A puppy on my lap

My puppy is particularly cuddly today, perhaps because I traumatized her earlier by making her wear a costume to the mailbox.  Or perhaps it's because she knows I'm going out later, and that means we won't get as much cuddle time as usual.  In any case, I'm typing with a puppy on my lap, and that's a challenge.  So much of a challenge that I'm copping out and posting a picture of her Halloween costume instead of writing a full post.

Enjoy the cute!!

Novelling ahead.

So NaNoWriMo is just around the corner, and I've got an idea percolating.  I like it.  A lot.  It actually has potential to be a marketable story.  This is a VERY GOOD THING.  

For those of you unfamiliar with it, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, and the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.  This will be my fifth year trying, and I've 'won' in the past four years, though I have yet to fully finish the story by the end of the month.  I finished one novel (my first), and self-published it, just so I could hold the product of all that effort in my hands.  It was tripe, and I admit that, but it was a great feeling to know that I could finish something of that size.  

The next year I had a good idea, but it fizzled out around the end of the month, because I wrote myself into a corner.  The third year, I scrapped everything but the core idea from year two and tried again.  Unfortunately, that idea REALLY needs an outline, so it fizzled out again, around 53,000 words.  Last year, my story was pretty much entirely based on events that had happened in my life, and while it was very cathartic, I made the mistake of coming to terms with everything that had happened to me.  Accepting and forgiving most of those involved made it feel less important to finish the story and kill off the bad guys at the end.  And if they don't die... well, the novel isn't as good.

This year, I'm channelling my love of fairy tales, and I've spent all night online looking up princess stories.  Have I mentioned that, sometimes, I'm a five-year-old girl?  Plus, for my birthday, two friends bought me a princess hat.  They intended for me to wear it to the restaurant for dinner, but it's going to sit at my computer to inspire me next month.

Oh, and I got a red Moleskin and a red pen, so I'm totally inspired to write!  I'm all about having special notebooks for different writing projects - "Take Five" is being written in a black Moleskin with navy blue ink, then transcribed into my blog.  I've got a lot of notebooks sitting around...

Never fails...

Have you ever noticed that you never get sick when it's convenient?

I had a day off from work today.  I wasn't nearly as productive as I should have been, but that's a moot point.  I felt great all day, which was a nice change, because usually my body decides that a long weekend is a great time to get sick.

This time, it decided that the tail end of a long weekend is the best time to get sick.  Except I don't have any sick days.  

This sucks.

I'm going to go be miserable now, and try not to get any sicker before morning.

Choosing sides

I have learned that if you want to live in Georgia, you have to pick a side eventually.  You know what I'm talking about... UGA or Tech.  There's no in-between.

Given that I really don't give a flying anything about football, especially American college football (I can kinda get into the CFL... kinda), it was hard.  I mean, really, how can I get excited about a team when I don't care about their sport?

But I finally gave in.  I picked a side.

And my reason may be the dumbest reason ever, but, hey, it's my reason.

I picked UGA, because their colours are red and black, and my school colour was red, so I can wear my current clothing and look like I'm supporting them.  I don't think I own anything yellow.

A friend of mine is a big Georgia fan, and for his birthday, I made some accessories with polar fleece (won't specify what yet, because I haven't given it to him yet!), and I had some leftover, so I made a Dawgs blanket for my dawg.  Isn't she adorable?

A quiet week

Aside from my good news on Monday, it's been a quiet week.  This is not a bad thing.

Unfortunately, I haven't really been in the mood to blog for the last few days.  In this spirit, I give you the top ten Excuses for Not Blogging:

10:  My dog ate my computer cord.  I swear, my dog eats  everything else (Dammit!  I loved those shoes!!), so why not a power cord?  Shane's cat, Tyler, chews on cords all the time.

9:  I lost my notebook of ideas, and couldn't come up with anything under pressure.  (Of course, this only applies if no one knows that you really work best under pressure.)

