some of my disciples have asked me how to make screen
caps. So I will come down from my high mountain to spread my knowledge among
the less fortunate. Heh heh. Yeah, whatever. I learned this in my Computer
Science class, although I'm pretty sure someone had told me before and I
forgot. It's surprisingly easy. You hit Alt+PrintScrn and that copies the
screen. Then you open up a graphics program and paste it in and voilà.
Screen caps. Thought I would spread that to the rest of you who might not
know.

The Monday Mission

1. Ever had a love that you still think of as "the one that got away?" What's the story there? No. I'm glad that the one that got away got away. Heh.

2. What was the last book that you finished reading cover-to-cover? I believe it was David Sedaris' Barrel Fever. Last one I can think of, anyway.

3. Did you ever get up and walk out of a movie? Which one and why? I walked out of The Limey
because I thought it was violent and I hated the main character. It helped
that I was seeing it for free, so I didn't feel like I was wasting my money.
4. If we were to go out dancing, what song would you want me to ask the DJ to play as I slipped him a $20? Promo
always wants to take me dancing and to the movies. I would like to hear...
The Chicken Dance. That's what you get for taking me out, Promo. 5. What was the coolest toy you had when you were a kid? Hmmm. I liked Lincoln Logs and Legos.

6. When was the last time you felt lonely? I've felt lonely for short
periods of time at school when everyone was busy and I was alone. But the
last time I remember feeling really alone was last Valentine's Day in Nîmes
when I was spending my February holiday traveling all by myself. It was
Valentine's Day and I had no Valentine, no friends with me, my family was
across the ocean, and my host family was back in Grenoble. 7. Do you have any minor anal-retentive character traits? Enough
that I can't think of one at the moment. They are bursting out my ears but
I can't think of one off the top of my head. Interesting anatomical mixed
metaphors. Oooh! Just thought of one - I have to sit facing the door or
the rest of the room in restaurants. I don't like to be snuck up upon. BONUS: Can't you see what I mean? For some reason I suddenly feel like eating cats...

Happy seventh monthiversary, Patito!

12 days.

At Halloween of my freshman year, I had nothing to wear. So I ran out to Felpausch at the last minute and got some white bunny ears. I dressed all in white (or light khakis) and was a bunny.

Well, what do you do with bunny ears for the rest of the year? I became known on my hall for wearing my bunny ears everywhere. On the hall, around campus, to the coffee house... Ah, attention.

I became identified as "The Bunny". Rabbits became my favorite animal, just because I identify with them. Hence three stuffed bunnies, sitting on my couch.

Redesign

Well, here we are.

Comments? Problems? Criticism? Praise and buckets of money? Be gentle with me...

Fingers crossed... I've been tweaking things in the new weblog design
all day long. It might not be finished, but it's finished enough to be functional.
Here we go, copying code into the template... *cringes*

100 Things

I'm trying to come up with one of those "100 Things About Me" lists and I'm only up to 42. Hmmm.

I am not a cyborg

Okay, maybe I am.

[via freshly shaved text]

And while we're at it... I was really offended by that Saturday Night
Live sketch last night about "Isn't it time we all got back to hating those
Jew-hating asshole French, with their dog feces everywhere?". What we
really need at this point in time is more stupid stereotypes. Thanks, SNL.

No trust, no heat

I don't think Albion
trusts us with both heat and air-conditioning. I think they're afraid that,
idiots that we are, we would be running both of them at the same time with
the sole purpose of wasting energy. That's the only explanation I can think
of for why we had heat and no air-conditioning last week, when it was hot
and sunny out, and why I spent most of today wrapped up in a blanket, venturing
one hand into the cold air to type, and wishing we had heat. Clearly it's
a one-or-the-other thing and we are in A/C season now. Brrrrrrrrr.

Bzzzzzz! The only thing worse than a fire drill going off while you're
in the shower is the fire drill going off when you just got out of the shower.
I ended up going outside with srah-post-shower-hair and finished dressing
outside. At least when you obviously just got out of the shower, you can
go outside in whatever you want and people understand. I felt like people
were like "Why aren't you dressed and WHAT happened to your head?"

Website

By the way, the website is almost all done. There are only a few more things to link up and the weblog will have to be redesigned to match. Ooooooh.

Graduation countdown recap

Less than two weeks to go, so let's look over the old ones (mouse-over for titles)...

54 | 53 | 52 | 51 | 50 | 49 | 48 | 47 | 46 | 45 | 44 | 43 | 42 | 41 | 40 | 39 | 38 | 37 | 36 | 35 | 34 | 33 | 32 | 31 | 30 | 29 | 28 | 27 | 26 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13

13 days.

Our Geology TAs were named Gabe and Magda, but Jillian and I, being the clever Geology students that we were, nicknamed them Gabbro and Magma. Ha ha! We had a lot of fun in that class because Gabbro was sort of cute but dumb and we had two hours to do a lab that often needed less than an hour. We were usually the last ones there because we were amusing ourselves by playing with the fossils.

14 days.

My sophomore year, I took Intro to Earth History, a Geology class (lab science credit), with a bunch of other non-science majors from my freshman-year hall. I think the Sophomore Slump was beginning to set in and they were so happy to see each other again that they would very rudely talk through the whole class. And I, unfortunately, was associated with them. One day he kicked our side of the room out but I stayed, because I knew I had done nothing wrong.

I haven't done one of these in several days. Maybe I'm getting low on memories.

16 days.

One day Stephanie, Erin, Julie and I went to Felpausch but instead of making it just any trip to the supermarket, we brought along cameras and pretended we were on vacation at Felpausch. There's a lot of light in supermarkets. I have a nice picture of Erin sitting on the cheese case.

The A/C man cometh There's nothing quite as strange as coming home
from class and seeing the door open, the room ransacked, and a strange man
leaning over your bed. Okay, so he had keys, the room was messy because
we haven't cleaned in a while and he had to lean on the bed to change the
A/C filter. It still seems strange that he could come in like that with
no one home. The good news is we'll have some clean, bug-less air once they
get around to turning the I-House air conditioning on.

Earthquake!

There was a 6.6 earthquake
yesterday afternoon in Chile, felt from Antofagasta to Rancagua. No one
was killed, but Alex's home town, Copiapó, was the hardest hit. All of the
windows in downtown Copiapó were broken and a few people were injured and
the rest pretty shaken up. He says it's normal to have little tremors there
daily. I can't imagine.

The Thursday Threesome

Onesome. The Sun. Blow some sunshine my way, and tell me what makes you feel joyful. A nice breeze.

Twosome. The Moon. By the light of the silvery moon....tell me about your most romantic evening. My boyfriend made me a candlelight dinner once...

Threesome. And The Stars. What's your sign, baby? And do you believe in that sort of thing, anyway? I'm a Virgo. I find it interesting that I share many of the traits Virgos are supposed to have, but I don't believe in horoscopes.

