Out with the old! Well, we've gotten through another year relatively healthy - not at present, mind, but through the year as a whole. No major or even minor hospital-related scares, a home-related scare which hasn't yet panned out but probably provided something of an impetus for this week's purging (hooray, they finally came for the trash outside so I was able to take some more down!), a work-related scare which turned out to be the best thing that's ever happened to my career, plus Robin scared up some work and Amy's just hanging out scaring herself at times (her poor old back legs don't leap like they used to) but she's been frighteningly affectionate towards me during this vacay which was lovely and unexpected. Aside from the little everyday frights I don't really have a coherent wrap-up to the year, nor promises for the next one other than the usual "I'll try to post something new here every day" one I've kept for over a dozen years now, but what I do have is one last silly site for 2014, courtesy of YouTube and some familiar celebs and sounds:
Via Laughing Squid. Must go prepare for dinner then the now-traditional-in-the-Riggs-Residence Anderson Cooper/Kathy Griffin CNNew Year's Eve show... Have a very happy and healthy 2015, everyone!
And so the year draws to a close ever more quickly, and we still haven't shaken the illness we both have. But armed with the hope that we're getting better incrementally, we ventured outside to do our grocery and New Year's Eve shopping. I got my Korbel, a very tasty pumpkin spice liqueur (I don't care that autumn's over, cold weather is always a good time for pumpkin spice as far as I'm concerned!) and some sugar-free chocolates for tomorrow night, and we actually went out to lunch for a change. The activity knocked us back a bit, but not so much that I couldn't finish most of my current comics reading and prepare purge plans for tomorrow (assuming the trash will finally be picked up to leave room for what we're going to dispose of). If I'm near 100% by the weekend we plan to hit the mall so I can get my hair in some sort of presentable shape, and I hope when we do we see some displays like this, but I'm not counting on it.
At last, the end of this miserable lurgy is somewhat in sight. The worst part has been the brain fog, which finally appears to be lifting, leaving only the lingering chest congestion. Today I cleaned out the closet in the third bedroom, currently used for the cat box and our tens of thousands of comics (which organization/purging will have to wait for another year), as well as for storage of suitcases, overnight bags and canvas totes. It was the totes I was after, for transferring the contents currently in plastic bags in the second bedroom (aka computer room) so that we can clean that closet once Robin's up to helping; that closet and the kitchen will be the last things reorganized and purged of things we no longer need or use. Found some cool old things that I never realized was in some of the stored bags, like a bag of tiny perfume bottles from back when I used to use the stuff. And I took down the purged t-shirts and linens to the car for charity drop-off; looks like the landlord had hauled away the overflow trash but the bins are still full, so I'm in no hurry to proceed further until I have room to throw other things away. Tomorrow we grocery shop, now that we're pretty sure we can do it without completely relapsing afterwards. Tonight we plan to rewatch Singing in the Rain, because we keep quoting lines to each other and want to get it out of our system. I do fear earworms, so just for Robin here are some misheard song lyrics to keep those at bay:
Via Laughing Squid.
And the t-shirts are done! And the new towels and bathroom rugs we bought via a coworker's Macy's gift card that I received as a holiday present have been stored in exchange for the old ones, which join our purge-pile in the living room. Towels and tees I can donate via neighborhood clothing drop bins, but we still await our regular trash pick-up before tossing the rest, or even beginning work on the closets and kitchen. Which in any case must wait until Robin and I are feeling better than we are at present. Plus, there's the emotional toil of letting go of all our obsolete tech (via Laughing Squid)...
Still scaling back my plans as the illness drags on - it's mostly a sort of walking somnambulance, fuzziness in my head and a lingering cough at this point - but all the washing up is finally done and much trash has been taken round the side of the house, to join all our neighbors' trash which the landlord has yet to pick up. So in a way I suppose it's good that I have yet to clean out the closets and the kitchen, as there's no more place to put the detritus. Still, a job well done and I could kick back and have a drink, if I were a drinking woman. And if I were, I wonder if I would drink whiskey? Nick Offerman would:
Via Laughing Squid, and Offerman's "American Ham" special is now on Netflix for anyone interested in some fine comedy and not easily put off by blue words and lots of sex talk (although you need YouTube for some of the missing songs like this one). But I digress. I also finished skim-reading about a year's worth of my local paper and cleared my DVR of all episodes of Once Upon a Time, so in honor of being caught up, some more whiskey, and Robert Carlyle!