8:  I got busy watching TV.  I only get to watch quality television (and by quality, I'm referring as much to picture quality as to content) once a week!  When I get it, I get REALLY into it.

7:  I spent my time online searching the internet for recipes for pulled pork (because I totally forgot everything that Mandy put into hers (except for a little bit of liquid smoke)).

6:  I started to blog, but then got sidetracked as I tried to determine the proper location for a period when also using a parenthetical statement at the end of a sentence.  (Notice that I didn't end that sentence with a parenthetical statement.)

5:  My dog ate my shoes.  Seriously, that distracted me for, like, an entire night!

4:  My dog tried to eat a notebook.  I don't know where she got this taste for paper, but she's munched on notebooks, looseleaf, scrap paper, tissue paper, kleenex... anything paper-related.

3:  I tried to have a life instead of geeking out on the computer.  (Hey, it could happen!)

2:  I was busy carving a pumpkin.  (It's really cute, too!)

And the number one excuse for not blogging:  My internet connection crashed.  Again.  (Does anyone know how to stop it from doing that?  And can you please tell my network admin about it?)

Drawing a blank

I want to make something.  I REALLY want to make something.  But I don't know what to make.  I went to Michael's tonight, armed with a gift card and a coupon, and I walked up and down all of the aisles... and still couldn't really find any one thing that inspired me to make something.  Sure, I got some bits and pieces for Halloween cards and Christmas cards, and some shiny stars and flowers for my NaNo countdowns...

But I really didn't find any project, and that's kind of sad.  I like projects.  

I get to stay!

Take that, you illegal aliens!  The legality pays off!  I get to stay in the country and pay taxes until next July!

Wait...

Hmm...

Maybe the illegal aliens have got it right.  They don't have to pay taxes.  They don't have to worry about getting kicked out if the PTB decide that they don't like the visa renewal application.  They don't have to renew the damned thing every year...

Nah, I like being legal.  Woot!

Take Five part 12

"And action!" Ricardo called, almost before Laura was out of the shot.

Sophia opened the book, her expression unreadable.  For a moment, Ricardo was afraid that this book might not be any better than the last.  He took a breath, ready to stop the action again, but Sophia's expression changed subtly.  He stopped, watching her intently.  "Get in close on this," he told the cameraman, his voice barely a whisper.

Ricardo watched on the monitor as the shot closed in on Sophia's face.  Her normally cool expression had transformed.  Her eyes flicked across the page of the book, and there seemed to be a hunger inside, as if she couldn't get enough of the story.  Ricardo let the cameras roll as Sophia read for several minutes.  She seemed to forget that the rest of them were still there.  Once, she shifted her position, turning on the bench so she could prop her feet up and rest the book on her knees.  She chewed her lip gently, and Ricardo grinned - he never would have seen these reactions with that piece of crap book that they had started with.

Finally, satisfied that they had sufficient footage of Sophia enjoying the book, Ricardo made a motion with his hand, cueing Blake's entrance.

From across the set, Blake gave a thumb's up signal before starting his walk towards the bench.  He approached from the side.  Had Sophia stayed in her initial position, he would have been coming from her left, but with the way she had shifted, she was now facing him.  Unless she looked up, however, she probably would not see him.  Watching the scene play out before him, Ricardo wondered why he hadn't thought of this positioning on his own - it was going to look much better than the planned shot.

As he got closer to the bench, Blake slowed down.  Both in character and out of character, he watched Sophia.  There was something different about her... something more human than he was used to seeing.  He stopped at the side of the bench and just watched her as she read.  He smiled as he looked down towards her, trying to keep his mind on his character - he had just spotted the woman who was exactly what he had been looking for all of his life, and now he had to get her, without scaring her off.

"Hello," he said, breaking the spell that the book seemed to cast on Sophia.

"What?" she replied, startled as the book dropped from her hands.

Blake reached down and picked it up, handing it back to her, smiling at the confusion that was in her eyes.  It looked as if she had forgotten where she was, if just for the moment.  "I think this is yours," he said.

