des petits choux

Two things.


1.  At catering yesterday (because I signed up for some events months in advance), there was this guy, not one of the butlers - a mover-and-lifter person, and he was wheeling a trolley with crates of heavy, ceramic dishes stacked higher than his head.  And he caught slipped, or caught the leg of his pants on a projecting bit and fell.

I was the closes person and I saw him fall and I saw the crates begin to topple ominously and I grabbed for one just as it went over.  I didn't save the crate, but I steadied and righted it when it hit the ground (half the plates cracked on the floor within their plastic-wrapped bundles) and whirled to steady the other crates still on the trolley.   And then other people were running over and someone said something and suddenly I remembered the guy with the trolley and then I realized that, though he wasn't screaming or crying or anything, he was trapped under the weight of the other crates, and the metal back of the trolley was resting on his ankle.  I knelt next to him and asked if he was okay, and he closed his eyes and shook his head as we pulled the trolley off of him.  The metal bit had ripped his pants apart from the knee down, and there was no blood, but there'd been a lot of weight on his leg.  He tried to get up, but one of the other butlers pushed him back and said, "No, man, don't move, just stay down.  Don't move!", and he subsided.

One of my coworkers who spoke Spanish got down on the floor and held his head in her lap while someone else made some phone calls.  He was there on the floor for the next half hour or so - someone got him a blanket and I thought, right, shock, and felt stupid for not thinking of it first.  Eventually, some medic-y people showed up and as they wheeled him away on a stretcher I thought about how expensive a ride in an ambulance is, and how he probably had no health insurance, and if his leg was broken he couldn't work (and might not be welcome back at Catering in any event, given that he was careless enough to injure himself).

And also, also, that guy was hurt and all I thought about at first were the stupid plates.  Someone else had to call my attention to the dude trapped under several hundred pounds of crates.  Allison says I'm not a bad person, but I had my priorities way backwards and I feel like a jerk. 


2.  Another catering incident - one of my coworkers said she saw me at an event - as a guest.  She recognized me, but she said I didn't even notice the catering staff.  I tried to remember when I'd been at a catering event, and eventually we worked out that it had been the Women's Heart Health event at the Senate.  I think I remember looking around for catering staff, but it was an open buffet and there were (my coworker told me) only two RA people there, and if I saw them I didn't recognize them.  I think I may have thought that, since it seemed like an outside event, with outside staff and stuff (you went in, they pricked your finger and took your blood pressure and told you if you were healthy), that they had brought the food....whatever.  At best I was super-oblivious.  I may have even talked to this coworker, or asked a question about something, in which case... *dies of shame*.  

Seriously, epic fail. 

Happy Friday everyone! Let's see your saucy bedside tables this week.

Next week will be Thanksgiving/Autumn Redux.

Have fun and bon weekend!

Hello, everyone. I'm really excited to be posting my VERY FIRST AFTER PICTURES! My home is 1950 cypress built. When I got the house, pretty much everything was pink (including the molding). What started out as a little project became a pain in the neck for me and my dad and a gut job.

In the end, I wanted something relaxing that would not overwhelm such a small space. I added a touch of royalty for my little girl, and voila.



( before & after! )

Thanks for looking!

Happy with your thrift find, proud of a paint job, want to show off pictures of your new saucy sofa? Inspired by something you saw or just want to leave a show-me-your... request?



You can show it here... have fun!

We bought a new house in April and have been working since then to get it finished. I keep saying I'll do one big post when it's done, but instead it seems I'm going room-by-room. I posted my son's room and our patio in recent months. I'm hoping soon to post our living room/hallway, kitchen/dining room and bathroom. But for now, here's our bedroom that we just finished yesterday (save one or two finishing touches). As always, you can click on a photo to see a bigger version on Flickr.




( Welcome to our sanctuary... )

I've been invited to Thanksgiving with Family in the Chicago area. 

Options: 

1. $269 for a roundtrip flight 
2. $200 for a round trip, 20-hour each way bus ride 
3. FREE ride-share off Craigslist with an elderly man who is just going to visit his grandchild and who is, I'm sure, an extremely decent, upstanding sort of person.

Re: #1
Allison:  Hmmmm.

Re: #2
Allison:  Ouch.  Very ouch.
Me:  In more ways than one.  Hmmm

Re#3
Allison:  Oh, no.  No you don't.  Don't you dare hitchhike with that sketchy old man!  You do that and I will tell your parents on you.  I will call them up and be all, "Erica's accepting rides from sketchy old men!  Stop her!"
Me:  Weeeeell....
Allison:  Did you learn nothing from seeing that guy nearly getting beaten to death in China?
Me:  What?  This is completely different.  
Allison:  Pssh.  
Me:  Fine.  I'll find another way to get to Chicago. 

