I got lost on my wedding day

If you've ever wondered how you would rate as a husband or wife in the 1930s, (and who hasn't?), you can take the test to find out at 1930s Marital Scale. I rated as an average wife with a score of 47, but that might be because I'm not married.

Tell me who are you?

According to the How Many Of Me? site, at this moment there are 304,432,235 people in the U.S. Ever wonder how many share your name? You can find out using their search engine.

For fun, I entered the name Varushka and was surprised to see anyone else at all, much less 1,522 people (or fewer) in the U.S. with that first name. As for my last name, there are 207,014 people in the U.S. with it. And it's the 132nd most popular last name. There are 2,452 people in the US with my father's first and last names combined. Only 63 with my mother's.

Create copy & print online

If you need customized address labels, business cards, memo pads, postcards or similar, check out Staples Custom Printing where you can create your own. Like this one above.

Carolyn's Just Curious

Welcome to the 2008 edition of getting to know your friends. Copy this and paste into a new email that you can Send; change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a whole bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person that sent it to you.

1. What is your occupation? Library technician or similar
2. What color are your socks right now? Blue
3. What are you listening to right now? The computer hard drive whirr
4. What was the last thing that you ate? Crackers for break
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Ha ha! (laughing hysterically) No.
6. What color would you be, if you were a color? Emerald
7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Someone who called work asking for Martin.
8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Very much.
9. How old are you today? Above 40 but in denial as to the exact number.
10. Favorite drink? Raspberry herbal tea
11. What is your favorite sport to watch? Hockey.
12. Have you ever dyed your hair? Only when I was a kid to streak it green for Halloween.
13. Pets? 2 cats: May and Gus.
14. Favorite food? Pizza or cheesecake or raspberry pie or...
15. Last movie you watched? The Other Boleyn Girl
16. Favorite Day of the Year? Can't think of one.
17. What do you do to vent anger? Scream, slam cupboards, throw things, cry.
18. What was your favorite toy as a child? Little Kiddle dolls.
19. What is your favorite time of year? Used to be summer but maybe fall?
20. Cherry or Blueberry? Cherry.
21. Do you want your friends to email you back? Yes.
22. Who is most likely to respond? Erin.
24. Living arrangements? At my house with the cats.
25. When was the last time you cried? When I had to go to the doctor. I hate doctors with a passion.
28. Favorite smell? Just baked apple pie.
29. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Plain or cheese - or mushrooms if available.
30. Favorite car? VW bug? Or anything Honda.
31. Favorite cat breed? Tuxedo: black & white.
32. Number of keys on your key ring? I have several key rings. House key is on Scottish castle ring. Work locker key on Swedish flag ring. Rest of house keys on Reykjavik ring.
33. How many years at your current job? 23? What year is this?
34. Favorite day of the week? Sunday.
35. How many states have you lived in? 2: NY & MA

Growing beside my garage

These lovely Columbine flowers:

Pilkingtonisms 2008

• It's like a museum: everyone rushes to the weird stuff first.
• If I'm not me, what am I?
• When do you ever see an old worm?
• The Scottish voice sounds old. Even though he was a baby, he had the voice of an old man.
• We've got all these years: See something... But I'm saying, watch it on the telly.
• My brain was quite happy working on the book but my ears got bored.
• Me brain can think better without me ears.
• It's Dunkin Donuts & Starbucks. (regarding Boston)
• Sloths never get the flu 'cause that's when you're replenishing.
• You never see 'em getting run over 'cause they're too small to hit 'em (regarding midgets)

Where the hours go

If there are 168 hours in one weeks, where does all your time go? You can find out at: A Delicate Balance

In my case, the breakdown is an estimated or guestimated:

Work: 40 hours 24%
Sleep: 45.5 hours 27%
Meals: 24.5 hours 15%
Commute: 2.5 hours 1%
Leisure: 28 hours 17%
Chores: 21 hours 13%

That leaves a few unexplained hours, but this survey didn't take into account things like showering, getting ready for work, cleaning up cat puke, etc. And the fact that I tend to eat in front of the television, thereby combining meals and leisure.