"Thank you," she replied, offering him a slightly dazed smile as she tried to figure out how to get back to the script.  The director hadn't stopped them yet, so it would appear that he was comfortable with the slight ad libbing that was going on.

"I'm Zach," Blake said, extending his hand towards Sophia.

"Kat," she replied, shaking his hand.  "Um, I'm sorry, should I know you?"

I want pie

I have fallen in love with Pushing Daisies.  I can't wait until Wednesday nights, so I can see the next episode.  Ned (Lee Pace) is adorable, Olive (Kristen Chenoweth) is awesome, and Emerson (Chi McBride) is probably my favourite character.  I'm still torn about Chuck (Anna Friel)... I like the interplay between Ned and Chuck, and I totally feel for Ned as Chuck is trying to figure out who she is.  At the same time, I get where Chuck is coming from, because I've felt the same way myself.  There's just something about her, though, that gets under my skin.  I think she might just be too sweet and perfect.  The character doesn't really seemed flawed enough to me.  What I probably need to do is watch the first season - maybe that will help round her out for me.

In related news, I've started downloading the Pushing Daisies Piecast (with Swoozie Kurtz).  There's all sorts of great tidbits on there!  It's cool to hear an opinion from the people who are actually in the show, and I love how excited she sounds about it.  Any show that makes the actors that excited has to be a good one.

In unrelated news, I'm trying REALLY hard to avoid buying from Handbag Planet.  Unfortunately, I did not win a free handbag in their contest.  However, it may turn out that this is a fortunate thing, because if I had, and the bag was as awesome as it looks online, I would probably have spent the rest of my paychecks there.  On the bright side, I do have an even 30 handbags now, because I got one for my birthday!  It's red and shiny... mmm... shiny...

This post has been oddly rambly... I'll aim for more cohesion tomorrow.  I'm going to bed now, instead of staying up until almost five (like I did last night/this morning), so that should help!

Debauchery etc

Did I mention that today is my birthday?

It's been an interesting day, to say the least.  It's been a combination of good, bad, and weird.  I was late for work and late for dinner - bad.  I ate lunch alone - bad.  I got a surprise birthday balloon when I came back from getting lunch (thanks, Zach!) - good.  One of the doctors thanked me for the work I was doing on all of the studies at the office - weird.  

But it's been a good day, and hopefully this bodes well for a good year!  

Stupid internet!

So I lost my connection again, for two days.  That sucked.

I'm not feeling really creative today, probably because I got presents!  Presents get me distracted from other things.  I'm guessing tomorrow will also be a not-too-creative day, because I get presents tomorrow, too!  Yay!

Did I mention that tomorrow is my birthday?  It's a little bit exciting... we're going out to dinner, which will be followed by cake and debauchery.  I'm not sure how debauched we'll get, but I've made sure to clear my calendar on Saturday, just in case I'm very bauched.  (I like taking real words and making them my own.  According to my high school English teacher, I'm allowed to do that, because I'm a published author.  Woot!)

On that note, I'm off to bed, so that I can be good and rested for all the hours of entertainment that tomorrow will bring!

Blame MJ for this one... go check out Handbag Planet and get a chance to win a new purse!  

Not that I really need a new one... but has that ever stopped anyone before?  I just finished packing my box of purses and bags, and I've got 29 purses.  One more will make it an even 30!  

Take Five (Part 11)

As the director led Sophia away, Laura looked at Anna and rolled her eyes again. Anna laughed. "Have fun! I'll be over at Stage B for a bit, then I'll come back to touch her up." 

"Thanks," Laura said wryly.  She took a deep breath, trying to convince herself that a bad start didn't necessarily lead to a bad day, then followed behind Ricardo and Sophia.  By the time she arrived at the set a few minutes later, the actors were all in place, and the lighting guys were turning on their equipment for the first scene.

"And, action!" Ricardo called.