So, I've been working on this freehand painting of a tree for a few weeks now and I've finally finished it (mostly). I still need to do the bits that extend up onto the ceiling, but I'm in the stage where I step back for a few days and decide where extra foliage (if any) is needed. I'm rather pleased with it..if I do say so myself, so I thought I would share it here..in the saucy place. ;)

( Read more... )

Yeah, we basically watch Merlin because it is essentially fanfiction brought to life. 


As last season was, in fact, ridiculously gay, they seem to be playing up the ladies.  Not sure how well this is succeeding, given that this episode featured Morgana doing a modified strip-tease to distract attention so she and Gwen could make a run for it, culminating in Morgana being Super Badass and fending off brigands (Brigands!  Huzzah!) with a stolen sword.  

Gwen/Arthur? 

Pshhh, clearly, it is all about Gwen and Morgana (who, let's face it, would be super-hot together.) 


Lancelot and Guenivere

( This week in snark )

 

Raise your hand if you're watching Chuck.


...that should be all of you, because Chuck is made of awesome.  


Because Allison and Heather both told me, separately, that I really, really needed to see Chuck, and wow. 

Yeah, kind of mainlined seasons one and two over the course of a couple of weeks. 



So, premise.

Chuck Bartowski is a geeky, low-key almost-graduated-from-Standford guy.  His best friend and college roommate framed him for cheating on a test and got him kicked out of school a few credits short of graduation (and then stole his girlfriend.)  Chuck has been living at home with his sister and working at a "Buy More" (Chuck-world equivalent of a Best Buy) with the tech team - the Nerd Herd (aka Geek Squad.) 

And then, through a series of weird events and dubious science fiction, a database full of government secrets gets downloaded into Chuck's brain, making him possibly the most valuable covert-intelligence asset the government has.  Given his new status, two undercover agents are sent to protect him/neutralize him.  One, "Sarah Walker" is a beautiful blonde who poses as his girlfriend to have an excuse to be around all the time (causing all sorts of angst) and the other is frickin' Jayne from Firefly.

Now, I liked Jayne.  He was entertaining and Jaynestown was one of the best episodes in a series made of joy and win, but I was much more about Wash and Mal and Kaylee...actually, Book and Jayne probably tied for last place on my Firefly list.  But Major John Casey, undercover agent and hardass with no use for civilians, nerds, or a sense of humor is my favorite.  Same basic attitude as Jayne, but with Duty and (a few) Morals.  (It makes a big difference.)

The three of them go on missions and fight terrorists and rogue intelligence agency cells.  It's Sarah and Casey's job to protect Chuck, and it's Chuck's job to "flash" on names, faces, images, and key words and provide crucial intel.  As Chuck is not at all smooth, totally a dork, and just generally a really decent guy (at the expense of being a good spy), all sorts of shenanigans ensue. 


Allison says that Chuck and Ellie are her favorite TV siblings.  I am inclined to agree, if only because they are normal siblings, and really sweet in how they look out for each other.  (As opposed to Simon and River with teh crazy, and the Winchester Brothers with the weird, supernatural, and slightly gay.)  


You should watch it for:

• Chuck and Ellie and sibling dynamics, and Ellie's boyfriend, whom Chuck has dubbed "Captain Awesome".
• The romance which revolves around a hot girl being smooth and competent and, most importantly, in charge of defending the geeky boy.  Reversal of gender roles FOR THE WIN.
• Casey/Jayne and holding out for him to admit that he's actually secretly kind of fond of Chuck.  
• Ridiculous plotlines and SPIEZ! 
• How Chuck may be a klutz, and generally useless at Spy Stuff, and not brave at all, with an incredibly low pain tolerance, a fear of blood and a tendency to babble...but if someone, anyone, (his sister, his teammates, his friends at the Buy More) is in danger he puts himself in the middle without hesitation.  (I am an unbelievable sucker for people who put themselves between danger and other people.)  

Naturally Casey is my favorite (apart from Chuck).  I always liked Sarah, and liked her even better when she lost her professional edge and crossed over into angst of her own over Orders vs. Chuck. 

But Casey....Oh, it is all about Casey.  Casey, who has been ordered to be prepared to kill Chuck if a new "Intersect" is found, or if the one in Chuck's head can be successfully removed.  

And Casey is a Good Soldier, and he Follows Orders, but, well.  He spends a lot of time saving Chuck's life, and Chuck is ridiculously endearing, (as well as being almost completely helpless.)  Being mean to Chuck is a lot like kicking a puppy (which doesn't stop Casey from shutting him down all the time, but does mean that there's some affection behind it.)  So there's a bit of an internal conflict between Termination Orders and, you know, some humanity.  Basically, moral ambiguity makes me all googly-eyed and is endlessly engaging. 

( Spoilers and commentary )

Sarah: Come any closer, I shoot!

