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Wordy

13 April 2007 by MissMeliss

Fun With Words: Word Oddities

Tonight while we were waiting for Rob to get suggestions in BlindLine, I was standing in the hall talking with Evan and Bob, and we wound up chatting about words that use all the vowels in order, and stuff like that. We all admitted to being A Word A Day subscribers, as well. How cool is that.

Looking for the answer to a question, I came across the above site, and had to blog about it. So. Now I have.
And on that note – BEDTIME FOR ME!

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Friday’s Feast – 0704.13

13 April 2007 by MissMeliss

Appetizer
When you were a child, which crayon color was your favorite?

I liked the name “Magenta” and the color of green-blue. I always thought it was odd that green-blue was more blue, and blue-green was more green. Now, it makes sense.

Soup
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest), how likely would you be to change jobs if it required you to move?
Well, I work from home, so that isn’t at all a likely scenario. Fuzzy’s job keeps threatening to move us to Boca Raton, FL , though. Um…I wouldn’t refuse a job I really wanted because a change was part of the deal, though.

Salad
Take all the numbers in your birthday and your phone number and add them up, one by one. What’s the total?

1970 + 17 +9 +8 + 7 + 7 + 7 + 7 +6 + 4 + 2 +2 + 2 = 2050

Main Course
Have you ever “re-gifted” anything? If so, what was it and who did you pass it on to?

A bottle of wine, once or twice. But it was only re-gifting in the sense that we brought it to a party.

Dessert
Name something you need from the store.
2 each black and white long- or three-quarter-sleeve shirts.

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An Hour Can Be Awfully Fast

13 April 2007 by MissMeliss

…when you spend it on stage. I’d only done one all-star show with CSZ before tonight, and that one wasn’t really the same, as there were five of us, and we arranged who would play in which game. Tonight was a learning experience, but it was also fun, and there was a sense of camaraderie that isn’t quite as strong during a normal show. Also, I learned that being the only woman on stage can be a blast.

We played (in roughly this order): Story (with 2 volunteers), Interrogation, Blind Line (we had great suggestions), Changing Emotions and Styles, Audience SFX, Dinner at Joe’s, Five Things, and 185. I need to be more aggressive, louder, and work on setting things up, a lot. The audience loved the show, and I felt like I didn’t completely suck, even in 185 – especially in 185.

I know that there are other players who are better than I am, and more likely to be given shots at remotes and special shows, but I’m really glad I got to do this one.

Splashes

Thursday Thirteen: 0704.12

12 April 2007 by MissMeliss
Thirteen Things about MissMeliss

13 Things That Begin with B with a nod to Janet for the inspiration.

  1. Bach: He wrote some amazing cello suites – unaccompanied cello suites. Gotta love that.
  2. Baking: I learned pastries and cookies from my mother, but my grandfather got me hooked on serious bread making. There’s something so comforting about kneading dough.
  3. Beethoven: My other favorite composer.
  4. Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: Only the most interesting perfume oils ever. And their website is as good as their product.
  5. Blogging: I was never good at keeping paper journals. I’ve managed to keep up with a blog (in some form or another) since April, 2001.
  6. Blue: The color of the ocean, the sky, and Fuzzy’s eyes.
  7. Board games: The problem with being an only child is that there isn’t a huge opportunity for game playing, but I still love board games. Thankfully, Fuzzy’s family does also. (Scrabble and Clue are my all-time favorites.)
  8. Boats: One of my fantasies is to be part of a bare boat cruise, but I like boats even if I’m not on them. I’m partial to wooden boats, and sail boats, but it’s appropriate that I mention grand old luxury liners like the Titanic since she went down on this date, almost a century ago.
  9. Books: I find the magic of printed words on paper irresistible.
  10. Bookstores: While I do sometimes use Amazon, I much prefer to browse in actual bookstores. I like hanging in the cafe, surrounded by other readers, but I like the book-related gifty things as much as the books. Especially the papers and blank notebooks.
  11. Bourbon: This requires no explanation.
  12. Braids: I suck at doing my own hair, but braids are my favorite hair style. Any kind of braid – one on either side (standard, or French), a single one, down the back, whatever. If I knew someone who’d do it, I’d get cornrows for summer. I’ve always wanted them. Sadly, I don’t think I have the right kind of hair for them not to result in a tangled mess.
  13. Brie: I’ve been in love with triple creme cheeses since I was six. Brie’s my favorite. Sharp, runny, satisfying…special.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

