conserve.

in case you don't want to see any bits of this week's office ep, steer clear big tuna. head for open waters. (but - this made me very happy after a day of shit sandwich.)

i don't walk into your house and steal your hello kitty backpack.

new company, new holiday party. at least this year's invite is not on a powerpoint slide.

sunday.

i don't know what you're talking about, but it sounds illegal.

did anyone see fantastic mr. fox yet? i can't decide yet if i loved it, or if it was a bit too wes anderson, cutsey, hipster for its own good. pretty sure i'll land on the side of "awesome" though. you can check out the music at the movie's website and watch the trailer below, if you haven't seen that yet. additionally, i saw willem defoe (he plays Rat, of course) last night after seeing the movie. so, that was pretty cool. imdb also tells me that adrien brody (loooove) was in the movie, but i don't recall the specific Field Mouse that he played. then again, mario batali was also in it, so who knows?

enjoy -

bret & jemaine keep me company at work.

Bret: Yes, she's in Delta Force. She's been deployed to Fallujah.
Jemaine: But she works in the croissant shop.
Bret: Yeah well, she's got two jobs. She's a pastry chef and a sniper.

party genius.

during our lastest funco! meeting (i.e., the party planning committee, i.e., the committee to plan parties) we came upon the topic of finger food, and how it's always a problem of not having enough hands to eat and drink. apparently, a few products have attempted to tackle this age-old issue.

first, the fingerfood plate:

wear it like a ring, hold your drink in the same hand and voila! you've got a fingerplate. and its perfectly sized - small enough for your bagel-bites or tater-tots.


second we have the cookie dunk mug.

this way, your cookies are never too far from your milk. or coffee. or scotch. not sure how holiday-party specific this is, but i guess you can always use the shelf for cheese.... and your mug for wine! yay!

finally found the best candy at work.

it's chocolate. it's peppermint. it's delicious!

never ever leaving this job...

because this is what happens when you ask your friends in the warehouse to send you just 3 books.

dog halloween.

are you one of those people who insist on dressing their dog up for halloween? (of course, my parents are taking mimi to this year's dog costume dog parade at the chicago botanic gardens...) but whether you are a costumed-dog lover or hater, you will definitely love this nymag gallery of hilarious dog costumes (and accompanying captions). i guarantee it.

your brain esplode.

with most things lost, you really need to strain your brain to understand just what (and when) the hell is going on. here's another doozy, mostly because it is so far back in lost-time, you may have already forgotten this encounter.

check out this recent excellent zap2it article that ponders the mystery of how did ben (formerly know as henry gale, from minnesota) get into rousseau's net?

also, how is everyone feeling about the recent developments about lost, season 6? a few episodes in january, and then a hiatus for the winter olympics. as much as i love the olympics, i'm pretty sure i could spare it this year for uninterrupted lost viewing.

because...i'm awesome.

my work is ridiculous.

first off, there is a life-size cutout of this in our lobby.

maybe you need an excerpt, if this picture is not enough?

There are many reasons why you might be reading this sentence. You're obviously curious about me, or you wouldn't even be holding this book. That's cool with me, I'm happy about that, Mr. or Mrs. Whoever You Are. If there's one thing I've learned in my life, it's that curiosity might kill cats, but it doesn't kill people. Unless you're curious about doing things like bungee jumping high on crack to see if you really need that harness, curiosity will not kill you! I tell you what will kill you—people will. We've got a long way to go to change that around, but I hope we do. For now, I can say this and I know it's true: Curiosity makes you smarter. Don't fight it! Learn to learn, learn to ask questions. Clearly, you've got questions about me. In this book you'll find some answers.

there's a new mug in town.

or, on my desk. go blue!
and thanks to the sister for a terrific weekend.

hot dog.

just not the same.

have you heard about this new version of the classic board game clue? this one is called clue: secrets and spies. the cool part of it is that it uses "text-messaging technology" (really advanced stuff). you text hasbro at the beginning of the game and throughout, they text you with "spy clues" and presumably stuff to help you along in the game. it all sounds cool but then again, it's just a board game, not the matrix. once colonel mustard is out of the billard room and loses his rope, it's just not fun anymore.