Sophia picked up her book and crossed her legs, getting comfortable on the park bench.  In the bright lights, she flipped through the pages, looking bored.

"Cut!" Ricardo yelled.  "Sophia, darling," he said, approaching her so he didn't have to shout.  "Let's try something different.  Your character is... bookish.  She likes to read.  I need you to look excited about this book - it's interesting to her."

Sophia huffed and put on a pout.  "But this is a boring book!" she protested, holding it up.  "It's old and hard to read."

Laura was already on her way to the props people when Ricardo called out, "Can we get a new book?"

"I'm on it!" Laura called back.  "What can you give me?" she asked the nearest prop technician.

"Give me a minute," he said, scrambling into the trailer behind him.  A few moments later, he reemerged with a paperback book in one hand and a hardcover book in the other.  The paperback was clearly a romance novel - the scantily-clad woman and the muscular man on the cover left no doubt.  The hardcover book looked to be of a similar genre.  It seemed likely that Sophia would appreciate either of them, at least compared to what she was reading now, but Laura wasn't sure about the character.

"Give me the hardcover," she decided.  "But keep the dust jacket."  The man handed it over, and without the dust jacket, the romance novel looked much more like the book that Sophia was already holding.  Laura glanced at the title - "In the Garden" -  and decided that it could pass as a non-fiction title, something that Sophia's character was likely to read.  Hurrying back over to where Sophia waited, Laura handed her the book.

"'In the Garden'?" Sophia half-asked as she read the title.  "What is this, a gardening book?"

Laura tried to hide her smile.  "No, it's a romance novel, with a gardening title.  Hope you like it."  Before the actress could say another word, Laura hurried off with the other, boring book in her hand.

"And action!" Ricardo called, almost before Laura was out of the shot.

Productive, yes... Creative, no

I had a productive day today, though not a creative one.  Although, if I think about it, I did have some flashes of creativity.  I spent the day packing.  I managed to pack 17 boxes, which is not bad, considering I got distracted by things like the puppy, and GraphJam, and eating.

I was reminded that my OCP is in full force, though, as I was doing all of this.  OCP, you ask?  It's 'obsessive-compulsive personality,' not full on OCD.  I've never been diagnosed with OCD, but I do have some of the traits, including a ridiculous need for order.  This can make packing a bit of a challenge.  My boxes are all numbered and colour-coded with stickers to indicate which room they belong it.  I have two main styles of box - the others that don't match are boxes that stuff came in (like the KitchenAid box).  The numbers on the box correspond to a list on my computer that catalogues exactly what's in each box.  A bit of overkill?  Maybe...

But it makes my brain happy.  So now my happy brain and I are going to go cuddle with my puppy, then go to sleep, and plan what to pack tomorrow.

Trying to be creative today

Unfortunately, by wanting to be creative, I may have ended up finding another hobby for myself.  D'oh.

I'm currently searching the interweb on the techniques of making webcomics.  I'm hoping that it seems like a terribly difficult undertaking, so I get discouraged and decide not to pursue it.  At the very least, I would have to hook the big computer up to the internet again, because it's got my PaintShop on it.  Hmm... this feels like it's going to be more trouble than I want to go to.  Yay!

In other news, I got turned on to a new website today!  I spent my day working on data analysis, trying to come up with an easy-to-read graphical representation of the visual acuities of patients who were four months status post cataract extraction with ReStor intraocular lens implantation.  Sounds important, doesn't it?  In any case, I was making pretty pie charts and bar graphs.  I talked to a friend about this at lunch, and he suggested that, given how excited I was about these graphs (and yes, I really was excited), I should visit Graph Jam.  I did.  I love it!  Too lazy to click on the link?  Check out a sample of the fun you can find:

Must... sleep...

Okay, so last night sucked.  Well, the part after leaving PRN sucked.  A migraine hit literally moments after I got into the car to go home.  But I still stayed up all night (well, until about 1:30) to bake cupcakes for the baby shower at lunch today.  (The blanket I made for the baby was awesome - 'the softest thing I've ever felt' according to Joy, and HD complimented me on it, too!)

