Ketchup with the Fried and a Small Side of Pig-Lick

I have spent almost as much time in the last two weeks apologising for my bad communication skills† as I have actually getting anything across.

Blame Billings.

The people in the Billings office with whom I've had to coordinate on the current sale have driven me to a level of brain activity most often reserved for dog trainers and pre-school teachers.

They ignore half of what I say, all of what I ask and react to the balance as if English is not their first language.‡

On the flip side, when they ask or tell me anything, I have to ask a dozen questions to figure out what it is they actually want.

So I talk to people like they're two. And everything anyone says to me, I question and prod and refuse to take at face value.

I hate what they've done to me. I used to be a reasonable, smart girl -- albeit given to occasional gusts of breeziness -- and now I'm a paranoid fuckwit.

I'd like to take this public opportunity to apologise to those who have been on the receiving end of my complete lack of logic and warn you it's not quite over.

[SUMMARY: That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.]

We're just getting started on the November sale.

*************

On a happier note, there is a brief reprieve between the October sale and the November sale in which we're all pretending there is neither a November sale, nor a constant stream of corrections and questions on the October sale.

And I'm going to Reno.

Monday.

For work.

Hans... poor Hans has to go to Lusk, Wyoming, tomorrow.§ But I get to go to Reno.

Now, my goal in life is to be dispensable. Dispensable people don't have to forego vacations because they can't be spared. Dispensable people don't have to attend client meetings. Dispensable people have disposable time.

On the other had, indispensable people get to go to Reno instead of Lusk. For 24 hours. And not really work.

I'm staying at a spa.

[SUMMARY: It's good to be king.]

Y'all are going to miss me so much.

*************

Tallest, Hairiest Nephew's birthday was Friday. I did, indeed, complete the Vampirates sweater in time.

This is the high fashion shot¶:




This is the edgier shot, in which THN displays both his mother's wig# and the skull itself beautifully.




Little brothers always have to drag tag along.




See? It was a good Friday.

Now Brother wants his own Vampirate sweater.

[SUMMARY: I'm a sweater factory.]

It's four months 'til Christmas. I can do that, right?
*************

Sampaquita - Ormonde Jayne (edp)

Marin says: It's a floral I can't put my finger on. It blooms into something with a bitter edge, like grapefruit, but not -- maybe a bitter orange -- just the tiniest hint, leading me to chase it around my wrist like my own shadow.

It definitely rolls out and I get an immediate whiff of bark or moss, but it's fleeting and light. There's a vague fruit somewhere under there, but I can't figure out what it may be -- a sweet, chewy fruit like date or fig, not a bright apricot or citrus.

Ormonde Jayne†† says: (National Flower of the Philippines) Literally translated as "I Promise You."

Sampaquita flower is a symbol of purity and fragility, coupled with fidelity and resolve. The scent opens with an unmistakable summer bouquet,$ bursting forth with sun-kissed lychee set on a canvas of bergamot,$ grass oil and magnolia flowers in full seductive bloom. The marriage of these elements, together with a dusky floral heart of sampaquita absolute, freesia and muguet, combine to form a fusillade of fabulous intensity. An inspired quartet of base notes, musk, vetiver, moss$ and ambrette seed, unify and harmonise this sensational summer scent.

- Top: Lychee, grass oil, bergamot and magnolia
- Heart: Sampaquita absolute, freesia, muguet, rose and water lilies
- Base: Musk, vetiver, moss and ambrette seed

Hans says: Now that you told me, it's definitelly Filipinoish. Gotta wait for the roll-out.

Yeah, it smells like the perfume section of the Thai market; it's definitely something familiar.

"It's very different now," I said.

Yeah, it is different. Muskier. Is that a word?

"If you can use 'Filipinoish,' I'm pretty sure you can use 'muskier.' Muskier may even be in the dictionary."


†FOOTNOTE (crossed): That's not bad like Michael Jackson bad, that's just plain awful. If I'd meant it the Michael Jackson way, I'd have spelled it "skillz."

‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): If only I had a special treat to train them with. And a cattle prod.

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): A town so unremarkable it doesn't even have its own website.

¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): I'm gearing up for the impending season of Top Model. Gotta get the lingo down. Meanwhile, I'd like you to marvel a little how nicely the sweater fits despite the fact that nephew is built like a phone pole and I didn't have actual measurements. Thank you.

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): I don't know why eBeth has two wigs lying around the house. I didn't ask.

††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): If you are the type who is interested (*cougheBethcough* *coughSylviacough* *coughRosiecough*), Ormonde Jayne offers a sampler of all ten Ormonde Jayne scents for about $60, shipped postage free from England. They're lovely... and such nice packaging!

$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): Ha! Got one!

DNC - Reduce, Re-use, Recycle

I took about 106 pictures.

This is a little less than half.† If you click on them, they'll get big.

They weave their way through the odd maintenance of the downtown fire hydrants‡ and the poorly-conceived parking lot price gouging.§

They tour the media blitz, the tourists and the fervent political pamphlet passers.¶

They skip across the political spectrum from scary to scary on the infrared and ultra-violet ends and a whole lot of in between.

We learned to look at motorcades as our daily due. We watched people hail taxis on street corners.# We watched the blossoming and fading of a whole new world of entrepreneurship.††

Pedicabs came from all over the country. Cops came from all over the state. Helicopters came from... well, presumably from hell and Channel 9.

Downtown was lousy with twinkle lights, bikes, bunting, celebrities,@ senators, balloons, buttons, hybrids, red carpets, pedicabs, riot gear, TiVi cameras, personal cameras, propaganda, flags, signs and just plain people.
























Despite all previous apprehension,‡‡ it was a fantastic experience.

My icy, cynical heart is all warm and gooey about the way my city handled this. I was amazed at how polite and cheerful and civilised everybody was.§§ I was grateful the disruptive rioters didn't put up much of a front.¶¶ I was delighted with the energy.##

As dumb as it is, the fact that our very own 'hood, the walking villa with the great restaurants and friendly bars, the mecca of boutique shopping, made national news at more than one outlet for being a "can't miss" slice of Denverana%... well, I'm proud.^

I wanna do it again.†††
*************

Fetish - Neil Morris (Vault) - (edp)

Marin says: This is another one that feels a little like I shouldn't like it -- maybe a little too head shop, maybe a little too amber-and-vanilla. But I *do* like it.

I get a strong undercurrent of patchouli (the dirty kind). The waft is pure amber/incense, but it gets more complex if you get closer. There's a lot going on... copper? Vanilla? Something astringent?

Ooooh, an hour in, there's a good, solid dry wood -- not as sharp and tangy as fresh-cut pine, but maybe a weathered pine log.

Neil Morris says: A warm blend of Myrrh,$ Ambergris, Rosewood, Musk, Oud, Leather,$ Benzoin$ and Patchouli.$

The Perfumed Court says: ...Fetish has notes of Carnation, Benzoin Absolute, Rosewood, Musk, Ambergris, Leather and is a great dark scent.

Hans says: I definitely get a whiff of baby powder, but there's something else. Like... air. Rain air.

†FOOTNOTE (crossed): You're welcome.

‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): A few weeks ago, it was the new locking tops. Then on Monday, they opened them up then went out into the street to do something underground. I think it was very nice of them to test the system before the riots.

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Usually $9 a day, the lot jumped to $25 a day. Nobody parked there except a couple of monthly parkers. It was $25 when Hans and I went to lunch. It was $25 when we came back from lunch. By the time we got up to our offices, it was down to $9 again. Lesson apparently learned.

¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): I collected a LOT of pamphlets. I made a point of it. In fact, some of the pamphleteers were suspicious of my enthusiasm for their products.

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): *Nobody* hails a cab in Denver. You call for cabs in Denver. It shocked the hell out of some of the cabbies. By the end of the week, they were responding like pros.

