(no subject)

My brother-in-law G pointed me to this website, and I thought I'd pass it on here. (And yes, I checked Snopes, and yes, this is totally legit.) Xerox is running a website called Let's Say Thanks. This website has postcards that were designed by kids, and you can choose one to send to the troops overseas. Every month, Xerox prints all of the cards that were selected, adds your message and name on the back, and sends them off to the military men and women who are currently deployed. Whether or not I agree with the military choices that have been made over the last decade, I firmly believe that it's important to let the troops know that their service is appreciated. This goes double during the holidays when they're away from their families and friends. This is a quick and free way to do exactly that, so if you feel inclined, please consider dropping by the site and sending a postcard.

Day before vacation spam

Fantastic Mr. Fox opens today! WOOOOOOO! I am so excited to see this movie, you don't even know. This was the first Roald Dahl book I ever read. More accurately, this was the first book of Dahl's that my mom ever read to me. (On long car trips, Mom would read Dahl's books aloud to yakgirl and me, quite possibly because they were the only kids' books weird enough for my dad to tolerate while he drove.) I actually went out and bought the book recently so that I could re-read it before seeing the movie.

This book essentially started me on a lifelong love affair with Roald Dahl's books, and the idea of seeing this on the big screen -- in stop motion, no less -- makes me gleeful. I going to try to convince my mom to drive down to Kalamazoo this weekend to see it with me. So far the reviews are pretty good. The word "charming" has been thrown around a lot. And who doesn't like that?

***

In not so fantastic news, my pies did not work out as planned last night. :( I don't have a mat for rolling out pie dough, which needs to be rectified. I couldn't tell how big I was rolling out the crust, and when I tried to roll it out on parchment paper it just slid all over the counter, despite being taped and weighted down. By the time I got the first crust in the pie pan, the second batch of dough was all dry and crumbly. These two pies are quite likely the ugliest pies I've ever made. But hey, I made pie from scratch. That's more than a lot of people bother to do, right? Right. Next time I'll have the rolling mat, and things will be better.

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Is it 5:00 yet?

Oak Park can officially suck it.

Remember back in the day, when I lived in Oak Park? I paid good money every month for a street parking permit, and yet I'd get parking tickets all the damn time. The stupid city hadn't updated their law about street parking in something like 80 years, so they had all these stupid rules about how they would only allow residential parking in areas close to businesses. (THAT makes sense for the residents, to have the only place available for them to park be the crowded areas near the shopping districts where they'd have to jockey for spaces with non-residents.) Anyway, those bastard liars at city hall told me there would be a referendum and a public meeting about changing the city policy on street parking, and told me they'd only announce the meeting on the website. Of course, the meeting time/date was only posted AFTER it had happened, because they're bastards and just want to keep collecting as much money as they can from parking tickets. In summation, I HATE OAK PARK AND EVERYTHING IT STANDS FOR, including Ernest Hemmingway and Frank Lloyd Wright.

But now! NOW it is I who has the last laugh. Why? Because Oak Park has a new logo, and it looks like a penis. Don't believe me?



TELL ME you're not seeing a penis wrapped in a condom here, people. Just move that logo over to the left, and whammo! Full-on phallus.

It's a fitting logo for a city run by a bunch of dicks.