And tonight, I'm up crazy late because Josh and Tams were in town, and I haven't seen them since before they got married.

I REALLY need to sleep.  Also, I have to do stats tomorrow at work.  Yeah.  Sleep would be a good plan.  I'll be more creative tomorrow.

OUch

Got into car after PRN, migraine hit.  No is posting tonight.

Puppy!

My puppy is just adorable!  I took her to get her nails trimmed at PetSmart today, and it was fun!  She hates car rides, but loves PetSmart - they got her nails trimmed, cleaned her ears, and gave her some breath spray and a bandana!  Then, as a reward, I got her some treats.  I got her a bag full of Booda bones, and a stuffed hoof.  She was so cute with that!  It's huge, and she had a hard time picking it up, but I could tell that she was trying to roll over onto her back with it (that's what she does with her favourite toys).

I took a billion pictures - enjoy!

EDIT: I can't upload them!  Crap!  I'll try again tomorrow...

Five-minute fiction

From "The Writer's Book of Matches," page 168: "She had the best calves I've ever seen."

John looked across the room.  A woman in her late 40's stood there in too-high heels and too-tight jeans, placing a pitcher of beer on another table.  The country song playing on the sound system seemed to fit his mood perfectly at the moment.

"Never shoulda walked away," he mumbled to the man beside him.

"What was that, John-boy?" the other man asked, leaning in to hear.

"I never shoulda left Rita," John repeated, louder this time.  Loud enough, in fact, that Rita heard him from her place across the bar.  She looked around, and saw his face, then shook her head.  With a look that was somewhere between pity and disgust, she walked back behind the bar and started pouring another mug of beer.

"That woman was the best thing that ever happened to me, Petey," John continued, lowering his voice again.  "She had it all... great body, great family, great everything.  She had the best calves I've ever seen."

"Really?" Petey asked, leaning backwards a bit, trying to catch a glimpse of Rita's legs.  They weren't all that special, not from what he could see.

"Yep, they were beautiful... Holsteins and Herefords and Galloways... her daddy was gonna leave us all of them beautiful little calves... but then I had to go and be an ass..."  John took another swig of his beer, setting the empty mug down a little too forcefully.  "Yeah, I had to tell her that them cows was as purty as her... Never, never, never tell a woman that she's as purty as a cow, Petey."

"I'll try not to, John-boy," Petey replied as hus buddy laid his head down on the table.  He certainly didn't want to end up like this poor bugger.

Looking for inspiration

With November just around the corner, writing has been on my mind a lot lately.  I'm still writing every day, but there are days that I just don't feel inspired.  Rather, the ideas aren't there.  I want to write, but I just can't figure out what to write.

Today, I participated in a critique group for the first time, and I think, overall, it was a good experience.  The novel being critiqued was a Christian fiction piece, covering the three-day period after the Crucifixion.  This was not my usual genre.  Honestly, I probably wouldn't have picked it up if I saw it in a bookstore.  However, that's one of the good/bad things about the group - everyone in the group has a different preferred genre, so I'll get to read a lot of things that I don't normally read.  

I read the book once, because I wanted to give honest opinions as a reader - when I read a book, I rarely go back and read passages again, unless the writer lost me somewhere along the way.  I think this approach was probably right for the first run-through, but, after hearing the way the other members of the group gave their comments, I plan to do things differently next time.  I will definitely do a first read over a 1-2 day period, the way I normally read a book, and make notes about my initial impressions and things that lost me along the way.  However, I'll then go back and try to pinpoint what got me lost and why; which characters I liked or disliked, and whether that seemed to be the way the writer wanted those characters to be perceived; any subplots that didn't get resolved; basically, I'll treat it like a high school reading assignment during the second read-through.  Hopefully, that will be more valuable for the writer.

