Today was “Take Your Kid To Work Day” at my workplace, Splat Int’l. So Anxiety got up at 5:30 (just like Mommy) and drove to work with me. I took her to the Seattle’s Best where I get my coffee (okay, actually my “quad-shot white chocolate peppermint soy mocha”) every morning, showed her the general vicinity with a rather pretty park in the block next to my building, and then I trudged upstairs to work.

The kids’ activities were a pizza lunch, face painting, trivia games, goodie packs (with candy, a frisbee, a light-up yo-yo & a bubble pen – all orange with the company logo *blech*), a tour of the building, & a pinata. They finished an hour before my shift was over, so Anxiety hung out with Molly, who was on modified duties after getting a really horrendous second-degree burn on her inner forearm yesterday (ouch & a half!). Molly is on the same floor as me now – yay! (Of course, our work shifts only overlap by 30 minutes, and there have been mandates handed down about not “distracting” co-workers – aka “talking to people who are at their desk working” – unless you’re both on break. Since we’re not allowed to be at our desks while on breaks, this was basically a warning to watch our P’s & Q’s.)

And then each parent was emailed a picture of their little darling having fun up in the conference room. Some of my coworkers mentioned on the elevator that they’d seen my “son” around the building (since Anxiety & I both currently have purple hair, it was a good assumption that it’s my kid), and I had almost too much fun telling them she’s actually my daughter. Well, she has a gender-neutral name, and I guess she didn’t look girly today. *snicker*

Wow, that picture almost makes her look like she has giant plastic orange wings. Kinda creepy. (But then, our logo is kinda creepy anyway…it always looked to me like a plump orange guy fell from a very high place. Le splat.)

After threatening it for many years, I finally threw caution to the winds. Then the winds threw it right back at me, and it splattered all over my head!

I had no idea that caution was colored purple, did you?

I’ve received several compliments from coworkers (a lot more than when I was blond, however briefly). It amuses me to get stared at a lot (shy people should definitely not do this), although I see unusual things on such a regular basis in Portland, I’m surprised at how many people stare!

Caution splattered all over Anxiety, as well, although she’s been playing camera-shy. But sooner or later, she’s got to sleep….

So the other day, Geoffrey and Lyse and I went to that “toys R very expensive” store, to attempt to find some Neopets trading card game decks. (Yes, I’m such a fangirl that I want some. Not for the game, mind you, since I wouldn’t ever play it – but for the special codes that give you Neopets goodies on their website!) My beloved has borne a grudge against that particular store for years, since their mascot is a giraffe with his name. Spelled the same way, even.

So of course, there was much amusement when we saw the big poster in the store window advertising Camp Geoffrey. Snarky remarks about how much fun has been had camping with Geoffrey were, of course, made. Possibly the most amusing point is that Camp Geoffrey is intended for kids ages 3 to 8…and my Geoffrey is (to put it politely) rather disinclined to deal with small children.

Maybe he should open up a Camp Geoffrey for smart, attractive ladies ages 23 to 28… *snicker*

I have absolutely nothing nice to say right now, and the rumor is that if you have nothing nice to say, you should say nothing at all.

However, I do think that more people should live by a sensible code of ethics.

Don’t expect more than filler posts from me for a while.

Thanks to Adam, one of the hooligans in the RHPS Cabaret that my eldest spawn belongs to. (And I admit, I pre-blogged this Tues night, because I might not be online Wednesday.)

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Lilith
2. Lil
3. Trixie, but only on drunken weekends (kidding!)

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
1. CosmicBabe
2. Lilith1969
3. CosmicPurpleLil (only for my Neopets gallery)

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. Height
2. Legs
3. Shoulders

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON’T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. Weight
2. Freckles
3. Toes

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1. Norwegian
2. Scots
3. Irish

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. Nightmares
2. Animals bigger than me
3. Being startled by spiders

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. Oxygen
2. Water
3. Gravity (oh, like I wasn’t going to be snarky here)

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. Leopard-print dress
2. Panties (boring white cotton, actually)
3. Jewelry

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS OR MUSICAL ARTISTS:
1. Avril Lavigne
2. Pat Benatar
3. Linkin Park

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS: (at the moment)
1. Run – Snow Patrol
2. Let Me Go – 3 Doors Down
3. The Last Song – All-American Rejects

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
1. Open honesty
2. Good communication
3. Trust and laughter (okay, so that’s four…sue me)

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE (in no particular order):
1. I saw Shaun Cassidy in concert
2. I used to date a male model
3. The pets I’ve had in the past included lovebirds, boa constrictors, hermit crabs, and gerbils

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE PREFERRED SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU
1. Good posture
2. Being comfortable in his skin (lack of self-consciousness)
3. Attractive natural scent

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. Reading
2. Crocheting
3. Neopetting (gawd, what a fangirl)

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. I plead the Fifth Amendment
2. Convince my younger spawn that the cat will not stay in the house crawlspace forever, so the child stops freaking out
3. Get a really good picture of Fido eating

THREE CAREERS YOU’RE CONSIDERING/YOU’VE CONSIDERED:
1. Accountant (don’t laugh, damnit)
2. Forensic criminologist (before I ever heard of CSI)
3. Editor

