the friday five

1. what's your favorite piece of clothing that you currently own? well, i used to own this great graphic 3/4 sleeve shirt from the gap that was orange on the front, with a picture, and green on the back with an ornate design... but, when my luggage disappeared between birmingham and los angeles last year, i forever lost that shirt. i haven't found anything worthy of a favorite since.

2. what piece of clothing do you most want to acquire? a good peasant type shirt or some tall black leather boots

3. what piece of clothing can you not bring yourself to get rid of? why? my college t-shirts, because they're too comfy.

4. what piece of clothing do you look your best in? jeans and a sweater... too bad i don't get to utilize that in l.a.

5. what has been your biggest fashion accident? in 10th grade i went to my first formal, and i looked all over for a good sparkly dress i liked. i ended up, kind of like a last resort type purchase, buying a pink strapless sparkley number with a black sparkly applique thing across the top. the worst part was the big black satiny ruffles that were kind of straps, but hung off the shoulder. they were so huge, like as big as my head... one on each arm. just awful.

"at the reception itself i'm going to have a pair of sneakers at their seat waiting for them so they can change out of the heels if they want. since i've been a bridesmaid in all my bridesmaids' weddings, the sneakers will be in shoebags made from the material of their bridesmaids dresses that i wore in their weddings."

this is the funniest (and smartest) idea i've ever heard of in regards to dealing with the tacky bridesmaid dresses we all have hanging in our closet. |via: the martha stewart bulletin boards|

recently, a site i read on a regular basis asked for info regarding an upcoming trip to london. since it's the same advice i always give to anyone going over, i figured i might as well write it down for myself and others to reference in the future.

i'm including it in the sidebar, but here's a direct link: london tips

southern california residents use umbrellas for walking in the sun. it's sad that their umbrellas rarely ever feel a drop of rain. i've lived here for a year now, and i think it's sprinkled once or twice in that time. it makes me almost miss those days when it's raining so hard (and sideways) that you're whole body is drenched, except maybe the tip top of your head that was covered by the umbrella in the first place... assuming, of course, the wind didn't turn your umbrella inside out.

the friday five

1. what is your current occupation? is this what you chose to be doing at this point in your life? why or why not? professional slacker. no. when i find someone to pay me to do this, then i'll choose this for an "occupation."

2. if time/talent/money were no object, what would your dream occupation be? a writer and photographer for a travel magazine that had me seeing everything in the world. alternatively, i'd own a charming european-cafe-type bakery.

3. what did/do your parents do for a living? has this had any influence on your career choices? my dad owns a hardware store, that he bought from my mom's dad a few years after they were married. my mom was a housewife while all of us were still living at home. then she was the secretary of a wholesale biz she and my dad opened as a branch from the hardware store. she had a home economics degree.

dad's always been the inquisitive, hands-on, "how does this run," can i build something type of person and mom's the creative one. i used to watch and help my mom out when she was designing MADD (mothers against drunk driving) newsletters, so that's probably what got me into publishing. but, overall i'm a strange mix of the two... i'm a lot more like my dad but with a wanna-be creative side. :)

4. have you ever had to choose between having a career and having a family? um no.

5. in your opinion, what is the easiest job in the world? what is the hardest? why? i worked/aided as a receptionist for my high school during three out of the four years i went there. answering the phones, taking messages, greeting visitors and sorting mail. that was a pretty damn easy job.

the hardest job i had was probably working in the nursery during sunday mass at my church during middle school and high school -- i don't know if it's a wise thing to give teenagers that much control over that many children for that many hours (mass can really drag on sometimes). so, based on that little exposure i had to the kids once a week... i'd say that dealing with children -- teaching or whatever -- would be the hardest thing to do.

there's a new charles m. schulz museum opening near san francisco this weekend. one of the coolest things i'd like to see in person is the mural wall made from "peanuts" strips. very impressive! here's the finished charlie brown and lucy tile mural.