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Monday, Monday

9 April 2007 by MissMeliss

It was a day of fighting through vicodin fog. Three cups of tea (earl grey, hot) didn’t help. Two mugs of coffee brewed on the extra strong setting didn’t help. A cheeseburger and fries scarfed down in the car on the way to downtown Dallas helped a bit.

Workshop made everything better. Oh, I wasn’t perfect, or anything, but I didn’t feel terrified, and I had fun, and did some stuff I’m proud of, and now even though I’m still hurty and groggy, I’m also jazzed and my brain is zooming.

Also, dulce de leche frappucinos? Totally taste like flan in a cup.
YUM.

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Sleepy Sunday

8 April 2007 by MissMeliss

We’d meant to go to church today, really, but it didn’t happen, as it hasn’t happened for various reasons, since January. I’m just…not feeling it. And Fuzzy doesn’t push, or say what he feels.

Skin still hurts, though now only in a couple places where the sunburn was on the border of being 2nd degree. Alas, one of those places is where most of my bras hits. Spent the day wrapped in soft cotton, and slathering myself with Aloe. Am peeling anyway. It happens, I guess.

Actually wrote something today. Go read it at Universal Blend. Leave comments, please.

Have been groggy and restless and cold, then hot, then cold again, all day. Chatted with my parents. They loved the party we paid for, and the gift, and the thought.

Fuzzy brought me wonderful chili rellenos for dinner. I love Mexican food.

I think I’m going to watch the end of Blood Ties and then turn out the light.

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Comic-azi

7 April 2007 by MissMeliss

A few weeks ago on the phone with a friend, I learned that Joss Whedon was writing a virtual eighth season of his television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in comic book form. This is NOT a review of the comics, though I will say I’ve now read the first two (sadly, my copy of the first issue was from the second printing, not the first) and had forgotten how frustrating it is to be gripped by a story, and have to wait a month for the next part.

In any case, I haven’t read any kind of comic book, save for a beautiful Beauty and the Beast graphic novel, since I was ten or so, and read reprinted first-year Superman comics (and Supergirl) comics that I read in one sitting, on a hot and sunny summer afternoon. I remember sitting on my bed, with a glass of iced tea next to me, and my white poodle sitting next to me, my hair twisted into a single tight braid.

My hair was in braids a lot when I was nine and ten. Usually one, sometimes two. I have very fine hair that tangles far too easily, and I have a lot of it. Even now I braid it at night, or at least twist it into a bun on the top of my head, so that I don’t wake up with a matted rat’s nest of hair. Back then, though, I had a pass to the community pool, so there were weeks when my hair was braided once, and then I’d be swimming every day, showering every night, and only unravelling it for a thorough washing every three or four days. When you’re ten you can get away with that.

The Buffy comics brought all that back. And even though I read them on a cold and snowy day in April, and not in the heat of summer, there’s a part of me that was ten years old today. Again.

Splashes

Stuff to Read

7 April 2007 by MissMeliss

If you live in the general vicinity of Connecticut or New York, the article A Garden Cures Rootlessness, by Larry Bloom, will be in tomorrow’s edition of the New York Times. If you don’t, clicking on the article title in the last sentence will take you there.

Go read it – and not just because it’s about my aunt.