I would like to be noticed It's a silly complaint, but I'd like to
be recognized. The Physics Department has their seniors on display in the
hallway. I went to the Honors Convocation and watched the same people get
award after award for being outstanding in way or another, either academically
or in campus involvement. The "Cathy A. Young Award in French" may sound
impressive but you and I know it was 30 seconds of talking into a tape recorder.
It wasn't "The French Department appreciates all you have done in your four
years". I would like to feel special even though I haven't been invited
to join any honoraries. I would like to be recognized in some way. This
is partially for myself and partially for ISU being ignored at the Sleight
Leadership Awards. I feel sort of unappreciated. I know it's good to get
my diploma and all, but I'd like to think that I'm going to be remembered
in some way after I'm gone. Maybe this is Albion's way of saying "Graduate, get a high-paying job, give us a lot of money, and we'll name a building after you."

Sigh.

Stuff I'm giving serious thought to a completely new design for the
entire site. What a lot of work. At least three people yesterday thought
I was wearing white tights. I wasn't. Those were my legs. Today's the
Honors Convocation. I'm not Phi Beta Kappa. I'm not Mortar Board. I'm
not Omicron Delta Kappa, whatever that is. I'm not anything. Sigh. I won
the poetry contest, though. Who would've thunk that? Did I make up prize
money in my head, or am I going to get some? If I don't get any money, that
makes my comments at the contest even stupider.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is here.

Everyone has daydreamed about how they will meet their ideal romantic partner. What is your fantasy meeting?
Have they? Everyone? I'm sure I've had plenty of fantasies, but there isn't just one. My fantasy involves me carrying a big box of water bottles and trying not to drop it. The box is so heavy I can't talk and there's no way I can wave so I just smile at him and continue to the airport van.

If you and the love of your life could live any life together, what would it be?
My Patito will be digging things up in Europe and teaching in England. I will be in front of a computer, gradually going blind. I'm not sure if we're living in England or if he's commuting from France.

If you could have it any way you wanted, how would you propose (or be proposed to)?
"Hey, wanna get hitched?"
"Hmmm, I'm not doing anything this afternoon. Sure."

Describe a recent dream.
I can never remember any stinking dreams on Wednesday!

Hedgehog!

Some dork with too much time on her hands (or not enough, but with a real desire to waste time...) made a button for my roommate.

I'm not tired, but I need to go to sleep. Bye now.

Late night random blog poetry

Almost done.

srah college student by Albion student Taken To
sleep. the waitress comes I want
I put it was a
miracle, all stressed out
Blogiversary coming
up, seeing the Patito, was reading blog instead We
made significant modifications in the toilet flushing...
but it
much. [I want it hits the energy to
get the luge in in the source
of a year
I was no yellow police tape
maybe I think of. being very superficially charming.

17 days on the 17th. Huh.

When we went to visit Denis and Sophie's cousin and her kids in St-Etienne, the six-year-old cousin Charles latched on to me. It was interesting because he'd seen me about a month before and had told me that his cousins were beautiful but I was moche. Well, little Charles. I was bored and lonely and bombarded with French. We can't all be looking our best under these circumstances. Poo on you.

But on this visit, he followed me all over the place and wanted to sit next to me at dinner, sit on my lap, and hold my hand when we went on walks. Little flirt. I shudder to think what he's going to be like when he gets older.

Musical interlude

Springtime for Hitler and Germany...

It's springtime. And by that, I mean that it's summer. Hot hot hot.

I feel pretty, oh so pretty...
I am wearing my one and only tank top and a skirt. I feel like going out
in public and showing myself off, but I have to work on my presentation and
paper. Maybe I will go work in a campus computer lab. There are no cats in America and the streets are paved with cheese...
(That has nothing to do with anything, but it was the only song from a musical
that I could think of.) I wore my one and only pair of shorts yesterday.
I am lacking in the summer-clothes department, which comes from working
and living all summer long in in air conditioning so cold I often have to
put on a sweater. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to come up with tomorrow.

Tuesday This-or-That

Do you eat food if it hits the floor? Yes or no? In my mom's house,
yes, in my room, no. Depens on the food, too. I'm not going to lick pudding
off the floor, but I might eat a cracker. Chinese food or Italian? Chinese.
Ice cream or yogurt? Ice cream most definitely. Frozen yogurt is the devil.
Do you eat breakfast? Yes or no? I wish I did but I'd rather sleep.
Have you ever eaten a bug? Yes or no? I'm sure I have, but no stories come to mind.
Soft drink from a can, bottle, or glass? It's fun from a glass bottle,
but I'd rather drink from a can than a plastic bottle. I think I have some
problems with fountain drinks (or maybe it's just Baldwin) because they always
upset my stomach, but I can drink pop from a can just fine. Do you consume 5 fruits and vegetables a day? I doubt it.
Apple or orange? Green apple or clementine.
Pork rinds or sardines? I refuse to answer this question on the grounds that-- ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
Caviar or grits? Caviar! Mmmmmmmmm, fun texture! Grits remind me of the South and waitresses calling me "hon". Beurk!

News from here I drove by Wesley and there was no yellow police tape
(maybe I'm looking at the wrong bushes) and PT hasn't sent out a campus-wide
email. Either nothing really happened or it's all a masterful cover-up (I
wouldn't put it past PT - murder on campus does bad things for enrollment).
There is some kind of hornet or yellow-jacket or buzzard (doesn't buzzard
sound like it should be a kind of bee?) or other disgusting flying thing
in here. I am scared. I knew we should have put the screen back up... Charlie,
the replacement car, drives so much more happily when he's full of gas. Random Blog Quotes and Baldwin Blog have both been recently updated (by me). Go visit.

I am dirty. I should eat lunch, shower and get to work on my CS paper and presentation.

I can't sleep My roommate told me that a body was found tonight in
the bushes across the street from Wesley Hall. Even though I don't know
anything about the case or how the person died (or if, indeed, someone died
at all) and I live on the second floor, I still have the irrational fear
that boogeymen and murderers are going to get ladders and come in and get
me. It's almost enough to make me close the window, but it's too hot for
that. Comfort wins out over personal security. Going to try to sleep. Good night.

19 days.

One day in our freshman year, Stephanie, Lewis, Jen and I stayed up all night, eating tuna dip and giving (Jen and Lewis) and receiving (Stephanie and me) makeovers. It was actually rather spectacular in my case, being the makeup-less troll that I am. Heh heh. I'm glad I've never had any homework to do during my four years. It makes spontaneous fun-sessions more possible.

Well okay, maybe I've had a little homework, but nothing to interfere with my dazzling social life or anything.

Blogiversary season

Ernie is near his two-year mark, Rebeca just celebrated hers, Mr. Enlow's almost at a year and Katie
and I are both around the six-month mark. Anyone else got a milestone?
And what's with October and April that causes people to start self-reflecting?
And more importantly, is self-reflecting a verb?

Boy are we dumb!

