No snow required

We southerners don't need any actual snow to have a "snow event". Like today. They started canceling flights, classes, and other events at the mere threat of snow. Half an inch, to be exact. But of course they never cancel anything where I work. I'll have to brave the mass freakoutery of Atlanta traffic on an icy morning and hope for the best.

It Did!

The rain turned to snow right on schedule. Mass freakoutery to follow.

Will It Or Won't It?

They're predicting snow for us here in the ATL. I'll believe it when I see it. Right now it's pouring buckets.

Believe in Blueland

I attended my first NHL hockey game last night. Tickets for the Thrashers vs. Bruins game were one of my gifts to PDM this Christmas. He loves hockey, but I had always been sort of lukewarm about going. I'd been to a couple of AHL games (the now defunct Worcester Icecats) when I lived in Massachusetts, and I like watching sports, but generally hockey hasn't been my thing. That's why I knew this gift would be a surprise. Especially when I wrapped the tickets and taped them to the inside cover of a box, put a lot of junk in it to rattle around, then wrapped the box.

I've gotta admit it was a lot of fun. Way better than watching a game on TV. It didn't take long to see my first hockey fight (less than two and a half minutes in), followed by a second fight before they had even announced the penalties for the first fight. That got the crowd fired up. Atlanta went on to play a great game, winning a 5-0 shutout.

This should have been my second Thrashers-Bruins game. PDM had tickets to a Thrashers game for us and four of his family members five years ago during one of my holiday visits. This was back when I still lived in Massachusetts and we were dating long distance. Unfortunately, we ate some bad Mexican food the day before and became violently ill overnight. It was my first time staying at the family home, and I made it memorable by puking all over the floor at three o'clock in the morning. To his credit, PDM helped me clean it up, even though he was also fighting a losing battle with nausea. The family had to go to the game without us, and we ended up with a pair of $60 bookmarks to go with our fever and chills. We joke about it now, but back then... not so funny.

You can't legislate good taste.

It figures. As soon as I let myself off the hook for not posting, I find something to post about.

I saw in today's newspaper that Atlanta wants to ban "saggy pants"! Apparently, this is an "epidemic" that is of "major concern". Wow. I hope I don't catch it. I'd look terrible in saggy pants, and I have no idea how kids get them to stay on when worn so low on the hips.

It seems that some Atlanta City Council members are tired of seeing young men wearing those incredibly baggy pants worn low on the hips so as to show off their boxer shorts. The council is equally upset with women who wear low rise pants that expose their thong underwear. They are fed up and they aren't gonna take it anymore. The new law, if enacted, would ban any visible underwear seen in public, including a stray bra strap. (Oops. I'm guilty of inadvertant bra strap display on occasion.)

This proposed change in the law is a stupid idea for a lot of reasons. I don't like this particular fashion trend, but this is a free country and laws should stick to limiting behaviors that endanger the public. It is bound to be seen as racist (although the thong thing seems universally popular among young women regardless of race). It won't stand up in court, and will waste a lot of money and resources when it is inevitably challenged. All the time and attention paid to this "issue" would be better spent solving real problems. Instead of worrying about what kids are wearing, why don't we worry about how well they are being educated, how healthy they are, and whether or not they are staying out of trouble?

A movie, impatience, and my take on the news.

PDM and I finally went to see Casino Royale yesterday. Yes, I know it has been out for months, but hey - no line and no crowd! The lack of gadgets and cheesiness was totally refreshing. I liked it!

I noticed today that when my work computer is running an application slowly, or appears to be hung up, I can't resist moving the mouse around in circles. As if the computer is going to wake up or something. I'm not sure why I do it, but the longer a task takes, the more furiously I wiggle that mouse around. I just about hit light speed if the stupid little hourglass disappears entirely.

There wasn't a lot going on this morning at the alternate work location where I am obliged to spend my Mondays, Tuesdays, and some Thursdays. I amused myself by reading the news online. Here are a few snippets that caught my attention:

The American Dialect Society has chosen "plutoed" as its 2006 Word of the Year. Ironically, being chosen as the Word of the Year is the exact opposite of what the word "plutoed" actually means.

If you're going to kill someone and eat his heart, you might want to review basic human anatomy first. I don't think you gain much of the warrior's spirit by eating his chest muscle and part of a lung.

As cosmopolitan as Atlanta tries to be, it still can't escape being the subject of headlines like "Another Hogzilla Caught Near Atlanta". I can't imagine Brussels, Paris, or London ever being included in the same headline as the word "hogzilla".

And sadly, Calvin Johnson announced today that he is leaving Georgia Tech early for the NFL. I knew this was coming, and it is the best thing for him, but I can't help feeling let down by the news. But Tech's loss is the NFL's gain. Some team will be very lucky to get him and I wish him well.