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Herbal

6 April 2007 by MissMeliss

My skin still hurts, although the pain is ebbing, slowly. It was a serious sunburn. I feel stupid – but I was wearing sunscreen, and I don’t generally burn much, if at all. My skin and clothes and sheets have all taken on the slightly herb-y scent of the aloe gel, however. It smells the way green should smell. Not sharp like grass, which is a more yellow-green scent, but softer, darker, a little bit sinister.

While working today, I was half-watching wind making choppy waves in the pool, glimpsing the fin of our toy shark from time to time. In the grey light we’ve had on and off – mostly on – all day, I can blur the deck into sand and almost feel like I’m sitting near a beach. And I like the beach during inclement weather. It’s so much more primal when not filled with the sound of sizzling (human) meat.

Thus inspired, I put on the original JAWS followed by DEEP BLUE SEA, in a sort of personal shark movie mini-marathon. I work better with background noise, and movies and television with their conversational rhythms are easier for me to not quite hear than music – especially music with lyrics – which distracts, inspires, and makes me have to stand on the bridge spanning my living room and sing.

After a quick assignment to change some code, which turned into an hour-long headache because the template broke, I took a lunch break and checked the mail. DIRTY DANCING: HAVANA NIGHTS was one of the Blockbuster films waiting for me. I’ve seen it before, of course, but never on disc, just on cable, so I wanted to see the special features and hear the commentary, which is quite interesting. I feel very much at home inside this film. I may have been born in 1970, and my family may be Italian and German immigrants, but a part of my soul is from pre-Revolution Cuba (and I still owe SG a ficlet about that).

I am tired this afternoon. So tired.
I think I will rest now.
And do more work later.

Splashes 3 Comments

Before the Burn…

4 April 2007 by MissMeliss

Outdoor Geekery

… I’d been having such a pleasant morning, working outside.

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  • TBM-2512.23 – Dog Days of Advent: Gift and Train | The Bathtub Mermaid on FictionAdvent 21: Gift
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What I’m Reading: Bibliotica

Review: Pueblos Mágicos: A Traveler’s Guide to Mexico’s Hidden Treasures by Chuck Burton

Review: Pueblos Mágicos: A Traveler’s Guide to Mexico’s Hidden Treasures by Chuck Burton

About the book, Pueblos Mágicos: A Traveler’s Guide to Mexico’s Hidden Treasures  Pages: 296 Publisher: Bayou City Press Publication Date: Oct, 3 2025 Categories:  General Mexico Travel Guide Pueblos Mágicos: A Traveler’s Guide to Mexico’s Hidden Treasures covers 62 of the towns in the Government of Mexico’s “Pueblos Mágicos” initiative, a program that identifies and […]

Review: No Oil Painting by Genevieve Marenghi

No Oil Painting entertains, uplifts, and subtly encourages the reader to imagine their own cheeky museum caper. Hypothetically, of course. Mostly.

Review: 100 Train Journeys of a Lifetime: The World’s Ultimate Rides (100 of a Lifetime) by Everett Potter

Review: 100 Train Journeys of a Lifetime: The World’s Ultimate Rides (100 of a Lifetime) by Everett Potter

Whether you’re daydreaming about Scotland’s misty highlands on the Royal Scotsman or plotting a long weekend aboard the Ethan Allen Express, every spread offers its own small escape.

Review: Death of a Billionaire, by Tucker May

Review: Death of a Billionaire, by Tucker May

For a first novel, Death of a Billionaire is remarkably polished, deeply entertaining, and packed with personality. I turned the final page already hoping this is only the beginning of a long writing career for Tucker May.

Review: Hummingbird Moonrise by Sherri L. Dodd

Review: Hummingbird Moonrise by Sherri L. Dodd

Hummingbird Moonrise brings the Murder, Tea & Crystals trilogy to a satisfying close, weaving folklore, witchcraft, and family ties into a mystery that’s equal parts heart and suspense. Arista’s growing strength and Auntie’s sharp humor ground the story’s supernatural tension, while Dodd’s lyrical prose and steady pacing make this a “cozy thriller” that’s as comforting as it is compelling.

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