Speaking of my company, we're having our Users Group conference next week. It's one of the biggest in the industry (if not *the* biggest, it's hard to tell how much of your own marketing you should believe sometimes), and I'll be meeting a lot - and I do mean a great many - people who I've only known by their voices and phone manners. It's going to be interesting.

In a recent meeting, we were advised on how to dress for this event, and the phrases "no skin" and "no bling" were stressed. I thought I was nervous about meeting a horde of people who would *very much* like to talk to me personally right now. Now I'm more nervous about showing too much skin or wearing too much jewelry.

I also realize that after 2.5 years of not having to interface with any customers, and dressing accordingly, I really don't have anything that could be termed 'business casual' any more. Or at least, none that fits anymore. I'm going shopping this weekend.

After 2 and a half years at my company, I have finally managed to get a group of my co-workers out in a social scene on a regular basis, and it's been really nice. Yes, usually the evening devolves into bitching about some aspect of work (which is unfortunate for the SOs at the table), but otherwise, it's nice to get to know these people outside of the workplace. We can laugh as much and as loud as we like, and there's usually beer and pub food involved.

Here's a picture of one of my co-workers, Swetta Abeyta, and her husband, Steve. They deign to hang out with me often, even while they frantically look for a place to live out of my neighborhood now that I've moved here. Steve is listed on imdb, ain't that cool?

For those who are interested, I have finally put up most of the pictures I've taken of my nieces this year. I decided to separate them into a directory for each one, to see how that goes. I'm not sure what I will do when I get to take pictures of them together. Probably experience some sort of spontanous combustion from the increased levels of cuteness. So here you are,

Carly, 2005 - yes, they're blurry, but she won't sit still!!
Lily, 2005 - we've figured out how to make her laugh, which makes her a lot more fun to be around.

So it turns out I can't remember who has Netflix and who doesn't. If you have it and want to be my friend and see what I have rented and how I rated it, invite me through netflix at this domain.com. We'll share some virtual popcorn (the only kind that won't make my hips expand after gorging myself on it) and gossip about how much worse she looks since installing those implants, and how hot he looks in those pants. It'll be a hoot.

Way cool: The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form - enter a term, see it defined in a limerick!

Note: the terms I entered were not yet included, but I'm sure they will be later on. In the meantime, it's fun to see the ones they have. [via Karen, who has crossed the line into her 30's. yay!]

I love my diet on travel days:

1 Pop-Tart
1 Cliff Bar
1 very very small bag of airline nuts
4 Oreos (in the airline snack pack)
1 very very small bag of airline nuts on the next flight
1 Trader Joes pizza

And I bought some whipped cream to go on the chocolate ice cream I'm pretty sure I have in my freezer tonight. After I've digested the pizza a bit.

I'll start eating better tomorrow.

I'm off to San Antonio in a few hours.

This is my third trip to Texas this year. Yeehaw!

Baby stuff: The Baby Name Wizard - cool graphing.

And this poor child: Urhines Kendall Icy Eight Special K. Sabotaged before he? she? is even out of diapers. I do like the Special K part though.

Pet Peeve O' The Day: Talking to the back of my head.

For petessake, people, if you have something to say to me, say it to my face. I am not my mother, or Sister Mary/Theresa/Claire/any other instructor from grades K through 8 - I don't have eyes in the back of my head. I can't see you. If we're engaged in a conversation and I turn away to pour water into my mug or peanut butter my bagel, that's one thing. But if I'm already turned away from you, we haven't spoken to each other in months (if ever), and you feel like commenting on something (the weather, my mug, the newspaper), say my name, move into my field of vision, SOMETHING, and then say it to my face when I turn to you.

I don't care if there isn't anyone else in the room. If I hear you spontaneously begin to talk behind me with no indication that you're speaking to me, I'm just going to assume you're crazy. Really.

Addendum: if we're passing each other in the hall, and you want to greet me, say hello before we pass each other, 'k? Don't wait till you're behind me to say 'hey, how's it going?'. 'Cause I'm not going to answer you, since I don't particularly want to talk to the back of your head either.

A World of Pain. Ouch.

I like McSweeny's lists, such as Reasons to Fear Canada. It rings so true!