watch the building of it, starting here. |link via: spinning-jennie|

i meant to post this one way back, around july 4th...

in july 1942, there was a "patriotic conspiracy" to put the american flag on magazine covers across the country.

the site is an online version of the smithsonian's national museum of american history's exhibit "july 1942: united we stand." the concept resulted in at least 500 magazines with the american flag on the cover, to celebrate our independance and nationwide unity during world war two. some of the site's features are a covers gallery, detailed information about the covers and the idea to have the cover campaign.

we got a cool tin cd case -- one of those annoying aol "free trial" cd's -- in the mail. i'm trying to figure out some way to recycle the tin, and in the meantime i ran across this site called no more aol cd's. they're collecting unwanted aol cd's to send back to aol and so far they have over 50,000. anyway, here's a cool picture of the ones they've collected, all strung together

i have been doing a lot of cooking in the past few weeks... just not keeping track of it because it seems like i was cooking a lot of crap dishes. but, this one is a winner: manicotti alla romana

the friday five

1. do you have a car? if so, what kind of car is it? 98 honda passport, dark green

2. do you drive very often? i don't like to, but yes.

3. what's your dream car? i got my dream car when i started driving back in high school -- a cherry red jeep cherokee laredo. my latest dream car would be a convertable of any kind.

4. have you ever received a ticket? yes. driving home from 10th grade, i got pulled over for going 12 over the limit. got several parking tickets in college.

5. have you ever been in an accident? again, 10th grade... about a month after i got my license, i was making a left turn from governor's drive onto whitesburg, and a car ran the red light just as i was making my turn out of the intersection. i didn't drive again for several months after that. about 3 years ago, some dumb-ass rear-ended my car at a red light.

clipland provides information about music videos, television ads and movie trailers -- from who directed it to the music featured. it's a good starting point if you're trying to find out about a particular song.

it's kind of like a free version of the old adcritic.com. except, it's not an extensive search engine -- it's missing information. they might just have what you're looking for, who knows. it's got potential.

i just completed the process of adding blogrolling to quidnunc.org. blogrolling is a " link manager for your weblog." it's incredibly easy to set up -- you register, enter a short line of code to your site, enter your favorite links and wait for them to auto-magically appear on your site. notice the "*" -- that means a site has been updated.

i am pretty happy with this so far. i like the fact that it's not complicated and only took about 30 minutes to get up and running. yay for me -- i figured this all out on my own!

enjoy a treasure hunt and reading? then check out book crossing -- where you can "free your books." you read a book, register it on the site and leave it somewhere for someone else to find and enjoy. the site keeps up with (assuming people enter the info) where the book is left and when it's found. there's a whole lot of books registered waiting to be discovered.

i think it's an interesting concept, however i don't know that i'm going to start leaving my books lying around town any time soon. i'd have more fun finding a book i otherwise would never buy. |link via: snark spot|

the friday five

1. what is your lineage? where are your ancestors from? my dad's side is from england and france. the harlan clan came over from england, to america, sprouting out of illinois. the riette clan (his grandmother's side) came from france to louisiana. my mother's side, drake, came from england. all of my relatives, that i know on her side are from alabama. my dad's are in louisiana.

2. of those countries, which would you most like to visit? i'd be most interested in visiting the area of northern france where my dad's maternal family came from.

3. which would you least like to visit? why? iowa (see below)

4. do you do anything during the year to celebrate or recognize your heritage? every year the harlan families across america reunite. the one time i attended one of those was when it was held in mt. pleasant, iowa -- a very distant relative was married to abe lincoln's oldest son and you can tour their house there. i grew up attending yearly drake reunions in huntsville. although, ever since my grandfather died, i stopped going.

5. who were the first ancestors to move to your present country (parents, grandparents, etc)? my great grandfather on my dad's side escaped from german armies via a train out of northern france during the world war. he eventually came to america.