Reflections of Sorts

One of our sticky traps finally caught a mouse. Problem is it is alive and squeaking. What the heck do I do? It feels really cruel to let it just starve there, but I have no idea how to humanely dispose of it. Detaching it is NOT an option (those things are STICKY).

What can I do?

Edit:

Brother to the rescue. He recommended vegetable oil and a pencil to free it. I only have olive oil, but I swept it into a bucket, took it a park, and used a stick. I only hope the little critter didn't have a heart attack. Meh, I did my best.

Ford Museum Workers Strike

Workers at the museum dedicated to the father of assmebly line production strike. Does anyone else find this deliciously ironic and totally hysterical?

Buy a bell for my bike. Or possibly a horn, since it is louder. Also buy bungee cords, so I can finally use those bike baskets without worrying that everything in them will bounce out when I go over one of the streets' myriad bumps and potholes.

In other news, why have I seen 4 dead birds and 2 dead squirrels in the streets in the last 2 weeks when prior to this I had not seen any this year?

This weekend was lovely. The weather is now lovely.

On the bus, seeing a guy with headphones blaring and a surly expression suddenly get up and courtesouly help a blind passenger to her seat.

I love it when people turn out to be nice.

Perfect timing, QC! I finished it on Sunday night. Now I just need to see the Colin Firth version . . .

Mmm, Mr. Darcy . . .

Buy a blender.

Corollary: Attempting to puree pea soup manually with a fork is lunacy.

On Friday April 25, less than half an hour before sundown (and thus after I had stopped checking my email until now) going into the last days of Pesach, I received a request for ketubah calligraphy . . . for May 10.



Edit: Apparently due to my "long" silence they found someone else. Good for them -- they need every second on that sort of deadline. They did say I "came very highly recommended," though!

So a friend (who shall remain untagged to keep this post public) asked me for some new ideas of what to do for a date. Thanks to a VERY long meeting at work, I had plenty of time to think about it. After sending him a rather long list, I realized that perhaps other people could benefit from it. I have tweaked it a bit to make it more generic, less specific to his locale. Also, anything with an (L) next to it might come off as a bit much for an early get-to-know-you date (yes, I know plenty of people who need to be told that). Here it is:

Ideas for Date Activities

Outdoors:
-Local nature preserve or parks
-Birdwatching
-Zoo/Petting Zoo
-Fruit picking (whatever is in season: strawberries, blueberries, apples)
-Boating of some kind (sailing/canoing/kayaking; depending on who and where you are this might work better later)
-Hiking (might work better later, depending on your personalities and locale)
-Local tourist stuff
-Bicycling
-Hay rides (autumn)/Sleigh rides (winter) (L)
-Ice Skating (winter, unless you live somewhere very far from me)
-Horseback riding (Spring/Summer/Autumn)
-LARPing (L) (I cannot stress how much this should NOT be a first date)

Intellectual:
-Museums (Art, history, natural history, science; ask about a specific location, and I will do my best to be more specific)
-Lectures
-Booksignings
-Workshops/Classes (L) (cooking/painting/sculpture class, check your local community center/YMCA/JCC)
-Brainteaser competition (I don't know of any, but I think this would make an awesome date!)

Indoors (Sedate):
-Autoshow
-Movie/theater/concert (pretty standard, but bears repetition)
-Board game night with a local adults group


Indoors (Active):
-Dancing (swing, ballroom, folk, etc.; take a lesson together!)
-Rollerskating
-Laser tag
-Paintball

Food:
-Wine and or cheese tasting (check your prospective date's culinary limitations)
-Fire & Ice kind of restaurant (you get to watch your food being cooked)
-Anything with chocolate or ice cream (mostly good when trying to impress a female, but males like chocolate, too)
-Gourmet tea bar
-Cook together and then picnic (L)

Misc:
-Volunteering (depending on the type, this might belong as a later date)
-Habitat for Humanity kind of thing, if you want something active


If anything gets my LJ hits from search engines, this will probably be it.

I don't remember the last time I overcooked or otherwise set this many things smoking . . .

Nicely done, XKCD, Dino Comics, and QC!!!

As part of my new campaign to treat myself better, I bought some new pen nibs last night and attempted to learn to write Copperplate script with them. I have written Copperplate-esque scripts with a felt tip and with a pencil, but never with a metal nib, and certainly not a dip pen.

I don't usually think about it, because I tend to use flat nibs for calligraphy, not pointed ones, but pens can be loud. Working as a scrivener, with a bunch of other scriveners must have been a noisy occupation. It also gives new meaning to the phrase "scratching of pens."

As a side note, apparently minuscule has an antonym: majuscule. Not sure how I missed that all these years.

A belated Happy Purim to those who celebrate it, and Happy Easter to those of that persuasion. I know there are plenty of other holidays that happened this weekend (an unusually high number), but I do not know enough about them to say anything.

Meanwhile, Thursday night saw the first time I ever yelled a correction from the "audience." Normally I never do this, and I hate it when other people do it. Heck, when I am gabbaiing, I try to correct in a low enough voice that only the reader can hear me -- no need to broadcast to everyone. But when the guy reading megilla read "ahuvim" (loved ones) instead of "oiveyhem" (their enemies), and neither gabbai said anything, I decided that the problem was just too egregious to let go.

Happy 50th birthday, Legos!

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1707379,00.html

The heater in my office is making the place smell like feet. I felt an overwhelming need to share that.

Now I can get back to convincing a bunch of adults that they should cooperate, not squabble like kids in a sandbox.

If you have a room under the eaves and light candles, the smoke when you blow them out makes the most fantastic patterns in the air. In many ways more beautiful than the candles themselves. Airflow is sensuously gorgeous!

This gallery has had a showing of a self-proclaimed feminist artist lately. Oh, the irony!

I saw "The Golden Compass with crewgrrl58, skywalker363, and EB on Saturday night. I have to say, I was quite underwhelmed.

My main gripes:
( Spoiler alert, both book and movie )

I also felt that the writing fell flat and the score was one of the least inspiring I have heard in a very long time, but those are minor compared with my larger complaints.

I did, however, approve of some of it:
( More spoilers )

Overall, the good did not nearly outweigh the problems, and I was very disappointed. The caveat on all of this is that I am not a huge fan of the books. I enjoyed them, but I came to them so late that they could not possibly live up to the hype. Whether that makes me harder to impress or easier to please, I do not know. All in all, my opinion is that it is not worth the theater prices

Must . . . find . . . keyboard . . . shortcuts!

Before I was hired, my boss bought a brand new, top of the line Mac. Really, not being able to activate toolbars with the Alt key is killing me. Also, this keyboard that I have doesn't even allow for some Mac specific keyboard shortcuts because it is souped up with other features. For example, pressing F12 raises the volume, rather than performing the Save As function in Microsoft Office. I like the nice big screen, but other than that, I would really be much happier with a PC. I might feel differently when I have to start processing thousands of images, but I doubt it.