she's just saying...

busy day

Everybody's having fun...

Free Day at the Museum

Just opened and already crowded. Wow. It's normally $10/adult in the winter and $6 for kids, so a pretty good savings. Most of the visitors today only come on Free Day, so it opens the museum to many who would not otherwise be here. Nice. But crowded. My advice - if you can afford it, come on a regular day. Updates later...

not your normal office sign

I'll bet you don't have a sign like this in your office.

Though maybe you need to.

The British Empire, and her chicken thing.

You may not know that I can track my blog traffic from online search engines. Roughly half my visitors find me through the search phrase "knitted chicken jumpers." (I hate to even type those words again, but whatever, I like traffic.) Almost all of it from various little villages in England.

Obviously, there's a great interest in fowl outerwear there. Is it because so many chickens have been defeathered? Is it due to a great love of flightless birds in general? Is it code for some kinky fetish? What's the deal???

It's clear I should design a knitting pattern and post it on my blog, to drive up my traffic count for one thing. I could resize the whippet sweater...

I'm not going to link to the original story that got me to this point -- just check out the popular search to the right if you must. I'm kind of bored with the whole thing, frankly, and you probably are too.

However, for those who like their poultry live, I'm happy to share some little-known facts about these birds, courtesy of the wildlife curator at the High Desert Museum:

1. A chicken will lay bigger and stronger eggs if you change the lighting in such a way as to make them think a day is 28 hours long. [Kathi D: be sure to tell us how this works for you]
2. The chicken can travel up to nine miles an hour.
3. There are seven distinct types of combs on chickens: rose, strawberry, single, cushion, buttercup, pea and V-shaped.
4. The largest chicken egg on record was nearly 12 ounces and measured 12 inches around.
5. The greatest number of yolks in one egg is nine.
6. The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds.
7. The waste produced by one chicken in its lifetime can supply enough electricity to run a 100 watt bulb for five hours.

You're welcome.

Don't even ask...

Top Ten: Year in Review edition

You know the purported Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times." This has been an interesting year, both globally and personally. Because this blog is ALL ABOUT ME, here is a top ten list of interesting things that happened in my life this year. (in chronological order - I'm not about to rank them!)

1. I started the Bend Knit-Up, which grew from six people to over a hundred in a year.

2. My dad turned 90, and we all celebrated together in NC and everyone got along.

3. AT&T bought Edge Wireless, and we no longer had any work, though we still had jobs.

4. Neighbor X and I broke up, got together, and finally broke up.

5. I taught myself the whole blogging thing, that which you are reading at this instant.

6. Henry and I went back east for a family trip and went to Fenway. Go Sox!

7. We were finally released from AT&T, though were still paid, allowing me a summer off.

8. I spent the summer off shoveling dirt and hauling rocks for my waterfall.

9. I got a new job at the High Desert Museum - yay! and patted a badger.

10. My dad broke his hip and I flew back east for the third time.

What were your interesting times?

CC#7: Snow

snowy commute, originally uploaded by Meltrier.

Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me that doing a Christmas Countdown would entail blogging every day. Aackk, the pressure! But If you're up for reading, I'm up for writing...

Here is a phonecam picture through my windshield during my commute this morning. IMHO, this is a good day to never leave the house. But school was on and so was work, so I forged ahead. In Central Oregon, we sneer at weather like this. Or actually, we cheer at weather like this. This is a snow-crazed town. People's spirits are up and excitement is high right now, especially after the dry Thanksgiving we had.

Luckily, I like snow. I especially like snow at Christmastime. This dump might get kind of old and ratty by a week from now, so I'm hoping for fresh on Christmas. Now that I have a nine-year-old who can shovel, I'm good.

What's your weather like?

Not working out. Literally.

First, let me say, I love my new job. Love the museum itself, the staff, my boss, the work. Don't love the substantial cut in salary that moving to non-profit entailed. So, like the rest of the country, I'm looking for ways to cut my expenses.

I had already cancelled my housecleaner and my lawncare service, so no further savings there. I've cancelled HBO and cut back to one TIVO service (digital cable and TIVO are not up for discussion here). I no longer eat out or go to the movies, courtesy of a failed relationship, and we don't take vacations other than to visit family. My clothing budget is minimal and I color my hair myself. I've already refinanced, and paid off debt. So what's left?

Unfortunately, it was our health club membership. We've belonged to the Athletic Club of Bend for many years. It's a wonderful facility, with workout rooms, indoor and outdoor pools, tennis courts, fancy spa locker rooms, kid's daycare and camps, exercise classes, restaurant, deli, racquetball and more. We've practically lived there over the years, with Henry in the camps, playing at the pool all summer, my aerobics and weights classes, meals, concerts, etc. Lately, though, it was hard to get to the evening classes and we were using it less. It's been a major expense and I couldn't justify it.

