dilbert does it again:

does anyone else recall the computer game 'where in the world is carmen sandiego'? played on green screened apple IIe's in the tiny computer labs from our grade school days. when you finally succeeded in finishing the oregon trail, those damn oxen with that looked like they were on some kind of cyber-treadmill, carmen was next. ever elusive. as bin laden has been. yet now, suddenly, he may be dead? how long will it be until we are certain? it was a curious headline to see this morning, simply because all information i had heard prior indicated that it was fairly certain that he had escaped to pakistan. as we play 'where in the world is osama bin laden?', i hope the clues lead us to the truth. i don't think revenge is the answer, and will feel no better about the state of terrorism if he is gone, but i believe it will make many americans sigh with relief or celebrate what they feel is 'justice'. a false sense of security. even without him, are there already other plans just waiting to be acted on? in my mind i keep asking, 'what next?'

why are all rebate offers and mail-in orders sent to young america, MN, or peueblo, CO? are these real places or just huge processing plants? hmm.

more christmas presents...an amazon e-gift certificate(!) and a pull up bar from jonathon (dan's friend who lives with us). i'm stoked. it was incredibly cool of him to do that. ben folds, radiohead, and some wishlist books are in order, i do believe. now that i can actually do pull ups, a pull up bar is something i had wanted. whenever i do pull ups, i think of elizabeth, this amazon girl in my 8th grade p.e. class who could do 36 of them. as i pitifully hung with my chin over the bar, the 'chin hang' for all of us wimpy kids. damn presidential fitness tests. um...carrying on...hoping santa brings you wonderful gifts, too. :)

well, i think i am going to embark on a redesign over christmas. all of the cool kids did it. they are all looking quite swank.exciting and new...[come aboard, we're expecting you...] i think a change will bring a nice start to the new year...now if i can only have the discipline to do that....

happy winter solstice. the days will now get longer as we slowly inch toward spring. i have held an image of the 'year' in my head for a long time - i always picture the months as if they are on an ellipse with a narrow top and long sides. at the top is the summer solstice and long days in the summer sun, the peak of the warmth. the year then starts descending to the bottom, cascading through autumn, slipping into winter. at the bottom is the winter solstice, surrounded by the glow of the holiday season. with the new year, the months begin the ascent into spring, pulling out of the cold, reaching to the summer sun. i am not sure when i first started thinking of the year this way, but somehow the circular cycle of it all gives me hope. trying to explain here what's in my mind isn't easy...this seems to capture it pretty well:

Whereas the Spring season is the time when life seems to be renewing itself and coming to the surface, Autumn is when things begin to shed, and the growth which was young in spring is now matured. Springtime energy speeds up, in the fall it slows down. The energy of Spring is upward, plants pushing upwards towards the bright sun, in Fall the energy moves downward, leaves falling away from the trees - Robin DuMolin

oh! today is a palindrome. 12-21. a balanced day.

i had to go to costco AGAIN. mr. delaney decided yesterday that he wanted to give gifts to his coworkers. me being the accommodating, helpful, 'sure sweeheart' significant other, i volunteered to get something. of course he had no clue what to get...blah blah blah...checking out i surveyed the shopping cart scene and decided on which line i would then proceed to make the slowestlineonearth, and parked my orange expedition to wait. hmm. mine line? two old ladies (alert!checkwriters!), and people with full carts. hers had more people...broke down and switched. hey, it worked yesterday! well, the woman in front of me had an item whose number could not be found anywhere and we waited for a l o n g time....of course. my luck.

my life is so exciting that i am writing about grocery store lines? this is pitiful.

heard an interview with ben folds on npr yesterday (day before?), on the todd mundt show. i hadn't really paid attention to him since ben folds five, but i really enjoyed the interview. and dug the music (which i have heard, but this was in a better context). it's funny how the vibes i get from hearing the person can influence what i think of the music. next CD purchase. rockin' the suburbs.

