Time to play "Guess my Halloween costume!" -- UPDATED with the answer at the bottom

No fair playing if I've already told you what it is!













UPDATE. And the answer:



A picture of the finished costume is forthcoming - I think. I hope I got one on my camera ...

Mike is back in town!

My first moblog

Handbag labels whose cachet I don't understand

- Coach
- Vera Bradley

Quick observation

If someone lets you into her lane in traffic, stopping dead in that lane with your blinker on to get into the next lane over is poor repayment for the favor.

Competitive

I play flag football on Saturdays and soccer on Sundays this season.

I'm competitive. Kind of - I don't really care whether the team wins or loses, but I am competitive against myself. If I don't live up to my expectations for myself, I get very upset.

In football, my expectation is that if the ball is thrown to me, and if I am open, I will catch the ball. It seems like a very simple thing, and yet I can't do it in a game. I missed three passes today, and even though I caught three, that wasn't good enough for me.

I told Eileen I felt like Ron Weasley. She said I was being more like Eeyore.

(Soccer is actually easier because my expectations are lower for myself. If I can clear the ball a couple times a game, I feel like I've met my goal - and if by some miracle I manage to take the ball away from someone on the other team, I feel like David Beckham.)

I guess the thing to do is just to keep practicing - eventually, catching the ball will become routine.

Cat owners will relate, I think

Recycling news

I always forget what exactly I can recycle, so I was happy to find this handy guide on the City's website:



How weird - you can recycle "plastic bottles and jugs," but not "plastic food containers." I had always assumed it had to do with the number on the plastic.

Also, bad news that you can't recycle plastic shopping bags. I tend to save them for reuse, but sometimes I have too many and the excess goes in the bin. Ah, well - guess I'll have to start taking them to Bigg's. I'm pretty sure they have a program for that.

This quiz is OK

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Book Snob
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Literate Good Citizen
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

But I feel like there must be a better one out there somewhere.

Also, you might notice that the little percentage bars don't actually show up in the HTML coding. Here's what I saw when I completed the quiz:

My friends made a montage!

I feel like I could totally pass the LSAT now.

The case against The Big Bang Theory

The show, not the theory. I'm sure it's a perfectly good theory. Too bad it's got this crap show named after it now.

All right, full disclosure time: I only made it about 30 seconds past the opening credits of the show. Maybe it gets really awesome afterward. But here's what I saw before then:

- David From Roseanne and Some Other Guy go into a waiting room, where David From Roseanne obnoxiously solves Sassy Black Receptionist's unfinished crossword clues for her. You know, because nerds are know-it-alls. It turns out they are in a sperm bank for people with high IQs. Sassy Black Receptionist gives the nerds forms to fill out, but Other Guy chickens out, and they leave sheepishly. You know, because nerds take everything too seriously.

- Apartment building, scene of the most dramatic part of the show: the elevator is broken! Why? Anyway, Cute Blonde is moving in, and the nerds talk about her loudly and obliviously in front of her open door. You know, because nerds have no social skills. They make awkward introductions, then beat a retreat to their own apartment.

- But David From Roseanne vetoes their plan to watch Battlestar Galactica with the commentary and goes to invite Cute Blonde to lunch. (Frankly, I'm with Other Guy on this one.) Despite DFR's stammering references to colon cleansing and his failure to actually say, "So why not come over and eat with us" (you know, because nerds can't talk to women - you know, because nerds are always guys), she eventually gets the gist and accepts the invitation.

- Credits. Science-y cartoon stuff over a They Might Be Giants song, natch.

- Back in Casa de Nerd. Cute Blonde is admiring Other Guy's easel full of pages and pages of equations, which nerds do in their spare time. OG though initially slow on the uptake (just like a nerd!), has finally figured out the benefits of having CB in his apartment and is proud to show off. DFR counters with his own easel o' equations. CB compares them both to Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind.

- I turn off the TV in disgust. Actually, I unplug the computer's A/V output cables in disgust, because I'm watching the show through my laptop. But you get the picture.

And there you have it, folks. If this sounds like your kind of show, it is apparently on CBS.