joy and shadows

Cosplay goes mainstream on CNN. There's photo of a black mage on the main page.

Really.

The Pursuit of Teen Girl Purity

When Kylie was 13, her parents took her on a hike in Lake Tahoe, Calif. "We discussed what it means to be a teenager in today's world," she says. They gave her a charm for her bracelet--a lock in the shape of a heart. Her father has the key. "On my wedding day, he'll give it to my husband," she explains.

That's not phallic at all.

1. Are we also having Teen Boy Purity parties? What kinds of charms are exchanged to represent these mother and son vows?

2. Why is so much of the onus for remaining pure placed on the girls? (rhetorical question, because there's no physical indication of whether a boy is a virgin.)

After reading the Fandom Wank Wiki entry on Twilight...

...It sounds like Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter without the sex.

See for yourself.

Today is Crazy People Day. One of my coworkers sent me this gem:



OH MY GOD IT'S A GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY THERE IS WHITE LIGHT REFRACTING IN MY SPRINKLER

This chick is one dedicated loon. She's screening comments (no surprise there), and it's such a concentrated form of crazy that I'm having trouble believing she isn't a troll.

ETA: It's pretty obvious she's schizophrenic. Now I feel sorry for her.

Coworker also sent this:

If a God existed, he would be EVIL
to DENY 4 Opposite Corner Days Simultaneously within a 4 Quadrant Earth Rotation.

Okay!

The bugs have gone too far.

This morning, I went out in my garage, and heard the gentle sound of rain tapping on the window. This is a good thing, as we need some rain. I opened the back door to see the rain fall... and rain wasn't falling.

At the window, behind the blind, was a swarm of winged ants trying to get out.

AUGH.

I was in my bathrobe and slippers at the time, and husband had the nerve to ask why I didn't do anything about the ants. BECAUSE IT WAS DISGUSTING MAYBE? Besides, isn't it the job of the man in the house to take care of the bugs?

Also, Mommy and Daddy Purple Finch have made a nest in one of my hanging baskets among the geraniums. They have at least two eggs. I hope we can all get along, because like it or not, the geranium has to be watered.

Last year at this time, I didn't give a crap about flowers or gardening or landscaping or anything.

This year, I am agonizing over whether to move the astilbe and phlox into deeper shade and then replace them with swamp milkweed as a host plant for monarchs and also some black-eyed susans.

I am also pleased to introduce you to my new friend.



This is Mr. Feets. Mr. Feets is a swallowtail caterpillar whom I found on my parsley plant when I turned it around to find out why it wasn't growing. Turns out that Mr. Feets here was hungry, and we have adopted him and planted him a whole forest of parsley.

As you can see, he has many cute little feeties, and he was last seen chowing down on parsley leaves.

I shall call him squishy and he shall be mine. :D

My labmates are engaging in the fun and worthwhile activity of making projectiles out of syringe plungers using a can of compressed air.

It's so good to see children at play.

Dude, where is everyone online these days? I'm all alone this week and there's no one to chat with. Whiiiine.

On the upside, the fireflies are back! Hooray fireflies!

It's not too often that I get in the shower and am truly filthy, but thanks to yardwork and flower-planting on Sunday, that's what happened. I thought I was getting some color, but it turned out to be dirt.

Good weekend spent at home - we'll be traveling next weekend, and husband will be away all week in San Diego after that, so we had to get some stuff done. On Saturday, we were expecting "weather carnage" as jaina put it, but all that happened was a downpour on my way home from Flemington after cleaning out the J. Crew outlet.

We went to see Iron Man and it was a lot of fun. Definitely would see again/buy on Blu-Ray. It seems that this is the Summer of Superheroes, between Iron Man, Batman, Indiana Jones, Hellboy, and the Incredible Hulk. There were many women lined up to see Sex and the City, most of them middle-aged, with a few token males in tow. Husband was patently glad he was not one of them.

The neighbors came over for an impromptu get-together, which was really nice. They're about our age, maybe a little younger, and one is a pharmacist and the other a dentist. It's nice to have someone nearby who we have a lot in common with. Most of the people in our neighborhood have children, so we don't have that particular social calling card.

Sunday we got really dirty, as mentioned previously, and I planted a hydrangea (blue), some astilbe (pink and red), a butterfly bush (purple), and some shasta daisies. Here's hoping that the deer don't destroy all of my hard work. Husband grumped a lot about it, but he pulled out a ratty shrub for me, and I have to go to the nursery sometime soon to get a replacement.

We had some exciting news from the family - my cousin is engaged to his longtime girlfriend! He must have been waiting until she graduated from P.A. school and moved back to Colorado. She's a delightful person, and I couldn't be more excited for them. It's good to have some happy news from that part of the family, because they've had some tough times, and it's not going to get better.

Thursday we're off to Canada! Let's go racing!

So the kitten in Chi's Sweet Home is named Weewee?

-_-;