My family watched (and taped for me!) a show on CBC (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation or Company or something) called "Talking to Americans".
In this special, their reporter goes to the U.S. and... talks to Americans.
I'm sure there were some smart Americans that were edited out for being
too smart. They did leave in one kid who contradicted the reporter when
he was talking about the Canadian states rather than provinces. But the
gist of the show is "How dumb are Americans?" Excellent! Among those tricked
was Al Gore, who was told that when he was eventually elected president,
he should come to Toronto because it's a tradition for a president's first
trip to be to Canada's capital.
Michigan Secretary of State Candice Miller, Governor John Engler, and everyone's
favorite president, Jorge W. Arbusto, were all meeting together when the
reporter asked them what they thought of Canada's prime minister, Jacques
Poutine. Some American, when asked if the heads of Taft, Nixon and Mulroney
should be added to Mount Rushmore, said that he didn't think so because they
weren't very good presidents. And so on and so on. Sigh. Congratulations,
Canada, on your 500th mile of paved road! And that goes for your prime minister,
Tim Horton,
too! My mom and I were making fun of the people on the show but we realized
that the average non-CBC-watching American might not know who the prime minister
of Canada is. Do you?

The Monday Mission

1. What caused your last case of psuedo-road rage? I don't get that angry, unless I'm in one of those moods. Usually I'm someone to get angry at
because I get into the left lane and start thinking about other things and
slowing down, or I turn left thinking I have the right of way when I don't
and almost kill everyone involved. Boy, I'm an awful driver. 2. Tell me about one of your favorite television shows that was cancelled (past or present). Hmmm. The Non-Sucky X-Files? That was cancelled about three years ago. Is that stupid show still on?

3. Have you ever gone online and pretended to be someone else? What's the story there? No. Sorry to disappoint.

4. What was (is) one of your favorite Children's books? I am a former
employee of the youth department of my local library. Don't get me started.
Perhaps I will make a list in an upcoming post. 5. Can you recommend a CD (tape or otherwise) for me to listen to on the drive home? Shirley Bassey - Diamonds are Forever: The Remixes

6. What is your online nickname and what is the story behind how you selected it?
I am srah and people like to sing "Que sera sera" to me. Thus QueSrah.
Actually, srah is an online nickname too, but it's also a real-life nickname.
That one comes from my friend Grace and I complaining about how there was
no nickname for either of our names. So we started calling each other "S'rah"
and "Gra'". One stuck. 7. Ever been bitten or stung before (snake, wasp, dog, etc)? Nope. *knock on wood*. Mosquitos aplenty, though.

BONUS: Does anybody love anybody anyway? I love Alf and that's all that matters to me.

The Clip Show Queen

I don't usually turn the TV on, but once I turn it on, I can't turn it off. Yesterday I watched The Celluloid Closet
on video, VH1's Top 20 Women in Rock & Roll, VH1's Top 20 Shocking Moments
in Music History, a VH1 documentary on Bob Marley, the end of The Mummy and the beginning of The Mummy (TNT showed it twice in a row. Why? Why not The Mummy and The Mummy Returns?)
I am such a loser. But I like documentaries and lists because I like the
little musical/film clips they play. Probably the same reason why I like
those infomercials for CDs (yesterday I saw "Motown Love").

I love vinaigrette

I haven't tried this recipe,
but it looks like it would work pretty well. When we tried to make vinaigrette
with Jaclyn back in Grenoble, mine kept separating, no matter what I did.
I'd rather just put it in a bottle and shake it.

The Sunday Op-Ed

1. Cheesecake
What is my sister's favorite dessert?
If cheesecake is on the menu, we know what she's going to get. She's very predictable like that.

2. Wine
What did I think I was going to learn to like in France?
I don't mind it as much as before, but given the choice between wine and water, I'll go for the H2O.

3. Dancing What is my family's favorite group activity? My mom, sister
and I dance in the kitchen. Sometimes we ask Daddy to join in, but he mostly
likes to stomp around and throw us off the beat. Story of his life!

Verbal diarrhea I don't know what's wrong with me. When I was younger,
I would carefully think everything out before I said it. What I was going
to say, how I was going to say it, and what impact it was going to have on
the listener. Now I feel like I just spew everything out there and disaster
ensues. There was the poetry contest incident. Then I offended everyone I know with my post about Richard. Many other minor incidents. And now today I harangued
Lewis, when he was already stressed out about preparations for Fiesta Fantastica,
about how he should count French Guiana and Haiti as Latin American countries
if he includes Brazil and Belize. Why do I care? Why was I so adamant about it that I was practically shouting?

What's wrong with me?

I love The Onion

I like it when The Onion tackles big issues like cultural understanding. Here is an article from this week's issue: Japanese Exchange Student Taken To Japanese Restaurant.
I actually find it rather sweet because the family is making an effort to
reach out to the kid, in their own misguided way. And here is one of my
favorite articles from a past issue: I Bet I Can Speak Spanish.

¡Ellaquanto paganyo balagoonda!

Future Career: Village Person

Next Wednesday I have to hand in a seven-page paper and do a PowerPoint presentation for my Computer Science class, both on What I Want To Do When I Grow Up And How Computers Will Relate To That.
I am, of course, prepared for this paper and presentation. We had to hand
in a topic earlier in the semester and a list of sources a few weeks ago.
Except I can't really remember what I had for either and I don't think they
were the same thing. And whatever they were, I don't think I want to do
them anymore. I am so indecisive. It's not like I have to do whatever I
write about, anyway. I could write about how I want to be a ballet dancer
or a policeman or a construction worker or an Indian chief or... wait, now
I'm just listing off members of the Village People. My latest idea is The
Pharmaceutical Distribution Industry. Or in laymen's terms, Selling Pot
Over The Internet. That would be a fun paper to research and write, but
I think I might be too concerned with being arrested or the dolts in my class
not getting that I was joking. We also have to evaluate other people's presentations.
I'm not very good at this. I'm too critical and all I care about is if
they have images on their PowerPoint slides or not. And I'm not very objective
about topic, either. I don't want to hear another presentation about insurance
or tax software. Blargh.

The weather has been rather schizophrenic lately. Or maybe manic/depressive. You'd have to ask the psych major about that. I don't know my psychology terms or how to relate them to the weather. One minute the sun's out and the next there's a thunderstorm.

Yay, my paper is done

If I ever see a seventeenth century Scotsman walking around, I will kick him squarely in the nuts.

22 days.

Over my February vacation last year, I was reading some French book and sitting by the bus stop to get the bus back to Nîmes and various people began to join me. Quite a few of them spoke English, but I was lost in my book and don't normally talk to strangers, anyway. I got onto the bus and sat behind two Americans. They were talking amongst themselves and I wasn't really paying attention, but I caught words here and there. Then one of them turned around and said, "Mademoiselle, vous habitez ici?" ("Miss, do you live here?") Suddenly I put together all of the snippets of their conversation that I'd overheard and realized that they were talking about me (and trying to figure out how old I was) and thought I was French. "Non," I replied, wondering if I should 'fess up. "Si ça ne vous dérange pas, vous habitez où?" ("If you don't mind me asking, where do you live?") I thought about saying "Grenoble" and leading them on, but I figured I might as well be honest (and get the opportunity to see how they'd react!) So I took a deep breath and admitted "Michigan," which made one of them collapse behind the seat in embarrassment. But they were quite nice and sweet and we chatted all the way back to Nîmes.

