Category Archives: everyday kimli

batteries needed

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.. for my phone and Pebble, because they’ve had one hell of a workout today.

Earlier this morning, everyone’s favourite Canadian Nathan Fillion tweeted that he was taking applications for Valentines. I happened to be looking at TweetDeck at the perfect moment, so I responded to him and then moved on with my day, because that is what happens in meatspace: you do something, and then you do another thing, and then another thing, and so on and so forth until you’re dead/for eternity (depending on your belief tree).

Then this happened:

i'm in!

i’m in!

My notifications/Pebble have been going off NONSTOP since that tweet. In fact, since I took the screenshot, it’s gone off a half dozen more times. This is all very weird and hilarious, and now I have two Valentines for today so I am pretty pleased (if in desperate need of a Pebble charging cable).

Tonight Ed and I are going to see the LEGO MOVIE in DBOX and I am EXCITED. I will buy jellybeans and popcorn and my seat will move and everything will be great. Hooray for Friday!

happy friday the 14th from all of us sitting at my desk!

happy friday the 14th from all of us sitting at my desk!

logic vs. webmd

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For the last ten days or so, I have been Experiencing Symptoms:

  • Droopingly tired throughout the day
  • Peeing ALL THE TIME
  • Sore boobs
  • Constantly, ravenously hungry

.. you probably know exactly where this is going, and you wouldn’t be alone: every single website on the entire internet thinks I am pregnant. Google says I’m pregnant. Facebook says I’m pregnant. WebMD says I’m pregnant and also cancer. Wikipedia said I was pregnant, but the article was deleted because [citation needed]. The point is, every time I get curious about my symptoms, everything says there’s but one reason for it all: totes knocked up.

Doubt is an insidious thing. Even though I know in every fibre of my tired, hungry, sore-boob’d, hafta-pee self that I am NOT pregnant and can’t possibly be knocked up because SCIENCE, I was still tempted to seek out a stick to pee on just in case. I had myself almost convince that the whole of the internet was right and I was mere minutes away from learning first hand how babby was formed when one sprang out from betwixt my nethers. I was dealing with the near panic attack that followed these thoughts when I caught myself being an idiot, and stopped. I took some deep breaths, and used some good old fashioned common sense to look at each symptom rationally .. and I found that every one could easily be explained away without any kind of embryonic sacs whatsoever.

  • I’m frequently exhausted because I stay up too late every night
  • I pee all the damn time because I drink Diet Coke and water non-stop
  • My boobs are sore because it’s fucking cold at home and in the office so my nipples are at DEFCON 3
  • Skipping lunch at work means I’m faint with starving when I get home

See? All perfectly logical reasons for all my symptoms, with nary a fertilized egg in sight. Still, I might be a *little* worried. I just need to keep repeating logic to myself, and maybe go to bed at a reasonable hour for once. Nice try, internet. Team No Babies 4 lyfe.

apropos of nothing, but look! pretty lights!

worst person ever

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I AM A TERRIBLE PERSON.

I read a story about a woman who needs a kidney. She’s taken her search to Facebook, because although she’s at the top of the transplant list, she’s unable to find a donor through traditional methods due to a rare blood type. I followed the link to Facebook and checked the page out of curiosity (after checking my self-diagnosed blood type and finding that I am actually a match), because hey I’m not really using my kidneys and I could potentially give one up. I wanted to learn more about the potential recipient of my flesh gift.

.. who, it turns out, will never get MY kidney, because she misuses your/you’re and also thanks God for keeping her alive although requiring near-daily dialysis for 8+ years as she waits for a miracle.

Sorry, but MY organs are earmarked for people who properly attribute their lot in life to science/technology/hard work/genetics and have a solid grasp of the English language. Seriously, there’s a test. Multiple choice, long answer, and essay. Show your work.

(I’m honestly only terrible for the sake of a blog post – if I can donate, I will. I’m already an organ donor, and I’ve submitted myself online to be checked for this specific match. I do think that they will find I am too fat/old/full of chemicals/half cyborg/godless heathen/probably not actually B+ to donate, but if the call comes, I’m here. Don’t judge me! At least not for this!)

So hey, how about those Seahawks? Go sports!

trapped!

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I spent much of Saturday trying to escape Richmond, but not in the usual way – this time, I was locked in an Egyptian tomb. And then a prison. And each time, I couldn’t get out.