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1. A tropical beach (pretty much any tropical beach)
2. Ireland
3. The international space station

THREE KIDS’ NAMES YOU LIKE:
1. Andrea (big surprise)
2. Jordan (and yet another)
3. Morgan (first runner-up name when I was pregnant with my youngest)

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. Go hang-gliding
2. Go on an EVA (a spacewalk, basically)
3. Get this relationship thing right

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A BOY:
1. I like action thriller movies with explosions
2. I could not care less about fashion, if I even notice it
3. I can be incredibly oblivious to anyone flirting with me

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A CHICK:
1. I go googly over jewelry
2. I shave my legs & armpits, and get bikini waxes
3. Sometimes I get sniffly when I see those fucking Hallmark commercials

THREE CELEB CRUSHES: (sigh…it’s all fantasy)
1. Keanu Reeves (hey, he doesn’t have to talk)
2. Ed Harris (the hottest old guy ever)
3. Adam Sandler (make me laugh, and the seduction’s half-accomplished!)

THREE PEOPLE THAT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE TAKE THIS QUIZ NOW:
1. My Number One Internet Fanboy
2. The other cool, tall, snarky, Gemini chick I know
3. The Imperial Princesses: of Cute, of Snark, and of Food

(It’s not my fault I know so many nifty people that I couldn’t pare it down to only three for that last question!)

Warning: Do not click on the link below if you are a sensitive type, a member of PETA, or think snakes are icky. (The pictures do not show blood or gore, but they do show a snake killing & eating a rat.)

Beanpole brought snake food with him when he came over today, and so I got pictures of Fido eating! (Fido is the snake’s name – don’t blame me, she was named that when we got her.) So I took some pictures, and made a gallery.

A few words of explanation on the pics: Fido is not fed in the cage she lives in; we’re told that’s not a good habit, so she’s fed in a box specifically for the purpose. (No, we don’t have a cute name for the box, like “The Rat Doom Room” or “Slaughter Central”, although it’s been suggested. We call it “the feeding box,” or “the purple storage chest”…since that’s what it is.) There is a stick – a tree branch – in some of the pictures. The reason for this is that we don’t like to handle Fido when she’s hungry…although I’ve been bitten by boa constrictors and it’s no big deal, we don’t want her associating “food” with “human picking me up,” so we transport her from her cage to the feeding box by carrying her on a branch. And often she won’t let go of the branch once she’s in the box, so we leave it alone, and it’s never been a problem for it to be in the box during her feedings. We do feed live rats; I understand some people think this is a bad idea, but I’ve hand-fed snakes with stunned or fresh-killed rats before, and it’s a giant pain in the ass. Since the rats are not big enough to actually hurt Fido, we don’t worry about feeding live food. If there was a compelling reason to take the extra trouble to feed dead meat to her, we’d do that instead.

And don’t bother wasting your breath in telling me how cruel it is to the rats. Nature is rarely kind, people – and that seems to be largely forgotten anymore. The “circle of life” is not just a cute Disney movie theme song; it’s the fact that one animal’s death is another animal’s meal. (Happy Solstice!)

Once in a while, I actually read my spam. Most of the time, of course, it’s pathetic sales pitches for ego enlargement (more or less *snicker*) and miracle weight loss concoctions. But sometimes it’s so terribly amusing, that it keeps me in stitches for …well, several minutes or so. Like the spam I got today for funny state t-shirts. I really like Oregon’s:

Of course, there were a few other states that made me almost laugh Mountain Dew out of my nose.

Louisiana: We’re Not All Drunk Cajun Wackos, But That’s Our Tourism Campaign
Mississippi: Come And Feel Better About Your Own State
New Jersey: Want A ##$%##! Motto? I Got Yer ##$%##! Motto Right Here!
Utah: Our Jesus Is Better Than Your Jesus
Florida: A Great Place For Your Grandparents To Die
Alaska: Masturbation Capitol of the World

Yesterday I hinted that something happened to my hair.

I went blond. More or less.

It’s been almost 10 years since I’ve bleached my hair. Hey, once a decade isn’t too crazy, right? Now I’m trying to figure out if I should try “colors not naturally found on human heads.” I’ve always wanted to do purple – and the dress code at work allows it!

I’m still thinking about it.

Now that I’ve got a digital camera again, my fabulous Number One Internet Fanboy set up a photo gallery for me! So far I’ve only got a few pictures in there from last month – a handful from around my house (which I’ve blogged before), and the ones I took (that turned out decently) at the Memorial Day barbeque at Doug & Mari’s house.

I’ll see about uploading more soon…like the pictorial sequence on what I did to my hair this weekend. *grin*

I love my iPod mini. Everywhere I go, I see people happily listening to their iPods. I’m not a huge Star Wars fan, but I laughed at this anyway.

10> Itsy-Bitsy Teeny-Weeny Yellow-Eyed-and-Evil Meanie

9> Wookiee Fever

8> Me & You & a Planet Named Naboo

7> Sith You Went Away

6> I Shot the Jedi

5> Only the Je Di Young

4> Fifty Ways to Clone Your Lover.

3> Dustin’ the Windu

2> Vader’s Got a Gun

1> The Wookiee Sleeps Tonight