††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): And more Barack-rock puns than you can shake a donkey at.

@FOOTNOTE (atted): Alicia from the office was stalking celebrities. She had binoculars in the empty office that looks over to the Brown Palace. That's her celebrity sighting board in the pictures.

‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Read: bitching. Or, as we like to say, "Breezing."

§§FOOTNOTE (whirlwind political tour): People mostly watched where they were going, and when they didn't, they said, "Excuse me." I can't even get that at my local grocery store. It was totally impressive. I'm not a big fan of Obama, but I did feel a twinge of hope all my own.

¶¶FOOTNOTE (fists raised in triumph): More tear gas would have sucked.

##FOOTNOTE (Give us a pound! Make it 'splode!): Like NYC, only actively friendly. And sunny.

%FOOTNOTE (percented): Pertaining to America = Americana. Pertaining to Denver = Denverana.

^FOOTNOTE (careted): The fact that it will probably boost housing values is just icing on the pride cake.

†††FOOTNOTE (not as cross as I look): Like a small child on her first merry-go-round ride: "Again! Do it again!"

$FOOTNOTE (on the money): I'm giving myself a lot of credit here. I'm saying the benzoin is the astringent part, the myrrh is a classic incense component and every time I think copper there's leather involved. So maybe two points -- a half for each note. But a full point for patchouli.

Speaking of patchouli, I got a big ol' patchouli roll-on from Secret Pal out of the mailbox this morning. Thanks, Secret Pal!

Happy Monday Holiday

Weirdo

TTHFCIF

You Are 50% Weird

Normal enough to know that you're weird... But too damn weird to do anything about it!

How Weird Are You?

We always suspected.

I'm copping out today. A quiz, a cut-n-paste of a perfume review, and I'm on my way home.

Miss you already.
*************

Red Roses - Jo Malone

Marin says: Wow. Roseroseroseroserose.

Did anybody else have solid perfumes when you were little? Those flat disks of waxy white from Avon in unmistakable single scents? I had rose. It smelled a lot like this.

I've been looking for this rose... so many rose perfumes are rose mixed with a bunch of something (often my nemesis, sandalwood) that renders the rose not a rose, proving a rose by its own name may yet not smell as sweet.

Also? There are eleventy-three kinds of roses.† They don't all smell like roseroseroseroserose.

For Jo Malone, this is a really strong scent. Most of her stuff is elusive, designed to be layered and mixed. But this is strong and staying strong.

For all my gushing, I'm not sure roseroseroseroserose is something I want to smell like.‡

Jo Malone says: Composed of seven types of roses from around the world,§ red roses is a surprisingly clean, voluptuous scent. With a heart of crushed violet leaves and hints of lemon and spearmint, it unfolds like a bouquet of fresh-cut flowers.

The Perfumed Court says: Made of seven types of roses,$ crushed violet leaves, lemon and spearmint, Jo Malone red roses is one of the few lighter,¶ green# rose scents, just beautiful.

Hans says: It smells like asparagus pee. No, wait... roses. Is there a word for when you first spray it on? Tell them it started out like pee, but it changed.


†FOOTNOTE (crossed): L'Occitane has a rose scent called Eau des 4 Reines that combines four different roses. When it first came out, they had a station with the four separate rose scents. Every one of them, you'd recognise as rose, you'd call rose... it had never occurred to me how different roses smell within their species. For the record, Eau des 4 Reines smells like baby powder.

‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): It's making me sneeze, for one thing.

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): See? The thing I most think of as "rose" is an amalgam of SEVEN roses. It was probably always that way. I just associate that particular smell with my childhood version of rose.

$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): Ha! Got one! And I'm *so* proud of being able to name rose out of the roseroseroseroserose scent named "Red Roses."

¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): I beg to differ. This isn't just the strongest Jo Malone scent I've tried, it may be the strongest scent PERIOD.

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Green? Really?

Do Pigs Get Hairballs?

It's possible I do.

Last night, I finished all the knitting on the Vampirates sweater. Then I wove in ends.