Casey: You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack. I'm thinking maybe pancakes.

---

Chuck: [excitedly] I defused a real bomb! I defused a real bomb! I defused a real bomb!... [horrified] What if I had been wrong?

Casey: Don't puke on the C-4.

Casey: This is how this is gonna work. I'm gonna go over there, rescue Sarah, capture Dr. Zarnow, shoot anybody who gets in my way. You, you're gonna stay in the car.

Chuck: So in this plan I basically do nothing?

Casey: Yup.

Chuck: [dramatically] ...Let's do this.

Okay, so Merlin. 


BBC, not actually all that great, but, as Allison says, you could cut cheese on Colin Morgan's cheekbones, and that thing where his eyes go all goldy when he does magic?  Is super sexy.


And I was all excited about it last season because it was slashy LIEK WOAH and it was all Arthur and Merlin saving each others lives and being ridiculously self-sacrificing, and lots of angst re: Merlin will get burned at the stake if he tells anyone about the thing where he can do Magic, so there's secrecy and stuff....

But this season I was irritated because Morgana (Morgan Le Fay, to you), Morgana, in this iteration, is King Uther Pendragon's Ward, and she's part of our Quartet of friends and main characters (Morgana, Gwen - her maidservant omg -, Arthur and Merlin).  And she has magic, but she can't tell anyone because she might totally get burned at the stake too, even though she's basically Uther's daughter.  And when she does try to tell people she can trust, they treat her like a child and try to pretend she's imagining everything, which.  No.  

You do not do that to people!  Morgana is beautiful and talented and most of all, clever.  She is not a child, and she't not stupid and everyone but everyone except Gwen patronizes her.  She could be such an asset, and she's so conflicted between magic she can't control and her duties and status and everyone (Merlin and Arthur included, and Merlin, at least, should know better) treats her like an ornament.  

It was all very frustrating and we (mercurydraconix and I) haven't been keeping up week to week largely because I've been really frustrated with unresolved angst and poor treatment of Morgana.  (I mean, they have to set it up so she goes mad and/or evil, but that doesn't mean it's fun to watch). 

However, HOWEVER.

We finally started watching again and the preview for the next episode?

It includes:

Morgana fighting off brigands (possibly on Gwen's behalf) in her night shift
Gwen being abducted by said brigands and threatened
Lancelot returning from last season to heroically defend her honor


And, wait for it....


ROUSs.

I kid you not.  Honest-to-goodness Rodents Of Unusual Size.


I'm totally psyched. 

Happy Friday everyone! This week we'd like to how you display/store your books.



Also, we're letting you guys submit your new Friday Salon graphic entries through the weekend.

Have fun and bon weekend!

 

So, I was an idiot today and fell off my bike.  I was aiming for the lowered bit of the curb, but it was around a lamppost and I misjudged just a scosh and my front tire went half on the low part and half on the raised part and I lost my balance and fell over. 

I landed on my hand and my leg and sat there hissing curses while trying to disentangle my pants-leg from my handlebars. (So undignified.) 

There was a bus passing by (not, like, on top of me, because I was biking on the sidewalk) and it stopped next to me as I fell over.   

So I’m sitting there, horribly embarrassed, trying to ignore all the people, presumably watching me wipe out on the pavement and this bus (an entire bus) stops next to me and opens its doors.  I waved up at it self-consciously, (move along, move along) thinking that maybe it thought I had been racing for the bus and it was stopping to let me on. 

But no, the bus driver got out of the bus, in the middle of traffic, came over to me, pulled my bicycle off of me and helped to peel me off the asphalt. 

Bus Driver:  Are you alright, Miss?
Me:  I, oh, I’m fine, I.  Thank you.  I’m fine.  Uh, really, thanks.
Bus Driver:  Okay, you sure?
Me:  Yeah, thanks.
Bus Driver:  Take care now.
Me:  *You are the bestest person EVAH*   

My knee hurt and I was horribly afraid I’d ripped my nice, relatively new professional work pants, but there were no actually holes, and no blood, so I arrived at work a bit dusty (and with, um, unfortunately worn-looking patches on my trousers which are likely irreparable.  Hopefully no-one will notice they’re partly-ruined.  They were nice pants. ARGH.)  A bit dusty, but not bloodstained. 

I have a collection of new bruises, a scraped knee, and my shoulder is – well, I’m not sure if it hurts because I’ve been spending a lot of time at computers with bad posture, or because I jolted it when I landed on my hand.  (Poor falling technique.) 

In any case, dear Bus Driver, You made my day. 

Lots of love,
Erica

Happy with your thrift find, proud of a paint job, want to show off pictures of your new saucy sofa? Inspired by something you saw or just want to leave a show-me-your... request?



You can show it here... have fun!