Where the songs are

Sort of an audio form of youtube (and no wonder since it seems they take the audio from a lot of the videos at that site), Songza is a music search engine. Type in the artist you want to hear and with luck you'll receive a list of songs you can play streamed. You can also make playlists and share which songs you like via e-mail. As for copyright, it all seems above board as the site says "Songza pays for licenses from all the major performing-rights organizations, who then pay the publishers and writers in proportion to the number of plays." And they have a surprising amount of Icelandic and other foreign music.

Lost: There's no place like home Pt 2 Hour 2

Lost: Ben explodes the vault and explains to Locke that whoever moves the island can’t come back. It’s Locke’s turn to lead the Others. Ben goes into a tunnel or cave until he finds a frozen wheel which he turns. Sawyer swims to the island where Juliet watches as the freighter burns. Frank thinks he can reach the island with what little fuel they have but the island disappears. He orders everyone to put on their life vests before they crash in the ocean. They pull themselves onto the life raft. Someone drags in Desmond, who’s not breathing until Jack performs CPR. Hurley reasons that Locke moved the island. Jack realizes they have to lie after all. A Portuguese boat finds them and Penny happens to be on board (or she found Desmond by tracking his phone call) so they can have a happy reunion. Jack hopes he never sees Frank again.

In the flash forwards, Kate is troubled by nightmares, including one where she’s warned by Claire not to “bring him back.” Bring Aaron back to the island or bring Sawyer back off the island? Sun confronts Widmore in London and urges him to call her. Jack breaks into the funeral home where Bentham awaits burial. Ben creeps up behind him. Bentham spoke with Jack about a month ago and mentioned Ben was off the island. Bentham also said that bad things happened after they left and it’s Jack’s fault. Jack feels he must go back. Ben knows the island won’t let him go alone. They must all go back, including Bentham who turns out to be Locke, or an incredible simulation.

Lost: There's no place like home Part 2 Hour 1

Lost: Keamy takes Ben to the chopper. Kate and Sayid, being chased by Others, run up. Keamy is about to kill Sayid when Dr Alpert, still the same age as ever, shoots Keamy. Ben keeps his promise to allow Kate and Sayid to leave the island. Jack/Sundance and Sawyer find Hurley at the greenhouse. Locke wants Jack to stay on the island, reasoning they’re not supposed to go home. Not a good enough reason for Jack, so Locke asks him to lie to protect the island since miracles happen there. Big talk from someone who couldn’t find the anthuriums. Ben sends Jack to the chopper, then descends the elevator with Locke who watches a video from Edgar Halliwax/Candle about experiments in space and time and negatively charged exotic matter. He warns viewers never to place metallic articles in the vault, which is what Ben does.

Keamy finds the elevator and explains Alpert didn’t kill him because of his body armor. He’s sure Ben won’t kill him because he has a heart monitor masquerading as a bomb detonator strapped to his arm. Locke wants to talk but Ben goes ballistic & kills Keamy, thereby killing everyone aboard the boat. With Sayid, Hurley, Sawyer, Kate and Jack aboard the chopper, Kenny Rogers/Frank realizes they’re losing fuel due to a bullet hole in the tank. Hurley seems nervous they need to lose all excess weight. Sawyer whispers something a la Lost in Translation to Kate and orders her, “Just do it.” Then he jumps out into the ocean. In an unrelated event, Dan can’t convince Charlotte and Miles to accompany him on his next trip to the freighter.

Meanwhile, Desmond figures out the explosives are on a timer, triggered remotely (Boom!) by a signal. Michael thinks they can freeze it with liquid nitrogen while they work out the wires. But the red light comes on. Desmond rushes to get people off the boat while Jin & Michael stay in hopes of deactivating it. The chopper has no fuel and has to land, despite Desmond’s warning. Luckily Sun and Aaron hop on. Michael sends Jin out but he doesn’t reach the chopper that takes off again before the freighter explodes. Can we hope Jin jumped into the ocean?

In the flash forwards, Kate’s incensed that Jack says they have to go back. He appears to have left her and Aaron three years ago. Sayid kills a lookout at Hurley’s hospital, then asks Hurley to go with him. Jeremy Bentham is dead, ruled a suicide. Hurley won’t go. He finds paranoia is keeping him alive. Later the now high school aged Walt and Grandmother visit. Bentham dude, before dying, visited Walt who asks why the Oceanic 6 are lying, Answer: to protect everyone who didn’t come back.