a kitsch-free, angst-free zone

Even though I'm spending Valentine's Day alone, I'm not feeling unhappy or neglected. Instead, it cheers me that I don't have to cope with gifts proffered by an overspending husband, or a nervous boyfriend (I still hold that this uber-kitschy holiday is generally worse for men). I'm still trying to figure out who sent me flowers on my birthday, but I am determined not to cheat by calling the florist.

Instead, I'm sitting in a Highland Park cafe with quite a few single people of both persuasions, and nobody looks particularly unhappy or worse for wear. I'm pleased that I was able to get into one of my smaller sized pairs of jeans, and my hair is behaving reasonably well. And the stack of folders from work doesn't even faze me. I should get through them in a couple of hours if not distracted. If so, I might wander into the Anthropoligie shop next door before they close, and see if they have any sweaters on sale. My beloved Sigrid Olsen cardigan is beginning to fall apart.

The template-challenged libertine

After trying and failing to import a new blog template - complete with a nice photo of leather sofa, so I could reminisce about O.D.D.*'s premiere seduction - I hit "revert", only to see the previous template reversed out. "Reversed out" is designer-speak for a light typeface on a dark background, which is generally avoided because it can be hard to read.

So it's back to the drawing board, I guess. Later.

* See Key to Characters at right, if I've managed to avoid deleting it.

Take that, stupid dating Web site ads

template tantrums

Having found some cool new blog templates, I finally got around to figuring out how to use them. Sort of.

For reasons still unknown, importing a template not directly available from the folks at Blogger did strange things to my blog. Stuff in the right margin got rejigged, and one of my pricey underwear photos disappeared. So I gave up and reverted to what I had previously.

Perhaps I'll have more time to jack with it over the long weekend, after I recover from the departmental snowball fight that broke out at lunchtime.

snow day

This is ironic. The one time I was convinced that we wouldn't get a storm - and we get a storm. And while I don't mind driving in snow, PD* has already called me and given the entire department a day off.

Although in theory I'm supposed to be working at home today (does anyone do this on snow days?), I'm looking forward to doing stuff around the house instead. I just wish my driveway would freeze up a bit so I could do some makeshift tobogganing with a piece of cardboard, or a pizza tray. Or do some birdwatching, as my back yard is chock-full of robins who have discovered drinkable water and the bird feeder.

* See Key to Characters at right.