to dell with it!

every now and then, while use my iklean spray to wipe away the dirt and grim of the world, i stare adoringly down at my computer and smile. and then i look over and see my PIC banging his head on the table-- his trust in dell is officially a thing of the past. they are refusing to provide a refund for the most malfunctioning computer i have ever seen.

i grew up in a house where i had to leap over piles of circuit boards to get to the bathroom. all of my homework that was not neatly written in pencil, was typed on a computer version of frankenstein's monster. needless to say, i was used to machines that crashed just as i pressed print, but i could always scream for my dad who would open it up and at least restore half of the essay (always half, so i kind of knew what i had written, but kind of had to make it all up again). he stood by his work, and his computers made from ancient bits gleaned from famous offices in history*. they were fixable. this case of a company not standing by their product is jarring. its almost as if they are just sending the broken one back to him!

sure they have millions of people in india and glasgow(glasgow, really!?!?!) answering phones, but they have no one who can repair a computer? since he bought it in january the thing has died completely at least 3 times. his hard drive has sort of become an information black hole, stuff goes in, but we never know if it will come back out again. since c has built his own computers in the past, i am starting to think with the amount of time he has spent on the phone to dell, he probably could have created something more reliable from bits of scrap metal from around the apartment.

from now on its going to be toshiba and macs for us. dell, if you are reading this, feel free to send us a free computer, but from one of them, not you.

sidenote about my own slide away from pcs:

my family, if you haven't figured out, is fairly areligious**- but i can sympathize with all the people who feel guilty for changing faiths or whatever. i felt dirty when i walked into the mac store the first time. i kept on imagining my dad calling me, wondering why he felt a strange pull in his chest. i was abandoning the pc for something stylish, easy to use, something cute and expensive. it was the antithesis of everything my dad taught me a computer should be, preferably clunky and in need of dos code to start properly. i tried to keep it a secret. but when he kept asking why i hadn't mailed my computer back to him to fix lately, i had to spill the beans. and he took it quite well. kind of like when i told my mom i was now a cat person.

*my dad had a connection at an old GE office, where lucky me! i would get to spend the weekends while he dug through old closets! whenever i watch 90210 i am like, oh my god! that was so totally me! that is so how i spent my high school days, in hot tubs! at night clubs! in hollywood boutiques! thats what i keep telling myself to make the smell of old vinyl chairs and filing cabinets go away...

next week i will give you an insiders view into what really goes on at a hamfest. and, in case you were wondering, it has nothing to do with pork or a festival, because that would be too delicious and not dorky enough. no, instead, think old vietnam vets in baseball caps communicating to each other through ham radios and wearing their call symbols. think the nerd from the simpsons with a credit card and 6 hours to kill. think tables and tables of people selling shareware.

**spell check says this is not a word, but is really should be.

PIC= partner in crime.

city LIFE

our school building (not our actual school, which is just one of three in a pretty cute building!) is being over taken by city-yearers. there has to be a better way to get excited individuals who want to help the community out than to dress them like a cross between a lumber jack and a target emplyee and stuff them into rowdy middle schools.
all of these one - two year programs that thrust middle class people into the "scary, crazy inner city" where they can attempt to change the world in about 300-700 days make me feel bad for making a life long committment to education. where i have CHOSEN to work is not a battle field, and i do not think of myself as a martyr for working there, nor do i think i need steel toed timberlakes to do it.
i don't think of teaching as a cool year off before becoming something more important, like a lawyer or doctor.
i don't think of teaching as something anyone with an ivy league education is well suited to do.
i don't think in one year, or two, a school can be changed. students that grow close to rotating staff members end up feeling confused and ditched the next year. and its heart breaking seeing the effect of that the next year.
i do think that for schools and teachers to become stronger you need almost a decade long plan of cross curriculum planning, in an environment where people can be counted on to actually put in practice long term projects and skill goals for their students.
maybe these motivated people should volunteer for two years in the business world for teacher salaries and instead donate the extra earnings back to needy schools.

drambuie, yes please!

first, a happy announcement: miss kitty is home, a little phased, but her cone is off! its been a rough two weeks for her. luckily, kenny came up with a clever quip. in the fall, miss kitty is planning on going to university. she has been accepted to purrdue. badump dum.

but, now back to the regular blogcast:

when it starts to get chilly, and darkness meets me as i step outside of the subway to walk home from work, its no time for rosé. more than food for me, drinks are very seasonal. if its christmas time, you need to have an eggnog garnished with a sliver of fudge. if it is summer, white wine sangria, or rosé. if its early fall, spiced cider. spring time? vodka cranberry. at the fringe festival? get me a bulmers cider! late at night, or if its 1986, blueberry slush puppy of course. but if its the end of november, the only drink that makes sense is drambuie.

so to quote myself from an old talking cupcake post: "drambuie is the kind of drink that becomes part of you and makes you want to kiss yourself to get another drop off your own lips! "

and to end this random post, here is another quote: "oh phewie. i'm out of drambuie."

things

in high school, in an effort to temporarily relieve boy craziness (even if it was for a few fleeting, but joyful moments) my friend megan and i came up with our list of three.

the lists of three were included at the end of every note to each other (isn't it weird how after high school that form of communication just kind of dies out? even if you write a note to someone as a grown up, chances are you are not folding it ornately and decorating it with initials...and now with texts, this is a lost art form completely)

any thing that made us happy that was not boy related was allowed on a list of 3. it could be polka-dot pajamas, cotton candy, retro basketball shorts and socks, good hair days, dust floating in the sun, you get the idea.

since this is a blog, i feel compelled to include my list of negative 3, things that make me not so happy.

