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I had a home run today in my softball game.  It was nice to finally have a good hit and not have it caught.  Also, note to self: Don't eat a whole pizza before a softball game again!

Just how cute is this dress?Congratulations, Ms. Dranko! The Duct Tape Prom Queen of Alley Valley!Read about it here.

AP - Nine environmental groups said Tuesday they plan to sue the federal government if wolverines aren't granted protection under the Endangered Species Act within 60 days.

This was, without contest, the work that I felt was the most compelling in the Life on Mars exhibit at the Carnegie Museum. I have been so looking forward to attending this talk.Ranjani ShettarLife on Mars, the 2008 Carnegie InternationalJuly 15, 2008, 6:30-7:30 p.mCarnegie Lecture Hall412.622.3131 or visit www.cmoa.orgFree to the public.

The Corporate Overlords issued a press release that "the Company’s largest services contract for the provision of staffing services expired on June 30, 2008, at the end of its three (3) year term, and the contract will not be renewed." I don't know who that contract was with (I have a good speculation) but it doesn't sound like a good thing, does it? “While we do not take pleasure in seeing a working relationship come to an end, it was not financially prudent for us to pursue the renewal of this contract under the conditions required by the customer. In particular, we would have been required to commit to a greater volume of business while lowering our profit margins from already low levels." The Corporation has apparently been underbidding and underdelivering contracts for some time, it should come as no surprise that a client decided that they wanted all the services that had been promised to them and that The Corporation decided that it was simply too expensive for them to actually deliver on what they had promised.

So, I looked into this deal a little more deeply. Three years ago when the deal was announced, The Corporation was gloating that it was going to bring in $150 million over the next three years. This announcement of the contract's end indicates that it has been pulling in $65-75 million annually, apparently exceeding expectations significantly. This was not "financially prudent" to continue? What happened to the extra $60 million or so?

When we were purchased by The Corporation, their share price was around $15 a share and had already been on a downward slide for a number of years from a peak of around $25. The purchase of our company was supposed to expand The Corporation's offered services. So now, they've lost their largest customer and the stock price opened at $4 a share this morning, the worst it's been since 1993.

The wiring near the base of the Ipod is shredded. It still plays fine and all. The sound doesn’t go in and out of each ear either. But I can tell it’s coming because sometimes I’ll get this weird almost feedback noise in one ear. The sucky part is that you can only use Ipod [...]

AP - Global warming is shrinking glaciers all over the world, but the seven tongues of ice creeping down Mount Shasta's flanks are a rare exception: They are the only long-established glaciers in the lower 48 states that are growing.

Things that are getting less weird over time:

• When the headphones are much larger than the musical device that they are connected to

http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/specialsection/espys2008/?addata=2008_espti_xxx_xxx_xxx_xxx

The above is a link to the ESPY ballot at espn.com, also reachable via a link on the front page of that site. I ended up voting for some of your guys, or your team on three separate occasions, just letting you know in case you needed to give your guys a boost.

By contrast, I can only recall voting for a red wing related choice once.

Heck, I even voted for Crosby as the best hockey player, over Pavel Datsyuk. Had Zetterberg been on the ballot, I would have voted for him, but not Datsyuk.

For your convenience, in case you just want to fill out the ballot sections related to the Pens, Crosby's up for his winner against Buffalo in the winter classic under "Hummer nothing else like it" category, both he and maklin are among the nominees for best NHL player. The third instance was under "Best Finish", for the 3OT game 5 to stave off elimination, which I think could have been nominated under best game, too, even though nothing is touching the Super bowl.

That said, it was nice to cast a (however hopeless) ballot for the Wings as Best Team.

Okay, the disaster is over. After much searching and consternation, I discovered that the culprit was an audio extension cable. Somehow it managed to fry itself in such a manner that it started passing attenuated signals. Pretty bizarre. I can't imagine how it happened, but when I plug my headphones directly into the jack, it [...]

