Not that I'm planning or anything

My friend Sandy posted on Facebook this week:

Oh my. Watching Best Funeral Ever on TLC. It is filmed here in Dallas at the Golden Gate Funeral home. Have decided I don't want a funeral, I want a homecoming y'all.

Myself, I want a party. I've told my family, for years and in some detail, that I want a party with good food, an open bar and a band and dancing. Maybe have a few flattering pictures of me around, that would be nice. And anyone who wants to honor my memory will say something snarky and funny.

It would have to take place somewhere near water, not because I'm so attached to water (I mean, I like lakes and oceans and all, but not excessively) but because the big finale would be disposing of my ashes through fireworks. Angels Flight does that. And I believe that it can only be done over water because, for some reason, people don't like the idea of a body drifting down on their houses and cars and whatnot.

Anyway, if you hear something's happened to me, skip lunch and get your snarky remark ready.

Is it good or bad…?

In the middle of my (fairly stressful) day, I keep hearing my current light-and-breezy book calling me. It's the next in Enchanted, Inc. series, and I might as well face the fact that I'm going to finish the whole dang series by the end of June. What am I going to do then, huh?

The good news part of this is that it seems I've rediscovered my love of reading. (Old friend, how I've missed you….) The possibly bad part is that I'm sorely tempted to say, "Aw, screw it," and go read the rest of the day instead of working. Is that bad?

And really, seriously, what am I going to do when I finish these? Anybody have any suggestions?

27 years

Then:

Now:

But, then again, also now:

Happy anniversary, Richie!

Stars new look

Here's the (very dramatic) reveal of the Stars new logo and jersey. Trust me, really — the jerseys are just bitchin' in person. The silver is metallic, and it looks really good!



Oh! And they're retiring Mike Modano's number. Big surprise. (If you want to watch him cry, be at the game, next March 8th.)

(And also…Jamie, honey, please! Find a hairstylist. Ask your millionaire 20-something athlete friends. Or go to Supercuts. Something. Anything!)

It's a big night for Dallas Stars fans

Tonight's the night that the Dallas Stars reveal their new logo and uniform. What a relief!

I'm part of their Season Ticket Holder Council. (And really, I can't tell you how cool it is that we have our own tab on the 'Team' pull-down menu.) As part of the Council, I got to see the new look a few months ago.

We had to keep it quiet. They had mentioned non-disclosure agreements to the Council before, but no one actually asked us to sign. But when it came time to show us the logo and new jerseys, we had to sign it on the spot, and they collected them before they'd show us anything.

In fact, I took it so seriously that I didn't even mention to anyone that there was a new logo. The word had gotten out long before that there would be new jerseys (and thank goodness, too — I'm pretty sure everyone was good and sick of those boring black home jerseys with just the word "Dallas" on the chest). But no one seemed to know that the logo itself was changing, so I kept quiet about it until Dallas Morning News sports guy Mike Heika tweeted about it at the end of April.

At that Council meeting, the guy responsible came into the room empty-handed and looked around, making sure that Stars CEO and President Jim Lites was actually in the room, and aware that we were going to see it. The guy left, and came back with a rendering of a player wearing the new uniform. Meh. Didn't care for it.

But then he brought in the actual jerseys…oh, mama. So. very. cool! WAY better in person than it looks in drawings. The Stars "accidentally" leaked it a few weeks ago (yeah, right, accidentally, and they got coverage on every one of the local news reports that day), and from the fans, of course, arose a great wailing and gnashing of teeth.

It was very reminiscent of when the goal song changed.

I'll post pictures tomorrow, when they're available. Trust me, please, fans. You're going to love it! It's distinctive, it's striking, it's identifiable from a distance (like, say, on a player on the ice…on TV). Really, it'll be okay. If I have permission, I'll even explain to you why the Stars decided to rebrand.

This is going to be a relief!

Which browser is worst?

Quick question: What browser do you use? Which one do you think is worst?

Yeah, me too.

I used Firefox for years, but it got slower and slower and slooower and sloooooowwwer and…you get the idea…whenever it had to deal with any Google or Google-owned pages (like YouTube). So I switched, reluctantly, to Chrome.

Chrome works just fine with Google pages (duh). It seems to handle most sites quite well. Unless it doesn't. Then, without warning, it demands well over 100% of the CPU time, and my computer fan starts overspinning (I expect to see my Mac Mini lift off the shelf where it lives and hover slightly), and everything else going on slows down, too.

Notice that these top five processes are using about 403% of the CPU time. Hmm….

To be honest, it may be a system problem, because Apple Mail (which I switched to because Thunderbird became way too glitchy to use) also seems to trigger it occasionally, though it happens when Mail is trying to render a remote image. (I'm not sure how connected that is to Chrome, which is always running in the background.) But I'm using this new (less than a year old) Mac server with blazing fast speed and two enormous hard drives. System? Really?

Whatever the problem actually is, I'm tired of it. I have both those browsers, plus Safari, installed, and use each of the occasionally, for different things. Rich, who uses Windows and Linux, swears by Opera.

Which one should I use? Suggestions? Comments? Questions? Answers? Anyone care for a mint?*

*That's a Rita Rudner reference, from one of her very funny standup routines.

Where are you?

Rich and I are having trouble keeping track of each other today. We both have home offices, so we should pretty much know where the other one is most of the time. But I left this morning to run errands (trying to clear my calendar so I could spend the rest of the day at my desk), and he thought I was just making a coffee run. Grocery store, bank and Starbucks later, I walked in the door to him saying, "Where did you GO?"

A little before noon I asked him if he wanted a sandwich. He reminded me that his friend and subcontractor, Kent, was coming over and that they'd probably go to lunch together. Half an hour passes, I go out to say, "So Kent hasn't made it here, yet?" and he was gone.

Isn't that nice? Our 27th anniversary is next week and we're still surprising each other.

Sigh.