A Tale of Two Commutes

Yesterday's miniblizzard left the roads in horrible condition this morning. First of all, it took me about ten or fifteen minutes just to chip the ice off my car. And I found out that the new pair of gloves that I just bought aren't warm enough. I'm not sure if the problem is with the gloves or if it is with my hands. All I know is that the tips of my fingers were hurting by the time I finished cleaning my windows. Then came the task of actually driving to work. The roads were nothing but ice, and I certainly felt my car sliding around in certain spots. Just in the short three-mile drive from my apartment to the office, I saw quite a few accidents. One SUV (yes, an SUV!) was slammed into the back of a Honda. Size means nothing on ice! What is normally a ten-minute commute turned into about 20-25 minutes. Fortunately that wasn't as bad as what some of my friends had to deal with. Their commute from Denver was over two hours. In weather like this I'm thinking one of two things: I wish I were back in California, or when the heck are they going to invent a Jetson's car that flies?

But, as is typical in Colorado, the sun came out and started to melt all of the snow and ice. When I left the office at 5:00, it was about 35 degrees, which actually felt somewhat warm. And, thankfully, the roads were clear and dry. And, in addition to a safe drive home, I was blessed with a beautiful sunset during the drive. There were clouds over the mountains, and they were all shades of orange and pink and purple. The mountains were covered with the fresh snow that seemed to glow. For all of the stress and anxiety of the morning drive, the day ended on a very beautiful note.

Current mood: relaxed
Current music: Lisa Gerrard. The Silver Tree

Disadvantages of a Classical Education

Here is an excerpt from a great blog post at the Toynbee Convector:

"The grammar and the syntax of these three languages [Latin, Attic Greek, and Pre-Ataturk Ottoman Turkish] work together not only to allow, but to demand, a style that leaves the reader in no doubt about the logical connexion between the words and phrases in which the writer is addressing him. A writer employing such logical linguistic media as these can and should bring out clearly the distinction between subordinate clauses and the main clause on which they logically depend. And, if it is Latin or Attic Greek that he is writing, he also can and should link sentence to sentence by conjunctions expressing precise and finely differentiated logical relations. If one has been brought up on languages of this kind, and on the highly articulated structural style that comes natural (sic) to him when he writes in them, he will feel that the Western vernaculars, and the style in which, nowadays, they are usually written, are inferior inasmuch as they throw upon the reader the work of establishing the logical relations that it is the writer’s business to indicate."

The rest of the post is wonderful, especially for a Classically educated soul like me. Read the rest here.

Cognac

Cognac might not cure my headache, but it tastes pretty darn good.

Current mood: relaxed
Current music: Loreena McKennitt. An Ancient Muse
Current drink: Remy Martin VSOP Cognac

This and That

Work: It's still busy. You might send four books to press in one day, but don't think you can rest. You have three new books that you need to get started. Such is the publishing world.

Snow: I knew that it was going to snow this afternoon. The weather people have been talking about it. But I thought it was going to be a light snow. The snow started to fall right after 4:00, and it wasn't that bad. There were just a few swirling flurries. Before I had a chance to look up a second time, half of our department had already gone home to beat the storm. I stayed at the office until about 5:00 because I still had some things to do. By the time I left the office, there was already a good layer of heavy, wet snow on top of my car. By this time the snow was falling faster. It was really dark and gray and cloudy, and with the snow swirling around so much, visibility wasn't that great. The roads were wet and just starting to get bad. I was waiting at a stoplight about half a block away from my apartment. Our light turned green, and I was about ready to go, but someone completely blew through the intersection. I'm not sure if the other driver couldn't see the light or if he couldn't stop because the roads were too slick. Maybe he was just an idiot who ran a red light. But if I pulled into the intersection just a second sooner, the guy would have broadsided me. Fortunately when the weather is snowy and icy, I'm less likely to slam on the gas like I usually do. (Yes, I know that hitting the accelerator the instant when the light turns green is bad for my car, wastes gas, and hurts the environment. I'm trying to change this, honestly.) Thankfully I made it home in one piece.

Caffeine: With the weather being yucky this evening, I wasn't able to go to the grocery store like I intended. I'm out of root beer (among other things), and since I'm addicted to caffeine, I'm starting to go through withdrawal. Yes, I know caffeine is bad for you, and I'm trying to cut down, really. If you're confused, I drink Barq's Root Beer, and Barq's is the only root beer that has caffeine. So now I'm drinking coffee in lieu of root beer.