[i'm too lazy for links tonight.]

i was given my christmas presents from dan. a petzel tika headlamp (which i wanted-my zoom one is giant and clunky), a patagonia puffball jacket (really wanted that), a climbing book and a promise of a one month climbing roadtrip in the near future. :)

i am having a terrible time trying to come up with those 20 words...who am i this year? hmm...a time for introspection and reflection...so many memories, so many changes. 20 words. seems like so many at first, but so few when you are trying to condense something so massive into something so tiny.

i finally got voice mail set up on my cell phone. i had trouble with the message. my answering machine says 'we can't come to the phone right now...blah blah blah'. but it's a cell phone. supposed to be with you, the purpose of a cell phone - you're always contactable. (contactable? hmm. are eyes contactable?) i guess i could say 'i cannot take your call right now...'. somehow that seems a little rude. so, now it's just 'this is alissa. please leave your name and number, time you called and a message and i'll get back to you as soon as possible.' i don't like that, either. hmm.

no more tip-toe standing to get on space mountain. disney is now using an ultrasound beam to measure kids as they go into the park, and they are then given wrist bands that will only let them onto the rides they are tall enough for. what's up with that? if a kid really wants to ride space mountain, and is an inch short, let him stand on his tiptoes and wear sneakers with thick soles. i guess i am nostalgic about it. i have vivid memories of my little sister standing as straight as possible, attempting to somehow stretch her skin, sucking in her breath and tilting her chin upwards trying to be tall enough to ride space mountain. while i would have been more than happy to give her a few of my inches so i didn't have to go. i know it's more accurate, it just seems wrong. i'm old fashioned that way. :)

along long post. i know, i know, it's like that damn history teacher assigns you ten chapters after having no homework for the past three weeks. it's a story that was amusing when it occured. i hope that amusment isn't lost in the mind-finger-keyboard transistion. enjoy.

some days are better than others...today was finish christmas shopping day. an official holiday, of course. if you fail to observe it you will find yourself crushed in throngs of mad shoppers on december 23 with no hope for escape and forces to buy orange underwear and chartreuse socks for all of your gift recipients. quick! go now! you still have time to 'celebrate' before the day is over! the malls are open til 10pm! get a move on it, already. so, in observance, i headed to arden fair mall, woo hoo. somewhat ghetto. it has a spencer's gifts, frederick's of hollywood and a lenscrafters. great. i should have no problem finding what i am looking for.

calmly finished my shopping, only two gifts. and three for me. two abercrombie (ahh!! no!!! she listens to dave and she wears abercrombie! she must be one of those) shirts. one that says 'GEEK'. the other? 'A(big)mazing(little, below)'. couldn't find an 'amaysing' one. maybe next year. the sweatshirt i'd been looking for. all on sale. score. my lucky day. or so i was led to believe by the positive shopping experience. i even had a choice parking space at the mall.

then to costco. bah. but, i hadn't eaten all day, and a square meal of bites of pecan (that's pechan) pie, pieces of taquitos, a tiny cup of mushroom soup and a baby chocolate chip cookie - fresh from the toaster oven - would at least give me some kind of nourishment. what kind? i'm not sure. and the samples are always served by the polite and friendly senior citizens who eye you when you take the samples as if you were stealing their last meal. yay. having people over for a mexican bbq (that's bbq'ed quesadillas), so tortilla chips, salsa, cheese, tortillas, wine and coronas filled my cart.

steered my monstrous shopping cart - the ford expedition of the shopping cart world - to the front of the store, and chose one of the impossibly long lines. saw that the one next to me seemed to be moving faster, so i switched. in doing this, i broke the unspoken shopping line rule. you switch lines, the one you were in will automatically move significantly more quickly than your new line. in the new line it is inevitable that the cash register runs out of money, the cashiers switch shifts, prices cannot be found on every other item and grandma is painstakingly writing a check - all before you get anywhere near the front of the line. today? today that was not the case. a shopping line miracle! never before has it happened! i expected the ceiling to part, sunbeams to shine down and heavenly music to play. i was out of there before the line i was in moved more than five feet. if i only knew i would pay for this later....