I had heard about this thing called EXIT on Twitter a while back, and after sharing it amongst my friends it was decided that a group of former co-workers and special guest stars would try it out on February 1st. Knowing my meat space friends wanted to check it out as well, I arranged for them to join me after the first session was done so we could all do a new one together, because I am excellent at planning things and such.

Even after reading the website and reviews thoroughly, none of us had any idea what to expect. At the core, EXIT is a video game without the video part. You choose one of four scenarios, get locked in a room, and .. you have to get out. Each available scenario will be immediately familiar to anyone who’s played any kind of first person game: you’re locked in an Egyptian tomb, and need to escape. You’re trapped in a sunken ship and need to reach the surface. You wake up in your prison cell, only to discover you’re all alone. And the last scenario, which I’ve played dozens of times in more games than I can count, is the dark dingy laboratory of untold horrors and inadequate security. While it may sound like something you could handle with your eyes closed, you’ll soon learn otherwise – you’ve only got 45 minutes and up to two hints provided by the staff if when you get stuck. And it’s hard. We got most of the way through Egypt, but only a third through the prison .. and if we want to solve it, we have to go back. Which I want to do. Because it was awesome.

I don’t want to give any secrets away, but if you like puzzles and intrigue I suggest you check out EXIT for yourself. It was really cool (even though we failed spectacularly), and definitely a unique experience – I don’t know of anything else like it that isn’t on a computer or on the Holodeck in the 24th century.

Some tips if you’re interested:

  • There are four scenarios that are updated pretty regularly
  • You get 45 minutes
  • They range in difficulty – from easiest to hardest:
    • The Sunken Ship
    • The Egyptian Tomb
    • The Prison
    • The Laboratory
  • Don’t be afraid to use the hints
  • Each scenario can fit 2-6 people, but four would be an ideal group size (we felt crowded in the prison)
  • If at all possible, find out before you go in (or use a hint) how many digits are expected to open the keypad(s). We wasted WAY too much time in prison trying to figure out which four digits we needed out of the eight we deduced, when in actuality we needed all eight (all the locked doors we’ve ever encountered in the real world, not to mention the tomb, only needed four). This is the only complaint I have about the whole thing, and in the feedback I gave the to the team .. I don’t think we would have escaped the prison even with the time we wasted, but we definitely would have gotten further.
  • You can’t bring anything in the rooms with you, which is why I have no pictures to share. Those sessions were the longest I’ve been separated from my phone since .. well .. ever.
  • It’s $24.change per person which is pricey, but it’s such a neat experience I didn’t mind the cost – I’ve paid more to be locked up, and it wasn’t nearly as entertaining.
  • Even abject failure can be fun!

we make it look so good

seattle adventuary

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Seattle, you are pretty:

pier 46

downtown times

on the waterfront

smith tower

the impossibly gorgeous carved ceiling of the chinese room at smith tower

my favourite building in seattle

More pictures over on the Flickrs.

We couldn’t have picked a better weekend to go Seattling. The weather was the nicest I have ever experienced in any January ever, and we spent the entire glorious day outside looking down on things for miles around. Our first stop was at Smith Tower, which turned out to be our favourite of the two: the lookout is on the 35th floor and you can GO OUTSIDE! Outside is amazing. It’s fenced off For Safety, but it was so gorgeous outside that we were giddy with fresh air and epic views the entire time. The inside of the lookout floor turned out to be a treat as well – it was set up as the “Chinese Floor”, and outfitted with a carved teak ceiling and fancy carved furniture like the Wishing Chair that I made Ed sit in. Legend has it that “any wishful unmarried woman who sits in it would be married within a year”, so we shall see if Ed was sufficiently wishful and womanly enough to be married soon. Here’s hoping! If that doesn’t work out for him he can go work for Uber, as we passed their HQ on the way down in the fancy brass elevator. They were hiring!

After the Smith Tower, we had lunch at the Pike Brewery and I bought an amazing hat. We wandered the Seattle Art Museum, Ed had an early mid-life crisis in the Harley Davidson store, and then we were off to the second tower of the day: the Sky View Observatory on the 73rd floor of Columbia Centre. Sky View was a lot more crowded than the first place, and while it offered some impressive views, it wasn’t really built with viewing in mind: the glass is thick, tinted, and highly reflective (making photography difficult), and you can’t go outside probably for safety reasons but that is dumb. I still managed to get some good shots thanks to Ed the Human Shield, but we definitely liked the Smith Tower better because OUTSIDE and INCREDIBLE CEILING and the awesome elevator operator and so much more.