For someone who knits in most of her ends as she goes, I sure had a lot of needlework to do.

First I tried spitting on my fingers and mashing the yarn ends together† to suitably configure them for threading through the eye of the needle, but they'd be just damp enough that the fibres would stick to my fingers and actually pull apart more.

So I stuck them in my mouth like my ancestors before me.

And ended up with a throat full of superwash.

Imagine the cat's surprise when I started *hornking* when he tried to sit in my lap.

[SUMMARY: Hornking a hairball on the cat? Priceless.]

Our fantasy draft is tonight. Brother has taken over commissioner duties for the league.

Thank the holy cats.

I used to have a lot of fun with it. I wrote funny, insightful, clever articles every week. I trash-talked with the best of them while maintaining benevolent stewardship of the rules.

Every year the whining got worse.

Last year's "Jack gets up earlier than me and gets better players. Can you change the add/drop every week... maybe make it random so it's fair to everybody?" left me completely cold. And over it.‡

I think it's good for the league and for their ex-Commishette to change regimes.§

But it's really hard not to keep calling Brother to remind him to bring pens and draft sheets and bye week sheets and...

[SUMMARY: Fantasy leagues come and go, but a big sister is forever.]

Unfortunately, our fantasy draft is tonight, coincident with the grand finale of the DNC.

Back story: historically, our drafts have been twelve rounds. Tonight, we're doing fifteen.

*tickticktick*

I couldn't care less about missing Obama's acceptance speech.

I am a little invested in the state of traffic as we try to make it home past the population zones, possibly when they're letting out.

There's some consolation in the fact that we'll be mostly streaming toward downtown while the masses are streaming out of downtown.

[SUMMARY: Did you not hear? I'm not commissioner. I'm allowed to whine now.]

Hans and I are going to take one last lunchtime peruse of the 16th Street Mall today and say farewell to the DNC and all its pamphlet-passing glory. You should see the pile of political paraphrenalia I've amassed.

All I need is the "Make Out, Not War" sticker and the donkey frisbee to make my life complete.

[SUMMARY: Marin's goals much exceed her reach, or what's an Internet for?]

CNN gave a shout out to my neighbourhood. Or at least that portion where we shop and drink.¶

If you look at the photo, go down the street as far as you can, you can just not quite see the Coral Room just beyond the tree.

[SUMMARY: That's two of my fifteen minutes.]
*************

Paprika Brasil - Hermès (Hermèssence)

Marin says: With a name like "Paprika," it's hard not to be influenced to think of a spice. And I definitely got strong spice at the first blast -- I would have called it pepper all on my own.

After it bloomed for a minute, I got violet and pepper. Or maybe violet and cedar. Cedar is kinda peppery. Since this is a Jean Claude Ellena, we'll see what the roll-out looks like.

After a half-hour, its lightened up a lot and now smells like fading violet with a slightly petroleum edge.#

Late in the evening, it reminded me very much of my Pink Jasmine, with its bright jasmine and white pepper notes.††

The Perfumed Court says: A woody spicy scent with notes of pimento,$ clove,‡‡ paprika, iris, green leaves, reseda, ember wood§§ and woody notes.

Hans says: It smells like... I always do that: "It smells like... I don't know."

I think my allergies are deadening my sense of smell. It smells like... wood! You know the wrappers, the little [Hans sign language for wrapper]... cedar? The wood wrappers on a cigar? It smells like the wood wrapper on a cigar.


†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Which seemed way more Miss Manners than stuffing yarn tails in my mouth.

‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): And sending emails to say, "Please print this email and take it to the mirror. Read it out loud to yourself and if you still want to put forth this idea once you've done that, make an immediate appointment for a vasectomy. We don't need your kind breeding."

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Before someone's head explodes. I'm not naming names.

¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): And by, "we," I mean, "I."

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Not as bad as it sounds. I think violet has a slightly petroleum edge anyway -- it's what makes it violet and not, say, lily.

