“We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.”
― David Mamet, Boston Marriage

The good news: it’s not mono or strep throat. Yes, I got myself checked out this week because I’m still not over being sick. The bad news is that the doctor confirmed what I already knew, “There’s nothing really wrong except you’re badly in need of rest.” $35 copay for that advice. Blerg.

On the other hand, my dating approach to furniture sales is working! Sold my beloved exercise bike Harley yesterday, and someone is coming to check out the shelving unit we’ve used as a TV stand this afternoon. Tomorrow our mattress and boxspring will be hauled away. We hope. Please, universe, send our couches some suitors!

It’s also graduation day which means the population of people on campus (already in the multiple tens of thousands) has effectively doubled and everyone is getting in accidents, getting tickets, and getting in fistfights over parking spaces. The entire town is virtually shut down due to traffic and I haven’t actually been in my office since before one due to running errands. And I still have to pack up another car load of things for J. to haul to store away properly and get some freelance assignments done (why don’t people answer emails?!). As you can tell things are just a bit frantic over here so here are you links and let’s talk later, k thanks bye.

Fascinating.

Kind of a hilarious photo gallery. I find teenage determination to refuse to enjoy anything hysterically funny now, but I know I was just as bad a perpetrator as any of them.

As the lifelong human companion of a particularly valiant and devoted teddy bear (who incidentally linked up with me the day I was born and to this day sleeps on my bed and is transported in my carry-on luggage because I will not trust her to baggage claim – and regarding all of this I have no shame whatsoever) I heartily approve this Facebook post.

A very smart adult literacy campaign.

Ever wondered who makes the Queen’s headgear? Wonder no more.

Oops.

Semi-funny photo aside, it’s amazing to think about

Interesting article about confidence in general and women in particular (in response to that Dove ad that took over my Facebook page for a few days). Thoughts?

I am an unabashed Game of Thrones fan. Here’s a fun piece about creating the languages for the series – bet you didn’t know we’ve all be pronouncing Khaleesi wrong.

If ever I design my own house, I am definitely throwing in some hidden nooks and crannies.

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

This has been a rough week, kittens, lots of bad things happened in a lot of places, some of which are still shaking out. Stay safe out there, everyone, and here are your links:

How David Sedaris works.

An article on the perpetual love for the Longchamp Le Pliage bag – I’m an admitted devotee.

People. Inherently decent.

I can’t even stay upright on skis!

I watched this Frontline episode this past week. I’ve joked in the past that we are poor, but never again. Not after watching this. I’ve lived in truly poverty stricken areas of the globe before but it’s been a while and I honestly think I forget how grim it was for the members of my various communities, even those who bore hardship with stunning grace and resilience. My pay might be small now, and about to go from regular to project based, but except for a couple of hurricanes disrupting things in my teens, I have never gone hungry in my life. I have clothes on my back, a roof over my head, and the ability to provide for myself, I am never going to refer to myself as poor again unless I am facing the challenges these kids face. Perspective. Also looking into some volunteer opportunities this summer because I can do more.

I’d try some of these recipes.

Please consider giving a blood donation to your local donation center if you can. Chronic blood shortages are pretty common, but it gets worse after any large tragedies.

The semi-occasional sheep.

Always strive to excel, but only on weekends.
~ Richard Rorty

This week was long. My trainee requires constant supervision and the universe seems determined to keep me from getting my personal projects done in other ways too. We received a phone call out of the blue yesterday asking to see our flat, and when I stated that I had not advertised it, the caller said, “Oh, yeah, I got your number from your managers.” A conversation about private information and the sharing thereof needs to happen, I think. In any event we spent over an hour cleaning frantically and in the end the prospective renter never even showed up. Two and a half weeks, twelve business days…

Here are your links and tell me what you’re up to this weekend in the comments! We’re going to start the first phase of deep cleaning and packing up for our move and I am going to get my work done! All I’ve managed are phone calls and a few pdfs and this changes now – Saturday at sunrise we attack!

As we get closer to it’s release, I’m not sure that the latest incarnation of The Great Gatsby will actually be good (and this from a woman who adores Carey Mulligan). But I am sure that the sets are going to blow me away, and I’m already drooling over the costumes from the previews. What say the minions – eager to see it or not so much?

Language is much trickier than most people think. I took a psychology class in high school where the teacher explained how it’s possible to fake out your brain by simply putting syllables together that sound correct but are actually meaningless. Here’s the fabulous John Cleese to demonstrate. Bonus fun! Turn on the closed captions and watch it try, poor thing, to do its job.

Photos from lavish New York private homes during the first half of the last century.

I have many questions about North Korea and what goes on there…but I admit, in the Trivial Category, why soldiers are wearing these tops the list. I thought this was only a thing in comic books and films where the director has no desire to portray reality. (Sidenote, heeled boots happened in The Avengers, and not just for Black Widow, and I was disappointed in Whedon.)