Where are you guys? They were from California somewhere.

Song of the evening

I like these lyrics.
I just discovered the mp3 on the Albion system. It's about a guy comparing
his new girlfriend to his old girlfriend and finding her lacking. Here's
a snippet: she thinks I can't see the smile that she's faking
and poses for pictures that aren't being taken
I loved you
grey sweatpants
no makeup
so perfect

our love was comfortable and so broken in
she's perfect
so flawless
I'm not impressed
I want you back

1. What is your favorite restaurant and why? Mmmmmm, food. Let's see. I like Mongolian BBQ... I like Zingerman's Delicatessen, if that counts as a restaurant. I like Chili's. Generally I'm not a big fan of chains. I like to eat at lots of restaurants, so maybe my favorite is Whichever One I've Never Been To.

2. What fast food restaurant are you partial to? Subway is yummy. Local Ann Arbor fast food restaurant Y & S (yogurt and sandwiches) is lovely. I am also rather partial to Arby's ("I'm so hungry I could eat at Arby's!"). I like Boston Market. I'm not such a fan of the traditional burger places.

3. What are your standards and rules for tipping? I usually calculate 20% (it's easier than 15%) and round up or down to the nearest even amount. I was a lot more generous when I was in high school and had money.

4. Do you usually order an appetizer and/or dessert? It really depends on how hungry I am, what the menu is like, and who I'm eating with. I can't eat an appetizer, an entrée and a dessert, but sometimes I can handle a combination of two. My sister is the Appetizer Queen - she wants an appetizer wherever we go and she has to pick it. So sometimes I'll share with her or sometimes I'll get an appetizer as my entrée and have dessert with that.

5. What do you usually order to drink at a restaurant? I am notoriously slow. I used to always automatically get a Coke-or-a-Pepsi but then I gave up soft drinks for a period of time and haven't really jumped back on the bandwagon. Sometimes I like juice if they have good kinds. Or specialty drinks, milkshakes, chocolate milk, or lemonade. Plus, since August I've hadd access to a whole new section of the drinks menu, so I peruse that when I'm not the one driving home. When the waitress comes I usually ask for a glass of water in order to stall and look at the menu and I order my drink when I order my meal.

I don't usually write this much for the Friday Five. Good questions! Now I'm hungry.

The pointless stuff on the web is the most fun

I got today's guy right on the first guess! Be sure to check out all of the past games as well!

guess my name

[via reenhead]

Googlepranking

Roommate: I've been getting some weird searches lately.
Me: (innocently) Oh really?
Roommate: Yeah, and they're all from an Albion address. Like digital video of a rockstar and a kitty or my roommate did the luge in the olympics or surprise pyramid of loo roll or scottish rugby team in ghetto olympics or digital videos of--
Me: --cranky bums having fun?
Roommate: It's YOU!

Krista has also recognized me as the source of the search request let's see my grandma tickle jeff, satan, and stevie nicks.

I amuse myself so much more than I amuse anyone else. Heh heh.

Things other people accomplished when they were my age

This
is sort of depressing. At age 21: Italian violinist and composer Giuseppe
Tartini had a dream in which he sold his soul to the Devil. The piece he
wrote upon waking, the "Devil's Sonata," was the best he ever wrote, though
far inferior to the one he heard in his dream. American novelist Herman
Melville jumped ship and spent a month as the captive of a cannibal tribe.
This became the source of his novel Typee. Jack London went to the Klondike
with the first rush of gold-seekers, returning home a year later as poor
as when he had left. English chemist Humphry Davy discovered nitrous oxide
("laughing gas"), and suggested that it may have use as an anaesthetic. Thomas
Alva Edison created his first invention, an electric vote recorder. After
it failed to sell, he decided to devote his energy to inventions for which
there was a market. John Dillinger robbed a grocery store, was caught and
spent 9 years in prison. He later became "public enemy number one," before
being gunned down by the FBI. Luther Burbank purchased 17 acres of land
near Lunenburg, Massachusetts and began a plant-breeding career that would
span 55 years. Pablo Casals made significant modifications in cello playing
technique and was acclaimed as a master. Pittsburgh songwriter Stephen Foster
wrote "Oh! Susanna!" which quickly gained great popularity. Future robber
baron Jay Gould began investing in the leather business and speculating in
railroad stocks. Robert Browning publishes his first poetry; it is poorly
received. Alfred Tennyson publishes his first poetry; it is poorly received.
College dropout Steven Jobs co-founded Apple Computer.

Without cheating!

which children's storybook character are you?

I strongly suspect that all of the answers are Dennis

And yet strangely... I don't care. I am just happy to have Dennis, thank you.

which "monty python and the holy grail" character are you?

[thank you for linking to this, Sheri. I want to marry you and have your babies.]

If you found a lamp containing a genie who would grant you three wishes, what would they be?
Security (job, relationship, etc.), love, and a cheese sammich.

Now say you only had one wish, and it has to be for yourself. And when you make that wish, something of equal magnitude but of the opposite nature (good/bad) will happen to someone you don't know and will never meet. What do you wish for, and why? REMEMBER, you can vote for something good OR bad for yourself...)
Notapony. I would wish that I would never in my life own a pony. Because I have no desire whatsoever to own a pony, but for some reason other people do. That would be a good one. I wouldn't get anything out of it, but I wouldn't hurt anyone else either. If I wished for a lifetime supply of coffee ice cream, would someone else never taste coffee ice cream? Because I might be able to handle that too. This is a cool question.

Now say that the genie will give you the opportunity to go back in time and change ONE thing about your own life. What will it be, and how will it affect your life at present?
Hmm. I would... go back to earlier in my college career and think about picking up an additional major. That sounds like a good one.

Describe a recent dream.
Shoo. I had a dream night before last and I was like Can't blog about this one now - gotta save it for the Wednesday Whimsy so of course I promptly forgot it. Shoo.

All friggin' morning long

srah is sitting peacefully in class, minding her own business. She may
even be paying attention. Suddenly she falls to the floor clutching her
head and screaming.

Classmate: What's wrong, srah?
srah: It won't go! It won't go! It's stuck in there and I can't get it out!
Classmate: (wonders if some small animal has crawled into srah's head and taken up residence) What is it, srah? What's wrong?
srah: (singing) Dum diddy dum dum dum, HI HO!
This exchange only happened in my imagination, but I feel it really shows
the way I've felt today. That's the only part of the song I remember and
it's been in my head all morning. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

24 days.