††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): And I think I completely failed to mention the pepper in my review of Pink Jasmine. It has pepper. So now you know.

$FOOTNOTE (on the money): I'm giving myself credit for recognising pimiento as part of the pepper family. Otherwise I'd be o-fer and nobody wants that, right?

‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Clove! Cool! I love clove! I can kinda see it now that I've read it.

§§FOOTNOTE (look behind you): I looked up "ember wood" on Wikipedia, but mostly I got firecraft and a character list from Elfquest.

Secret Pal 12 Question 12

I'm sure most of us have a proudest moment when it comes to knitting. A project or technique that you've tackled and completed beautifully. What is your proudest knitting moment?

If you've been around me enough,† you've heard my bird-by-bird philosophy of knitting. It's not pretentious or flip, it's really how I feel.‡

Generally, pride comes simply from finishing something§ because I have yet to find a pattern that didn't fall under that "it's either knit or purl" umbrella.¶

[SUMMARY: Pride is a sin, you know.# I'm still running for saint.]

And on the flip side? What is the one thing that you can't get right? What is that one project that you've never been able to complete? Or that you did complete but then hid away instantly because it was too embarrassing?

I have a *lot* of projects I haven't completed.

I haven't completed them generally because they aren't birthday or Christmas presents for someone else†† and birthdays and Christmas rolled around, necessitating deadline knitting.

Oh, wait... not quite true.

We've all of us KALers given up on the stupid Sebring tank because the pattern sizing is so very wrong and none of is *that* interested in fighting it.@ It's just a tank top. It shouldn't become rocket science.

But not because we "can't get it right" -- just 'cause the pattern is so bad.

[SUMMARY: I sleep well at night with my clear knitting conscience.]

Trust me... inasmuch as this is still a knitblog, you will know when I find that stitch that ties me in knots or that technique that simply eludes me.

There will be cussing.‡‡
*************

Bois de Iles - Chanel

Marin says: Heavy and sweet. I don't know if it's power of suggestion from knowing "Chanel" is in the name, but I get a lot of aldehyde right off the bat. Also rose and sandalwood, which I'm starting to recognise as a classic -- overdone -- combination.

It's a Bois, so there should be wood, but... well, I guess sandalwood is wood, but when I see "wood," I'm always hoping for something more like tree bark.§§

The nice part is that the aldehyde seems to be under the other stuff, so it isn't too overwhelmingly No. 5 for me.

There's some other flower... I'm thinking lilac.

Oh, there's some wood. Aldehyde + sandalwood = cedar.¶¶ I like cedar.

The Perfumed Court says: The first woody fragrance created for women (in 1926). This Oriental woody scent has notes of sandalwood,$ vetiver,% tonka bean, vanilla, ylang ylang,^ iris, coriander, rose,$ jasmine and aldehydes.$

Hans says: Whoo.## That smells like baby powder! Only... something else... my first impression is baby powder, but... I want to nail this! Maybe I'm just thinking lavender baby powder. Only it's not really lavendery.


†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Or been around the Rickety Blog enough.

‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Seriously. I've never looked at a pattern to see if I could do it. I just look to see if I like it, then figure I can do it. Wouldn't it be lovely if I could approach all tasks with that kind of calm confidence? Like dating? For instance?

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): The bigger, the prouder. Square footage counts.

¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Not that I'm looking.

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): OK, OK... I will admit I was inordinately proud when Genius Sarah told me last week my stockinette is amazing. Do I get points for confessing?

††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Which is to say there's an assload of stuff I've started for myself, some experimental just-because projects for other people and poor Brother's sadly overdue Arrrgyle socks, which now take a back seat because they're already late and I don't see the logic in making everything else late on their behalf.

