Oprah Declines Bush Afghan Invite:

Without Winfrey on board, the White House postponed the trip that also was to feature some of the administration's top women, including Bush adviser Karen Hughes and possibly National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites ), the Chicago Tribune reported Friday. Aides told the paper it was unclear whether another celebrity who shares Winfrey's credibility and popularity could be substituted.

"Are you taking any medication that might screw with your dreams like cold medicine?"

I think Jake might be right on that, since I'm taking antibiotics for my nose. I had another Andrew break-up dream this morning, but it's very comforting to be able to wake up, know that it was a dream, and see him next to me.

"Marshmallows are hard to suck."

Andrew and I went to Twice Sold Tales late tonight. The cats there are usually completely indifferent to people, but one was *very* interested in me in my kitty ears. He stared at me from across the room, walked over and sat right in front of me looking at me questioningly. Even after I walked away, he was leaning over to stare at me around a bookshelf.

I've just had my first ever, as far as I can remember, traditional nightmare, the kind that involves monsters and potential death. Expendable Character was killed offscreen in a spray of blood. Andrew was about to be next as I was going for a very unlikely escape. That makes the third night in a row that I've had bad dreams:

1. Andrew won't sit next to me on the plane to Montreal.
2. Izzy ignores me the entire evening he's supposed to see me.
3. Scary monster & death.

When I was interviewing for AC&B, I had to fill out a multiple-choice personality test. One of the questions asked about my dreams. I don't remember how I answered, but I knew the right one wasn't "violent and depressing." Personality test are useless anyway. I'm sure their results didn't tell them, "You're about to hire a freak who'll wear kitty ears and potentially scare the less open-minded."

Jason: Of course, some people are strange and eat toast on their nutella. :)

I posted "An Open Rant to the Salespeople at My Company" in two parts to bareSquare. (Part 1) (Part 2)

The Standard Disclaimer: This is a rant, and by definition, written out of frustration and bound to be offensive. None of this is directed at you. (except maybe that line about reading your handwriting, but even that, not just to you.) Don't bring it up at work.

I had to check to make sure I hadn't posted this already, because it seemed like otherwise Paul was reading my mind today. It's so frustrating finding good jobs out there that are contract only. It's just not worth it to leave a permanent job, no matter how frustrated I might get, to be unemployed again in six months.

Styrdyst: don't they say, "the quickest way to a man's heart is through his hummus" or something like that?

I nearly lost NWR today. I can't explain how a mailing list can be so important, other than it's more than just a mailing list. Local community, place to ask random questions, discuss any topic imaginable. This was very upsetting to come home to.

I feel like getting Blogger Pro has given me an excuse to be lazy in updating. Then again, when Jason's wondering where I am, it's a sign I wasn't home much this last week.

Wednesday, the first day of spring, it snowed. I blame Andrew, because being his birthday and Canadian, he must have somehow influenced the weather.

Luckily for me, Andrew was already picking me up from work for a doctor's appointment. Doctor gave me antibiotics that are supposed to fix my red nose. I'm checking in the mirror everyday to see if it has started fading yet.

Friday the numbers rolled over at work. This was the big excitement we've all been waiting for, but Portland got the 999999. It just shows how easily amused you get working at a job like this. At Sears I enjoyed taking apart hand tools.

While I was standing next to the fax machine waiting for the rollover problems to be fixed, I stamped myself "FAXED". I was given a couple looks, and a "What are you doing?" but it seemed like a perfectly normal thing for me to do--must be all the ink in my blood from the Vogue stamps.

Saturday Andrew had his marshmellow Peep roast. It was sick and wrong in so many wonderful ways, especially Jason making s'mores with little marshmellow ducks on top.

Styrdyst: http://www.happy-clicker.com/pictures/sun_new.gif
xCheezWizx: I want that as a tattoo

I'm taking that as a good sign.

I've got the ultimate girl-in-boys-clothing sleeping outfit! My new boxers, black with shiny blue smiley faces, and Andrew's Cruxshadows shirt.

If women's clothing sizes make no sense, it's because women's bodies don't make any sense in the first place. A month or so ago, Chuck was asking me if I'm gaining weight, as I was leaving the Vogue. Last night at the Vogue, Russell asked me if I've lost a bunch of weight in the last year.