An RHA tradition that has been lost in the past few years (I swear, I leave campus and the organization falls apart) is the a-salt-ing of new members. Or old members. Or anyone we want to a-salt. This often consists of putting salt shakers in people's pockets or backpacks when they're not looking or taping salt packets all over their office/room door. For a while, The Great Salterini was stalking our advisor via email. We even have salt-related t-shirts from two years ago. Bring back the salt!

Hi-ho!

Katie has cursed me and so I shall curse you... with HI-HO!
Follow the link and click on any or all .swf files. You will have the song
in your head for hours afterward. My goodness, it's too entertaining and
strange. My roommate is going to kill me. Dum diddy dum dum dum HI HO!
Back to work.

Good sign

My email notification program just told me that I had email from the French Embassy worker who's been keeping us updated on the assistanat
thing, but my email program wasn't running yet. Given the extremely slow
nature of my computer, it took about ten years to start up the program and
I spent the entire time envisioning the rejection and the panic attack that
would follow. The one advantage I had was that my History professor might
accept "future-related panic attack" as a valid excuse for not having my
paper done tomorrow morning. It finally loaded and I got this: ...I am awating an official list of approved students from France. At
this point most of you will be accepted. The only reasons for which you
should not be accepted are the following: If you are older than 34 years
of age or younger than 18 years of age. If you are not an American citizen.
If you have a grave medical condition listed on your medical form. By the
end of April, you should receive a letter of acceptance or in some cases
rejection. If you receive nothing by May 5th, please call me so that we
may look into the matter...

Phew. Not denied. And maybe won't be denied at all. Future not too uncertain. No panic attack.

Darn, that means I have to write this paper.

Procrastination is not all bad There is nothing like the looming
deadline of a paper to get me to do things. And when I say "things", I mean
"anything but the paper". Which explains why I took a study break to pluck
my eyebrows, I guess. And why the JHAC's
birthday greetings are almost ready to be sent out. And why the ISU ballots
are typed up. And why the mail that's been building up on my desk has finally
been sent out. Meanwhile, I'm still reading about Ulster. Glargh.

Cleo's got me re-hooked

Cleo,
who by the way has a lovely new site design, was doing that thing where you
put people's names as font colo(u)rs. I am always amused by this. So of
course I must play along. I will tell you about some people I know. First,
there's me. I have a real name, in which my names go first, middle, last. I have another nickname that only my dad calls me. On many IM programs, I use a screenname. I have a boyfriend, who I call my patito. He has a name of his own as well.

I have a sister named Becky. That is short for her real name. Sometimes she is also known by another nickname. I live with my Mommy and Daddy. My Daddy has a real name and so does my Mommy.

When I'm not living with them, I live at my school with my roommate, who also has a real name. I have various other friends at my school. On the Internet, there are also some fellow bloggers I like.

Too bad many of these won't show up on the dark blue background...

Avoidance is harder than it looks

When I got up and walked
to the door for no reason, it was because I was going towards the bathroom
but Evil Suitemate was doing her hair and I didn't want to walk past her.
So instead I loudly insisted that I was insane and had gotten up, walked
to the door, and returned to my seat without knowing why.

And for
some reason I also said I did it because I was thirsty, which, I suppose,
has the advantage of helping out the insanity plea. People don't usually
walk around in circles because they're thirsty, do they?

Faithless woman to deceive me!

"Your face is lined, your hair is grey."
"It gradually got so."

Ten imaginary points to the person who can beat Becky to identifying the quote.

Hurrah for Baldwin chefs!

The wok is my new best friend. I made a yummy stir-fry today.

Ingredients: tofu, chickpeas, pineapple, green pepper, onion, peas, french fries
Sauces: oil, stir-fry, soy, teriyaki
Spices: curry powder, lemon-pepper, garlic powder

Mmmmmmmmmmmm. Alex made something with vinegar that was also pretty good.
We should start a (Baldwin) recipe blog. Who wants to do it? If you don't, I will.

Thoughts on Vera's email Vera's leaving. Why? What do I care?
I'm going to be gone too. But I do care. She's excellent and very supportive
to the international students and ISU. Not to mention the Center for International
Education. How does she handle it all? Maybe that's why she's going.
I don't know why she's leaving. She didn't sound like she wanted to. I'm
going to miss her... but I want her job.

The Monday Mission

1. When was the last time your computer crashed? What happened?
Uhhhhh... I haven't had any *knock on wood* disastrous crashes, just freeze-ups that are fixed by restarting.

2. Recommend a movie (new or old) for us to watch.
Hmmmmm, Sliding Doors Sliding Doors Sliding Doors. Also The Great Muppet Caper and Pirates of Penzance spring to mind.

3. When was the last time someone told you that you were attractive (and you actually believed them)?
My Patito told me so last night. I believe that I'm attractive to him, but
I'm constantly surprised if someone else find me attractive. 4. Do you like to sleep in or wake up with the chickens?
Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. The chickens can wake their own damn selves up and leave me alone.

5. Are you gay, straight or bi? Ever been tempted to go the other way?
I don't really like labels because I think they restrict people and make
them feel bad when they cross over into something new. But I guess for now
I'm straight. 6. What will be the next computer-related purchase you will make?
I will hopefully receive a laptop as a graduation present, but that's not
a purchase I will be making. I want a digital camera. But I also want to
save money. Fie, money. Fie. 7. I soak up affection like a sponge. But in my current relationship,
sadly, I am the giver. The only hugs I get are the ones I initiate (and those
become fewer and fewer). I tell you, I would be putty in your hands if you
were to be affectionate to me. What is your role when you are in relationships?
A giver, a taker, or is it an equal balance?
I'm a taker. I'm a jerk. Don't get me started on this again.

BONUS: Would I lie to you?
Would Alf?

26 days.

Last year, my favorite professor was Dominique. He was our main (sort of "homeroom") teacher in our three-a-week language classes. He had a very entertaining and mimicable way of talking and I miss him just thinking about it. He always went around the room to get answers, so everyone got a chance to or was forced to speak. On the last day of class, we bought him a card and a nice pen and he took us all down to the cafeteria for coffee and tea and to exchange addresses with everyone.

We were all very sad when we learned, at the end of the semester, that we would have a different teacher for the language classes in the spring, because the school liked to switch the levels that they were teaching at. Right now, I can't even remember our second semester teacher's name, but she was nothing near as good as Dominique, and those of us who had been around for the first semester constantly commented to each other about that. There were days when I just wouldn't say anything in class. I think that first semester, most of my learning was in the classroom but second semester, I was doing it all at home.

IOU

I owe me two graduation countdowns. Getting behind, srah!

The Sunday Op-Ed will also be coming soonish.

Eight from the Eighties

1) Are you true blue? Not really. I was in elementary school and middle school, but once I hit high school, I started to realize that the University of Michigan
was not the place for me. My campus visit sealed it when the tour guide
told us John F. Kennedy, Jr. had created the Peace Corps on the steps of
the Union a few years before he was born. I still cheer for the sports teams
and I may go back for graduate school, but I'm not quite as rabid as I used
to be. Or did you mean "true blue" in a different way? ;) 2) When's the last time you went steppin' out? Dancing? Probably the Celestial Ball.