@FOOTNOTE (atted): I don't think I mentioned Bag Lady Kathryn wrote to the designer of the Sebring (there's no errata available for the tank) to ask if corrections were forthcoming or if she could give us some tips, as even the fattest of us (*ahem*) knitting an extra-small were in danger of slipcovering a Jeep with the results. Said designer said nobody had ever complained and very helpfully suggested we hadn't checked our gauge (that was sarcastic -- of COURSE we checked our gauge. If you have to start a project for the third time because it's waywayway too big, you check the gauge). Then she suggested the gauge for the lace panel should actually be smaller (7 st/in) than for the stockinette (6.75 st/in). Which suggested to me she's not thinking clearly and maybe never had a test-knitter on the thing.

‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): And vodka.

§§FOOTNOTE (seahorses!): Pine. I mostly think of pine when I think of wood. I bet there's a fancy term for sandalwood wood vs. pine wood.

¶¶FOOTNOTE (noses!): Just a theory.

$FOOTNOTE (on the money): Ha! Got one!

%FOOTNOTE (percented): I still don't know what vetiver smells like.

^FOOTNOTE (careted): I'm beginning to think I only hate ylang-ylang in bubble bath and shower gel. Maybe it doesn't react well with soap.

##FOOTNOTE (pound one in! Wait! Pound *two* in!): He may even have said, "Whoo doggy!"

4:01 p.m. Tuesday...

...and we have our first asshole with a megaphone.

It's gonna be a great week.

Hi, My Name is Marin...

(Hi, Marin)

...and I'm bad at dating.

(encouraging applause)

Not in a cutesy, "Oh, isn't dating just the worst... heeheeheeheehee," way, but I'm really and truly terrible at it.

I've been "dating" via the innernets for more than ten years and I'm just fucking awful.

When I go on that first date with someone I've been talking to on Match, I'm filled with apprehension and I render myself unable to talk.†

I grow to dislike and distrust myself, the guy who has to put up with me and -- really -- just about everyone in the world except the waiter who's bringing me a drink.‡

[SUMMARY: You can see why I'm single.]

I'm sure there are several guys out there who wonder how the vibrant, witty creature who intrigued them so on her profile could be the short,§ dull thing that lets the whole evening go one-sided¶ in two minutes flat.#

They probably think I paid someone else to write my profile.

When I have a chance meeting in a happy place,% it's all good. I can tease and flirt and sparkle and revel in my dorkness and my twelveness.

When I email someone for a week or two and set up a date, it feels like a job interview.

[SUMMARY: Guess what I did last night?]

On the plus side, I got to see a lot of DNC stuff -- pretty people in suits going to TiVi interviews, TiVi cameras on every corner,†† vendors selling Obama yearbooks for $40,‡‡ a dog in a baby sling dressed in an Obama photograph, white boater hats with red-white-and-blue grosgrain ribbons 'round the crowns.§§

Riot police in vans... on bikes... on motorbikes... on horseback...¶¶

Protestors and Democrat supporters dressed as hippies... dressed as prisoners... dressed as display racks.##

And the tear gas didn't start until I was back at the office to pick up my purse.††† Two nice security guards in the building apprised me of the spray-painting, window-breaking and the consequent tear-gassing and told me to be careful.

[SUMMARY: They like me! They really like me!]

So at least I have that going for me.
*************

L'Eau d'Hiver - Frederic Malle (edp)

Marin says: I'm anticipating a roll-out on this one. It's the one thing I really expect from a Jean Claude Ellena creation.

The initial blast was citrus, but a carmel scent came up from beneath that pretty quickly. Then something sharp, like menthol.

About a half-hour in, it smells like green wood‡‡‡ and carnation, a wet nature smell like woods after rain.

An hour in, it's wood and carmel.

Four hours down, it's very, very soapy. Meh.

The Perfumed Court says: An Oriental blend of bergamot,$ angelica, iris, hawthorn, jasmine, honey, carnation,$ white heliotrope, caramel$ and musk.

Hans says: Ooooh. That smells like licorice!§§§

†FOOTNOTE (crossed): And the closer I get to date time, the more I want to call in sick.

‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Charming, no? If it makes you feel any better, I rarely drink more than one on a first date. Surly, paranoid, uncommunicative and drunk. Line up boys, I *am* your dream date!