Green: I frequently lose myself in the internet on random blogs and other sites. It always surprises me that there are still people out there who are still in denial and don't believe that global warming and this whole climate crisis really exists. Some people out there who truly believe that this is simply some kind of frenzy spun and fanned by liberal wackjobs. (I'm liberal and often wacky.) However, the rest of the world knows that global warming is real and there is plenty of science that proves this. Yet, what is the harm in living a greener life? What's the harm in conserving energy? What's the harm in wasting less and recycling more? What's the harm in shopping for more natural and organic products? It might require some more effort and thought, but, quite frankly, more people in this population need to try thinking a little more.

Ready for a New Week

As I wrote in my last post, this last week was, well, "off." Something just wasn't right. But a kind and comforting call from a good friend seemed to make me feel better. It calmed me down, and it helped me relax. I took some work home with me this weekend, but I really didn't do that much. I only worked for a few hours this evening. For the most part this weekend, I didn't do much of anything. I went shopping and ran a few errands, but other than that I just relaxed. This was a beautiful weekend, too. It was hard to believe that it is January and that it is supposed to be winter. It was sunny and warm all weekend. It was about 65 degrees when I went out this afternoon. It feels strange to go shopping in January without being bundled up and wearing a hat, scarf, and gloves. It felt so nice I didn't even bring a light jacket with me.

It was a calm and relaxing weekend, and I think that I am ready for the coming week. I say that now, but you never know what to expect in the next few days--a terrible snow storm, piles of work, who knows what else. Oh well. What can you do? I'll just try to think positive. And when that doesn't help, I'll try to remember how good I felt when I got that one phone call...

Now I must go. It's past my bedtime for a work night...

Stress + Full Moon + Mercury in retrograde + Women + PMS = One Rough Week

This was one rough week at work! And it seemed rough for everyone not just me. More and more work is starting to pour in, and many of us are at our limit. I think that I have about 14 or 15 projects right now, and everyone else has a heavy workload too. What a lot of people don't realize is that each project and each book is like a different child. No child is the same, and no book is the same. One book can be easy to deal with, but another book can drive you to your wits end. It seems like several of the editors have had problem children to deal with this week. At one point or another, we all hit our rough patches that take us to the breaking point. I wasn't one of the ones who were at the breaking point, but I was definitely feeling overwhelmed. But there was something about this week that seemed extra odd and unusual. Everything seemed "off" and out of whack. Maybe it was because of the full moon. Maybe it is because Mercury is about to go into retrograde. (I can't explain it. Look it up.) Maybe it is the stress. Maybe everyone is PMSing. Something just didn't seem right about this week. People seemed more stress and sensitive than usual. There was a mix of moodiness and sadness. In spite of all the work that everyone had to do, there was a lack of motivation.

I'll admit, I was part of all of this too. I'll also be the first to admit that I can be very moody. It has nothing to do with PMS or the moon. I'm just moody and emotional in general. I'm also the type of person that, like a sponge, sucks in the emotions or moods of the people around me. If a lot of people around me are sad, then I start to get depressed. If people around me are stressed, I get stressed. If people around me are angry and annoyed, I get angry and annoyed. I can be in a perfectly fine mood, but in a matter of minutes I can change depending on what is going on around me. I'm just waiting to turn into a big, green monster like the Incredible Hulk.

My moods this week shifted from perfectly fine, to angry and annoyed, and finally to grumpy and pouty. I usually have a good poker face, and for the most part people seem to think that I'm always cool, calm, and collected. I always laugh inside when I hear this, because they have no idea how crazy I am. But I guess I'm a little more transparent to some of my closer friends. After work today, one of my very wonderful and beautiful friends gave me a call to check up on me. She said that I looked sad at work, so she wanted to make sure I was doing okay. In spite of everything that went on all week, that single moment, that one phone call, made everything better, because it reminded me that there are, in fact, a few people out there who actually pay attention to me and who care about me. So I'm feeling much better after receiving a wonderful call from a wonderful friend. I also, sort of, feel like a crazy fool for being such a moody idiot, but, what's new?

Ouch, my head!