3) What's something your parents just don't understand? French. Actually, they understand a little, but don't speak much. Spanish, definitely.

4) What are sweet dreams made of? The odder, the sweeter.

5) Are you prone to burning down the house? Nah. I've burnt cookies
before because I left the room and forgot about them, but I had a friend
who burned macaroni and cheese. 6) It's the end of the world as you know it. How do you feel? If
I know it's TEOTWAWKI, I'm probably freaking out a bit. If I have no warning,
I'm probably going about my daily routine--BOOM! Then again, TEOTWAWKI happens
every day because the world is constantly changing. So we don't really need
to worry about TEOTWAWKI at all... but more about TEOTW period. 7) Are you going to Wang Chung tonight? Um, child of the 80s here. Meaning child born in the 80s. No idea what that means.

8) (thanks mikey!) Why can't I get, just one... ? perfect cup of tea? There's something wrong with this one.

Butt-ons

I think all daily memes should have cute little linky images like the Friday Five has.

Hint hint.

Apparently April is poetry month.

I shall refrain from
returning to haiku-mode.
Don't worry, Katie.

Instead I present
a new poem via Rob's
Poetry Maker.

srah They *are you
But always
said read up
of , his application. Which obviously makes the morning
to
Denis, We guessed that the world Console me? [categorically to
attract people might
help.Take you blah blah blah. blahs as
well in one thing
Happened in Meijers, just like Hello Dolly meets A
Virgin sequence and Rob want her power, what
would want to leave
the Duckling Has a
video clip with me. going
out.

29 days. It sounds like so much less than 30. Mmmm. *shivers in delight*

Freshman year I was at Briton Bash, the beginning-of-the-year activity held to introduce new students to campus organizations. I was walking along when suddenly I froze. Stephanie looked at me funny. "Scottish accent," I explained. I looked around but couldn't see, at first, where it was coming from. Then I spotted him. Hmm, he looked as good as he sounded. From that day forward, the Attractive Scot was known on the hall as "srah's husband". After several weeks or months or so, I even discovered his name. Then he got to know my friends and people on my hall, so I even met him.

Then, my husband was viciously stolen from me by my friend Erin. Actually, I sound lighthearted now, but it was really upsetting at the time. They started going out before I got a crack at him! If only he had found me before Erin, he would have fallen in love with me. I've seen Trainspotting! And Hamish MacBeth! I like Star Wars! I wear lots of plaid! I read Waiting for Godot because he said he'd read it! (I am so pathetic.) I still had a crush on him even when he and Erin were going out. I remember the time Jillian, Lisa and I were sitting in the hall reading a Scottish smut novel out loud and we stopped him as he walked by and made him read it to us. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiigh...

Richard and Erin went out for over a year before deciding that they couldn't handle the long-distance thing any longer, then broke up last Spring. I think her friends were almost as upset about the breakup as she was, just because we liked having him and his accent around. And, of course, the potential of meeting Scottish men at their eventual wedding...

Hmmmm, I wonder if Richard's available now... ; )

1. What are the first things that you do in the morning to start your day? I get up, check my email, blog, read blogs, suddenly realize I have to be to class in five minutes, put on pants and run to class.

2. What are the last things that you do at night before going to bed? I change into my pajamas, hopefully remember to turn my speakers down, turn out the lights and climb into bed.

3. What daily routine have you recently added to your day? Hrm. Can't think of one.

4. What routine do you wish you get rid of? Routine? Get rid of? I don't adopt unnecessary routines in the first place. Hence not drying my hair.

5. What's the one thing that makes you feel like something is missing if you don't do it some point within your day? Blogging! And sometimes reading other blogs, because I don't know what's going on in someone else's life.

Poor little peanut My Patito was going to live in I-House with Rob
next year. Except Rob didn't want to live in I-House and rather than coming
out and saying so, he just didn't turn in his application. Which puts Alex
in the situation of now having to choose between the I-House and Rob. He
and Rob have been lucky enough to be very good friends in addition to being
roommates, which is a hard relationship to find. On the other hand, most
of his other friends are going to be living in I-House. It's very difficult
for the Patito to choose and I don't know what I can do to help. I don't
like to see him so unhappy.

Davezilla posted a link to Found Magazine, which is very interesting. What I find most interesting is that the contact address is three streets away from my house. I hope they don't find my stuff.

Yeah, south-east si-eeed!

(Did I really just say that?)

I am a Care Bear. Ack.

See what Care Bear you are.

[via Roy the Sock]

I refrained from posting my Rainbow Brite character results, you lucky people. I think I was the purple one or something.

30 days.

My sophomore year, my friend, Trivial Pursuit rival (we are still even, I believe), and crush-at-the-time, Kurt Medland, was selected to be on College Jeopardy. This was months after I had gone through the process and had gotten to the second round at U-M's tryouts. We were all very proud of him and made a video clip to support him, got Kurt Medland t-shirts, made him a campus celebrity, and watched him on TV. He did really well in the first round, but choked in Final Jeopardy. Luckily, he still managed to make it to the second round, where he did very well but choked in Final Jeopardy. Recognize a trend?

So today's graduation countdown is dedicated to my friend Kurt, to whom I would just like to say "Harry Potter" (I knew that one!) and "Psycho" (I knew that one too!). So there.

I dreamt that my mom bought the whole family tickets to a Marilyn Manson concert. I don't know what she was expecting, but I don't think she got it. And I'm not exactly sure what she didn't like. The place was full of grownups like her, who all had their own boxes in the balcony. But all the little teenaged Marilyn Manson fans in their makeup, etc, had standing room only. Well anyway, Mom didn't seem to think much of that, even after MM left and some jugglers/acrobats came out. Apparently it wasn't just a MM concert, but a big extravaganza. And my mom wouldn't tell me what else was going to be there, so I got mad because I thought I was going to miss out on something I would want to see. But she dragged us all away, down the stairs (which were the stairs of the Kellogg Centre).

Next part of the dream I remember, I was lying on my side at the edge of the swimming pool and someone swam by. I couldn't remember her name and the first thing that came to mind was "Latrina". Yes, I do know someone named Latrina. Moving on. So I called this woman Latrina and that rather upset Latrina, who was standing right next to me, and I was convinced that I was a racist because I had called this other Black woman Latrina and she thought it was because I couldn't tell them apart.

Then somehow I was at a computer and I was looking at someone's old weblog designs, which they had screenshots of on their current weblog. Most of them had a Red Riding Hood theme, with the wolf in bed and the blanket being covered with the weblog text. The earliest incarnation of the site had a video clip with the three Enlows singing songs at their grandma's house.

31 days.

The first time I ever had peach iced tea was sitting out in the back yard chatting with Denis. We had run out of Coke, so he got me a peach iced tea instead. I knew I didn't like iced tea, but I was thirsty and a year abroad is all about trying new things. I'm glad I did. I believe it was a Nestea.

