Internet fame!

Someone in our household is enjoying some internet fame! No, not me. It's the cat! She's officially a "Wii Kitty"! See her here under the alias "Casey" (she prefers anonymity, too). Here's her close-up, if you don't feel like searching for her.

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Double celebrity sighting

Last weekend we walked up to the Farmer's Market to grab some breakfast and a token of appreciation to bring to our party hosts for that evening. We ate at the little outdoor cafe there, whose name I actually don’t know (I know that ALL the Farmer’s Market eating establishments are outdoors, but this is the one that has sit-down wait-staff service). Anyway, as we’re sitting there looking at the menu we’re distracted by the conversation at the table next to us. There’s a guy going on and on about Battlestar Galactica. His two dining companions hardly said a word, and seemed to not be able to get out of there fast enough. When they finally left, I was all set to talk about the Battlestar geek, but N said, "That guy was someone." So I said, "The Battlestar geek?" and he said, "No, the other guy," who, of course, I barely got a glance at. N said he thought he was in a band or something, but couldn’t quite place who he was.*

After breakfast, we headed to Littlejohn’s Candies, where N was too distracted by all the choices to notice a guy kind of cut in front of us to order his load (four one-pound boxes of toffee and all manner of inquiries about other bits and pieces behind the glass). It took me about a second and a half to realize it was Giovanni Ribisi, though he looked very little and his hair was shorter than I’ve seen it. His voice was spot-on, though, and what sealed the deal was a viewing of a recent Jimmy Kimmel episode on Tivo, which confirmed the new short hair. Anyway, N didn’t even see him or hear him or anything! And he’s the one who’s always, always pointing out the most random "celebrities" to me when we're around town.

*Finally, four days later, N said to me, "Hey, I figured out who that guy was! It was a Phish band member!" So there you go.

P.S. If you're Giovanni Ribisi and you did NOT actually buy candy at the Farmer's Market on Sunday, feel free to correct me.

P.P.S. I'm going to Aruba on Tuesday.

Head case

They looked inside my skull today. Isn’t that exciting? I had to have a CT scan to follow up on a headache issue, and I’ve been freaking out about the appointment since I found out I had to have it.

I don’t know about you, but I’m horribly claustrophobic (which has been getting worse as I get older. I can hardly stand to be in the Indiana Jones ride line at Disneyland anymore. Have you seen those narrow cave passages??). Anyway, when I went online to help calm myself about the CT scan and go in with proper expectations, I freaked myself out even more, because there were mentions of an intravenous contrast medium (I’d heard my doctor mumble something about not being allergic to contrast mediums, so I think I was right to assume I’d be faced with this). Needles and narrow tunnels!! Ugh!

So I’ve been dreading and dreading this thing all weekend, knowing I was going in first thing this morning. I pictured myself getting nauseous from the injection, having a panic attack from being inside the tunnel of the CT machine, freezing from having to remove all my clothes, losing all the jewelry I had to remove and leave in another room (I know, I’m a great worrier. Thanks, Mom!), and all manner of other things that are even more embarrassing than those! But, I was pretty well able to talk myself down every time I felt a panic rising over it (this is cool technology, you’re lucky this is the only kind of test you need, there are children starving in Africa), so I went into the appointment this morning with what I thought was minimal nervousness.

I got there early, checked in, and they took me right away. The technician walked me down the hall and asked if I’d ever had a CT scan before. I said I hadn’t, but I’d had an MRI (which was the cause of all this panic in the first place. That’s one loud, narrow, scary-ass tunnel!). He said, "Oh, this is way different," and opened the door to the test room. A surprisingly huge flood of dread rushed out of my body and I laughed out loud!! The machine was like a donut! No tunnel! No dark hole! It was a freakin’ donut, with a "tunnel" no longer than the top of my head!

But still, I dreaded the needle and the clothing removal. Then he said, "Okay, just take off your earrings, put your purse down, and lie down here." That’s it! No clothing removal, no scary confiscation of every object in the room because they could come flying into the machine—nothing! Take off your earrings and lie down here! My lord, the whole thing was over in three minutes. Literally.

I’m so lame.

Can't think; blogging.

The problem with not blogging for so long is coming up with things to blog about when you do feel like coming back. There have been major events (that scarcely aforementioned trip to San Francisco and emergency room visit, Thanksgiving in Chicago, Nintendo Wii purchase, and the giant TV purchase, among others). There have also been minor events (I just picked up and ate off my desk what I thought was a remnant of a dry-roasted edamame, but turned out to be part of an unidentified office supply).

Seems I've lost the ability to discern what to log for posterity. Any requests?

Happy Holidays!

My present to you... (Per N's request. How good am I?)