He can't be serious, you're saying. There's no way HE could be be chatting with HER, you're yelling between knashings of your teeth. Something must be dreadfully wrong with The Universe in order for that to happen, you're screaming while pulling out what remains of your hair.

Nope. It's all true, The proof is right there. On the right. Get it? It's a pun.

Earlier this election year, I interviewed two prospective candidates for Tim Murphy's House Seat; Wayne Dudding and Steve O'Donnell. I thought it only fair to extend the same invitation to one who's looking to reacquire Jason Altmire's House seat. And the rest, as they say, is history. Well, recent history.

Sitting in a bright corner of Mitchell's Fish Market downtown, me with a ginger ale, Hart with an alcohol-free Seabreeze and Alicia, Hart's Campaign Manager, with a diet Pepsi, we had a very nice chat about her campaign. I started the ball rolling by asking her why she wanted to run again.

After devouring at the orange slice that came with the Seabreeze, she answered that she had a lot of reasons to run. She said she's looking to finish some projects she was working on when she left Congress - some highway projects in order to bring economic development to the area, for instance.

Every now and then throughout our chat, her well manicured fingers tapped at the table for emphasis.

Her main point, and one I'm guessing she's relying on for her campaign, is that she feels she's a "better fit" for the voters in PA-4. While Democrats constitute 57% of the district, she says, the voters there don't fall into an Republican vs Democrat choice. The voters, she said, want lower taxes, less regulation and so forth. Assuming a leftward shift in the Democratic Party (and, unfortunately, she did use the incorrect "Democrat Party" a few times), she said that given the current political climate John F Kennedy would be a Republican these days. PA-4 voters, though, are closer to JFK than they are to Nancy Pelosi, she said.

Ignoring the AP keeps getting easier. "Iran and its Mullahs have written a new law that would put bloggers to death for any writing that is viewed as advocating corruption, prostitution, or desertion of Islam." No doubt many in our...

Reuters - The oil-rich Canadian province of Alberta said on Tuesday it will put C$4 billion ($3.92 billion) into two funds that will be used to pay for carbon capture and storage programs and to boost use of public transit to cut the province's carbon-dioxide emissions.

The most amazing man alive.
Originally uploaded by Nix Sidhe.

Let me just say that on Monday I was feeling pretty frazzled when I came home from work. I had just one too many encounters with less than pleasant people and I could feel my newly practiced calm starting to slip. I finally get back to the house and come up the steps to the front door and I notice that there isn't any mail. Strange, I unlock the door and walk inside. Sitting there staring at me on the very first landing is a single blue balloon (blue being my favorite color). Taped to the "key hook mirror" I find a note (which if you click on the photo it's the top image. I started to giggle immediately. I continue up the stairs to find another balloon and yet another note. This one promising that I will either find Joshua or George Washington some where in the apartment. I go back the hallway to find Joshua sprawled out on the bed looking devilish and handsome. Devilishly handsome. He makes me go into my room where I find this scene.

Joshua came home from work early because he was feeling awful, but he wanted to show me that he loved me and that he did care that I want to have fun. He blew up all of these balloons for me, made me a little treasure hunt, AND took me out and bought stuff to make his delicious ciabatta bread vegetable sandwiches that I love. That night he slow danced to Radiohead with me, then silly danced to Radiohead with me, AND he laid down next to me and just touched me. He touched my legs, back, hands, and feet. Then he scratched my head and kissed my eyes.

This is just one of the reasons that I love him so much. He just knows when I need a day to cuddle and kiss and be silly.

I had the day off today. I found a tutorial for fabric covered thumb tacks for my inspiration board (which Helen at Stripy Sock Studio sent me a MAD stash of goodies for (from New Zealand none the less!!!)). I'm back to work tomorrow, and I work late into the night. I've been doing my yoga/pilates/meditation though so I feel prepared for it.

I did start my health blog, but I'm not 100% ready to post a link to it just yet. I'm still trying to tweak the lay out and such. For now I am off to stretch a little more, drink some more water, and read in bed. Life is good.

still working on and collecting feedback on the small poem a few posts below. any comments appreciated. thanks.