They don't seem to have peach Nestea anywhere around here. Peach Nestea is pretty impossible to find, at least where I've been shopping. It's also hard to find peach Lipton except by the bottle. I would like to buy more than one bottle at a time, please. Do you have a case or something? The only place I've been able to find peach Lipton is Albion's fast-food joint, the Eat Shop. Not even in Meijers, just in the Eat Shop. It's odd how things will turn up in one place you wouldn't expect and nowhere else. Right now I am enjoying a peach Snapple, though less than I would a Nestea or Lipton. It's sweeter than the others.

So there you go. Blogged about tea and a graduation memory. Take that, two birds! *THWACK!*

For gals: Panties -- Thongs, bikinis, or briefs? Bikinis
For guys: Briefs, boxers, or boxer briefs? No preference, I guess. Boxers are cool because they come in different patterns. Perhaps briefs do too...?
Movable Type, Blogger, or Greymatter? I use Blogger. Movable Type looks good but hard!
Rabbits or hamsters? Rabbits!
Electric or gas home? Electric, I guess. Either way sounds potentially dangerous...
Mud between your toes: comforting or disgusting? Good when appropriate. If I'm at the beach, it feels good. If I'm not at the beach and I just step in a puddle, it's gross.
Question mark or exclamation point? ?, I think.
Is it hot where you live? Yes or no? I wish...
Is your monitor currently dusty? Yes or no? It's a little dusty. Not the screen so much as the top.
Would you rather have an abundance of love, sex, or money in your life? Lurve, please.

If you could have any magical power, what would it be and why?
I would bend men's wills! And women's! Raaaaahrrr! Do my bidding! Actually, that wouldn't really be fun. A lot of responsibility would come with being able to control everyone around you. So I would be able to change size at will. Being eensy-weensy is better than being invisible because if you're invisible people might try to walk through you and blow your cover. Of course, being tiny you can be stepped on. I would be teeny-tiny with a rock-hard shell. I'm a big tough bug!

If you could change one thing about your body to make it magical or powerful somehow what part would it be, what would it be able to do, and why?
Two words: Magic Elbow.
I don't know what that means, but it sounds good. I don't know if this would go under this one or the other one, but I would like to be like Mario in Super Mario Brothers where when he gets the little leaf thing he turns into a flying raccoon. I would get to fly and have a tail!

If you had special powers but lived in the normal world, how would you deal with it? (Would you hide them or reveal them to someone or everyone? Would you stop using them, use them to your advantage, or for someone else?)
I wouldn't reveal them to everyone, obviously. Otherwise it would be like X-Men and they would say I was an abomination or something. No, I would have to come up with a clever disguise like Superman has. As demonstrated in the photos.

Describe a recent dream.
I cannae remember a recent one. I know I had good dreams last night and the night before, but they didn't last long enough after waking up for me to record them in my memory. Dr Horstman tried to influence our dreams by suggesting that we all have dreams about coming to class naked (dirty old man) but I don't think it worked.

My family is in Toronto this week, so the devil dog has gone to stay with Grandma and Grandpa. I'm sure he is on a hunger strike, as he does that whenever he is separated from my father. Well, he tries. Eventually he gets hungry and gives up and eats. But he wants Daddy to know that he's upset about being abandoned. I almost feel sorry for him.

Many people have blogged about this, but I never really paid attention. Then when I read it again at BitStream it stuck somehow. The idea of Book Crossing is that you take a book you love, register it in their database, and leave it somewhere for someone else to read and enjoy. Then that person can visit the website and register their thoughts on it. It's sort of a strange book review chain - and some people will get to read free books.

Sounds a bit like the Where's George database for one dollar bills.

But if I was, I would be worth $1,472,320.00.

Check it out for yourself!

[via Katie who has us all beat]

32 days.

My roommate and I are both Sarahs from Ann Arbor (one called Srah to try to ease the confusion, except when someone asks for "Sarah" on the phone) and we went to high school together. We had some friends in common so we were aware of each other, but we didn't really know each other and neither of us really had a problem with that. Then our senior year in high school, we found out that we were both going to Albion so we talked a little more. When I got to college and had to find someone to go to dinner with, I gave her a call once or twice even though we didn't really know each other that well. She got to know my roommate and pretty soon the three of us were hanging out together. When roommating with Stephanie sophomore year didn't work out, we decided we might as well give it a try, if only because we are appliance-compatible. So we did. And here we still are. Dear dear Roommate.

If you use any of Yahoo!'s services, you may be getting extra spam. As if they didn't let enough get through already. They have reset something so that you are automatically signed up for a bunch of mailings and spam unless you change your preferences. So have a visit and see why Yahoo! users are unhappy.

[via give love:get love]

33 days.

Dively and I were driving to Meijers sophomore year, quite late at night. It was a foggy, misty night, in the way that horror movies are sometimes foggy. You could see where the layer of fog hung and the clear air above and below it. One of us remarked to the other that this was the kind of fog that only happened in horror movies, the kind where two girls are driving along and suddenly a man with a hook comes out of nowhere and jumps onto the car. As we were talking about this and freaking each other out, we slowed down to turn onto the freeway ramp and saw a man walking by the ramp. Of course we freaked out and assumed he was a man with a hook who was going to latch on the side of the car and attack us once the car stopped. So we drove shakily to Jackson, then once we got to Meijers, I had to get out on Jen's side so he couldn't attack me. Ah, irrational fear.

Are you frustrated with the world and need a pick-me-up? Well, there's really just no cure like a healthy dose of shemales.

I got 12 out of 16. I am the shemale queen! Wait... no... I didn't say that...

[via Xkot]

Web Test Taker Analysis
	srah is a deranged menace with way too much free time You use web tests to annoy people on regular basis. Medication might help.
Take the test yourself, or not.

[via Blogatelle]

Blogger hates me and keeps eating my posts. I have a headache and have spend the whole evening crying because I'm frustrated at the world. Console me?

I saw The Fellowship of the Ring for the FOURTH time this weekend. But we had to go to see it because they had a ten-minute preview for The Two Towers on the end of the film this time.

I have ALWAYS cried when Sam chases after Frodo at the end. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

The preview for The Two Towers looks really good. I am more excited about this one than Episode II or The Chamber of Secrets. Which is saying a lot, for a Star Wars/Harry Potter fan who has never read any of the Lord of the Rings books all the way through.

I finally got around to seeing the thrilling, award-winning film Moulin Rouge this weekend.

Huh.

It was entertaining, but I don't quite see why it seems to be everyone in the world's favorite movie at the moment. It was funny and it was different, but it was lacking in many ways. It didn't really pick up at all until the "Like a Virgin" sequence and by then, almost all of the music was over. It was like:

First half: Many musical sequences that have nothing to do with each other or what's going on onscreen. I thought it was really classy the way the hopeless romantic poet was begging the can-can dancer for one night of sex. Mmmm, romantic. Srah wonders which members of the Academy Nicole Kidman was sleeping with to get nominated for Best Actress.