:(

1. automated phone lines (i think thats a given, if we all hate them, why do we allow them to exist? wouldn't we be out of the recession if all the stimulus money went to hiring enough people to actually pick up the phones at all automated lines?? wouldn't we???

2. flying a lot, but never seeming to be able to use/ understand my frequent flier plan. i think by now i should at least be up for a freaken up grade. what gives?

3. the uncomfortable feeling you get when you unpack a toothbrush that was packed kind of damp...

:)

1. cute animals in those funnels for their head

2. haribo raspberries

3. mittens (yellow mittens that say taxi especially)

how do i withdrawal my heart?

Sure there are still free pens and dog biscuits but it is completely not the same bank. Commerce was the first and only bank that I was actually happy banking with, I would literally get a high when I saw the tacky red and blue big logo. The little commerce man? Adorable.

The best part about Commerce, aside from knowing how much they truly loved their customers was the phone system. Immediately, sometimes in the middle of the first ring, a real person answered the phone and directed your call. It felt good, it was reassuring and it made me recommend Commerce to anyone who would listen. After most calls a customer service rep would usually contact me to rate the experience. I would often comment that I loved their red lollipops.

Then, suddenly, the red and blue changed to more stylish green and purple (on the lollipop front this means, yes, you guessed it, green and purple, yuck!). Commerce had been swallowed up by the faceless TD Bank. The pen buckets would be empty for visits at a time. And the worst part? Now, when I call about banking emergencies (anything from a lost debit card, to needing new checks) I am put on hold. Then, after a few minutes, a real person answers to direct my call. Then I am put on hold again- at which point an automated voice tells me to leave my name and number and someone will call me back. I'm not sure why, but this is crushing. TD Bank, you sound like an STD. I want my Commerce back. Until then, I'm switching to Chase, I think. If I have to deal with an evil corporate bank, I might as well go to one with a million ATMs.

its ok-- i'm not cathy!

so i am hoping this post saves me from my cathy-itude- although I do think, every once and awhile she would emerge from her to do list satisfied, only to have it collapse on her all over again! yikes!

here is what has been going on for you non- new yorkers (cityers- i now have to add that for rach!) and for all you new york citiers, here is a little review of some city happenings:

but first, in the spirit of Sesame Streets 40th (finally something older than me!)

- this message was brought to you by Miss Kitty and the letter C!
1. If you haven't been yet, the kandinsky exhibit at the Guggenheim was a spiraled bit of heaven, or what heaven would look like if it was music thrown on a canvas. I have always liked the one or two kandinskies (the plural of kandinsky is kandinskies! i know this cause i'm an art snob!) but the exhibit, where you can look at them from up close to 50 meters, is definitely the way his art needs to be seen. Go if you haven't already! Plus, they have this giant gold beaded thing that is so much fun to walk through and put your arm through. (did that just destroy my art snob credentials? poop!)

2. C and I have gotten to explore downtown like never before, and he pointed out this building lit up like easter egg dye! the colors changed every few seconds and it was pretty cool!

3. After 3 disastrous attempts to follow a mighty vague recipe for white chocolate "funny bones" from epicurious.com i finally hit on the right way:

1. you must: use the tiny, thin pretzel rods (not the thick ones, as attempt 1 taught me) and use nestle white chocolate chips (as attempt 2 taught me, not white chocolate chunks) and use tiny marshmallows (as attempt 3 taught me)

to do about 90 rods, it took less than one bag of pretzels, less than one bag of marshmallows and two bags of white chocolate chips!

2. lay out one plate to put the pre dipped pretzel rods and lay out saran wrap to place the dipped rods onto

3. Smush marshmallows onto pretzel rods, it doesnt matter if they look crinkly, they will be coated in white chocolate and probably will bounce back after you set them down anyways. pile them onto your pre dipping plate

4. melt 1/3rd of the white chocolate chips for 20 second intervals until melted, taking out and stirring between 20 seconds- this takes about 1 minute total microwave time.

5. throw in about 6 pretzel/ marshmallow rods into your melted white chocolate bowl at a time- fish them out with a fork and set them on the saran wrap.

6. repeat step 5 until you are done!

people will gobble these up unlike any sweet snack food i have ever seen. i would bring them to all future parties if i didnt want to be known as the girl who always brings those bone treats to everything. but i call dibs on bring them to halloween things!!!

4. miss kitty does not really like wearing her mini sombrero. but no species are immune from halloween, right? right? at least its not a wig!

So except for some bits and bobs thats been whats up in windsor terrace. tonight we are heading out for some indie/ brit pop dancing and trying to forget that next year, i will be 30!

cheers!

xo

tal

whats going on

i have had so much to blog that i haven't blogged a thing. actually, i have a lot of photos from halloween i have been too lazy to download to my computer, so i have felt bad about blogging until they are up. i feel like a modern cathy cartoon strip!
i hope everyone has been enjoying the beginning of fall!