Today was another crazy day at work, and my throbbing head is proof of how crazy it was. I think the problem started by being in meetings for most of the day. I got into the office a little after 8:00 and frantically tried to get some work done before the meetings started at 9:00. The meeting kept going until after 12:00. There was a short break, and, again, I frantically tried to cram as much work as I could into about 40 minutes. The meeting started again, and eventually some sandwiches were brought in. Then the meeting ended around 3:00. I think the problem was that I wasn't able to eat or drink enough during the day. I have a fast metabolism, and I'm hungry every two or three hours. As it is, I eat breakfast at home before I go into the office. And by the time I get settled in at the office, I'm ready for my "second breakfast." Then I usually snack on fruits or nuts before and after lunch. I think I was just hungry and dehydrated all day, and eventually I started to get a bad headache. But then we also had our department happy hour tonight, and I felt obligated to be social so I went out for just one drink. For some reason I drank a Mothership Wit, a strange type of "white beer" that is also carbonated. It seemed really odd to me, because I usually drink dark beers. The beer was okay, but it is probably the type of beer that would be better in the summer not the dead of winter. It didn't help my headache either.

So now I'm going to bed and hoping that I'll feel better in the morning. Poor me!

Culinary Adventures

Tonight I decided to be somewhat adventurous in my cooking. I found a recipe for Baked Ziti with Fire Roasted Tomatoes. I decided to be even more daring, and I tweaked the recipe here and there and made a few substitutions. The recipe called for ground beef, but I decided to use ground turkey. Everything started out great. I browned the turkey with onions and garlic. So far so good. Once the turkey was no longer pink I added zucchini. Still so far so good. While that cooked for a little longer, I opened up my cans of tomato sauce and fire roasted tomatoes. I poured in the tomato sauce, then dumped in the fire roasted tomatoes. I was stirring everything together, and I realized, "wow, this is kind of on the watery side." I took a second look at the recipe which was prominently posted on my refrigerator with a magnet. What do you know? It said I was supposed to drain the fire roasted tomatoes. Oh, bother! (Ten points to the person who can name the famous chef who says "oh, bother") Oh well, I thought, we'll see what happens. So now came the time when I was supposed to add my pasta to the boiling water. On a last minute whim, I decided to use rigatoni instead of ziti. Why? Who knows. Once the pasta finished cooking, I had to add it to the skillet with the turkey, zucchini, tomato mixture that I had going. I was somewhat surprised with how big rigatoni are after you cook them. They are huge! So somehow I had to add a pound of rigatoni to my sauce and somehow mix them together. It wasn't easy, and a stove top covered with rigatoni, pieces of zucchini, and tomato sauce is proof of how difficult it is. I then had to find a way to dump this 50-pound mixture of pasta and other stuff into a 2-quart casserole dish. A counter top covered with rigatoni, pieces of zucchini, and tomato sauce is proof of how difficult this is. So now I had to bake it. I took a look at the recipe, and it said "cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes." Great. I grabbed my foil and pulled out a 2-inch wide strip of foil. Oi moi! (ancient Greek for "woe is me") So I thought, oh well, and I threw it in the oven anyway. At about 25 minutes, I topped the dish with some mozzarella cheese and put it back in the oven to melt the cheese. Then after a few minutes, I pulled it out.

The top was covered with melted cheesy goodness, but a few pieces of rigatoni were on the toasty and crispy/hard side. Maybe it was because I couldn't cover the dish and that wasn't able to trap the heat and moisture. And, I think that the next time I make this I will definitely use a smaller type of pasta. But, other than that, everything tasted great!
+++++
Update 10:00 p.m.: after rereading this, I suppose I should have written "woe is I." Or maybe I should have written "oh me." Moi is in the dative case. How many of you know what that means?! Maybe we can call it a reflexive dative, but I prefer to call it the Dative of Disadvantage. No, I didn't make that up. It is an actual grammatical term in ancient Greek.

Sales, Shampoo, and Shivers...oh my!

Sales: I suppose this is one of those times when Victoria's Secret is having their semi-annual clearance sale. Because of that, I'm getting bombarded with catalogs and e-mails that give me all the awesome sale prices. That's just not fair. That's like holding cocaine in front of an addict. Except I'm not sniffing anything... okay, that sounded bad, even for me...

Shampoo: I always forget that when you cut significant inches off your hair you don't need that much shampoo. I took my shower this morning and before I knew it, I had a mountain of suds on top of my hair. It was actually sort of fun to play with. But this time, at least, wasn't as bad as when I had my most dramatic hair cut. I once had my hair all the way down to my waist. When I sat in the stylist's chair, I said, in the words of Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, "all off." I cut off all my hair into what I called my Halle Berry Cut. It was really short and cropped close to my head. With a cut like that I realized that I didn't need conditioner. This is random...

