paragiraffe

A smorgasboard of end of the year stuff  /  I read an embarrassingly low number of books this year. Tiny. Minuscule. I’d say that maybe a resolution for next year would be to read … 30 dec, 11:25 p.m.

Dinner  /  Last night my family went out for Mexican food, and this morning Mom asked me if there was something in particular I wanted for dinner … 28 dec, 9:59 p.m.

Memories  /  My family spent this Christmas in Massachusetts, where we’re all originally from and where my extended family still lives. The last time I was in … 26 dec, 1:02 p.m.

My Year in Cities, 2006  /  I read Kottke’s version of this list and realized I could do a halfway decent one for this year, so here we go. Knoxville, TN* … 22 dec, 11:18 p.m.

Albums 2006  /  These are my favorite albums from 2006, which I compiled using my Last.fm account, although I’ve made a bunch of adjustments to take into account … 19 dec, 9:23 p.m.

Year End  /  I’ve been so consumed by the advent of the holidays that I forgot this is the traditional time to rate your year, the movies you … 18 dec, 10:46 p.m.

Nike+  /  I’ve talked about this a couple of times before, but I am the very proud owner of a Nike + iPod Sport Kit. I think … 17 dec, 1:04 p.m.

Christmas Cheer  /  I ordered just two Christmas presents online this year, but they’re two I’m really excited about, and they both came today. So I got all … 14 dec, 9:40 p.m.

On Django  /  I thought I’d take a few minutes to tell you about Django, “the Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines,” which I used to build my … 11 dec, 10:16 p.m.

Newness  /  Okay, here we go. I’ve actually been working on this new design for months. MONTHS. Because not only did I want a new design (the … 08 dec, 12:20 a.m.

Favorites  /  Almost hypocritically, my most favorite Christmas songs are the uber-traditional ones, like “The First Noel,” “Oh Come All Ye Faithful,” “Angels We Have Heard on … 06 dec, 11:01 p.m.

Schoolmates  /  CBS has a Monday night sitcom called The Class, which follows six third-grade classmates, now in their twenties. It’s pretty poor, but it’s on after … 04 dec, 8:34 p.m.

Made it!  /  Oh, November 30th. Never has your arrival been so welcome! You know, I used to make myself post every day, except sometimes on weekends, until … 30 nov, 9:43 p.m.

Actual Quotes from Monday’s Staff Meeting  /  “How do we feel about these balls?” “How big are the balls?” “Well, we know how Brandon feels about balls.” “How are we going to … 29 nov, 9:36 p.m.

Green  /  Yesterday I saw the case that Liz has for her MacBook, and I thought, yes, I need to have that, too. I mean, it’s not … 28 nov, 10:07 p.m.

Happiness  /  Tonight I decorated my Christmas tree. Plenty of people dream about the day when they can have their own place away from their parents, the … 27 nov, 11:18 p.m.

Heard in the car  /  On the way: Is the pie okay? This is where Kenny [Rogers] breaks it down. You should have specified {nowhip]. I could tell it was … 26 nov, 9:49 p.m.

Lazy  /  I feel about 14% bad that I’ve spent my days off doing pretty much nothing. Additionally, I’ve eaten a ton of delicious food, for which … 25 nov, 9:21 p.m.

Okay, Thanksgiving is over  /  24 nov, 10:34 p.m.

Thankful  /  Christmas music Best 5K time ever Coffee from Starbucks Pan-fried sweet potatoes Sister Schubert’s rolls Fun with the deep fryer Hockey Naps 23 nov, 4:23 p.m.

Root Canal  /  Early this week my dad emailed Emma and I to let us know that our dentist, Dr Graham, and his wife had died in a … 22 nov, 10:41 p.m.

Apple Cranberry  /  I am so tired from peeling and chopping 45938450345 apples. I made this apple cranberry pie, and, wow, the crust is so good. I used … 21 nov, 10:48 p.m.

Monday  /  Tonight I went to the liquor store to buy a mini bottle of Maker’s Mark. I need a couple of tablespoons of bourbon for a … 20 nov, 10:40 p.m.

Junk  /  Over the weekend, some underpaid lackey for The Fake Yellow Pages Yellow Book delivered their wares to my apartment complex. Since it’s not 1985, I … 19 nov, 11:04 p.m.

Winston’s  /  Yesterday on the way to Atlanta, I had to stop in the suburbs for gas, because that is where I was about to run out … 18 nov, 7:43 p.m.

Song Choices  /  In my sidebar over there, I pull the last 5 songs from my Last.fm account. I do this with a little PHP and a feed … 17 nov, 9:10 p.m.

A Big Bowl of Carbs  /  There’s an Italian restaurant near Shaun‘s apartment where we like to eat: Osteria 832. It’s delicious, and they have a large outdoor patio area for … 16 nov, 9:56 p.m.

Opinions  /  Something you may not know about me (I love opening posts with that) is I live my life by the reviews of others. More specifically, … 15 nov, 10:24 p.m.

Note to self: make these  /  For when I stop eating Campbell’s® Select™ Healthy Request® Mexican Style Chicken Tortilla Soup every night: Tomato and Sausage Risotto at Smitten Kitchen A quick … 14 nov, 8:27 p.m.

Twenty-five  /  When you turn twenty-five in our glorious United States and America, you can look forward to three things: Car insurance companies place a modest amount … 13 nov, 8:22 p.m.

Commercialism  /  If you’re like me, you’re relieved at the break from endless political campaign ads. Candidate A attacking Candidate B for sixty seconds, followed by the … 12 nov, 11:28 p.m.

MacBook!  /  It’s awesome and fast! ETA: I made this post at a gas station maybe fifteen minutes after purchasing my MacBook (at the Apple store), using … 11 nov, 3:27 p.m.