Via Brand Flakes for Breakfast. He never stops walking, and he never seems to tire. Maybe he's wearing that new Johnnie Walker "smart fabric" (via Laughing Squid). That tweedy news is also courtesy of Laughing Squid. Bottoms up!
The good news on this Boxing Day is that I'm gradually recovering from this illness (too gradually, if you ask me, I'm impatient to be getting on with the plans I've made for vacay-week), but the not-so-good news is that my bluetooth mouse is driving me crazy. I don't think it likes the new Mac operating system, and my wired mouse is a Microsoft clunker so that's really no better. It's enough to drive me, laughing, to my tablet (via BoingBoing). Or maybe I'm better off low-tech until I'm better, reading comics and newspapers in bed...
Happy Christmas, as they say in Merrie Olde. Here's Siobhan Thompson of Anglophenia with some British Christmas traditions:
We're wearing our crowns now. My giftie was a little tiny comb that's perfect for grooming Amy. Oh, and dinner turned out lovely, I've put the photos up on Facebook. Hope your holiday has been fun!
Sometimes all I want for Christmas is a working mouse (and to have done with this cold), but such is not to be. Guess I'll have to settle for some Bible System Updates (via io9)...
My first vacation day! Alas, the cold has worsened, but I slept all morning and have a very light schedule before tomorrow's cooking marathon (such as it will be) - sitting in bed catching up on reading whilst watching a Too Cute marathon. So let me leave you with my annual Wholly Trinity link to my holiday-themed posts from the past:
My overview of various televised and movie versions of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol -- You Shall Be Upheld in More Than This*
My love-hate relationship with Rankin/Bass cartoons (RIP Arthur Rankin) -- "So That's Where He Got the Crown of Thorns!"
My Christmas music post -- I Hear People Singing, It Must Be Christmastime
I plan on enjoying A Christmas Carol online via accessing the original text and listening to the Neil Gaiman-read version.
*(not including Disney's 2009 computer-animated "Mr. Scrooge's Wild Ride" featuring Jim Carrey but I'm too sick to revisit it at the moment)
Have a wonderful, happy and safe holiday season!
This morning I experienced a "Festivus miracle" as I did not have to air my grievances about my missing wallet, which turned up about 30 seconds after I realized it was gone. A lost wallet would not have been a good start to my 11-day holiday! But all was well in under a minute, and I sailed through my day and got home at a reasonable hour to start relaxing. Lots of plans, but my cold persists, and worsened throughout the evening, so I have no idea how much of our de-cluttering schemes will come to fruition. Much more important to get healthy. And skitchen (via Laughing Squid) is a great inspiration.
One day down, one to go. I have no earthly idea how I got through my workday, I'm in such a fog and have so many little aches and pains I can't enumerate them. Appropriately, here's a US map of the most common causes of death that THEY keep covering up. I don't see the Dreaded Lurgy among them, but then it's always lurking... somewhere...
No shops for us today - we're both coming down with some dreaded lurgy or other that makes me very glad I only have to work two days this week. So today's project was clearing out the shelf atop the coat closet to leave only those outerwear accessories we're actually going to use. And that was about all I could handle. So much easier to do holiday stuff online anyway, like with this SkyMall parody catalog (via BoingBoing). Happy Solstice!
Oh dear, I'd forgotten how crowded and crazy things get in the vicinity of shopping malls on the last Saturday before Christmas, particularly when the weather isn't that inclement. Mayhap we should have kept the grocery shopping more local, but we had a big shopping list and a late start today, so it is what it is. But oh my, so, so many cars. Which reminds me, I'm bookmarking these videos for my own later viewing, as I keep missing them when they're on TV and it looks like a cute ad campaign (certainly my favorite one this season by far). Via io9.
Another great week of work done; can't wait until the new year when my new assignments really kick into gear! And I'm very grateful my commute has consisted of merely changing express buses so I can continue to avoid subways. I really got a kick out of this subway etiquette primer:
Via Laughing Squid.