This time around, the writer told us not to worry about line-editing because he knew that the grammar and punctuation could use some work.  I tried to leave it alone, I really did!  My father trained me well, though, and I just couldn't leave the dangling fragments alone.  My critique was probably more technical than the others because of that, so hopefully my input was valuable to the author.

I'm actually looking forward to having one of my pieces critiqued by this particular group.  At least two of the writers have completed projects that they're sending out queries for, which is also valuable - they're more than happy to help the rest of us with submissions when the time comes.  I think that's the part of the process that I'm looking forward to the least.  I don't like rejection.  I hate it, actually.  I applied for grad school and got rejected because the program I applied to didn't get enough grants to take on another student, and I was devastated.  I've been 'rejected' at my last two auditions, and I'm not sure I'm up for auditioning for anything else (at least in the near future) because I don't want another failed attempt.

Intellectually, I know that just because I didn't get a part at the last audition, it doesn't mean I won't get something at the next one (there were a LOT of politics at play there, and I knew that going in).  It still hurts, though, and it's very discouraging.  I know, based on what I've heard from all of the other writers I know, that I will get lots of rejections before I find an agent who will accept my manuscript.  I know that just getting an agent doesn't guarantee that anything will actually get published, although that's a good first step.  I just get disappointed and discouraged easily.  It's something I need to work on.  If anyone has any suggestions about how to get past it, input is welcome!

I am no longer covered in paint

And it is wonderful.  But as I sat in my bubble bath, it occurred to me that, for as long as I have been living on my own, I have not had a bath that was not a bubble bath.

I remember, as a child, that bubble baths were kind of special - you didn't get bubbles every time you had a bath, so it was a big deal.  My sister and I would spend forever in the bathtub when we had bubbles.  We had a bag full of bath toys that would get pulled out, and there were tons of games that we would make up.  One of us always ended up with a bubble beard, and bubble hairdos were all the rage.

Rubbing soap over the bubbles that stuck to my legs made a super-rich soapy foam that was fun to play with, too; much more dense than the regular bubbles.  We always stayed in the bath until the very last bubble had popped, even though our fingers and toes were pruney and the water had turned cold.  You simply couldn't waste a single, precious bubble.

I still do some of that - I don't have a bag of bath toys anymore, but my imagination always runs wild when I'm in the bath.  I have some of my best ideas lying there with my eyes closed, the sound of bubbles bursting in the background.  I don't usually do the bubble beard anymore, but every once in a while, it makes an appearance.  And I always wait until the bubbles are gone before I get out, even though my fingers and toes are all pruney.

Maybe it's because I rarely take baths now, that I only have bubble baths.  I think that's why they're still special.

I am covered in paint.

Today was the SuperFun Priming Party, and I'm covered.  Except for where my coveralls were.  I've got paint in my hair (despite wearing an oh-so-attractive pink bandana on my head).  I had paint on my nose.  I've got paint all up and down my arms, and my hands are multicoloured.  It's not as pretty as it sounds.

Tonight's blog is short, because I must go scrub all of this paint off.  I can't sleep with it.  It just freaks me out.  And then I have to go edit a novel... hm... this will be a LOOOONG night...

Boxes, boxes, everywhere

I'm in the midst of packing, and I forgot how organized, yet chaotic, it is.  The last time I moved, it was a cross-border move, so I had to have the contents of every box specifically recorded.  My OCD brain loved that.  This time, I'm doing it again.  Each box gets its own worksheet in an Excel spreadsheet.  Boxes are labelled with big number stickers, and each number sticker has a coloured dot in the corner that indicates the room in which it will eventually live.  Most of my boxes are bankers boxes, though there is a set of Alcon boxes that I rescued from the office.  It's so pretty... I've got three stacks of boxes sitting in the living room, and they're all the same size and shape...