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Not height. I don't like about my height. But snappish. And monosyllabic. Can you imagine the girl who regularly uses the word "monosyllabic" being monosyllabic?

¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): More than one guy has said, "Am I asking too many questions? Is there anything you want to know about me? Is there anything else I should know about you?"

Yes... I can't date.

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): The exception that proves the rule is Soldier Boy, which explains why he calls every time he's in town. Psych 101: Soldier Boy was home for two weeks on leave and was returning to Iraq. Stakes were minimal. Expectations were limited.

%FOOTNOTE (percented): Like bars, football games, BBQs or the book store.

††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): News teams from everywhere were getting background/stock footage of DNC crowds. I must've walked through two dozen view screens yesterday. Look for me on a TiVi set near you!

‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Yeah, I don't know what an Obama yearbook is either. Or why it's worth $40.

§§FOOTNOTE (wafts): A look I find charming, though it reeks of political events and barbershop quartets.

¶¶FOOTNOTE (meerkats): It was really impressive when they all took off to do riot control last night. I know a lot of people think Denver is still a cowtown, but it's been a long time since horses have galloped down the streets here.

##FOOTNOTE (two pounds, two pints): You know how some people have so many bumper stickers on their cars you wonder if there's anything they won't honk at? There are human equivalents with t-shirts, hats, buttons and banners all over the place.

†††FOOTNOTE (scent strips): I didn't want to take it into the throngs. Just in case. I left it safe in my office.

‡‡‡FOOTNOTE(like tracks through my nose holes): Which is a bitterly green smell.

$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): Ha! Got one!

§§§FOOTNOTE (Hans twirls his hands as he ): Hans got to smell five minutes after I sprayed -- and I bet carmel and menthol smells a lot like licorice.

I Love Fireworks

Um... I didn't quite finish my Ravelympics stuff. In fact, I only *technically* finished Grandma's slippers.†

But the Vampirates sweater is almost done.‡ And it's really cool.

I shoulda brought it to the office. Y'know... just in case.
*************
Marin says: It seems just this side of about a dozen things I don't like: vanilla, Channel No. 5 aldehyde, toilet paper... but I love it. It's woody and spicy with a tiny bit of patchouli -- and when I breathe it in really deeply,§ it has a tinge of cinnamon candy to it. It's sweet, but rich and tempered by that woody, spicy thing.

Love this.

It was still good at 6:00 that night -- no roll-out, no blossoming, per se, but holding steady.

DK says: Inspired by the finest of cashmere,¶ Black Cashmere is the color of mystery, the texture of luxe, the scent of sophistication. Wear it with anything or nothing at all.#

The Perfumed Court says: With notes of saffron,$ patchouli oil$ and African wenge wood,$ Black Cashmere eau de parfum is a gorgeous, dark fragrance.

Hans says: Is that patchouli? I dunno. I get patchouli.†† It's definitely earthy.


†FOOTNOTE (crossed): But technical's all I needed to get one of these:




‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Back, both sleeves, and I'm halfway up the armholes on the front... despite the fact that I keep freaking myself out and nearly frogging half of it because of a perceived fatal error.

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Like, stick my nose right on my wrist and snork. I don't get cinnamon candy from what wafts up while I'm typing.

¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Y'know... the black kind.

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): OK, I can get behind that.

$FOOTNOTE (on the money!): I am getting so good at this. Even if I couldn't identify saffron *specifically* or African wenge wood *specifically*... I am SO in the ballpark.

††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): How does the guy who comes up with "diaper" half the time manage to identify barely identifiable patchouli? Or maybe it's just me.

Secret Pal 12 Question 11

TTHFCIF

And can I tell you how thrilled I am the SP question finally came up this week? I'm tapped. My brain is no longer generating useful or entertaining bits... if it ever did.

What is the best thing you've ever received in the mail?

Wow. That's a kind of difficult one.

I've been to Girl Scout Camp, was an exchange student in Mexico for most of a summer when I was 13 and went to Antarctica for six months -- letters% from home were always fantastic.

