NoMich’s Neighborhood

2,2,2,2,then 5. I'm starting from an initial test of only two, and I didn't think I'd even be able to do 13 today already.

Last year I sort of covered the process of redoing my backyard on vox. It's been a year and the plants have filled in nicely.

I was kind of amazed at how closely the backyard matched my early scribbled designs:

Before: mockup

After

Do you have a pet? What kind of pet do you own, and why did you choose it? 
Submitted by Brendz.  

We have two Boston Terriers, one which we got as a puppy and the other was an adoption.  We selected the breed after much research mostly on how much we loved the look, but also because they have short hair and are very smart.

Things don't look good for the iPhone.

1. I call my local cingular store, but the local number plops me into the 1-800 national cingular sales desk and no one can tell me when and where I can get an iPhone on day one.
2. Since I can't call my local store, I visit it.
   
3. me: "Will you guys be getting iPhones on day one?"
   them: "We don't get them until June 29th, they're not for sale right now"
   me: "Yeah, I know, but on June 29th, how many iPhones will you have ready to sell?"
   them: "I don't know"
   me: "Will you have the iPhone on that first day?"
   them: "I don't know"

The manager of the store was standing right next to Ms. I Don't Know and he didn't seem to correct her so I suppose that's official store policy.

Some juggling. First three balls, then one club/2 balls two clubs/1 ball, then three clubs:

I hate to be the one to break this to you, but we here outside of the dental profession don't really think about teeth a whole lot.

Yes, I am aware that flossing is vital to my health, but shit I'm tired and I just want to go to bed so I'll do it completely the next night alright?

Yes, I am aware how tooth decay works. No, you don't have to explain what pH means or how bacteria and white blood cells work. Trust me, I learned about them before and still remember how it all works.

I'm sorry my gums bleed. You keep saying it like I have some sort of control over it, or if I chose the "super bleedy gums that will get in the way of cleaning properly" off a shelf at Costco. I assure you, I have no control over it.

Yeah, I'll try to floss more completely and more often, but I'm not going to go crazy on it. I'm ok with you having to clean a lot of junk off my teeth every few months.

Let me just say upfront that I might not dutifully use a 2min egg timer to time my brushing twice a day with your special toothpaste, and the chances that I reset the timer for 1min with your special mouthwash (which I may not measure to the exact amount with the cup you provided) in the morning and night, every single day for the next six months are kind of slim. Sorry. It's called being human and busy with other stuff.

Like I said, I hate to be the bad guy here. Please don't shoot the messenger, but we here in the real world don't think about our teeth as much as you do.

What's the most famous movie you've never seen? 
Submitted by Mike.

I'd have to say E.T. is the biggest movie from my childhood that I never got to see. My mom thought it'd be too violent/troubling and barred me from seeing it. I think I was 10 or 11 and it was a weird decision because I had seen Rambo movies around that time as well (thanks to my cool uncle and the Rambo flicks did kind of scare me a bit). She also kept the TV off the night that nuclear war thing The Day After played. It was two weird things she really wanted to protect me from, even though I was old enough to handle both of them. E.T. didn't come out on VHS for years afterwards and by then I was a pissed off teenager that didn't care anymore.

In the past ten years I'd say Titanic was the biggest thing I missed. I just never had any desire to see it and then when it got really huge I definitely didn't want to see it. By 2007, it's a badge of honor.

HV5G9916
Originally uploaded by HBM Marcom.

"Hi I'm a big freaking dork riding this here segway, and what would your name be"

Jacket

For the past ten years or so, I've worn a fleece jacket from REI pretty much every waking hour about six months of the year in Oregon, and I used to wear one in California about 3 months a year and always in cold offices. I have two cats that go everywhere, so as a result, my beloved fleece jacket* usually has an embarrassing amount of cat hair embedded in it.

I used to fret over this. Every weekend I'd take rolls of packing tape and carefully clear every inch of my jacket so as to appear as if I was a sane person. A few years into this, and one day I rolled around on a carpet of a dog-owning friend and I lost the battle. No amount of tape could remove the embedded hairs that went all the way through the fabric, so I gave up. At some point, my fleece reached an equilibrium somewhere between totally covered in pet hair and a mere light dusting of hair. Even still, I get asked "how many cats do you have?" by strangers at the grocery store about once a month.

So as part of the whole giving up about keeping it clean, I've taken to buying a new REI fleece (size L Tall, about $69 and usually special order) on an annual basis. My 2007 fleece was supposed to arrive tomorrow but for some reason Fedex got it to me a day early.

I have four or five of my past years' fleece jackets on a shelf somewhere. The fleece thickness on the basic REI jacket seems to vary each year and once in a while I'll switch into an old one if it's appropriately thinner or thicker than what I am currently wearing. And I'll wear an old one if I'm working in the yard or if my current one is being washed.

It's official, old 2006 jacket is going into the wash in a feeble attempt to remove the topmost coat of cat hair, and then it will be added to the final resting place, far above my tshirt shelves in my closet. You served me well, 2006 jacket, but I'm enjoying a newer, warmer, cat hair-free 2007 model.

Now to enjoy a month or two of cat-free fashion.

* that kay joking refers to as "my wubbie" as if I'd give it a nickname like a childhood blanket and freak out when I have to put it through the wash each month, pacing around the house going "is my wubbie done yet?"