Shivers: Baby, it's cold outside!! I woke up this morning and looked out the window to see a nice blanket (more like a white sheet) of snow outside. I hadn't even opened my door at that point, but it just looked cold. And I eventually realized that it was (and is) cold outside. I had to take my clothes to the laundry room and my nose hairs quickly froze. I now regret that I didn't go out this weekend to buy another fleece jacket and a new pair of gloves. I have a pair of gloves, but they really don't do that much to keep my hands warm. I'm a small person and I don't think that I have much blood flowing through me. This is also why I can never donate blood--once they take it out of me, they will just have to put it back in. But I digress. Again, the gloves I have don't do much to keep my hands and fingers warm. Even with the gloves, it feels like my fingers are about to fall off. But, let's face it, women's gloves are designed to be more of an accessory than to do anything that is useful and functional. They are designed to look pretty. But when you live in Colorado, you don't need prettily knitted gloves with pretty colors. Maybe some women can wear gloves like that, but if I want to keep my hands warm, I basically need ski gloves that are waterproof and that have double insulation.

Current mood: relaxed but cold
Current music: K. T. Tunstall. Drastic Fantastic
Current drink: coffee

More of This and That

Hair and stuff: As I wrote a few days ago, this was going to be a relaxing and quiet weekend. On Saturday, I went to the salon to get my hair done. They say you're supposed to have your hair cut every two or three months, but I hardly ever do that. I'm really bad when it comes to keeping regular hair appointments, and it is mostly because I'm too busy to find time to make the appointment! It's been over six months since I last had my hair done, and I was in serious need of...well, something...anything... I had about three or four inches cut off and my stylist put in a lot of layers and texture. I also got some more color, because I had to wash that gray right out of my hair. I wanted to do something "different" so I asked for purple color. Now, I'm sure there was a collective shout of "what?!" but the purple looks really good. It's not a bright, neon purple. It is more of a deep metallic purple. If "deep metallic purple" isn't enough of a visual, I suppose you can say that it is also the color of wine. Since I naturally have black hair, the two colors blend nicely. So, I'm liking my new color and cut, which is a good thing because it cost me a fortune.

Food and stuff: When I was writing up my shopping list this morning, I was struck with the sudden urge to cook some different and more elaborate dinners for myself this week. I usually like to make things that are quick and easy, but this week I wanted to do more. So for the menu this week I'm going to make Baked Penne with Fire Roasted Tomatoes, Ground Turkey, and Zucchini. And later in the week, I'm going to make Eggplant Parmigiana. Yes, I'm only going to officially cook only two dishes, but with all of the leftovers, I can probably eat for a week or more on these two dishes alone. Yes, I like pasta and Italian food. And, yes, I'll be sure to eat salads, too.

Work and stuff: I have the day off tomorrow! Yipee!

Weather and stuff: It's pretty darn cold!!

Shopping and stuff: I wonder if the liquor stores are open tomorrow. I'm out of Cognac! And wine...

This and That

This was another busy and tiring week at work. I haven't been sleeping well, so that wasn't helping. But fortunately we have the day off on Monday, so that means I have one extra day to relax.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to pamper myself at the hair salon. I'm in desperate need of a cut and some fun color.

Other than that I have nothing exciting planned for this weekend except for doing a little shopping, cleaning, and laundry. I haven't done laundry in weeks, and I'm running out of socks. Fortunately I still have underwear...

The weather has gotten really cold at the end of this week. That probably isn't unusual considering this is Colorado in January, but it was fairly warm last weekend. It's been cold outside, but it sometimes feels colder in our offices/cubicles at work. Maybe my cube is colder because I sit next to a huge window. I had to go out during one of my lunch breaks to buy a fleece jacket just for the office so that I could keep myself warm. We did have some snow but fortunately it wasn't that bad and didn't really stick that much. At least the drive into work wasn't that bad.

That's pretty much all that has been going on this past week.
+++++
Update (10:30 p.m.): I just looked outside for the first time since getting home from work. There is a nice dusting of snow on the roads, sidewalks, and grass out there!

