“Take the word underachievement, change one letter and anagram, and you will have the first and last names of a famous actress.”
It didn’t take me all that long to do this one, especially once I lit on a first name that was long enough (hint, hint).
There’s a trilogy I want to read, which my library happens to have. The library has a nice “request this” feature to put one on a wait list for the title.
Since all three books were out, I put my name on the list for each one, knowing that since I was first in line for the first book, I’d be able to read that one, well, first. I think I was first in line for the 2nd book, too, and about 4th for the third one.
Today I get a message: “[Third Volume of the Trilogy] is ready for pickup.” I haven’t seen hide nor hair of the other two installments yet. Are the first two that good that people want to savor them? Or are they that bad that people can’t get into them?
Unfortunately, I can’t sort stuff in my holds list. I can’t say “give me this only after I’ve returned this other one.” We need Netflix® for the library, I think.
At least not as much as I would like. I just haven’t been posting much because I keep thinking I’m going to be talking about the same stuff in a different location, and I’m not ready to go completely nonymous.
However that other location is still vacant — the door is locked, the shades are drawn, and there isn’t even one of those little yellow signs showing an animated guy with a shovel.
What the hell, I say to myself. It’s 4 a.m. and I’ve been up most of the night, so I might as well blather on.
So what’s been going on? Well, we’ve been trying to start a business. The original plan (starting about the 20th of August) was to found a company, get insurance, sign a (sub)lease and be moved in and working by 1 September. I forgot sometimes how slow “real” businesses work. We got the papers on the 29th, signed the lease on the 11th of September, and are still waiting on furniture to arrive. In fact, we still have to order some, but our contact has been less than quick with the quotes.
We expected to be blogging all this startup stuff, but we haven’t gotten around to setting up the website (see above). We spent a few hours this week with a designer to set up a plan for branding, but we keep getting sidetracked by other stuff, like the fact that we don’t have decent internet access at the office. (It’s commendable that our (sub)lessor is offering the use of their public wifi, but it’s, well, public. Plays hell with NDA-type stuff.)
Anyway, Nfaf isn’t dead, isn’t even moribund, but posting will continue to be light whilst I figure out the proper balance.
I’ve been hemming and hawing over getting a new cell phone for a few months now, but I was always stymied by the fact that Plagioclase wouldn’t pick a phone he wanted (we share minutes). We had been month-to-month with VZ for a long while, so any upgrade in phone would mean a change in plan, so I had to check out all the various plans, too.
I didn’t like that VZ cripples their phones. I didn’t care for AT&T’s service when we had them before VZ. I didn’t have much other choice, though — those two are the most ubiquitous networks around here.
Last week I forced the issue. “Pick a phone, Plagioclase, and I will take care of the rest. How about a 4GB iPhone, now that they’re a bit cheaper?” So we went to the AT&T store, and they had one last 4GB iPhone. So far so good.
He liked it, so I started looking. What I wanted was a cheapish phone with a decent camera and the capability to send stuff to twitter and flickr. Syncing with my mac would be really good, too. Well… the only phone that met that was the RAZR. May I say “yuck” at this point? I really didn’t like the keypad. I pawed a few others and ended up with a red Samsung Sync.
I really like this phone a lot more than I thought I would, though it’s taken me 3 days to get used to it. Since it’s 3 years newer than my old LG phone, it of course does a lot more (and more than I want — I don’t use it for its music crap) and it does some stupid stuff (like move interface elements all over the place). I might do an extended review some other time.
I feel like I’ve moved into this decade, even!
But how do I learn to text better and faster?
Thank the internet for the basic recipe, which I modified to what I had on hand:
Stir together everything except the Jiffy mix until it’s well mixed. Blend in the Jiffy mix, but don’t over beat. Pour into a (buttered) 9 × 13 baking dish and bake for 1 hour at 350°.
Next time, I’ll butter the pan — there was some stickage which was surprising given the stick of butter in the batter.
This turned out to be very tasty, and not too sweet (or “gooey” which for Plagioclase’s mother is a sin on par with un-well-done meat). It’s more of a “spoon bread,” definitely a side dish. The browned bits at the edges were mucho yummy. Of course, Plagioclase immediately started suggesting to put in chiles and cheese. I might try that the third time I make this recipe — it’s really on the “incredibly good as it is” segment of its arc.
