cranky pixels

I promised to report back on the nailpolish, didn’t I? Well, it’s a good thing I’m so prompt and not, like, almost a month late on that. Or anything.

Anyway, yes, nailpolish. I luuuurve it. The colors are fab, it’s super shiny, and it lasted forever on my toes. (Fingers = another story, but that’s mostly because once the polish chips at all I start worrying at it and the whole thing goes to hell. Yay, OCD!)

One weird thing: it’s darker on the nails than in the bottle. Which I guess makes sense, seeing as it is essentially paint, and they say that about paint, right? Although it’s never quite made sense to me. It seems like it should be the opposite, and I can’t figure out why I think that but I do. So the Tramp Stamp color (pictured) is somewhat more gothy than I’d intended, which figures, since all my nailpolish is pretty gothy. I thought I was taking baby steps in another direction, but as it turns out I was wrong. Oh well.

So the verdict is that the butter LONDON 3 Free polish is a win, and I would totally buy it again if it wasn’t $12 a bottle. Or if I wasn’t so broke.

Few things are more unpleasant to throw up than a combination of mostly-digested hamburger and just-eaten cupcake. I speak as a (semi) expert, seeing as I had ample opportunity to compare the relative merits of regurgitated foods during my excruciating stint of morning sickness when I was gestating Happy Fun Baby. (The winner? Cheerios. They taste pretty much the same coming up as they do going down.)

I definitely would have eschewed the hamburger in favor of Cheerios had I known that my dessert was made of poison. We stopped at Cupcake Jones last night, since I have a love thing for cupcake bakeries. This place just opened up in the Pearl, and it is ever-so-slightly more conveniently located than Saint Cupcake, which makes absolutely divine cupcakes.

Cupcake Jones seemed like a great choice – open late, cute logo, etc. We popped in around 8pm and each ordered a Downtown Cupcake Brown and The Pearl, opting for a Pearl Mini for the baby. They only had one Pearl frosted, so they frosted the other one while we waited. (This might prove to be an important detail.) We brought our haul home (+/- 5 minutes; gotta love living downtown). Not So and I both decided to eat the Pearl first, and the first thing we noticed was that there was WAY too much frosting. The frosting-to-cupcake ratio was almost equal. Also, the frosting was squishy and warm – on both cupcakes (including the one that was more recently frosted). Still, it tasted good, and we ate our cupcakes (which were just okay, not toe-curlingly fantastic like the ones from Saint Cupcake). As we ate we decided not to give the Mini to the baby, since there was so much frosting on it. Instead I gave Happy Fun Baby a couple of bites of mine – bites that had no frosting but did include cake and custard.

Immediately after finishing our treat, Not So and I felt really unwell. We thought it was the sugar giving us a headache and making us feel queasy. An hour later I came in and said “My god, I feel sick.” Not So: “I do too! I wasn’t going to say anything, but I feel seriously bad.” The baby (who, yes, was still awake…bedtimes have not been working for us, again) seemed fine. An hour after that I was experiencing the joys of regurgitated hamburger and cupcake, and we both decided that the frosting must have turned because my god, we were sick.

I’m all about supporting local businesses (especially bakeries!) but food poisoning on our first visit? Not really a good motivator to come back. And, seriously, if you’re a bakery and you can’t figure out the proper temperature for buttercream that doesn’t poison your customers? You should really consider a new outlet for your creativity.

Today Not So has a migraine, and he never gets migraines. Related? Unrelated? Who knows. All I know is I won’t be visiting Cupcake Jones again.

Tags: cupcakejones, portland, cupcake bakery, food poisoning

I finally scored a beta invite to Skitch! The happiness, it is all mine. Mine, I tell you. Here’s my first image, all notated and simple-like.

Uploaded with Skitch!

(Yes, I know, the bags under my eyes know no rivals. Have I mentioned I’ve been having dreams that I am a) trying to find an apartment in a country where no one speaks English or b) trying to kill my sister for borrowing things without asking? The sleep, it is not a thing I have these days.) (That reminds me, I need to set up my sister – who I don’t want to kill, even a little bit – with an Akismet account so that her site doesn’t get quite so much spam. I am totally going to do that now, even though I said that very same thing on Monday.)

Um, yes, but Skitch! Skitch is the rockingest, especially if you have a Mac. Which I have. Because, see, it only works on a Mac, so the rocking does not so much happen on the PC. I mean, sure, Grab is fine for screenshots, but it inexplicably insists on saving everything as a tiff. I have nothing against tiff files per se, but they are somewhat…how shall I put this…useless. I have to go through a ponderous opening Photoshop and saving as a jpg process every time I want to do anything with a screenshot, and do you think I have that kind of patience? Because I do not. I am very important and have many lofty responsibilities. You see.

Skitch is lovely in that not only does it solve the whole pesky tiff problem, it also lets you do other things. Neat things. Like, I can browse my iPhoto library! Without opening iPhoto! And I can take pictures with my iSight! And write on them! And upload them to Flickr! Wheeeeeeee.