steering my tank out of the parking lot, soda in hand, i space out and run the cart full speed into a curb. no, you don't want to see how i drive. and i push shopping carts almost as fast as i drive. soda spills all over my white tshirt. the beer falls off the bottom of the cart and crashes to the ground. damnit. fortunately, no beer lost. i was going to be home in a few minutes, so i could clean the shirt before the stain set. load up the subie, almost lock the keys in the hatchback and return my cart. i always (well, mostly always) return my cart. when i worked at trader joe's, i sometimes was assigned to do cart herding. getting all the stray carts to behave in line. think i have trouble pushing one cart? you should've seen me with twenty of them. i feel for the shopping cart herders. anyways, shopping cart ranting aside, i drove home. uneventfully. walked up to the front door and remembered that i had taken my house key off my keychain earlier that day. damnit again.

but! i now have my trusty cell phone. saved. call up dan, who is in alameda. but, jonathon, who lives with us, should be somewhere close. dan said he'll call jonathon and call me back. note to self: program jonathon's cell number into phone. perfect. i unload the car stuff onto the porch and wait. beep. the phone? dead. forgot about that battery thing. damnit thrice. hmm. sit there for a few minutes, pondering. remember my fried julie, who lives a few blocks away, has a key. drive down, no one home. quaddamnit. drive by our neighbor steven's, who jonathon works for. no jonathon car. drive by home. no jonathon. ding! dana. i can use her phone. drive over there, and catch her as she is backing out of the driveway. she's 45 minutes late for a meeting, but graciously lets me use her cell. call dan, who can't seem to figure out why i am not answering my cell phone. quickly i explain the turn of events, as my chicken breasts dethaw on the porch, hoping no one decides they want the corona i left there. jonathon was with steven, and should be by in 20 minutes or so. sit for 20 minutes and laugh at myself, as the coke stain becomes predominant on my shirt. jonathon shows up, key in hand.

the lesson of today? every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

8:29PM. i was never good at physics. i just broke my favorite bowl. eating bowl. handpainted with radishes. (no, really, it's a cool bowl)

for the first time since october 7th, there are no bombs being dropped on afghanistan. finally.

oh...i forgot. the cool kids now have their own page. very swank, guys.

my sister jaime didn't break her foot in three places. she shattered her bone. during orthopedic surgery, the doctor inserted three screws and a wire. and put a cast on it that is 8 inches thick. she gets a thinner one friday, but is basically immobile until then. she'll have the cast 10 weeks. i wish i could make it heal faster. i can't imagine not being immobile for a week, and only semi-mobile for 10. *sigh* send some happy vibes to my little sister, please. thanks. :)

i called at&t to activate voicemail on my new phone. they had a 'new phone user greeting' that i listened to. the first line? 'your phone must be turned on to place or receive calls'. really? turned on? you must be joking. i thought these cell phones were high tech. bah!

oh, dilbert. i must say i can relate. my usual clients haven't had nearly as much work for me.


us airways had apparently stopped giving pillows and blankets on their flights as a way to cut costs. this way they can totally eliminate laundry service. so, when i come to the gate with my down pillow and fleece blanket they better not give me a hard time! i am always seated next to the person who thinks that the plane feels like the sahara desert and has that little air thing blowing full blast the whole flight, while i shiver miserably. no meal service, either. pretty soon they will eliminate the seats, just have us sit on the floor. then the carpet. pretty soon we will become plane cargo. we can fed ex ourselves places. wonder if that would be cheaper? guaranteed next day....

it might be too late to get this as a christmas present for someone, but i am sure the gift-receiver won't complain when they get their very own personalized action figure. you could even make a whole army of one person....bring in the alissa troops...

sushi fish is not cooking fish. found that out today. my entire kitchen smells like icky fish. i LOVE sushi, but 'day old' sushi (real sushi - slabs of raw fish) didn't sound appetizing. had already eaten what i knew was ahi (my favorite) and salmon...didn't know what the other fish was, so i cooked some mystery fish. yuck. next time i will need to order the sushi that comes labeled with those little toothpick signs.

i love my new climbing shoes. hope everyone's having a good weekend.