Second half: Drama and one or two musical sequences (including "Come What May" over and over and over). Much coughing up blood. Srah is only slightly less astounded by Nicole's nod.

Despite the repetition, I really like "Come What May". Why wasn't it nominated for the Oscar? And the "Like a Virgin" sequence was hilarious. It was like Hello Dolly meets A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

All in all, it was an enjoyable experience, but not all I expected it to be. I would see it again if I had to, but I would probably walk in and out of the room.

I'm sad the Queen Mum is gone. I'm sure you've all read and seen documentaries by now about what a cool lady she was and how she supported her husband, who didn't expect to be king, and how she supported her country during WWII. She was lovely and dignified and many people's favorite royal, a sort of grandma to a nation.

It's rather sad, so I won't talk about that anymore. She lived to a ripe old age. Please give her a thought or if you don't know about these stories, please read up on them and find out what a cool person she was. That's a good way to remember people.

1. When was the last time you wanted someone to take you seriously but they just humored you? Boy, I can't think of a specific time. But it does happen a lot, just because I'm so short and young-looking. Most people who actually know me are willing to take me seriously.

2. If you were going to get a vanity license plate for your car, what would it say? (Or if you already have one, what does it say?) Mine would say SRAH, I guess. But the only reason I can think of for getting one is that it would be easier to remember when asked for it. Otherwise, I'll settle for a plain old blue one. I'm not from Virginia.

3. What was written in the sweetest love note you were ever given? What's the story there? I have many sweet love notes. My Patito likes greeting cards. And Post-Its.

4. What is your ethnic background? I am one quarter English and one quarter German. The other half is made up of Scotch-Irish, Irish, French, English, and who knows what else. I am very Western European. Bah.

5. What, if any, is your personal exercise routine? My fingers get a nice typing workout. Sometimes I breathe in and out in order to keep my lungs in shape. My digestive tract is well exercised by such activities as eating, digesting, filtering, and excreting. Would you like more detail?

6. Have you ever had any "one night stands?" How did that come about and how did you feel the next day? Nope. Didn't I just answer that?

7. What is your fondest Easter memory? Oh, my memories are always the ones that stick out from the others. So the one I'll think of is last Easter, which I spent in a converted abbey in France. I played the Easter Bell (they have a bell instead of a bunny) by hiding the eggs and chocolate for all of the little cousins.

BONUS: Who am I to disagree? Alf.

Have you ever been in a situation where your bra comes undone in the middle of lunch and you have to be all nonchalant about it and pretend it's not happening?

Yeah, me neither. Ahem.

All of my search requests lately have been on Ian McKellen's boyfriend. Yes, that's right, Ian McKellen's boyfriend. I'm sure I really haven't written enough about Ian McKellen's boyfriend to attract people who might be looking for information on Ian McKellen's boyfriend, or Ian McKellen holding hands with his boyfriend or Ian McKellen at the Oscars with his boyfriend. Welcome to the site! I have no pictures of Ian McKellen's boyfriend, but you might find something interesting to read anyway.

Heh heh.

I am famous for misunderstanding song lyrics. Since I ran into another one this weekend, I thought I would blog about it.

The one this weekend was "Your Song" in Moulin Rouge. Apparently he says "I kicked off the mask" (how are you going to kick off a mask?) but I've always said "I kicked off the mud."

In Barenaked Ladies' "The Old Apartment", I sang "Why did you plaster over the whole apartment door?" insted of "Why did you plaster over the hole I punched in the door." Which obviously makes more sense.

One of my most famous mistakes is that I had always sung the Canadian national anthem "We stand on God for thee" when apparently it's "We stand on guard for thee."

In Alain Souchon's "Au ras des paquerettes", every time I hear "L'amour est une montgolfière," (Love is a hot-air balloon), I understand it as "L'amour est une Mongole fière" (Love is a proud Mongol). AAAAH!

Then, of course, there are the ones I do on purpose. Like "Angels We Have Heard On High" where Robin and I always sang "In excelsis Deo" as "inexpensive mayo".

Have you ever been publicly embarrassed by singing the wrong words?

I don't feel like playing any April Fool's Jokes today. But let me know how yours went!

1) The Easter Bunny
Who does my dad catch and eat every year, so they have to get a replacement for the next year? My dad's a little sick, isn't he? I hope he only started telling us that in recent years. I don't remember, but I think it might have caused some trauma if he had told us that when we were little.

2) Cadbury
What company makes the soft drink Squirt? And more importantly, why do I know that? I think I read it on the side of the bottle and it just stuck. There's so much useless information rattling around in there.

3) Parades
What do I like when they throw candy but not like when there are CLOWNS? I don't like clowns. I like candy.

Weird Al was a favorite in middle school, so I bought almost all of his albums. I've also got almost all of the albums by The Beatles, Dave Matthews Band, K's Choice, They Might Be Giants, and Michael Penn.

Who are the favorites you're "collecting" (or have collected)?

I kept hearing Amy Grant's "Baby Baby" on the radio all weekend. Then I got out my old Weird Al Yankovic tapes. It has been a journey to the past. Amy Grant's "Heart in Motion" was the first tape I ever bought. And Weird Al was one of my first "favorites" (after the Beatles), so I have all of his albums up to about 1994.

What was the first tape/CD you bought and are you now ashamed of the purchase?

While my dad and I were driving to my grandparents' house yesterday, we were talking about things that are pronounced funny and we realized something that I thought was sort of cool.

You would never think that the names Beecham and Campbell were related, would you? But Beecham is an Anglicization of the French Beauchamp, meaning beautiful field. And Campbell comes from the Italian Campobello, which means the same thing!

I thought that was neat. Humo(u)r me.

1) Do you like Mondays? Tell me why. No' particularly. I start at nine and go till five. It's almost like being a grownup. Yuck!

2) Are you footloose? I love dancing around my house, but I don't like to dance in front of strangers. I don't usually get loosened up until the end of the evening when I go to a dance.

3) Are you a smooth criminal? I've always thought I was a pretty good liar. Don't know so much about "criminal"...

4) When you call me, you can call me... Sarah, Srah, Sammy Abigail... well, I'd prefer you didn't call me Sammy Abigail, but I have been called that before...

5) Do you talk to strangers? I'm turning into my mother. I'm starting to make small talk in grocery lanes and places like that. Help help help help help.

6) Have you ever had a one night love affair? Nope.

7) What sad songs make you cry? Depends on the mood. "Leaving on a Jet Plane"... sometimes even "Here Comes the Sun" and I'm not sure why. When I'm in the right mood, anything can make me teary.

8) (thanks Listener!) Don't say a prayer for me now, save it til'... erm, huh? Dunno. Til' I need the positive energy?

My little Patito has gotten a haircut! He is so cute it will take some getting used to. He was less attractive with the almost-mullet and I liked it that way. Keep the other girls away. Now he is adorable with beautiful curls all over the place. I will beat you all off with a stick! Stay away!