1) Happy 6th anniversary of me getting my MLIS!

2) My spam filtering service, Knowspam, is shedding its mortal coil in June and I will be without protection from the teeming hordes of spammers. Anyone have any suggestions of what I can do to stem the tide?

3) Katie is cool. Like, way cool. Like, if I ever grew up, I'd like to be more like her.

4) I'm heading to San Antonio on Thursday and I haven't a) quite told my boss that I need to leave early or b) figured out how I'm getting to/from the airport.

5) I walked around the lake again last night, and I don't hurt nearly as much this time. Pace, apparently, makes a lot of difference. (Thanks, Jane!)

6) I saw Sideways last night, and while I don't think it lived up to the hype, it was very enjoyable. Especially the running parts. We pretty much only laughed, but laughed really hard, at the running parts.

Does anyone else ever find random songs in their iTunes playlist that they didn't put there?

For instance, here at work I have a fairly clean playlist - it's only stuff that I happened to have at my desk, and a few CDs I've borrowed from other co-workers. However, the other day I found a Talking Heads song in my playlist. I've never owned anything from the Talking Heads, nor have I ever borrowed any of their music from someone else. So how does it show up in my 'collection'?

Same thing at home: there are quite a few songs in there that I don't recognize. I always kind of figured they were from some compilation that I got from someone else, but now I'm not so sure.

Is Apple putting stuff on my computer that I didn't ask for? I noticed that they have assigned names/albums to some things I didn't have info for, but songs I've never seen before? WTH?

Eye-catching Spam Subject of the Day:

love ain't nothing but sex misspelled.

What do you do when someone stands you up fairly early on a Saturday morning? What do you do when this is the second weekend that this person has done this?

Me, I go to the farmer's market. And walk around the lake. And be happy that I didn't invest anything emotional in the relationship while I learn to value my real friends even more than I did before.

For me, when I have my credit card handy:

*Maroon 5 (with the Stills) at HP Pavilion, 5/5
*Los Lonely Boys and Ozomatli at Concord Pavilion, 8/5
*Oasis, Jet, and Kasabian at Shoreline, 9/11
*U2 at Oakland Arena, 11/8 and 11/9

And at the Mountain Winery this summer:
*Lyle Lovett, 6/29 and 6/30
*Chris Isaak, 7/6 and 7/8
*Los Lonely Boys on 8/7
*Gipsy Kings, 8/9

Would anyone like to go to any of these with me?

So Jem has threatened to pull out the DDR if her party this weekend turns out slow. Which of course led to a discussion of Ernie's obsession, which led to this: DDR Plus [via Ernie], and the benefits of a DDR addiction [via Jem].

I may have to pick up this hobby.

I know I talk a lot about drinking, so some people get the idea that I drink a lot. But keep in mind that I talk about dating a lot too, and see where that's gotten me. You get the idea.

However, I have gotten a few requests for places to go drinking in the City lately, so I thought I'd share my thoughts here, and you can share your thoughts in the now-functional comments.

These are places I like to drink (on those rare occassions that I do partake, of course):

*Zeitgeist: Chimay, bbq, and the biggest Jack-n-Cokes you've ever seen (not that I drink them, but ... they're HUGE!). Also, has the biggest back yard in SF.

*111 Minna: trendy, but not in an intimidating way. When there's dancing, it's great. Food nearby.

*Voda: a vodka bar. Need I say more? Ok, here's more: Vanilla lemondrops. And good music. And who knew SF had a French Quarter?

*Specs: small, very dive-y, and hell, I just like North Beach.

*Harry's: quiet, intimate, able to drink drinks and talk and hear each other over the music. Oh, and the seating is comfortable.

* There is also a blues bar in North Beach that is great fun, but I can't remember the name. Will have to poll friends who went with me to find out.

*Toronado: beer, and lots and lots of it. And the owners generally make the rounds at some point in the evening. Oh! and you can bring in takeout from any number of little places near the bar.

What are your favorite places in San Francisco to go drinking?

Lily, wearing her daddy's hat:



Also, Secret Worlds: The Universe Within, from my dad. It's mesmerizing.