All the amazing views of Seattle aside, I finally got to meet the new kittens at Doug and Ali’s:

pugsley!

wednesday!

THEY’RE SO SQUISHY!! The kittens were a little unsure of me but they were so fun to watch – and I got plenty of lovin’ from my boyfriend George anyway:

geoooooorge.

I am now obsessed with getting a squishy-faced kitty to quell my pug lust, but Ed isn’t going for it (gasp). What’s a girl to do, other than run away to London?

Some adventure done. More adventure needed. Up next: escaping from prison!

domestic as fuck

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I’m like Heloise all up in this bitch, with excellent ideas all over the place. I already shared the fridge tablet idea, but here are two more brilliant things you should be doing for maximum awesome:

Lazy Susans!

so lazy!

so lazy!

I don’t know who Susan was and why she was so damned lazy, but the appurtenance that carries her name is brilliant. Lazy Susans have been out of vogue for a number of years, but they’re incredibly useful. I’ve got a few in the house right now and I could find places to add a half dozen more to make with the easy access and kitschy fun: my bathroom counter, for example, has never been so organized and clean. There’s way more space on my counter, everything is easy to get at, and now my giant cats have a place to sit and yell at me while I pee. Everybody wins!

Susan isn’t just great at organizing makeup, though – I’ve been using one in my computer room for YEARS.

space for toys!

my desk is full of important business items

My secondary monitor sits lower than my iMac, so instead of elevating with phone books I use a Lazy Susan. The added genius comes from the extra surface for one or two small trinkets, and – best of all – the ability to adjust the direction of the monitor when needed to avoid glare or hide the fact I’m looking at porn. I’m sorry not sorry to take away one of the few remaining reasons people keep phone books around, but seriously this system is so much better.

My other Brilliant Advice is not an item, but a food: put bocconcini salad in everything. It’s SO GOOD! I add it to pasta sauces, bake it in casseroles, slather it on my body during sexy times, use it for homemade margherita pizza – basically, anywhere I would normally add cheese or tomatoes or basil. I use it so often that I buy containers of it at the deli to freeze, so it’s always on hand. If you love tomatoes and mozzarella and crazy delicious good times, try adding bocconcini salad to every damn thing ever. IT WILL BE GLORIOUS!

Those are all the good ideas you get for today – I’m off to Seattle for skyscrapers and sparkle castles.

behold the future

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Look! It’s the most expensive grocery list in the world!

so tech! much overkill!

so tech! much overkill!

I am guilty of rarely using my iPad and eating expired mayonnaise far too often, so I decided to Do Something About It. I bought a fridge mount for the iPad, installed some essential apps, and there you have it: a really big fridge magnet that can control all the lights in the house, remind me when we’re out of creamed corn, and probably one day gain sentience and kill us all.

Although I add 98% of the items to the grocery list, Ed is often sent out to play sherpa. Writing down embarrassing sitcom-esque items for him to pick up like tampons and pantyhose and gluten-free manwiches on paper is practically caveman, so instead Ed and I use an app called Avocado. It’s a “couples app” with a bunch of really cheesy features (send kisses to your boo! omg what), but it also has a shared calendar and lists: whatever I add shows up on his phone, and vice versa. It’s free to use (with a few limitations, or you can pay $20/year for a subscription) and I find myself keeping all our household lists there: things to pick up, places we want to go, where all the bodies are buried. Useful!

I think I will enjoy living here in the future. Everything is so delightfully wireless!

getting high

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Last weekend when Ed and I were at the Vancouver Lookout, I activated my membership. At any point in the next year, I can go up the tower and see awesome views of Vancouver like these:

vancouver harbour

east van

stanley park

I enjoyed looking down on the world from above so much that this weekend, I’m going to do it all over again .. in Seattle. Ed and I are heading to the Sparkle Castle for some fun and visits, and while we’re there I’ve decided we should go up some really tall buildings and look around. I bought us passes to the Smith Tower (35th floor with an open deck), and to the Sky View  Observatory (73rd floor) for weekend good times. The second tower is open past dusk, so there should be ample opportunity for some great night time photos. I am excite! And glad I don’t have a fear of heights!

I have three solid weekends of Adventure coming up (and the fourth weekend is earmarked for Hardcore Adventure Planning). I am happiest when I am outside experiencing things exactly like this, so I couldn’t be more pleased that things are happening. It will go a very long way in ejecting me from the funk I’ve been in for the past few months!

As an added bonus, here is a Nerd Totem Pole!

not to be confused with a shame pole

not to be confused with a shame pole