With a desire from our readers to expand to new areas and provide more information, we need you to tell us what you want to see.

AFP - Global warming and pollution are decimating coral reefs around the world, with only 25 percent in good health in the Caribbean Sea, US experts warned Tuesday.

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of hey hey jen-nay.

Today was my second day in class. I forgot how much I hate living out of a bag all day. I guess I do this with a purse under normal circumstances, but it's different when I'm moving from library to classroom to study spot back to classroom, with one heavy bag holding too many boring textbooks, bottles of water & Coke Zero, snacks. The most frequent thought running through my head: "My bag isn't cute enough." So Julia & I went to Old Navy after dinner & I bought this bag. Cute? Cute.

I am terrified by the amount of work that's coming up to finish the 12 credits I've taken on for this six week summer session. I shouldn't be watching Hell's Kitchen. If I'm not going to tackle any of that reading tonight, I should at least go to bed, so I can get up & at it early tomorrow. Sadly, the study spot I found at Chatham does not compare to the Commons Room of the Cathedral of Learning at Pitt.

It's a rather boring post to act as a comeback after the nablopomo month of June, but it's something. I guess I can throw out a challenge to attempt to get the material that will shape the next post.

I am still chuckling over the rounds of Friend Fondle Fuck Watersports over the weekend, along with suggestions for how to kick it up a notch, including adding a prove-it element to the answers. Challenge extended: in the comments, give me a list of four people & I will tell yinz which one I would friend, which I'd fondle, which I'd fuck, and which I'd watersport. (Yes, "watersport" is a verb.) Ideally, this game is played present company exclusive, while drunk, while in tip-top irreverant, offensive mode, but we can try this online version. Challenge accepted?

The sound on my computer is royally screwed up, and I can't figure out how or why. The computer plays background sounds really loud, and foreground music very soft. So, in DVDs the music is really loud and all speech is dampened. In games, the same thing. Ambient background music is loud, and foreground action [...]

monopoly of thoughtby tanner brockwellmonopoly of thoughtthis and thatfor it’s a factwhat is shortquite to the pointeach place a memoryand memories in placei found the dreamsbefore i had yet timeimmobile juxtaposed flungwhere there are these beginningsthey are just begunand for motions like tinders sprunginto the face of this open skyafronts to diamonds oldthere among the [...]

I need to take a break for a while. My Twitter feed will continue to update.

Another fun day at PNC Park!Join us on July 27 when the Pittsburgh Pirates plays the Padres at PNC Park! Game starts at 1:35, But if you get there about two hours early –Polish DayVisit the Riverwalk at PNC Park for two hours before the game for Polish music, culture, and food, food, food during [...]

Bloomberg.com: Muse Arts: "The project was born when a wild garden improbably seeded itself atop the long-abandoned railroad and caught people's imagination. In turning the 1.5-mile hulk into a park, the design team has stayed true to the odd coupling of tangled meadows and beefy roadbed."

BroadwayWorld.com: "It's the summer stock time of year! Having spent a recent summer in Connecticut where the musical I co-wrote went into production at the Goodspeed Theatre, I learned quite a bit about the process. For those of you hitting the boards somewhere in our nation's heartland, here are a few things you might want to know."

PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE : "House seats are a job that sometimes falls to the Assistant Company Manager, but many times, a person in the General Manager's office assumes the responsibility.

You know what that means?

It means that house seats cost shows money. The GM has to put someone on salary. In triplicate house seat forms are created. Phone calls, faxes, mistakes. Money, money and time and money."

Core77 :Putting the industrial back into design, this jewelry range from New Zealand outfit F3 Design is not going to wear-out anytime soon."

Theatreforte: "But who ought to bear the burden of fulfilling this ethical imperative? And how did something as abstract as the 'institution of theatre' get saddled with this massive responsibility?"

Boing Boing: "Sardenta sez, 'I know you're aware of the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle. They've got an opening in their education department for an Education Coordinator. Here's a summary:'"