I'm so wiped, there's no way I can stay up for the last Colbert Report tonight. In fact, I'm konking out shortly after this blog post, or during some version of A Christmas Carol or other. My favorite is the one featuring Father Christmas wearing beard baubles (via Brand Flakes for Breakfast).
I usually don't go for these things, but I really liked this clever compilation:
Via Cute Overload, of course.
My last full week before the company-mandated 11-day vacay, and everyone around me seems to be walking on air. I can't wait to find out what's in store for me in 2015! Meantime, since I'll be off starting next Wednesday, I'll probably do much of my celebrating after Christmas, but that doesn't mean I can't put up some holiday-ish silly sites beforehand. And with the preponderance of Biblical movies around and in production, I'd like to share the TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read) versions of Bible stories (via io9). I know of an awful lot of Bible-thumpers who probably didn't read that book they're thumping...
We opted not to leave the house today, and I think my body really needed that. A nice nap in the afternoon certainly helped, and I had enough mental energy to get caught up on bills and my checkbook and such. Even cleared up some DVR'ed stuff and watched with Robin a few minutes of bad movies featuring celebrities who should know better - possibly even the celebrities pictured here " posing with their younger selves" (via Arthur)...
Oh, my aching muscles. I knew I was going to feel it today, but I didn't know how much. And I didn't get my usual afternoon nap because we spent much of the afternoon addressing holiday cards and sealing envelopes. All done now! That should give me a few points in my Klaus Score:
Via Brand Flakes for Breakfast.
Boy, it's a good thing I love books, I spent almost all day working with them, sorting and bundling and getting ready to ship them to area homeless shelters. I can't believe I get paid to do such great work. KFFL is totally going to be my "pet project" for the rest of my career there, I love the idea of giving books to needy kids! My back, however, loves it a bit less. Glad I didn't try to lift more than I did, I'd be in agony. But books are boxed and I'm home for the weekend (with books of the comic-pamphlet variety, of course). I did not get any of the magazines pictured here, however.
Bear in mind when you're watching movies this holiday season that everyone hates Grandpa Joe (via io9). No bearing on the late great Jack Albertson, whom everyone probably loved.
I could wish for better weather so I can finally get outside during lunchtime and explore my new surroundings, but I did manage to walk two blocks and have lunch at the now-pitiful Atrium which used to be the glorious Citicorp Center with restaurants galore and where the toy train displays lit up the Christmas season... now it's just a boring corporate building with a fairly small food court and an almost-in-tune a cappella choir singing carols. Even the buildings seem to be depressed in this weather. And it's snowing and sticking around us, which means tomorrow will probably be icy. I'm not ready for my treads yet! My one saving grace is Robin, so here's another site just for him - Pixactly, where you have to draw boxes of exactly a certain number of pixels then see how close you came. I suck at this, but Robin will probably ace it. Via Laughing Squid.
Despite a couple of miserable commutes (two hours this morning in the deluge, and a shared seat with another large woman this evening, resulting in extensive neck and shoulder pain) and of course the weather, it was another great day at work, as I continue to get oriented in my new position at headquarters. I even figured out, with some generous help from others, how to properly operate my building and floor passes! Have I mentioned I love being an admin assistant? So much better than being whatever fake jobs this Silicon Valley Job Title Generator (via Laughing Squid) comes up with...
My first day at the NY headquarters of KPMG, and I'm all settled in and loving it! Can't wait for the weather to get a little less frigid so I can explore the surroundings a bit more. Need to find my space sushi (via Laughing Squid), after all!
Another successful shopping day - we bought ourselves a much nicer fiber optic tree than we'd been using the past decade or so, plus some more sweets to adorn it:
We can even hang decorations on the tree, which we couldn't do with the other one, so this coming weekend we may go on the hunt for actual ornaments. I also completed our annual roundup and organized the cards we're sending as well as labels, just need to print and assemble And we watched a lot of DVR'ed stuff. All caught up with Colbert just in time for it to go off the air for good *snif*. Here's a cool poster someone did as a tribute (via Laughing Squid).
