Saturday, December 17, 2005

I'm getting my lunch eaten in the Christmas Card Contest again. Dean insisted we do a one-week-before tally, and it was pathetic. So far, Dean's people sent 7 cards, a joint person sent 1 card, and my people sent 2 cards.

I tried to claim Whittlesey was one of my dudes, but Dean wouldn't let me get away with it. It's totally no fair, because some of Dean's are people like his newspaper carrier and United Cleaning and Restoration company (some Board-related thing). Yeah, we don't have too many real friends. Being a recluse doesn't pay off when it comes to the Christmas Card Contest.

Posted at 6:36:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Friday, December 16, 2005

I forgot! The whole reason I was still at Starbucks when the person found my plant is that "You're A Big Girl Now" started playing! I had been about to leave, but I needed to stay and listen. I've never heard "You're A Big Girl Now" at Starbucks before!

Posted at 8:14:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

I did my second plant! (Got to do it two days in a row, since I'm behind.) This one was definitely a great success. It was really quiet at Rocky today (Contentious Guy, Dry Guy, and a new guy on duty), so I took my opportunity for the blue velvet chair. But I had to wait a while (I read the Hartford Advocate while biding my time) (a nice man said to me, "You look so relaxed!"), because there was someone in it at first.

After she left, I took my drink over and slipped the card holder between the cushion and the arm, sticking out a little on top, in the chair closer to the door (the one AGD sat in). The little "PICK ME UP!" tag rested on the cushion. It was perfect. I sat there for a minute, then went over to the table near the wall to watch and see what happened. (You can see the red card holder in this picture if you look really hard.) I read the newspaper and wrote someone a short letter while waiting, because no one sat in the chair for quite a while. It was very quiet, and most people who did come in and get a drink left with it instead of hanging around to drink it. I was just about to leave (I actually went over to throw my cup away), when at last someone sat down! I saw her out of the corner of my eye, and inconspicuously went back to my table to watch.

It was a pretty Spanish lady with a young son about eight years old, very quiet and well-behaved. She had soft blonde hair and a warm pink sweater, and she was radiantly pregnant. She found it as soon as she sat down, and picked it up just like it said to, looking at it quietly, curiously. When she read the note, she smiled the most beautiful smile. And afterwards, too. She showed it to her son, and they looked at it together. She kept looking at it more even after she'd read it (she'd put it down on the table between them, then pick it up again). She didn't look around to try to figure out who left it, or anything like that. It was all very quiet, personal, glowing. My heart was pounding as I watched her. It was really... great. :-)

Posted at 4:32:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

I am officially obsessed with frozen Hachiya persimmons. That is all.

Posted at 10:41:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Ooooh. I have the scary nitrox theme tune stuck in my head.

Posted at 9:38:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Too much to write down! But first of all, I carried out my first Xmas SBUX card plant. I didn't do it at Starbucks, because there were too many people around (I want to leave one in one of the velvet chairs by the front window, but I have to wait for a day when there's no one there); plus Frank was there, so of course I had to sit with him and have a Frank chat; plus the Friendly Guy came in while I was talking to Frank (just to get a coffee; he wasn't working today) and he saw me and got all excited (he said, "You're back from the tropics!") so I asked him if he had a second and ran out to my car to get the Hawaii SBUX card I promised him (I put one aside in my glove compartment for him). He loved the card (he collects them, like I do) and when I was leaving he was still out in the parking lot having a cigarette and thanked me again, so I showed him my other Hawaii SBUX card (the Christmas one) and I could tell he massively wanted one. I told him I didn't get very many extras of those (which is true--I only got enough for myself and a few special people for Christmas) but maybe I'd have one left for him. He said it would be just between us, under the table, wink-wink nudge-nudge (or something like that)--meaning he wouldn't tell the other SBUX guys so they wouldn't be jealous--and told me he'd be on duty on Friday and the weekend. He sure wants one! Good old Friendly Guy, I guess he'd appreciate it more than whoever I was originally going to give his card!

Anyway, so I got my drink using my first card, leaving enough for one more drink on it. Marshmallow Guy was the cashier, and reminded me not to mix up which card it was! It didn't look good for planting it at Starbucks, and my private rule is that I want to leave each card in a different location and they all have to be locations I really go to in a normal day, not some weird place I go to specifically to leave a card. I thought of leaving one at Big W (across the street from SBUX) but I don't really need groceries today, so I didn't. I did need to go to Michael's craft store on the Berlin Turnpike, to get some of those cookie-writing pens for my mom's Christmas stocking, so that's where I staged my plant. I noticed they had good boxes, and I need boxes to mail gifts to MD and NC, so I hung one in the packaging aisle right near the mailing supplies. The store was really quiet and the aisle was deserted, so I took a photo with Zi. I don't know how quickly this one will get found! But it has to get found eventually, right? I guess not knowing is part of the fun. I can monitor the card's activity online, so I will report if/when it gets used! Hopefully if someone who hates Starbucks finds it, he or she will give it to someone else.

Oh yeah, the other thing is, Krispy Kreme is out of business!! The store on the Berlin Turnpike is all closed down, with the KK signs removed, and there's a big blue tarpalin over the "HOT" sign. Remember how insanely popular it was when it first opened, with lines reaching all the way out onto the turnpike??? [Edit: Looks like it just closed a week ago!]

Posted at 4:29:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

I've got everything all set up to begin tomorrow! This is what I'm going to leave each time, and this is what the finder will find inside. On the back of the "PICK ME UP! (I'M NOT LOST)" tag I wrote "may the simple joys of the season make you happy." (The "PICK ME UP!" thing reminds me of Alice in Wonderland...)