Natural Selection

So it has finally surfaced that the three idiots at the San Francisco Zoo did, in fact, taunt the tiger. One of the idiots admitted to yelling and "waving" at the tiger. This idiot also had a blood alcohol level of 0.16 which is twice the legal limit for driving. So these guys had shots of vodka, smoked some pot, then decided to taunt the tiger. The tiger got out and attacked and killed one of the idiots. I suppose you could feel sorry for the guy and his family, but you also have to think that this is simply natural selection at work. In the wild, the animals that are slower and dumber tend to be the ones killed off first. In this case, a very dumb human being was killed. Maybe the rest of us are better and safer because of it. I almost think that it is a shame that the tiger was killed before it had a chance to sink its teeth into the other two. It is mostly a shame that the tiger had to be killed at all when there was obviously human error/idiocy all around. The walls around the pen were too short. Who built the walls? Humans. The three guys taunting the tiger were simply idiots. Yet, unfortunately, the tiger, still a wild animal in spite of being in a zoo, also had to die. I might sound heartless, but I really don't feel sorry for the three guys. They sort of got what they had coming to them.

And, no, you can't use the word "idiot" too many times in one post, especially when the post is about a bunch of idiots!

R and R

On Friday I made a vow and promise to myself to not work over the weekend. The hours I have been working lately have been long and exhausting, and I needed a break. And so far I've been successful. I haven't worked at all this weekend, and I haven't even checked my work e-mail.

Instead of working, I've been resting and relaxing for a change. Well, sort of... I've been neglecting my apartment over the past few weeks, so I've been cleaning and organizing. I've been purging or recycling things that I don't need anymore. And I've been stuffing a bag full of things that I'm going to donate to Goodwill. It feels good to cleanse and minimize and downsize around here.

Other than household chores, I've been passing time this weekend by watching football. My interest in these games are somewhat half-hearted because the Broncos didn't make the playoffs, but the games have been pretty good. Sometimes the only thing I don't like about watching sports are the "color commentators" who give the play-by-play commentary. What annoys me is the fact that most of them try to sound more intelligent and articulate than they really are, but they usually just reveal their stupidity instead. Anyone knows that the phrase "no one put much trust in he or his team" is a grammatically incorrect sentence. Or at least people should know that the phrase is incorrect. It's almost as bad as when someone says "between he and I." It's just wrong.

And on the note of being grammar obsessive, many thanks to el Scoho, for bringing this blog to my attention. The GrammarBlog is all about the grammatical errors that surround us in the world. Scoho sent me a link to a specific post in July that dealt with the grammatical errors that can be found in restaurant menus. This is the perfect blog for all the word and grammar nerds and geeks out there.

Another Gray Hair...

So, I found some more gray hair. Add that to the fifteen or so that my Ma found in my hair when I was home for Christmas. Sigh...

If it hasn't become obvious, I haven't had much to tell these days. My brain is probably in Park instead of Fourth Gear where it usually is. But in spite of all this, I'm now over 1,700 in blog hits!

I don't know what I'm saying... I'm going to bed...

American Gladiators

So for many of you who haven't know me for that long, you're probably not aware that in the early '90s I was crazy about a little show called American Gladiators. Yes, you can laugh if you want, but I loved the show. Because I've always been small, I've always been teased and picked on, so the thought occurred to me that if I were strong and athletic, maybe people would leave me alone. So, yes, that is when I started lifting weights. Now, I have some Asian blood in me, so I'm never going to get huge, but I did get strong. I know for a fact that about 90% of you who are reading this are laughing out loud right now, because I know you see me as this tiny little shrimp. But what can you say about a gal who, when she was in the tenth grade, bench pressed about as much weight as the guys?

American Gladiators was brought back, and this week the new season started to air. They have a lot of the old events, but most of them are revamped and brought into the new century. There is a lot of flash and fire and water. I sort of wish there were less commercials, much less talking from the hosts, and more events during the hour. But, all in all, they are fun shows. Most of the shows on TV these days are either horrible or stupid, so we might as well go back to our Roman roots and watch people fight, wrestle, and beat each other up. The only difference is that no one dies.

This does, however, renew my dream of becoming an American Gladiator. I just have to find a way to grow six inches and gain about 40 pounds, then I would be set.

Tenth Muse asks...

...why does the phone always ring when you're eating a peanut butter sandwich? ...

