Your Typewriter Has Arrived

This package does not contain Doll House Furniture. It contains a typewriter. He's Italian. And orange. And you can tell by his racing stripe that he's meant to go fast. 

Meet Umberto Scrittore, complete with Power Space, Error Control, and a Page Gage [Sic]. No, I don't know what makes the right side of the space bar better for controlling errors and I don't care. 

Manual Stimulation

Diddle me this—why does everything feel better when you do it by hand? Spurred on by the arrival of some new stermps, Katie & I peddled my bikes over to the University Bookstore to peruse their paper & paper-related products. Their index card section is legitimately exciting. Plus, you know how I feel about recycling. All I could think about on the ride home was how that rough brown paper was going to feel in one of my 'writers. And what I was going to put in my slightly over-sized envelope.

Here's a preview of things you should be expecting in the mail:

Big Cats; Regular-sized Cats; Small Cats

This arrived for me in the mail today. I like cats, but I've never considered myself a fancier of them. I'm still going to read about the 45 Most Powerful Cat People though. I bet Papa Benedict is in there.

Rode our bikes out to The Hangin' Tree this afternoon.

Snacks on a Pack

Just loadin' up for a Sunday bike ride.

Dear Jeremy,

Up In The Roof

I finally got around to sticking my head up into our crawl space today. It had been trying to keep me out by being 110 inches above our floor, but I solved that problem with a classic trunk+stool combination. If it hadn't turned out to be covered with a thick layer of loose insulation and large splinters of wood I might have started to spend time up there.

¬Seasonal Affective Disorder

 This weather is really getting to me and my pastimes. Wisconsin's winter get's talked about a lot but I don't really think about it much until it starts to throw in its towel every year. Then I remember how much I like playing Scrabble outside, and that I have two bicycles downstairs that I want to ride. Maybe I should have been bewaring the Ides of March better, but I was caught unawares by this reverse Indian Summer we're having right now.

A celebratory Face Down

Scrabble in the sunshine just feels better, like how Diet Dr. Luv taste more like Regular Dr. Luv. And look, we were playing UNITRIKE at the exact same time as this was posted to the internet. Kreepy.

Otter Island

A few days ago Katie asked me what the name of that song is from the archetypical comedic chase scene. Yakety Sax has been in my iLibrary since 4/29/2006; isn't it zany?

Later we made this video. And put it into fast-motion.

A little morning wordplay.

Mustard, She Wrote.

This will be the last of my—several—mustard posts. I promise. Maybe.

You've probably already heard about the M.M.T. and its mustarganda. But have you seen the sign-in sheet‽ Names, realations, and goals. Goals! Everyone needs goals.

The answers:

1. No

2. Yes!

3. Yes.

9. Absolutely not.

11. Absolutely.

1¢. Concentrate and ask again.

16. Outlook good.

17. Try again later.

13. Yes.

20. Cannot predict now.

15. Outlook not good.

      16. Very doubtful./Signs point to yes.

Green, Green Light of Home

In December when we hung snowflakes from the ceiling of our apartment I learned that I am not good at cutting out snowflakes. With Madison's recent balmy 40° weather, Anna and I decided it was time for a more spring-like theme to our ceiling. She contributed her X-actoing skillz & I used my extra foot of height.  

From inside it's a nice warm green glow, but from outside it's just weird. 

25000, 64 Days, 88 GB

My electronic music collection started in the fall of '99 when I went to college and got my own computer. I wish I knew what song #1 was; probably something by The Beatles, or Bon Jovi. Or maybe Boyz II Men. Definitely something with a 'B' though. Unfortunately, due to a hard drive failure in the spring of 2004, my records only date back to May 18th of that year—2 days after graduating from college. In those 5 years I'd added just under 2500 songs to my iTunes library. It took another 6 to increase that by a factor of 10.

Assuming the slightly arbitrary start date of September 1^st, 1999, it's been 3,840 days since that original song. Or put another way, an average of 6.5 songs per diem. And that's a startling statistic.

Song #25,000:
Les Yeux Noirs - Django Reinhardt

The Electronic Postal System

One of the upshots of joining a Typing Gang is that you get things like this in the mail on a regular basis. It helps that I own a functional scanner, but there's something really satisfying about typewritten mail.

It's also really nice when the stamp isn't postmarked. Get ready Joseph Story, you're about to get recycled.

Other benefits of TypeTUB:

—watching people under 30 realize there is no delete key.

—watching people over 50 relive their own personal typewriting hell.

A 'stache in Return

While Anna was out of town getting herself mentioned in the NY Times I was taking care of her cat. That mostly took the form of letting it sit near me & emptying the litter box. The upside? A free cat-scarf and this print that Anna got for me. It's part of a mustache series that I'd really like to see the rest of.

Lies & Betrayals

Last Saturday I made a pretty firm commitment to surprise the city of Boston this weekend. I might have been drinking at the time, and have my 4th mustard-colored outfit of the day on, but I was adamant it was going to happen. And on the train too! 

Things that I knew, and was OK with: 

⒈ Amtrak does not come to Madison.

⒉ Amtrak takes 24 hrs. to get from Milwaukee to Boston.

⒊ Amtrak cost $40 more roundtrip than a direct flight.

What I assumed:

⇒ Amtrak has wireless interent.

What I learned Sunday morning:

☞ Amtrak offers wireless internet on 2 routes—the Downeaster from Portland, ME to North Station in Boston and, just recently, the Acela.

☞ Assumptions make an ass out of you and Amtrak.

Later Jesse.

Le Fête des Moutardes

Mustard Rainbow

The best thing about going to a mustard-themed party, besides actually going to the party, is the  mustarderie. Have you ever even seen that much mustard before‽ No you haven't.

A little more mustardganda to make you feel like you should have been there:

More Mustard medias:

Too Old To Cut the Mustard - Rosemary Clooney & Marlene Dietrich

If You Can't Cut the Mustard - Barbara Carr