Anonymous comment poster still hasn't given themselves away. Come on, your box of nerds is at stake!

I remember Kris mentioning drinking water on her web journal as if it was an activity in itself. Now I am trying to drink plenty of water, and it really is. I feel like I need to add to my schedule, "drink water," "drink some more water," and so on.

Nothing makes me feel more like a real designer than stacks of photocopies and tracing paper.

See my future tattoo design.

Fifteen girls died in a school fire in Saudi Arabia when the police wouldn't let them leave, because they weren't properly dressed.

I wrote a longer essay on bareSquare.

It still gets me. I'll be remembering Trent and think I should try to get a hold of him again, find out what's been going on the last few years. I've got plenty of stories to tell myself.

Whoever says life isn't fair should remind us that death is even less so.

How do you know if blue cheese has gone bad?

Alright, so who's posting comments without giving a name? I'll give you a box of nerds too if you tell me. :)

A free box of Easter nerds, opened but barely eaten, to the first person to respond. I should limit this to Seattle for my convenience, but if I can mail M & Ms to Florida, this shouldn't be a problem either.

Someone at the recycling center will be amused to find that some people even recycle the cardboard inserts from their sex toy packaging.

I have the I'm a Cow song stuck in my head today. I can't quite say if it's work safe or not, considering where so many of you work.

I always get nervous with homemade gifts because I don't know how the recipient will react. Will they like it, or think "Oh, she's too cheap to *buy* something," or "This would be nice if it was any good."

No, it's not Civ III that's keeping me from updating. It's Black & White.

My kitty throws cows... it's a bad habit I'll probably have to train him out of later, but for it's so funny, and they make such a great moooo sound.

My advice for the day: don't spill teriyaki on your laptop.

I am so disappointed. I find no reason to live in a beige universe.

My roommate ICQs me from downstairs, "mmm. :) VNV Nation. :) Just a little louder please. :)"

I was so hoping for a snow day... but the roads are clear and the snow will be gone by tomorrow. It was snowing for real last night. Real snow! Both Jason and I wanted to skip sleep and play, so I sent him out with my camera to take pictures.

I've gone pro! I've upgrade to Blogger Pro.

I've got three days of posts to type and I'm falling asleep right now. Later.

The good news is, I upgraded to Blogger Pro, so I can put things in the right days when I get there.

It was hailing as I left for work.

I wrote more on the subject at stari.org. A History...

I overheard someone talking on a cell phone at the bus stop—which was more of an extreme minimalist headset so it looked even more like she was talking to herself than with a regular cell phone—and couldn't figure out if she was talking about a kid or a cat.

"Sometimes she can be the most affectionate little creature... and other times..."
"She got cold and discovered Dick is warm. It didn't hurt that he was wearing leather."

I start thinking cat, but maybe a leather fan? Or even, leather fetish kitty!

The way I write (print) an 'f' feels like the way I say the 'r' sound.

As well as writing more for this site, I'm afraid of making stari.org (last updated Jan 15) obsolete. Should I keep double posting for the sake of being read, start segregating content again (no deep thoughts allowed! randomness only!) or get rid of the web journal altogether? Is there a place for web journals in the new weblog world?

Some of the web journalers I read are adding on livejournal accounts. I don't understand this. It seems like a betrayal of your medium, besides wondering how they keep up with all of that writing. I refuse to have anything to do with livejournal, even though my site probably isn't that much different—

'Here's what I did today. Here's a link I found' This is what I was thinking about five minutes ago'

Black & White patch: 20. Creature's natural desire to eat other villagers has been reduced.

"A hacker claiming to be a 17-year-old girl says she wrote a new worm targeting Microsoft Corp.'s .NET Web services platform to prove women are capable of creating computer viruses and make a statement against

I've decided I want to expand my audience, and have been finding myself, even unconsciously, writing longer posts and explaining more than I used to. I'm not sure how this is going to work.

My very first post,

I just got a new cat! I must feed him Pez.

fit the random nature of happy-clicker perfectly, but wouldn't have meant anything to anyone other than my cat and I.

Today I submitted my first ever vacation request form, in my first job that's been full-time and permanent enough to give me vacation time.

