Learn all there is to know about the very first all terrain vehicle, the zamboni. Thanks to Niel for this gem.

"It's not evacuation from Bosnia, it's just a job" says my boss.

Occasionally I drive rescued dogs to their new homes. Recently, I tried to get involved in another run and it was so insanely messed up that I finally gave up and backed out. Looks like the organizer (using that term loosely) assumed I was still in. Now they want me to drive to Valencia today (never mind my job), then up to Sacremento. That's 5 hours down there, then 5 hours to Sacremento and 2 hours home. Are you kidding?

I don't mind helping but I do mind being walked on. And these people have wrongly assumed that I have Welcome tattooed on my back. Sheesh.

It's a good thing I don't have an active webcam going here. Far too often I realize that I'm dancing while I'm working thanks to the miracle of my own office and headphones.

I used to design for Netscape, thinking IE was the Dark Side, and because Netscape was a lot more forgiving about tags that weren't 100% accurate. But now, I wish Netscape would just go away.

Thanks to brig for this sad tale of what once changed the world, but now is merely part of AOL's world domination. It may be inevitable that every great idea gets assimilated into the world of conglomerates. But that doesn't mean it's painless or easy to watch.

Realized that it's Lent when I saw a woman with ashes on her forehead. I've always found that tradition fascinatingly morbid. It's inspired the relapsed Catholic in me to give something up for Lent, so I've decided to stop cursing. This should help expand my vocabulary so it can't be all bad. No, I'm hardly a practicing Catholic anymore, except for being driven by guilt. Just want to see if I can go a month without cursing. So far, no.

What seems to be an endless river of venture capital money has got to dry up at some point. IPO's aren't what they used to be, so the giants that drive the world I live in are soon to give up all the .com companies and turn to something more lucrative like biomedical stuff.

While my friend Gail was visiting from Oregon, she was amazed at all the ads for .com companies. So she ran around screaming "DOT COM DOT COM" to anyone who would listen. That's what the radio sounds like anymore. .com this, .com that, .com my ass. They're all just stores.

So I wrote back to the guy who was offering me the job:

Liz,
Thank you for the inquiry (my inquiry?? he wrote to me). Would you happen to know of any strong Editor/Writer types that would be open to an equity based opportunity within the Web Content space?

Here's my response
As a matter of fact, I do. But they all live here and considering the number of equity based opportunity within the Web Content space within driving distance of their homes, I'm sorry to say that they wouldn't be too interested in your company at this time.

Does this guy (and at least 100 other companies) not understand that this is the hottest job market ever? That (as my most excellent boss says) average people are getting cushy salaries and getting rich while extremely talented people in other fields are barely making a living wage?

People: Stock options are no longer enough

Too many of us have been burned (yes, that includes me and almost everyone else from beyond) on options. These days, we expect options, but we also want working heat, cubes of our own and some very big-company comforts. The IPO gold rush is starting to run dry and a great many of us got nothing along the way. Now we want some stability and interesting work with the vague hope of an IPO. At least I do.

Wow! Amy found the most amazing thing. Reminds me of the Coke machine we had at beyond (when it was still software.net). I got great satisfaction in putting no money into the machine and still having a Coke come out. There was a button labelled After 5 that dispensed beer. When we moved to the new building (which they've since outgrown, left, then downsized enough that they have to sublease part of the new new building) we left that wonderful machine behind. Now I work somewhere without free drinks but still manage to like my job. At my last job, I would often gaze at the free drinks and think 'free drinks are not enough'.

If you've ever wondered why there's a booming industry of pet accessories, it's because of people like me. We ended our quest for a lovely raincoat for Miss Alice last night, so of course there must be pictures to record the historic occasion. What can I say? I have no children, Alice will get all of my maternal affection until I do.

Got this little ditty in my inbox today:

Liz,

Good day! On behalf of (random company) I'd like to introduce you to our exciting organization. Would you be open to exploratory discussions? Please advise.

Thank You

Best Regards,

Guy who sent the email

I assume he means, do I want a job there, but what a weird way to put it.

This Netscape bug is kicking my ass. Will I be forced to add a disclaimer that says 'I couldn't get my act together so this site should only be viewed in IE 5.0 or higher on a PC'? That would suck.

that said, I must apologize to brig for desiging one of these sites. I didn't mean to, it just happened. Is that how accidental pregnancy occurs?