It's also nice, because I'm getting a current inventory of all of the STUFF I have.  I now have a complete record of all my DVDs, all my CDs, all my books, all my EVERYTHING!  I even have a list of the types and quantities of yarn that I own.  I think I need to stop buying yarn for a while...

However, in addition to the boxes that are neatly stacked against the wall, ready to go, I have piles of unassembled boxes, box lids, tissue paper, bubble wrap, tape, labels, and stickers ALL OVER!  And there is stuff all around, too.  I took the afternoon off of work to try to get it under control but, well, not so much.  I think tomorrow night and Sunday will be tidying up time, trying to at least get things into the room where they belong so I can pack them when the time comes...

And on that note, I must get to bed, because tomorrow is the SuperFun Priming Party (Again)!  Wish me luck, and helpers!

Mmmm... Chrome...

It turns out that I'm a big Google fan.  I'm a little bit surprised by this, mostly because when I first started using the internet, there was no Google.  My first preferred search engine was Yahoo, my first webmail was some little company that no longer exists, my first browser was Netscape Navigator, and I don't think anyone had really thought much about blogs, much less created something like Blogger.  Wow.  I just looked at all of that, and I feel REALLY old. One of the first things I downloaded was a .txt file of the script for Monty Python and the Holy Grail... I'm sure you can find that very easily as a PDF now.

I digress.  As I was saying, I'm a big Google fan.  I didn't expect to be.  I stuck with Yahoo search for a really long time, but finally realized that Google was just as good, if not better, and the Google homepage was much more pleasant to look at and navigate through.  I've had Hotmail and Yahoo mail accounts, but I love my Gmail account.  Again, it's pretty and it's easy.  I'm a smart cookie - I can manage with just about anything that's thrown at me, but I don't like having to fight my way through my inbox if I can avoid it.

Now, I've discovered Chrome, Google's web browser.  I like.  I've been playing with different browsers lately - IE came on my computer, of course, but I got an updated version of Netscape, I've tried Safari, and a couple of others that I can't think of off the top of my head.  I wasn't really happy with the whole tab thing in IE when it first came out, but I've become accustomed to it.  I really enjoy the Chrome setup, though.  It was beautiful to set up - it automatically snagged my bookmarks and favourites from IE.  The startup screen gives screenshots of recently visited pages, so if I've been searching around for something but can't remember the site where I saw it, I've actually got a visual reminder of where I was.  This works well with my visual memory :)

I feel like a corporate whore... but I really am impressed with most of the products associated with Google.  So congratulations, Google!  (I didn't mean to write an ad!  Really, I swear!)

Need your opinions!

You may or may not know that my SO and I are in the process of renovating a house, so that we can move into it together.  This is a rather stressful event, as there is a lot of dust and chaos, and I don't like these things.  However, in the end, there will be nicely painted walls and a 13-foot bar in the basement.  And a huge-ass TV and gaming table.  And more bookshelves than I could have dreamed of.

However, the other day, I realized something.  We will have a yard.  Okay, so I didn't just wake up and say, 'Hey, we've got a yard!' - I did actually notice that when we looked at the place.  What I actually realized was that we have a yard where we can put stuff.  We talked about it, but I think we've decided against putting up signage for a particular presidential candidate, because we're not entirely sure how that will go over with the neighbours - there aren't many of those sort of signs up in our neighbourhood.

Then we came up with what I think is an awesome idea - we're going to put up Canadian political signage!  I'll have a Liberal poster in my front yard!  And maybe a Tory one, so my dad doesn't totally disown me.  And maybe, for fun, we'll put up NDP and Reform signs, too! (And yes, I realize the Reform party doesn't actually exist anymore, but who's going to know down here?  Besides, looking at it will remind me of Ross Perot shouting "Refoooooorm!".  Actually, I don't know if he ever said it like that, but This Hour Has 22 Minutes and The Royal Canadian Air Farce always spoofed him doing it.  Wow, this has been a really long parenthetical comment.)

So I want to know, if you had a yard, what kind of signage (or other things) would you/do you put up in it?