Calling women readers who work in tech...

From a listserv I am on:

Temple University is conducting research on women who have careers in technology-related fields, specifically with the goal of trying to create more responsible policies toward women workers, and improving the educational opportunities of those girls who aspire to careers in technology-related fields. Would you be willing to forward this to your members? If not, could you suggest some way we might be able to let your members know that this survey exists, so we can make it available to them in another way?

The survey might be found at: Women Moving Forward Survey II

Color Me Beautiful

It looks like I'm actually going to close on my place on Thursday. All the ducks are in a row, the cogs in place, oh, and whatever other saying you want to use. It frankly feels like a miracle. And I won't believe it's happening until it's over with.

Is anyone good with color? I've been wanting to ask this for weeks but didn't want to completely jinx myself. I have an entire place to figure out the colors for - every surface is the same exact gross off-white/beige yucky color, even the ceilings. Colors intimidate me - I mean, I can handle them and take them down in a wrestling match if need be, but that doesn't mean it'll be pretty. And it's so much work to paint that I don't agree with the saying that you can always paint over it. Sure, in about 5-10 years.

Any suggestions you have are great. Here's some information:
- Layout: walk into living room, connected to a dining area straight ahead. You go into the dining area and to the right is the kitchen (galley, small - and making a cutout to the dining area). To the right in the living room are the stairs to the upstairs. You get upstairs and straight ahead is the bathroom (which needs to be redone). To the right are the two small 'bedrooms'. To the left is the 'master bedroom'.
- I'm ok with bold colors as long as they are natural. And I'm ok with dark colors. I like soothing colors, whatever that is (sage?).
- When is it ok to paint a room a darker color?
- Can you paint molding/trim a dark color if the wall paint is light?
- I have a dark-ish blue couch (which in the old place looked great with light carpet, brick fireplace, dark blinds, and light light blue walls)
- My table/chairs/hutch from my great aunt are honey maple (dark-ish)
- Floors are wood (natural oak color)
- Kitchen cabinets and appliances are white. I need to replace the counters, so am trying to figure out a color there too. In the cut out I"m making I'll have the same color counter, so ... it's important.

So, have at it. My initial thoughts are to paint the dining area blue-ish, so there's sort of a flow from the living area. And maybe a gray in the stairwell. I haven't gotten beyond that.

Kenny - the movie

In addition to Hellboy, this weekend I saw Kenny. I highly recommend it. It's about an Australian guy who works with corporate portable toilets, and filmed like a documentary. Funny as all hell, but then again, I'm into potty humor. Below is what I think is the first 4 minutes of the movie - I wanted to provide that rather than the trailer, because I think the trailer shows too much. The problem is, the movie's only showing in about 12 theaters in the United States. Hopefully it'll get a wider release. It's also pretty funny that it's subtitled, but maybe when watching the clip below you'll wish you had subtitles?

Saturday Hunt - Refreshed

Well, when I chose the photos I thought it was refreshing, but I think these apply to refresed too. Looking at these photos made me feel refreshed/ it was refreshing.
First, my kitties in a perfect pair, refreshing themselves.

Second, picking a bouquet at a flower farm and then being able to look at them, makes me refreshed.

Fishing in Maine refreshes, and I am so looking forward to it at the end of August.

And I do manage to catch a few big ones.

Happy Birthday Nelson Mandela! 90 years old today

If you'd like to send him a birthday message - www.happybirthdaymandela.com. If you wish him happy birthday you get a free download. (They're tracking the numbers, and Tanzania leads the pack in number of wishes! Go Tanzania!)

Read about the Aids Charity - www.46664.com - and donate in his name. (46664 was Nelson Mandela's prison number when he was imprisoned on Robben Island, off Cape Town in South Africa).
More info on www.SouthAfrica.info.

Here's an older video in which Johnny Clegg sings his Nelson Mandela tribute, and Nelson Mandela gets down...sort of. :-)

Mojito Mama

So, last night I went to a bar alone. I don't remember if I've ever done it before, but I did it last night. It may not be a big deal for some of you, but it was a little bit of a deal for me. Anyway, there's a place I know of that has mojito happy hour until 10:00 pm. I tried to get a friend to go but she couldn't go, and I desperately wanted a mojito, so I went. It's an upstairs bar to a restaurant, so not a 'normal' bar.

During the first mojito I felt a little awkward. I called a friend I hadn't talked to in a while, and left a message saying 'this is a little more difficult than I thought it would be'. I ordered a side dish, and kept drinking, and watched some surfing and skateboard thing on the tv in the distance.

My side dish arrived and I started on my second mojito. People had been arriving in dribs and drabs, and there was another lone woman a few seats down, and a couple sat down to the right of me. Of course, the more alcohol you drink, the easier things get (except for driving and walking). And there were some friendly people there. First a woman who stood at the bar to get drinks asked me how my mofongo was, which seems like such a simple thing but it was nice to have someone talk to me. Then the woman of the couple next to me starting talking to me. Tells me how she just got in from Spain and visiting him and they met when they were 5 and 8...

You here alone? she asked. I said yep, and she bonded with me then. Oh, I do that too. Movies too. Her date got up to go to the bathroom and she came clean. I'm such a liar. I'm not from Spain, I'm Puerto Rican, etc. She's a flight attendant and is based in Philly but in town, and they had met through the internet many years ago. She had a lot of energy, was drunk, and was hilarious - making jokes, flirting with her date, suggesting a threesome (semi-embarassing her date, but of course he's used to her), telling me about meeting Mr. Big in NYC (and pulled out her camera to show the picture of her with him). Took my photo.

At one point she sticks out her hand with the middle finger extended (downward, not at me) and says, meet my best friend. She had a ring on her finger so I was confused for a moment, and then I got it and laughed hysterically but also apparently turned beet red. They loved it. I was more embarrassed that it took me so long to get it. I told her I didn't get it at first since we use things with batteries here in the US. They then bought me a mojito, but made me try a strawberry one. And I made everyone try it, and the woman behind me who had asked me about my mofongo felt more than comfortable taking a straw and trying some too.

10:15 came and the bar closed down. I said goodnight to my new friends and went back to the 'hood.

Updates

- I may actually close on my house next Thursday, if yet another complication does not arise. The last week it's been that they couldn't find the deed! Amazing.
- I had planned my move date for Aug. 2, but I'm not sure now if I should give myself another week to do shit around the new place before moving (floors refinished, electrical fixed, painting, some demolition?). Of course, if my friends will let me stay with them another week.
- I received my first housewarming gift and it was from my firefighter-ex. Four smoke alarms and a CO2 detector. Four because 1 for each level and one in the bedroom, which he said you really should have because too many people die from fires that start in their own bedrooms. I thought that was very sweet. And note that for your safety also.
- Oh, closing on the assumption Monday evening, so I'll be off that house and will get money from my soon to be ex. The woman working with us has been very responsive and helpful, so I left a message with her supervisor noting this, and she was so grateful for the positive feedback. It's good to be good to good people.
- And to balance out that niceness, I must admit I did a passive aggressive thing this morning and clomped around in my biking shoes. Last night the downstairs neighbor was playing club boom boom music loud enough to make me take a sleeping drug and move to another room to sleep. If it happens again I'll go and ask him to turn it down just a little. It's not like it was horrendous, but that crap just can't be ignored. And I do mean CRAP.