I’m on the edge. I’ve been holding back, but little by little they have been pushing me with little half-resisting, half-excited steps toward the drop-off. They, them. The man, the world. You know who. Whatever, does it matter? Bit by bit I am being brought to the final precipice where, despite my protests that it is too early and it can’t be time yet, I am secretly longing to go. To let go of my scoffing and surrender, take the last step and fall from the cliff, finally letting myself believe it has come again and dive headlong into acceptance and excitement.

It’s almost time for Christmas, my favourite time of year, and I am almost ready to let myself admit it.

I am pretty sure that the Homogenizer in my lab is trying to get me. A homogenizer is basically a Laboratory blender, which means it’s a blender, but cost three times as much as a regular blender. I am not sure if it is acting alone, or in cooperation with our Rotovap (you don’t want to know what that is - not because it’s scary, but because the explanation is boring) which has already expressed it’s extreme dislike for me on several occasions (once by spraying me with Ethanol. Or maybe it was just trying to disinfect me) and whom I have long distrusted. But now I think it has enlisted the Homogenizer into it’s plot of terror because the previously cooperative (and quite friendly) homogenizer has turned against me with a startling violence.

I need to go home. I have pig blood all over me. Well played, homogenizer. You win this battle, but the war is far from over.

I could survive for 28 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Huh. Well, now I know. Thanks to Michelle from Scribbit for helping me find this out.

Although I don’t liked to send canned messages to my buyers, there are things I would like to tell every buyer after a purchase in their confirmation email, such as shipping expectations and return policies, and it would be helpful to have email template for this that I could access in my Gmail. Previously this was only possible by using Google Modules, but a new Google Labs feature now allows us to do this right from within Gmail.

Google labs are features that are not ready for official release, but are ready to be tested for functionality and popularity. To access them, go to your Gmail account and look at the top for a little green beaker, beside the “Settings” link. You can also access them by going to your Gmail settings and choosing the “Labs” tab. For some reason I can’t see the little beaker or the tab under settings on my desktop at work, though I can at my laptop, but I have suspected that the desktop is possessed for a while now. Maybe IE is the problem. Maybe it just hates me. Comment on this post if you know why I can’t see it on that one computer, will ya?

So, find yourself a nice, non-possessed computer and once you have logged into your Gmail and gone to the labs tab scroll down until you see “Canned Responses” and change the radio button to “Enable.” While you are there you can enable any other features you think you might like, such as the Forgotten Attachment Detector (prompts you if you mention attaching a file in your email, but don’t actually attach anything) and my favorite, the mail goggles (cute, but would be annoying in anything but the most extreme obsession cases) which stops you from drunk-emailing your ex-girlfriend by making you pass a series of tests before allowing you to send an email between certain hours of the wee morning.

Once you have canned responses enabled you will see a “canned responses” link available when you compose a message, or reply to one, which drops down to let you chose your desired saved email. To create your canned emails, just chose “new canned response” from the dropdown and create your masterpiece email template, then save. It will show in the dropdown list for you next time you compose an email (to an Etsy buyer after a purchase, for example) or reply.

Yay!

Remember when I asked Colin what the opposite of Portland was and he said Florida? Well, It turns out the opposite of Portland is actually somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Huh.

Antipodr.com – find the other side of the world for anywhere you want. Not sure why you’d want to, but it might come in handy if Jeopardy ever gets big again or you ever meet Ken Jennings.

Items I have been working on, but haven’t had a chance to list yet…

I just found a new way to make waking up and getting out of bed easier when your furnace is broken and the guys hasn’t come to fix it yet. Rare situation, yes, but you work with what you know, and I know our furnace is broken and the guy hasn’t come to fix it yet.

First you run out of bed as fast as possible and put on any clothes near the bed you can find, including socks, extra pants, sweaters and another sweater, on top of the warm pants, longsleeve and sweater you went to bed in. Then dive back under the giant duvet and wait until you are so hot you have to get out and take off some clothes or die of heat exhaustion. By then you are up and warm enough to brave the frigid house.

Of course this could also be filed under “ways to fall back asleep warm and cozy and make you late for work,” but I don’t usually find myself looking for ways to do that so I don’t think I need a file for it.

From the back of Adam ’s pouch of Big League Chew:

Sitting in a bullpen one night 25 years ago, Portland Mavericks lefthander Rob Nelson, and teammate Jim Bouton, the former New York Yankee All-Star, wanted something really different and fun to chew. So they came up with a great idea - shredded bubble gum in a pouch - and called it Big League Chew. It soon became a hit with ballplayers everywhere. 

Over 450 Million Pouches later, Big League Chew celebrates its 25th anniversary! More and more professional and amateur players in all sports are turning to Big League Chew, a fun gum that keeps your mouth from getting dry when the game is on the line.

So now you know.

“Big League Chew is so soft it’s like slime in your mouth.” - Emily

Chuki isn’t the only one growing older last month. I hit the first big milestone: “The Big 3-0.” A lot of people worry about turning 30, but I don’t really have a problem with it, although the frequency with which people are wiling to use the phrase “The Big 3-0″ does alarm me a bit.

My dearly beloved took advantage of my obliviousness and scored Sheryl Crow tickets (3rd row!!!!!!!) to her concert in Toronto that I didn’t even know about. How’s that for head in the clouds, eh? The ONE person left that I have not seen in concert that I desperately wanted to, and I didn’t even know she was in town. And even better, KT Tunstall opened the show, someone else I have been hoping to see.

 

Chuki chipped in his 25 cent allowance (oh, come on, he’s a cat, of course we are kidding)  and bought me a bookmark, since he ate all my old ones. And Ollie even sent along his wishes, which Emily helped capture in a card that they gave me with a gift certificate to Michael’s.  I asked her how she got hi to sit still for an inking and she just said “treats,” which is, of course, enough motivation to get Ollie to do pretty much anything. I think the little marks from the fur between his toes is the cutest part.