And Stortroopers are back!! I'll post mine when I find my previous self-image. [via Leia]
2001:
2005:

So comments are back and I'm getting email ... for the time being. Something is taking a huge amount of space in my slice of my server and so I keep maxing out. The investigation continues.

In the meantime, I didn't feel like I was missing out by declaring yesterday a No Computer Day. Instead, I helped out the economy and now have two new pairs of jeans, some earrings, and undies to show for it.

Also: my neck still hurts, but less than before. I finally started The Canterbury Tales, and am currently fighting off sleep while I struggle through the intro. Just wait - I thought this was a version that would include the translation, but it doesn't!! So soon I'll be reading Old English in iambic pentameter. Yeehaw.

I wish I had this when I was looking for an apartment: Google maps meets Craigslist [via Ernie]

Once you go ... [via Jon]

Happy Buddha's birthday!

How close to Nirvana are you?

When geeks bake: Pi Pie [via Matt]

Someone just pointed me to FlyLady.net ... I think this is a sign that I should probably get something done with my apartment.

The last 12 hours:

Really great Mexican food.
1 Corona and some conversation before smoke drives us to ...
Gelato (right next to a Weight Watchers)
Still carrying dessert when we enter the Lucky Lounge (very hip bar, with a Lucky Hour from 8-9, check it out)
Finish dessert and refuse free drinks, as really, what alcohol will mix well with vanilla gelato on a sugar cone?
Walk home
Wait wait wait for a phone call, falling asleep as I do so. Finally decide I've waited long enough, going to bed.
Phone call comes exactly 5 minutes after I've turned off the light.
Finish phone call more than an hour after I wanted to go to bed.
12:45 - wake up to go to the bathroom. Damn beer.
3:00 - wake up to the rain.
5:00 - wake up to the trashpersons rattling the cans outside.
5:30 - wake up to alarm.
5:45 - get out of bed earlier than usual because MY NECK STILL HURTS

Today is the worst so far. Range of motion is extremely limited and my shoulders, back and arms are joining in the fun.</whine>

This is my new neighborhood: Grand and Lakeshore Avenues, Oakland

And this is a bookmark post so I don't lose this list of places to go.

$100 Laptop [via Durga]

Book things:

Library 'read-in' attracts throngs. More information can be found at Save Salinas Libraries.

Book Sale!:

In celebration of the Tenth year at its present location, Wednesday, April 6th through Saturday, April 9th, FOPL once again holds its huge 40% off book sale at The Bookmark Bookstore.

Weekend Update:

He didn't flake, and it was a very nice date.

This site is experiencing some "issues." By "issues" I mean that comments may or may not appear as they should (i.e., work), and I may or may not get email that is sent to me. I had to IM Jessa today and ask her how kooky it was to be worried that I hadn't gotten any spam all day.

So if the comments aren't working, sorry. And if you send me some email and I don't respond, sorry. And if there are any other things I should be sorry for, trying sending them to kristinthegreat at gmail dot com, 'k? I'll try to respond as quickly as I can.

Btw, the third ticket to Brooks and Dunn is still free. Are you sure you don't want to go with me?

Another lesson to you kiddies: don't fall asleep on the futon couch unless your neck is well-supported. Otherwise, 2 days later, you'll be hardly able to move it at all. What I wouldn't give for a muscle relaxant now.

Update: I found my phone. It was on the seat in my car. Face down, so I couldn't see the reflection off its shiny face. I'm pretty sure it did that on purpose.

But no one called me, so it doesn't really matter.

I have 3 2 1 dates this weekend. I think this is what they call "a roll", and I'm on it. Hopefully this guy won't cancel on me for some really good reason too.

I'm getting used to both the look of the glasses and looking through the glasses. I am amused at how many people are coming up to me and not saying "great new glasses!", but "so, you got glasses?" They are shocked to hear that I've been wearing them since I was 4 years old, with a short break b/w ages 13 and 20.

And I've been invited to a Brooks and Dunn concert on Monday at the Fillmore, and I can bring a guest, but I don't know anyone else who likes country music. It would be sad to pass up the free ticket. Want to come?

Have a great weekend! And don't forget to change your clocks!