As a Gemini, I call BS. Although I find it funny because J. is a Scorpio, because of the two of us he’s the one with the best chance at a decently lucrative career. You can tell exactly how much stock I put in this sort of thing, but I can never resist checking my horoscope in magazines just for kicks.

Hat tip to Savvy, this tumblr is hysterical.

I’m suspicious of any hotel that doesn’t show pics of the bed and bathrooms. Doubly so here.

This is a really clever campaign. Oh, you don’t get it? Quick, to Netflix!

Cats have taken over everything, we must accept it.

The semi-occasional sheep, demonstrating how I generally feel about life and being overwhelmed at this moment.

There is little chance that meteorologists can solve the mysteries of weather until they gain an understanding of the mutual attraction of rain and weekends.  ~Arnot Sheppard

Hey, minions.  I’m seriously exhausted after this week, and a car just drove off a road into a house on the edge of campus so it’s going to be a hectic day.  Here are your links, tell me what you’re doing this weekend, and excuse me I’m pretty busy!

This is awesome.

Present shock – a fascinating idea, and an excellent interview on the subject.  Does anyone suffer from it?

Ever feel link you haven’t accomplished anything with your life? Me too. Here’s some salt for us collectively. (Editor’s note: this kid is seriously cool.)

Food for thought.

My love for historically based photo projects should be well documented at this point. Let’s add another to the gallery!

I predict this child will have a thriving career in espionage.

Boy golly…and just what have I done with my life…?

Five months, five months, five months… (Sidenote, how great are these?!)

Ha!  No.

(Warning, profanity discussed). Some of these need to come back.  I think I’ll need to add “Snails!” to my repertoire of in-case-I-stub-my-toe-near-impressionable-children alternatives.

Perspective.

Wow!

Alas that my summer roadtrip was cancelled, but yours doesn’t have to be, ducklings! 

Best movie breakup lines.

“Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says I’m going to snow.  If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that’s tough.  I am going to snow anyway.”
– Maya Angelou

Last time this week is was 70 degrees, bright and clear.  Glancing outside my office window right now it’s snowing.  Blech.

As always, TGIF!  I’ve been doing some intensive training for my replacement this week, which has been rough, but on the other hand J. and I went to a lovely dinner party on Tuesday, we have friends coming over tomorrow evening, and I’m making progress on several of my innumerable projects.  Random Spring snowstorms notwithstanding, the winter blahs are behind me I think, and things are looking brighter and brighter.  Here are your links, minions, and let me know what you’re up to this weekend:

I may dislike cooking intensely, but I can also make you a magnificent roasted tomato soup from scratch.  Chalk another one up to Mum for insisting I avoid this fate.

Lord Byron might have bee “mad, bad, and dangerous to know,” but his physician is something more of a sad, ridiculous character.

Make the call, genius or a bit too much?

Seriously?  Locally there’s a somewhat unfortunate tendency to treat proposals as if you’re asking someone to prom.  J. was the subject of some scolding from female friends when of our proposal they demanded, “How did you do it?!” and his response was, “I asked her and she said yes.” I have no complaints, note.

The cost of libraries.  Worth it.

Fear that your social media presence will die with you?  Fear no more, there’s an app for that.

Alas, poor Easter Egg Roll!  Fun fact, I participated as a young child when my father was working in DC and still have a wooden egg signed by the then president squirreled away somewhere.

Cool!

I first learned about Mike the Headless Chicken in a Psychology class in high school.  To this day I remained fascinated, and vaguely appalled.

Good advice.

As if watching Mad Men, excellent as it is, doesn’t make you glad enough these days are behind us, here’s what the folks of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce might have thrown together for a successful campaign.  Yikes.

Jeans and t-shirts, apparently, no one could have predicted!

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.
~ Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Hectic week – our landlord transferred our building’s management out from underneath us.  We found out with three days in which to figure out whom to pay rent to.  That’s been fun.  We might at least get a functional kitchen light out of it since our old managers, while very nice, were terrible at actually managing.  I tried storytelling in public for the first time, and it was a blast – post on it coming!  Worked on the MP.  Training replacement at work – angst inducing, but onward, ever onward.

This weekend I plan on continuing the battle against the blahs with some late winter sunshine, editing a manuscript of a friend as she preps it for querying (go Catriona!), and more MP work.  Here are your links, kittens:

Award for best news story title of the week goes to…

People.  Inherently decent.

Technological progress, for all that smartphones are still a brave new world to me, I never long to go back to these times.  Although I might have been one of those sly ladies who just sat and listened to the lines all day for dirt.

Ugh.  (h/t Caitlin Kelly)

How do you date the oral storytelling tradition?  Pretty cleverly.

Brew yourself a custom perfume – brilliant!  I’ve been wearing the same scent for a decade now…and I’m actually feeling like it’s time to turn over old loyalties and find something new.  I feel treacherous just typing that!  Lady minions, do you have a perfume family you prefer?

Norwegians splitting hairs over splitting logs.

Very important for you young, budding cryptozoogists.

I now long to live in a Spite House – emotional architecture!

The weekly sheep is very happy to see you!