My handwriting sprawl is getting even worse as I work data entry. The last post, hand-written, came dangerously close to having a word resembling 'havening'.

Is there a minimum time requirement to call yourself a vegetarian? Not haven eaten meat in _____ days? Months? How about hours? I've decided I'm a vegetarian when it suits my purpose—that purpose usually being not eating meat I find icky.

Do I have to bash you people over the head to start using the comment boxes?

I just started reading a weblog called My So-Called Penis. Yes, the name got my attention, but it's looking interesting enough so far to keep around.

The Man Project is another fun Flash toy, at least for a minute or two.

I was clicking around the bareSquare visual archives and ran across this post from Gryphon. I'm loving the irony that the mailing list post he mentions ended up benefiting me much more than him in the long run.

Izzy telling me that cookies=orgasms must make getting cookies at work noteworthy.

Right after I decide I'm going to start eating natural, my Girl Scout cookies come in. I'm a hopeless addict, as I mentioned last year.

Two cookies per serving!! What are they thinking?

I called Andrew a traitor for never having bought Girl Scout cookies. He said he's not a girl, a scout, or even American, but something just seems wrong about not buying Girl Scout cookies.

I love the smell of a new box of tea. I've heard the same thing about a new box of crayons before, though I've never felt that way about the smell of wax, the *colors* make me feel like a hyperactive ferret.

It was a busy weekend so four days of posts are going up at once.

"Next time you come over, and plan to take your clothes off, wear fluorescent pink," I said while trying to find the black shirt in the pile of black clothing.

"No! That'd be like licking my own nose." – Andrew

I had a dream this morning with a very pretty sounding song that I was using for bellydancing music. After I woke up I realized the song was a VNV Nation song being sung by a woman.

I was complaining to Andrew that every time he has an online gaming event planned, it's a beautiful day outside. I went with him to Kirkland to pick up one of his friends for his LAN party, looking at the mountains on the way, and then—I let myself get talked into joining.

I explained it later as, "A bunch of geek boys (typically) bring their computers over and try to kill each other," and as for me, "I didn't do too bad. I did bad, but not *too* bad." and maybe even did a little better than that. :)

I'm TMI-girl all around today. When Paul asked if I'm doing anything interesting this weekend, I said "yes" before having to elaborate that I was going to a class, and finally, "Multiple Orgasms for Men". Of course he asked questions about where and how, which I answered mostly because I know I have and will mention the Wet Spot and various events on this web site, which would certainly lead to more questions. I had to decide when he started reading that I'm not going to censor myself, though possibly put up a disclaimer that this is not a work-friendly topic, and any questions should be directed to email. Of course, there's a reason I don't give my parents my URLs!

The part he didn't seem to realize, is that while I don't necessarily have a problem talking about this, it's not appropriate to (for example) start listing the classes and workshops I've been to, in the middle of an office.

Can you imagine overhearing, "Well, I've been to a 'G-Spot and Female Ejaculation' class, 'Artistic Cutting', 'Flogging 101', a bondage class taught by Jay Wiseman, who literally wrote the book on the subject... let's see... Body painting, the first massage workshop......"

(*TMI – Too Much Information)

I was going to warn about possible TMI*, but decided against the absurdity of that after writing about oral sex donation. But then again <broad generalization> everyone likes sex and no one wants to hear about 'icky girl stuff'</bg> So the warning stands: If you don't like it, deal with it anyway.

I feel like I've found the miracle cure for cramps, though not exactly 'cure', since it's all preventative. I don't know if it's the organic milk, or more likely the soy milk, but I will have to keep up drinking both. I didn't have any actual pain, just what felt like little reminders from my uterus saying "Hi, I'm still here!" I haven't been this kind of pain-free since my first year, before the monthly ritual became curling up in agony in my bed (if I was lucky) or (if I wasn't) on the floor, before finally getting semi-miracle drugs from the doctor.

A warning about the Oral Sex Donation System: It can be quite frustrating when you realize all of the offers you can't take advantage of.

I've heard of work nightmares, but combining a work dream and with grocery shopping comes out very strange. I just had a dream that I had to void extra bunches of parsley, but I'd rather just eat them instead.