Starting Out Slow

Again, I don't need to remind anyone that things have been busy at work over the past few months. I've been busy, but I haven't been alone. Everyone has been busy and swamped and overwhelmed. It simply goes with the territory of the last few months in publishing. There is always a push to get things finished before the year is over. But in spite of the fact that we all had some time off and took some vacations, very few of us are ready to be back at work. This particular week has felt strange, because we came to work on Monday, but had a holiday on Tuesday because of New Years. Then we were all back to work on Wednesday. The week feels out of sorts, and no one really knows what day of the week it is.

It seems as if the project editors are having an especially hard time getting back into their grooves. This afternoon a few of us made some impromptu plans to go to happy hour this evening. We picked our restaurant and then sent an e-mail to everyone in our department that we were going to happy hour at 4:00. Fortunately we have a boss who won't object and who will let us do these kind of things. We went out and we each had a few drinks. We didn't go crazy. We simply got together, talked, tried to decompress, and tried to psyche ourselves up for the work that we all have to tackle.

I parked in my "secret parking spot" that happened to be a few blocks away from the restaurant. I walked along Pearl Street which is a pedestrian mall in downtown Boulder. It was relatively quiet because school is still out and the students haven't returned yet. Normally I like seeing activity and I like seeing people on Pearl. But it was nice tonight to have a quiet setting. There were families and couples but none of the craziness as when the students are out on the town. It was already dark and the holiday lights on the lampposts were still lit up. People were skating on the ice rink on 13th between Canyon and Walnut streets. It was about 45 degrees, but it didn't feel cold. If a few snowflakes had fallen from the sky, it would have given that feeling of a setting in a movie. But I'm hardly a movie star...

Normally with such a setting you would think that I would get really serious and pensive, thinking about the world, myself, my future, etc. I didn't have much of that. In fact, I didn't have any of that. For once there weren't any thoughts racing through my mind. There was just...silence. Maybe this was good for a change. Sometimes I think too much. Sometimes I feel too much. My thoughts and emotions tend to consume and control me. So I suppose that the silence that I felt tonight brought me back to an entirely different place. And with a deep breath of the cold air, it brought me back to some kind of centered place. A place of quiet and peace without any kind of outside (or internal) noise. It was nice.

And, yes, right now and in this moment I am back to my old self of analyzing everything. But in this particular moment, it seems to feel like it is coming from a different place. I don't know what this means. I don't know if I'm making sense. And I don't know if it can be explained.

Tenth Muse goes calendar shopping...

...I like speaking of myself in the third person, especially when that third person is a pseudonym and an alter ego...but I digress...

Like the procrastinator that I am, I'm finally getting around to buying myself a 2008 calendar. I really need one for the office so that I can count weeks and prepare my schedules. For the past three years I've bought an "Ancient Greece" calendar. These calendars had beautiful pictures of some of the ancient sites throughout Greece. For some reason, they don't have a 2008 Ancient Greece calendar. They probably stopped making it because I was probably the only person in this entire world who got excited about such a calendar. They have other Greece calendars and you can count on having at least one of the months having a photo of the Parthenon. But most of the other images are quite "touristy." You'll see super white buildings with super blue roofs. You'll see a chair and an umbrella on a sandy beach. Who cares about the stupid umbrellas on beaches? I want the Parthenon! I want the Porch of the Kores! I want the Temple of Hera! I want the Palace of Knossos! Stupid umbrellas on beaches. Who cares about them? Since they don't have my Ancient Greece calendar, I have to find something else. Even though I'm a Hellenist (a Greek specialist), I might be forced to buy a calendar about Rome. At least they have photos of some statues and some old concrete buildings. Or I might have to lower myself to the level of the rest of the Plebs of the world and buy a "normal" calendar...

Each year I also usually buy a little desk calendar. This is usually one of those page-a-day calendars, and the one I buy has a Latin word or phrase for the day. Yes, I'm a geek! I'm having a hard time finding these, too, mostly because they're out of stock. Really? How many people in the world need a Latin page-a-day calendar? So, I do searches in those little search boxes. Enter phrase: Latin calendar. The results usually bring up wall calendars, and I get a number of things that I'm not exactly looking for. Hot Latin Bods of 2008, complete with lots of pictures of sweaty pecs and six-pack abs. Or I get Lovely Latin Ladies of 2008, complete with lots of thong and butt shots. Neither is appealing to me, and certainly neither is appropriate for work! So now I'm still searching for some kind of geeky desk calendar that is more suited to my natural geekiness.

Sigh, it's tough being a geek...