I miss the cameraderie, the socializing, the classes, the steamroom, and the sense of belonging to an upbeat, active community. Henry misses the bagels, the foosball table, the pickup soccer games and summer camp. And we'll both miss the pool next summer - it was a mini-vacation at a resort every weekend.

And I miss working out. I've stopped doing anything lately, and my muscles and outlook are both suffering for it. I'm not very self-motivated about exercise, even though I was an aerobics instructor in my distant childless past. For me, classes work great due to the social pressure to keep going, a set schedule, varied enough routines and a peppy instructor exhorting you to squeeze out 20 more sit-ups.

So what to do? Can't run anymore. Walking is slow and boring. Plus it's too cold. I'm dangerous on a bike. The local public pool is too far away. (Hang on and I'll come up with some other excuses...)

So, don't tell Henry, but I've bought us Wii-Fit for Christmas. I've heard it works pretty well as a workout. Even if it is a Snoopy McSnooperson (according to Kathi D).

Does anybody have any other ideas?

Crying fowl

Seriously. Do not blog about what I mentioned in my previous post. I myself will never mention the topic again. I can't handle the idea of all these visitors finding my site in their search results, clicking on it and hitting their "back" buttons as quickly as possible. I'm feeling rejected. I'm not what they want. I may be able to face this in my personal life, but it's just too much on my blog.

On the plus side, my site counter now reports over 5000 visitors, so that's pretty cool. However, two-thirds of them appear to have handmade poultry outergarment fetishes (I can't repeat the actual words).

MOVING ON...

Here are some gratuitous wild animal shots. I can't compete with Kathi D and her random celebrities, but how many people can post photos of themselves petting a badger?

                                Or posing with a turkey vulture?

                              

Good times, as they say.

Shooting

One of the favorite parts of my job is shooting. Commercials, that is. I've been involved in tons of commercial productions and they're always challenging, fun, creative and fascinating. And frequently silly and often ridiculous. From brushing blusher on peaches to cueing seagulls with crackers to finessing the curds for a cottage cheese spot, it's always something.

Today I wrangled a goat. That was fun.

The classic line is "never work with animals or children" so of course all my shoots these days include both. Here's a shot of Hans shooting another Melissa with a red-tailed hawk.

Stay tuned to your favorite (Bend) station to see the spot.

Leeches (the non-human kind)

"What I did at work today" is turning into an interesting post topic, one that deserves its own blog, possibly.

Yesterday, we set up a photo shoot for a newspaper ad to announce the opening of a new exhibit. The focus of the show is frontier medicine. We've got all kinds of gruesome tools like amputation saws, tooth extractors and so forth, as well as a kids interactive area, etc. One of the show's curators got ahold of "medical" leeches, who swim around in a large jar undulating like little eels. What a great idea for an ad!

Our programs VP, Greta, volunteered as latchee, as she is insane has lovely pale victorian hands. One of our museum volunteers acted as the doctor hand model and another volunteer shot it. The leech played himself.

Here's the "Making Of" photo:

The curator was concerned that Greta might contaminate the leech, but the leech didn't seem to mind.

Just another day in the life of a marketing gal.

Top Ten: High Desert edition

Ten things I've learned in the last three weeks:

1. Regurgitated owl "pellets" must be frozen for a month before use
2. Centipedes are venomous, millipedes aren't (or is it the other way around?)
3. Foxes have stinky scent glands and smell like skunks
4. There's a bear named Henry at a gas station in Mitchell, Oregon
5. Badgers buck and rear when they're mad
6. Hissing cockroaches really hiss, loudly
7. "Hoofstock" is the preferred term when referring to horses, elk & antelopes
8. Porcupines "scent-mark" everything with quite pungent urine
9. Badger fur is really very soft
10. Bobcats like to poop in water

Back in the saddle, and dreams

First (official) day on the job! Mostly I've been cleaning out my inherited office and trying to find the bathroom. So far I'm loving it. I have yet to get outside and see the critters, but I'm making it a priority for this week. More to come on the cool stuff.

Do you have recurrent dreams?

I tend to have two dream themes that recur: one involves planes and trains. I get on the wrong ones, miss them, go the wrong way, get lost in train stations, etc. (It used to involve packing problems as well, but I guess I've gotten over my "baggage" issues.) These aren't necessarily bad dreams, they're just tedious. (The details of traveling these days are bad enough - who needs to dream about them?) I never make it to my destination or even remember what it is when I awake.

 

The other one centers on missing class at some prestigious private school and panicking because we're getting tested (a classic). It's always calculus or physics or something I haven't done any work for and can't fake. I'm late for class or I haven't gone all semester or I haven't done the reading and so forth.

Very anxiety-producing, a feeling that stays with me through the next day. Not surprisingly, I had one of those last night.

Someday maybe I'll dream that I arrive at my destination or that I'm prepared and pass the test. Til then, I'll keep getting on the wrong train and walking into the classroom unprepared.