I’m going to go play with my new beta account some more. At some point I will have invites, and when I do? You, my lovely friends, just have to ask and I will send one. I am nice like that.

technorati tags:skitch, plasq, grab, screenshots, isight, beta, beta whore

Santa was good to me this year, if by “Santa” you mean Not So. He got me a sewing machine (I’m thinking of calling her ‘Esme,’ but Not So suggests that it is a boy and should be called ‘Eduardo,’ because we are big, big dorks)(points if you get the ref). He also got me a blender – this was the year of the housewares, apparently – which I’ve been wanting for, oh, ever, and a new camera to replace the one that went all wonky and decided that all colors were purple.

I hear you, by the way. You are saying something to the effect of “A new camera? But you have the D70! You do not need a new camera! Also, children are starving.” To which I reply “Yes. I am obviously part of the problem. Also, I will gladly give them my old Canon, which I hear makes a lovely stew.” I am a firm believer in the point-and-shoot for spontaneous picture-taking moments. Do you honestly believe I am going to lug the D70 every time we leave the house? Because, no. The baby, he is heavy enough. Also, I am lazy.

And the D70, while rocking like a rocking thing in all other respects, does not do video. The little cameras take surprisingly good video clips and are much easier to wrangle than the camcorder. The upload is simple as well – there is no searching for the adapter cable, hooking it up, plugging it in, converting the video. There is just plug. I like things that have only one step.

(All of these, including the self-portrait at left, were taken with the new camera. I am, as always, blisteringly photogenic.)

The new point-and-shoot is a Nikon Coolpix L3. It is very, very wee. Hey! That made a rhyme, and I could follow it with a ditty about how I do not know I am a poet, but I will not. Merry Christmas!

The camera’s great, but it has what I have learned to think of as “Ugly Screen.” That is, everything on the preview screen on the back of the camera is rendered in uglyvision, and it isn’t until the shots are uploaded that it’s possible to tell which ones are good. Also, it handles color in a way that can only be described as “interesting.” I look like a thug in most of the pictures, but my eyes? Very blue. It’s a trade-off. All hail Adobe Lightroom, that’s all I have to say.

It does excellent video, though. I am all about the love for the L3 video. I could compose odes to it, but I won’t, because…lazy. Instead I will let you be the judge: check out the little test video we shot (before we set it to max resolution, even). Also, my kid? Cute.

technorati tags:nikon coolpix l3, coolpix, christmas, gifts, camera, snapshot, video

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At 11 months (well, almost), Happy Fun Baby’s vocabulary is at a whopping four words: “ghee” for “kitty,” “luh” for “love,” “ba” for “ball” and “da” for “yeah.” “Do you want to go downstairs?” I ask. “Da,” says the baby. It’s like living with a little Russian diplomat.

I’m pretty sure yesterday (and today)’s crying jags are tooth-related. A couple of times today the baby has, apropos of nothing, put his hands to his mouth and wailed. I feel so bad for him, but I don’t know what I can do aside from offering snuggles and the occasional dose of Tylenol, which he sucks down like a little addict. Do you remember when medicine tasted bad? This cherry-flavored baby crack is not exactly off-putting. On the other hand, do I want to wrestle with my child before he will take his painkillers? No I do not.

The Code Fairy (aka my inimitable husband, who loves it when I call him a fairy) performed some sort of magic on my Buzzverb site and now it works gorgeously. I’ve posted the second of my 30 Days of Writing Links: if you’re doing NaNoWriMo (or even if you’re not) you should check it out. I’m not collecting all these links for my health, people.

I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year (seriously, where would I find the time?) but I am all enamoured of a new manuscripting application. I downloaded the Scrivener beta yesterday, and it is, in fact, all that and a bag of chips. If you write novels, you know that Word is somewhat lacking in its outlining capabilities; I’ve always needed to either print out my notes and ideas so that I can refer to them while writing or have lots of windows open, neither of which is an optimal solution. And changing the order of chapters? Not exactly painless. Scrivener addresses these concerns and more. I’m digging the hell out of it. I may even do some work on the novel I started a couple of years ago and then abandoned in favor of sleep deprivation and mood swings. Er, I mean, parenthood. Stranger things have happened, you know.

technorati tags:scrivener, manuscript, writing, buzzverb, teething, tylenol, baby, nanowrimo, code fairy

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The baby woke up at 8am and spent the morning in a series of meltdowns. He’s begun stomping his feet when he’s angry or frustrated. It’s incredibly cute and incredibly endearing and doesn’t he need to be a little older before temper tantrums come into play?

About an hour ago he stopped crying long enough to nurse and then fell fast asleep. It’s no wonder he’s tired; he was up all last night doing the back-arch crying routine. I’d guess what was bothering him (teeth? sinuses? dreams?) but at this point it seems almost silly, like when I talk for my cat. “I hate it when you talk for me,” says Nick. See?

