Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:00 PM

• So, I mentioned last month that somehow we got onto a GOP fundraising call list.
This morning, Ian picked up the phone to a recording of J.C. Watts pitching the Permanent Republican Majority.

• How pitiful is it that my main reaction to seeing everybody quote this Washington Post article on "Why the Red Delicious No Longer Is" has given me an intense craving for a red delicious apple?

• I want an ink monkey! (via Bookslut). Maybe that will help me combat blog depression.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:00 PM

Airborne cats: a flickr slideshow via Bitch PhD.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:15 PM

Meme going around to Google on "<your name> is" and excerpt quotes from the top results.

I didn't realize I was quite so popular and versatile. Here's far more than you ever wanted to know about me:

And since I enjoyed this so much, here are some results for my full first name:

1. Elisabeth is The View's new co-host.
2. Elisabeth is a 30 meter Dutch Luxemoteur barge built in Rotterdam Holland in 1930.
3. Elisabeth is already tiring of the celebrations
4. Elisabeth is trying to make out what is on the answering machine tape
5. Elisabeth is starting to look for opportunities beyond the familiar
6. Elisabeth is a non-resident of New York.
7. Elisabeth is an inspiration by simply competing and doing what she loves.
8. Elisabeth is in her little palace on the Greek island of Corfu
9. Elisabeth is grateful to others who have helped her
10. Elisabeth is often asked for information on a wide variety of subjects
11. Elisabeth is still wearing the locket
12. Elisabeth is right about him and he does need a lesson
13. Elisabeth is the daughter of the double-crosser whom Koster hunted down and killed right in front of her 10 years earlier.
14. Elisabeth is one busy girl ("unfortunately there aren't enough hours in the day")
15. Elisabeth is the only Granny out of uniform.
16. Elisabeth is doing well today.

Incidentally,

1. Elisabeth Anne is another contender, "even though she does make me roll my eyes every once in a while."
2. Elisabeth Anne is now in the front running. How long she'll stay, only time will tell.

So how are you?

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:45 PM

Flickr has just added a way to see the most interesting photos of any particular day. And they have the entire past year available.

1. Go to http://www.flickr.com/explore
2. From Select a month, choose the month you were born.
3. From the resulting calendar view, choose your birthday

Here are the most interesting flickr photos for my birthday.

As a bonus, pick one that's your favorite and share the image. [Be sure to make it link to the flickr page for that photo so the owner gets credit.]

I'm too indecisive and there are too many pretty pictures for me to choose just one.

Fountain Fun, perfection, mondnacht and evil also caught my eye among the first fifty.

[Idea inspired by ResearchBuzz]

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:05 PM

April 14th, we had a housefire downstairs. Besides gutting our downstairs kitchen, firefighters cut a hole in my bedroom wall (immediately above the fire) to make sure no sparks spread upwards.

Now, when we were hiring contractors, I remember multiple times pointing out the outlet on my side of the bedroom, wanting to make sure the wiring wasn't damaged by the heat or anything before they sealed up the walls.

It took us a while to find a contractor, but finally did and they promised we'd be able to move back into our apartment before our anniversary June 13 (also the insurance company's limit for how much hotel they'd pay without further haggling).

We were able to move into our apartment by that deadline, but when I went to plug in my alarm clock, I discovered they had completely plastered over the outlet.

We complained to the contractor, who sent people to cut a hole in the wall and put the outlet back (much messier than if they'd done it right the first time), but we were told not to use the outlet until their electrician checked it out. [In the meantime, my alarm clock is plugged into an extension cord stretched across the bedroom. Fortunately, we don't watch much TV, since that's coming from the outlet we used for the TV/VCR/DVD/etc. And I still haven't been able to put my side of the room together because somebody was coming to finish the job 'any day now.']

That was end of June. After a couple more days work, the downstairs work was also put on hold pending its inspection for electrical safety. And we've been waiting and waiting ever since, calling almost daily for updates on when they could get along with it.

Finally, after a couple false alarms, they showed up today. [Notice the date on the calendar and compare with the rest of the timeline above!] And I'm just going to quote Ian's blog post, since he was home and a witness:

Good news/bad news about dealing with contractors

So, we've been trying to get the electrician to show up with the wire inspector to get his work inspected for the past month and a half. Literally. It's been six weeks since the electrician finished his work, and nothing else can be done until the work is inspected.

Finally, today, the electrician deigned to show up with the wire inspector.

That's the good news.

Then there's the bad news.

None of his work passed inspection.

At what point is homicide considered not only justifiable, but morally imperative?

I really was hoping to get a new tenant for the September 1st timeframe (when everybody's leases start and end) but that's looking more and more remote.

I am not happy.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:05 PM

Went to the State Department's online passport form (I wanted to get a passport for my birthday, but hadn't quite gotten around to it. While my chances for an England trip on Guy Fawkes 400th* are growing increasingly remote, I can't quite bear to rule it out yet. And a passport seems like a generally useful thing to have.) and made a curious discovery about how they programmed the form:

1. If you enter your sex as female,
2. when you answer affirmatively to Have you ever been married?
3. the form automatically pre-fills the Other Names You Have Used section.

If you are male, Other Names You Have Used does not autofill, regardless of marital status.

While I know many women who have changed their names upon marriage, I hate the assumption built into this form that it's somehow axiomatic.

They should either nudge all married people to think whether they used other names or none of them.

The way it's handled now just galls me.

^*By the way, it seemed tacky to mention in the aftermath of the London bombings when I found this, but the UK is planning to commemorate the anniversary in a big way, under the slogan Gunpowder Plot 400. Here's Parliament's page (with a PDF leaflet of events). Further listings from Historic Royal Palaces (PDF) and other sites.

And how delightfully tacky is it that they're selling commemorative kegs of explosives? How long do you take it before we celebrate other failed terrorist attacks in such a manner, or is that merely a relic of history?

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:25 AM

Another Wednesday, another Free Will Astrology horoscope:

Can you keep your balance and your dignity while trying to sit on two fences at once? Can you be a friend to all, a servant of none, and a freestyle wheeler-dealer all at the same time? As you're flattered and criticized for the oddest reasons, and as people try to manipulate you and impress you, can you keep your ego from inflating and deflating like a hyperventilating lung? The answer to these questions is a definite maybe, Cancerian. For best results, be as dispassionate as a Buddhist monk and as brave as a drunk without actually getting drunk.

Oh, and I would be remiss if I neglected to mention my fortune cookie from Saturday night:

Only the educated are free.

My gut reaction on reading this was to quip on the PhD glut.

Ain't I a stinker?

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:20 PM

Remember Persephone? Our (former) tenant's little black kitten who spent so much time with us last year? [If not, you can search the archives for stories.]

We got word earlier this evening that she passed away. She would've turned seven years old the end of the month.

As long as we knew her, she was a damaged kitten, always picked upon by other cats. Here's hoping she finds happier greener friendlier fields in which to play hereafter.

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:22 PM

Isn't it annoying when you recognize an in-joke at work that you know nobody around you will get and it's company confidential so you can't share it with anybody outside the company whom you know will appreciate it?

[I can't bring it up to the joketeller hirself because it comes from an outside vendor, and they're not officially using the term on any of their external literature -- otherwise I could just point it out to y'all and not indicate where I found it...]