I also recorded the Starbucks card numbers, so I can check online and see when/if they get used. I am sneaky. The hard thing will be choosing six different locations (within reasonable distance from a Starbucks) to leave them, and not getting caught.

I am excited!

Posted at 2:45:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Today's the second day of the Twelve Days of Christmas! If you're a longtime ALB reader, you'll probably remember that every year starting on December 13th (which is 12 days before Christmas Eve), I give Dean a new ornament for our tree each day leading up to Christmas (or every other day, in recent years). The identity of the ornaments is always a huge secret, and each one is wrapped in wrapping paper that has some sort of clue/tenuous connection to what's inside. They mysteriously appear on the table, and Dean opens them after dinner, while I read a little piece of the Christmas story from Luke and Matthew. We have been doing this since we moved to East Berlin in 2000 and I got my first tree.

Well, I don't need any more new ornaments (I'm running out of room on the tree), so I didn't buy any this year. I'd still like to do something exciting and special for the Twelve Days, though. So here's my idea. Since I don't need anything, how about leaving nice surprises for other people? Today at Starbucks I put enough money for one free drink on each of six Hawaii Starbucks cards (I got a million extra ones while I there, and gave some away to people who wanted them, but I still have tons left and didn't know what to do with them). The Dry Guy and the Marshmallow Guy helped. Since you can't put less than $5 on a Starbucks card, I put twice the cost of a drink on each card, and then I'm going to use each one once, leaving enough for one more drink. Then, every other day during the Twelve Days, I'm going to plant a card (with accompanying explanation) somewhere for a random stranger to find. Hopefully it will brighten his or her day. I think that fits the spirit of Christmas. But first I have to design the packaging! :-)(I just thought of this today, so I'm a little behind.)

P.S. My Padi open water diver certification card just came in the mail!!!

Posted at 1:01:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Bob is going to host a weekly XM Satellite Radio show!?! That sounds unfathomably cool. I can't even quite wrap my brain around it. But I don't get satellite radio. :-( [Edit: I think Bob should make his radio show available as a podcast!! He could sell it on iTunes.]

Posted at 12:26:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

I like frozen Hachiya persimmons a lot. They are much better than Fuyus. Today at Rocky, this child molester-looking dude was behind me in line and said, "You're very pretty. And I wouldn't say it if it wasn't so." Ak! I was polite to him, but he was very strange (the dark glasses were especially creepy). He started flirting with me more when I was sprinkling chocolate on my cappuccino, acting all enamored in a bizarre old-fashioned kind of way, but he wasn't old enough for it to be sweet. I did not tell him that he reminded me of a child molester. (And, yeah, I did like the compliments, since I'm an incurable narcissist.)

I can already tell nitrox will be a Suder. (Well, not nitrox itself, but the nitrox class/test.) Fortunately, if I do want to do it, we can do the classroom/test part here and just do the dives on vac, so I don't have my whole vac tainted by math anxiety. "If you failed grade 12 math, Nitrox isn't for you." (No, I didn't fail grade 12 math. But close enough.)

[Edit, 10:44: Dean says I'm banned from the scuba newsgroups! Ha. Maybe nitrox wouldn't be that bad. At least you get to use a calculator, and don't have to memorize the formulas! Anyway I'm not going to think about it until after Christmas. My eyes are wonky enough as it is. Oh, I 100% finished my tree! December 13th: right on time. My brain hurts tonight. I need to work on finishing typing up Week Three, but my eyes are really messed up. Maybe I'll wrap some presents!]

Posted at 6:18:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

What the heck. There is now an entire site devoted to sinkmes. That's slightly scary.

Posted at 3:04:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.

Monday, December 12, 2005

Wow. I massively like my new towels. I'm glad I bought them.

Picked up Dean at lunchtime and we checked out New England Dive Center. It was small but crammed full of stuff (lots more than Scuba Shack).

I'm really tired tonight. Maybe it's because I got up at 10:30? (?)

Nicest little small Buddha's hands at Stupid. I went to the old Stupid, and it's so inferior. But I was right near it, since I went to AAA! to get my licence renewed. The photo turned out all right (not as good as my old one, but fine), but I don't think the new licences are very well designed. The layout is so poorly balanced. My old licence didn't expire until January 13th but I decided to go in today since my hair looked good. Heh.

On the way to Cromwell, the sky was the most intensely decadent gorgeous plate. Pearlescent glowing dusky peach, rose and mauve, blended across in a solid sheet. Bedroom colors. Opium den colors. God, it was amazing. I've never seen a sky like that. I wanted to remember it forever.

Cashier at Stupid, holding up fruit: "Do you remember how much this was?"
Me: "No, sorry."
Cashier: "Do you know what it is??"

Typical and classic.

Dean: "And did you?"
Me: "Of course! It was a persimmon."

[Edit, 1:10: I finished hanging all my ornaments, except the two sets (handpainted balls and heirloom bells). Dean helped yesterday, and I hung the rest tonight. Dean did a good job! (Under my watchful eye and approval.) I'm glad he volunteered (even though I didn't trust him) because it takes me about ten minutes to do each ornament and it's exhausting. He is efficient! I can't be. I obsess. I only fixed a few of his afterward. There are some good new groupings. I'll take some photos soon. I have 17 sinkmes. I'm really tired. My throat is even hoarse.]

Posted at 10:30:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.