Wondrous Apparitions, Provided by Magicians.

First off, I have re-done my entire livejournal in giant squid. No reason, I just like giant squid. I thought you should know.

Second, when we got home last night, triadruid and I discovered that the toilet in the downstairs bathroom had overflowethed its cup, and the entire bathroom was in standing water. Luckily, zylch, who was there for birthday celebrations, captained a recovery effort that was both very effective and mildly disgusting. A dehumidifier was purchased, and the toilet was stopped from running by the method of turning off the water to the tank, so the immediate crisis has been overcome. I'm thinking of tearing the toilet and sink cabinet out of that bathroom and converting it to a closet. zylch was also instrumental in the planning of that project, so that I feel like it might be doable, if she and diermuid (the other master of toilets in our acquaintance) would assist.

Having solved the toilet problem to the best of our ability, we washed up and went out for sushi, which seemed like the only logical response. The sushi was good enough to largely make up for the horror of the previous hour, so all was well.

Then, kittenpants, triadruid and I went to MicroCenter, so that she could buy him a birthday present and both of us early Yule gifts. Unfortunately, we had taken so long at the toilet problem and the sushi that we really didn't have time to dig into anything. I, being a simple creature and easily distracted by shiny gadgetry, got an iPod. triadruid's gifts are still under consideration. I'm lobbying for him to upgrade his PC.

And then! When we got home, I went to download iTunes so that I could use that shiny new iPod, and discovered that technology has moved on and left me behind. Any version of iTunes new enough to work with the iPod that I got is also new enough that it will not install on my Windows 2000 box. It checks the operating system before installing, and then shuts down. I can get iTunes 7.3.2 for the 2000 box, but the iPod wants at least 7.4. I'm hoping one of you clever individuals knows a way around this problem, because I'm not keen on installing an OS that I don't want just so I can use the toy that I do want. kittenpants has the proper iTunes installed on her XP laptop, but was of the opinion that I wouldn't be able to just use that because the program was keyed to work with only one iPod. I don't know if that's true, having never messed with any of this Apple stuff, and didn't have time to test it last night, so input on that is welcomed also.

1. Gratuitous pictures of orangutans. OOOK!

2. Wildly unimportant experiments seek insight into the human condition. Featured: Do men or women write better personal ads? How can you tell when someone is lying? Does your last name impact your quality of life? ... and so on.

Apparently, I am the last person on earth to know this, but in case I am not, I will pass it along. In addition to being pretty much impossible to clean (which I knew), 'jelly' sex toys are also made of unstable materials that leak irritants and may be carcinogenic.

The sort of plastic that these things are made from apparently used to be used in chew toys for babies and dogs, but has been pulled from the market in those applications. So anyways. I'm basically getting cancer, is what.

The Intarweb has our... er... backs on this one though. Several folks with online shops have a policy against selling anything made of phthalates (the bad guy in this story), among them Womyn's Ware and The Smitten Kitten. Womyn's Ware's website also features some truly stunning product reviews, under the link BuyerBeWomyn'sWare.

Susie Bright's blog is so educational.

Yesterday, lysana posted a link to an article about colored bubbles. The bubbles will reportedly be available in February, and will come in an assortment of colors that will stain for about half an hour, then disappear (like disappearing ink, but slower).

Some time ago, our household was all about the idea of divination/art by paintball-- have a group armed with paintball markers in various colors and dressed all in whites go about and shoot the proverbial shit out of one another, and then attempt to read the marks on the clothes. This sounded like a good idea, but was kiboshed due to the fact that nobody wanted to waste their perfectly good white clothes on it.

Using the disappearing bubbles instead of paintballs would allow us to overcome that particular entry barrier, as well as the unspoken barrier of "yeah, but that would hurt!". It would make us have to read the omens much quicker, but hey. Everything has its downsides.

EDIT: Also, in unrelated news: Godiva chocolate pecan tarts. These might approach the level of glory that is my dixie pie, as the recipe is quite similar.

Language is a Virus.
Chock full of surrealist and dadaist writing tools and other fancy stuff.

Dredged up by nfin8ndefn8.