[SUMMARY: Oh, the places I've been!]

I received my AP English test scores,† college acceptance letters, title to the first car I bought myself,‡ and the neighbourhood covenants§ when I bought my house.

[SUMMARY: Validation of a life well-documented.]

I do have a story,¶ though, about one of my favourite mail moments:

My freshman year in college, one of the first people I bonded with was Chris Erikson. He was gorgeous# and a Rush fan†† and one of those naturally popular people it's just good to have on your side.

I was in the basement of the Union getting my mail and he detoured from the pool table to say hello and, "Hey, what'd you get?" I handed my meager stack of mail over to him and he zeroed in on a letter from my friend Mark in England.

"Can I open it?"

"Sure."

"Can I read it?"

"Sure."

Now, Mark is funny as hell and creative, so I figured it'd be a good letter. And I knew there wouldn't be anything incriminating in it.

Only Mark had annotated this letter with pictures cut from magazines. And the picture that popped out‡‡ first was a photo of an erect penis, separate from its owner, with the handwritten note, "This isn't me."

Chris crowed with glee and read the letter out loud to me, giggling the whole time.

I never got a penis letter from Mark before or since, but that letter cemented me in Chris's mind as a cool chick who knew cool people, and we lived happily ever after.§§

[SUMMARY: Never has one person gotten so much credit for doing so little.]
*************
Bois Farine - l'Artisan Parfumeur¶¶

Marin says: It smells kinda like peanut butter. Not Jif, but the stuff in a Reese's peanut butter cup. Fake peanut butter. A little sweet, a little unnatural.

I know this is supposed to be an innovative perfume and it does, indeed, smell like flour. Like flour and water paste, to be more specific. It's not unpleasant, just really odd.

Three hours in, it smells a tiny bit flowerier, which helps it be less... odd. Yeah, I'm running out of words for this one.

Oh, wait. Wait. There's a roll-out with this one! It's making me very happy -- almost giddy. The flour paste and light floral is there, but blossoming, and there's something astringent and vaguely medicinal that reads like camphor or cinnamon -- something that would make you hot or cool if you rubbed it on your skin.

Wow.

l'Artisan says: Created by Jean-Claude Ellena, perfume composer of great talent and international fame, Bois Farine (Wood Flour) is the product of his encounter with a magic tree in the Reunion Islands.

Here, in a forest known as the coloured wood forest, surrounded by evocatively named trees , red wood, yellow wood, iron wood and milk wood, he unexpectedly discovered the fragrant white tree - a rare and nowadays protected species, reputed to have magical powers. This tree is specific to Reunion Island and its red flower smells like flour.

Bois Farine is a single and unique fragrance,## a magical union between witch wood and flower powder … As rich and fresh as flour rain.

Hans says: Oh, that does smell like diaper. *sniff* Yep. Diaper. Like baby powder. You know, like when you go into a baby changing station?


%FOOTNOTE (percented): And M&Ms.

†FOOTNOTE (crossed): With the letter saying I'd earned the highest score in the state. Yay me. Oh, let me brag... I don't have that much to brag about.

‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): A milestone.

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Which I read cover-to-cover that night in bed.

¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): I *always* have a story. You may have noticed.

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Looked like a blond David Cassidy.

††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): And was, in fact, driving on the epic road trip from Gunnison to the Rush concert in Denver (2/14/86) that turned my bladder into the camel's hump it is today.

‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): So to speak.

§§FOOTNOTE (won't that turn your head around?): He even called me once a couple of years after graduation just because he found me in the phone book.

¶¶FOOTNOTE (put your hands up!): For those of you who may be interested (*coughSylvia* *coughRosie*), l'Artisan will ship you five samples of your choice for the price of shipping and handling ($7). Along with a catalogue that is the most beautiful, expensive example of the printer's art I have ever seen.

##FOOTNOTE (pound that point home!): Um... because nobody else would try to make a perfume smell like flour?