 Today is Robin's birthday. I already blabbed earlier this week about many of the reasons I love him, all of which amazingly still apply two days later. Robin is what makes home, and life, so wonderful for me. Today he turns 53, so once again he's four years younger than me (instead of the five years younger he gets to be for four days). I hope we continue to enjoy each other's company and love for many, many more birthday-anniversary weeks in the years to come. Happy birthday to the love of my life.
And just like that, my tenure at the office where I've been for almost six and a half years comes to an end, as I move to the company's NY headquarters on Monday and start a brand-new job, the nature of which I've yet to discover. Pretty cool that I'm still up for new things at this age! And speaking of new things, here's the new Simon's Cat:
Wouldn't mind a bit of the nip myself on this dreary evening...
Because our love is here to stay, I'm dedicating to Robin a silly site featuring an app that's not here to stay. Introducing Poof!
Via Laughing Squid.
 Yeah, this goofy person and I got married 16 years ago today, at City Hall in Manhattan, in a ceremony attended by half a dozen friends and relatives. Not a real wedding, more like a formality so he could fulfill his 90-day fiance visa. We keep thinking someday, maybe nine years hence for our 25th, we'll have a real party. But for now, the marriage itself is the party. I love the fact that we finish each other's sentences - or, more accurately, say the same sentences at the same moment. We've done that since we met online in the days of Usenet and IRC. I first asked him to marry me when he tried to explain to fellow comics folks that The Empire Strikes Back (which everyone except us looooves so much) wasn't actually a movie as much as a chapter. I love his amazing artistic talent, it gives me chills to watch him sketch at conventions or come home and see what's on his drawing board. (One traditional 16th anniversary gift is wax, and he's done a lovely portrait of us on wax paper while I've looked in vain for a stupid candle or something.) I love that he pushes himself, even when he's not feeling well, to come into Manhattan and have dinner with me, as he's done two nights running now, or to schlep into the wilds of Jersey or Connecticut to see family and friends. I love how he takes care of the house and the kitty. I love that we laugh so much, even when we're arguing. It's like we can't even work up a good seethe without cracking up. I love that he's more of a Beatles aficionado than I am. I love just staying home and being with him. He's my best friend and we have the best time alone together. I love his thoughtfulness, his kindness, his intelligence, his humor and I've pretty much said all the stuff I thought I was saving for his birthday on Saturday. Oh, and his youth, because until Saturday he's five years younger than me. :) Happy anniversary, my darling.
Celebration week continues, as this evening KPMG's New York office held its annual town hall. Wow, I was totally blown away, not just by the metrics but the feels. Oh, the feels. The holiday reception afterwards, however, was a bit much for me, with the thumping loud music and dim lighting kicking in immediately to the point where, by the time Robin and I had spotted two of the few chairs available in the ballroom, I couldn't see the food I'd eagerly grabbed from the buffet (after waiting an inordinate amount of time in disorganized queues). And food just doesn't taste as good when you can't see what you're eating. We left after 90 minutes hoping to catch an express bus, but Sixth Avenue was filled with protesters in the aftermath of the Ferguson-like refusal to indict the cop who strangled Eric Garner in Staten Island back in July, and the buses weren't stopping around the police barricades. We subwayed it home and found out all the northbound express buses were suddenly diverted to Madison - no way for us to know that of course. Sometimes I just want to go back to a simpler time, but of course there's no such thing, plus I'd miss my iPhone. Fortunately, Museum of Selfies has that longing covered (via Laughing Squid).
While I could have wished for weather a bit less dank, my birthday was pretty fun. Tons of Facebook greetings (around 165 last time I looked) plus a few emails, phone calls and even a text from a coworker on vacation. And while I ate lunch alone at my desk, at least it was sushi. And one of my friends said I don't look any different than I did 20 years ago, which I tend to doubt but it was nice of him to say. These days I can't decide if I'm feeling too young or too old, which leads me to this photo gallery depicting toddlers as old people (via Laughing Squid), as well as a weird thing that supposedly lets you talk to your future self (also via Laughing Squid) but which I don't quite understand yet, probably because I'm either too young or too old.
Birthday. Just another day, except for the lovely Facebook wishes and cards and the pressies Robin already gave me. Happy Ive made it another year.
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