If I were clever I’d take this scream-free moment to do some housework, but I am not clever. I am also not fed. My fortifying lunch of chips and salsa did not completely fortify me. I know, I’m shocked too.

Apparently Last.fm introduced a bunch of new features today, not that I’d know from the lack of announcement. You’d think that announcing things would be important, wouldn’t you? There’s a space for events now, which I guess is exciting, but the thing that made me squee was the Taste-o-meter, which measures your “musical compatibility” with your friends. Kitschy? Yes. But so widget-tastic!

I checked my MySpace account today (yes, I know, I don’t know why either) and found the most unexpected message ever in my inbox:

I went to high school with you, and I always thought you were a great girl. Sorry if I didn’t say that to you back then. You have a gorgeous family, and I hope you are as happy as you look in your pictures!

Wow. She was one of the popular kids, too. Neat!

Speaking of neat: my pet project, Buzzverb, launched today. There was about as much fanfare as you’d expect for something no one’s heard of. Excitingly, once the site went live I discovered a fun little quirk wherein the first entry on the front page is posted with the formatting stripped. Which…doesn’t so much work for me, seeing as formatting is sort of important. There is a place to tell the theme not to do that, but it is feeling peevish and refuses to play. I went to the theme’s forums to see if I could find help, but – wouldn’t you know it? – the forums are down today. So, bah. But hey, if you or anyone you know needs a copywriter, check out Buzzverb. And pretend it works.

technorati tags:buzzverb, last.fm, myspace, sleep, baby, high school

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So we ordered a desk for the new office from Best Buy at the end of June. It’s an oversize item, so delivery was scheduled through the Best Buy home delivery service. We’ve dealt with them before (when we got the massive TV of doom in 2003) and I remembered the service as being prompt and easy to deal with.

A lot can change in three years, apparently.

First, we got a call two days before the confirmed delivery date (the 17th of July) from the warehouse. “It’s weird,” said the delivery guy, “but it’s just not here. We’ll call you in a couple of days to reschedule.”

Okay. Well…okay. So we waited a couple of days. No one called. I finally called the customer service line. “I’m just wondering where my desk is,” I said.

“I show that it’s scheduled for delivery for the 19th of August,” said the rep.

I think I may have managed something more articulate than “WHAT?!?” but I can’t guarantee it. “That’s – that’s ridiculous. I didn’t authorize that. No one’s even called me.”

“It looks like I can schedule you for the 25th of July, if that would work better.”

Since this month is sooner than a month from now I said yes, it would work better, and the delivery was rescheduled. I had my reservations, but the day before the delivery date we got a call saying the desk was in and would be delivered on schedule, between the hours of 9 and 11 am. Hooray!

So Happy Fun Baby and I woke up at the crack of dawn (i.e. the same time Not So gets up every morning) and headed over to the office, which was empty except for a desk chair and a printer. It was hot, and it was boring, but we persevered.

And persevered. And…11 o’clock came and went. Happy Fun Baby, who had had enough around 10, was practically inconsolable, and I was righteously annoyed. I called the warehouse directly (all hail Caller ID), where I was told that the driver wanted to speak with me.

“It’s the weirdest thing,” he said. “I show that it’s here on paper, but when we were loading the truck this morning we saw that it hadn’t come in.”

“Why didn’t anyone call me?” I asked.

“Well, you know, it was six o’clock in the morning when we were loading the truck…”

“I’ve been here since nine a.m. In an office with no air conditioning. And a cranky seven month old baby.”

“I’m sorry,” the driver said. “It’s not here.”

So we schlepped furiously home and I furiously called Best Buy customer service, where I was told the following:

1) No no, the desk is being delivered today. You just didn’t wait long enough.

(Um, the desk isn’t there. I could have waited all day; wouldn’t have made a difference.)

2) The order can’t be cancelled, since delivery has already been scheduled, and

3) So sorry, but Best Buy managers don’t speak to customers.

…WTF?

I shouted something to the effect of “THAT’S THE MOST RIDICULOUS THING I’VE EVER HEARD! CANCEL MY ORDER RIGHT NOW!” and hung up. In the most mature, non-temper-tantrum-y way possible, of course.

And then, seething, I sent a bitchy e-mail to their corporate headquarters. And the Better Business Bureau. Because repeatedly failing to deliver goods paid for and scheduled? Really not a good business practice.

It’s too bad, because we’d done a lot of business in the past and undoubtedly would have continued to do business with them in the future had they at least treated us with the slightest bit of respect. They could have been up-front about the availability of the desk. They could have called us when they realized the desk wasn’t going to be there when promised. Refusing to let me speak to a manager (despite my repeated requests), though, was pretty much the last straw. Since when is that not considered a shady business practice?

technorati tags:best buy, customer service, suckage

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