Of course the site I'm referring to is nowhere near going live, so you can't see it in Netscape and discover that I'm right, that it's created for IE. But soon, I hope, you will. Hopefully I'll fix the bugs before then.

It's killing me, but I'm actually building a site that's formatted for IE 4.0 and higher. What's become of me??? Have I given into the Man? Sigh.

Finally, answers to my life's greatest questions! Thanks Sarah.

A Jetta by any other name is still a Jetta.

VW announced some exciting new stuff at the Geneva Auto Show. I'd dreamed of their upcoming SUV until I saw it, but the Sharan looks more like what I want. Maybe I won't keep the Passat forever...

I cannot stop staring at the disco ball on this page.

I've been thinking of buying a soprano sax (which I could play reasonably well right away) or a clarinet (which would require some squeaks as I learned it). Found this nastiness today. Has the iMac changed everything for the worse?

If you buy stuff, then have opinions about that stuff that you'd like to share, checkthis out.

It's official, I'm a bitch! TheSpark.com BitchTest rated me 55% bitch, above the average of 38%. Don't know if I should be flattered or disturbed.

Being gay used to be a curse, now everyone wants to be gay. I assumed that I would always be denied certain things because of who I am, including health insurance (beyond.com offers this, I could be insured through Andrea if I needed to), to get married (we still won't, everyone we know who's done that broke up soon after. Why chance a good thing?). The only right I'd like to have set in stone is Andrea's right to parent our (still a glimmer in my eye) potential forthcoming child. I never expected famous people to look at my lesbian nature with the green eyes of jealousy. That's just weird.

Being gay isn't something I think about too often. Right or wrong, I've always felt that because I'm gay, doesn't mean I must be political.

Found a great gay blog, though. web queeries has lotsa good stuff, so I can at least feel like I'm part of this community (when I want to be).

Doing everything I can to avoid working. I've got an HTML problem that I can't seem to fix and my brain hurts just thinking about it.

r35 may make the best mousepad on the planet, but their site design kinda sucks. You can't have everything.

The best $12.95 I spent on work related stuff is this mousepad. It has all the web-compatible colors with their hex codes. Kicks ass.

Woo hoo! I finally got a real machine at work. I can drag and drop again. The POS they'd given me would crash every time I tried to move a file.

My dream vacation is a week in Orlando, alternating between DisneyWorld and Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. Disney has the best site for actually planning this trip. Do you think they'll mind us using the honeymoon package when not only are we lesbians, but we've been together almost 4 years?

We decided to try a new resturant last night, Thai Chili. It was completely empty but we took a chance. Painful is the only way to describe it. The waitress spoke less than no English, the pad thai was raw, when we pointed that out, they cooked another batch for us, with different noodles, some COMPLETELY RAW. The chef even showed us the package, as if we were crazy for not liking raw noodles. When we paid, they didn't give our credit card back- when we asked for it the non-English speaking waitress thought we wanted business cards, so instead of the amex card, we got lovely menus and business cards. Glad I got them, so I could link to their $5 Front Page website.

Thumbs down on that place.

Have you noticed how many of my fellow bloggers seem to find the same stuff? It's not bad, but kinda funny to see the same links on a bunch of different blogs.

Has anyone tried writing blog haiku? It seems like a logical next step. I'll post some if you write 'em and send 'em to me.

blogging all day long
try to work, can only blog
blogging is my life

talk out my ass
just wind, or maybe magic
my blog, my true voice

I have these noble goals of always using style sheets like a good coder, but sometimes I don't want to define anything else. I know it will kick me in the ass later, but for now I'm coding the old fashioned way, with the font tag.

Spent the weekend sick like death was knocking, but I was too sick to answer. Just say no to bad Chinese food.

Had a new foster dog for less than 24 hours. We brought him home at 7 pm on Saturday, and had a new home for him at 8 pm. Dropped him off yesterday.

I'm now officially helping the beagle rescue screen potential adopters. I'm flattered that the woman who runs it thinks I'm a careful screener. Some people think that because we're doing rescue (saving dogs who have turned up at shelters or been abused) that we won't be picky, we'll just be glad to find them a home. Wrong! Our goal is to find the right home for these dogs, so they stay there the rest of their lives. I'd rather turn foster a dog for months than have someone adopt them and return them.