Phoning it in  /  This weekend is going to be a little hard for NaBloPoMo, although I have no intention of failing. I might as well go ahead and … 10 nov, 5:28 p.m.

Fed-Ex  /  I a little bit feel like I can’t let Britney Spears’ divorce filing go without comment. The fact that Kevin is so obviously a loser … 09 nov, 10:10 p.m.

Three word movie review for Borat!: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan  /  Funny, but overhyped. 08 nov, 10:18 p.m.

Processor  /  Sometime this year I decided my big Christmas present would be a food processor. I have a mini-prep, which is nice for small jobs (obviously), … 07 nov, 10:29 p.m.

More Christmas Confessions  /  Target has all of their Christmas ornaments out. I have looked at every single one of them. I listened to Christmas music at work today. … 06 nov, 9:55 p.m.

Day 5  /  I put my flannel sheets on my bed today. They have snowflakes on them. I think I’ll go get into them now. 05 nov, 9:52 p.m.

Leisurely Stroll for the Cure  /  The problem with having eight thousand people turn out for a 5K is the starting line gets a little crowded. And because Race for the … 04 nov, 10:15 p.m.

Running  /  My main form of cardio (and exercise in general) is running. You can do it any time, anywhere, and you don’t need a gym membership, … 03 nov, 10:35 p.m.

Vote  /  I voted early for the upcoming election today. There are a couple of things I am willing to tell you about my ballot. First of … 02 nov, 6:51 p.m.

Day One  /  Today is the first day of NaBloPoMo, in which I will post one (1) entry a day until December. I apologize in advance, because some … 01 nov, 10:35 p.m.

Halloween  /  I’m not that into Halloween. I had three trick-or-treaters tonight. The last one was probably a little too old to be trick-or-treating. This made me … 31 oct, 8:50 p.m.

Rock! (5! Bands in 2! Days)  /  In a rare feat considering my ever-increasing age, Shaun and I saw 5! bands in 2! days this weekend. Band #1: Lavendar Diamond was the … 30 oct, 10:27 p.m.

Tales of shopping  /  I have this new Thursday night ritual I call “Go to Old Navy and try on all of the clothes they have.” I also count … 26 oct, 8:55 p.m.

Not that I didn’t appreciate it before, but…  /  I love having my car back. 24 oct, 11 p.m.

On October  /  I don’t really like October. It seems to me that it’s just something you have to get through before the more exciting months of November … 23 oct, 9:37 p.m.

Wal-mart: charmed  /  I know I’ve talked here before about how I loathe Wal-mart, because, really I loathe Wal-mart. This past Friday, though, I had a very few … 18 oct, 10:28 p.m.

I know it’s October  /  Behind the huge bags of fun-sized candy, the costumes, and the spiderweb-themed decorations, Target has already stocked rows and rows of boxes of Christmas lights … 17 oct, 9:58 p.m.

Pink ribbon  /  I’ve been really disappointed with the merchandising of this year’s breast cancer awareness month. Perhaps it was my particularly heightened sensitivity last year, but I … 16 oct, 8:45 p.m.

Half Nelson  /  Emma and I saw Half Nelson tonight, and, honestly, I’m not getting the hype. I mean, the acting was commendable, but the story was nonexistent … 11 oct, 11:05 p.m.

Tune Your Run  /  This weekend I bought the Nike + iPod Sport Kit so I can track my workouts and tell how far I’ve gone if I’m not … 09 oct, 10:02 p.m.

Things I miss about my car  /  the gas mileage how the lights turn on by themselves at night the tape player i use to play my iPod its small size how … 08 oct, 11:47 p.m.

My baby!  /  I hurt my car today. I was driving to the park to go for a run, and the road I was on is really narrow, … 05 oct, 8:36 p.m.

Ca-ching  /  So I have been trying to squirrel away more money recently, no reason in particular besides that it’s a excellent habit. Begrudgingly, I save a … 03 oct, 9:51 p.m.

Ted’s Montana Grill  /  Yesterday, Shaun and I talked about what we should do for dinner, and I suggested pork chops because he made applesauce in his Crock Pot … 02 oct, 10:43 p.m.

Confetti  /  Emma and I saw Confetti tonight, a movie you probably haven’t heard of. I know I hadn’t until yesterday. It’s a mockumentary about three couples, … 27 sep, 10:53 p.m.

Maturity  /  I got two new albums last week, Ben Kweller’s self-titled and Barenaked Ladies Are Me. I thought it was kind of interesting that critics are … 26 sep, 7:58 p.m.

McCann  /  This is my man, Brian McCann. Okay, actually, he’s not my man, but I do have a little baseball crush on him. McCann is the … 21 sep, 11:32 p.m.

Quinceañera  /  Emma and I saw Quinceañera tonight, preceded by a delicious Mexican dinner. Mmm… I love enchiladas. I’ve been wanting to see this movie for a … 20 sep, 11:24 p.m.

Food on the internet  /  I’ve mentioned my love of reading recipes before, and with the internet I have nearly and endless supply to entertain myself. At the moment, I’m … 18 sep, 8:58 p.m.

I want to ride my bicycle  /  When I was a kid in Massachusetts we used to ride bikes all the time, everywhere. It’s a lot different from Tennessee, where you pretty … 14 sep, 8:47 p.m.

Sleepy  /  Isn’t it funny that one of the stated side effects of Lunesta is drowsiness? 13 sep, 10:52 p.m.

On Dreamhost  /  When I bought my first domain name back in 2000, I hosted it with Dreamhost. Even back then, they were the cool kids on the … 11 sep, 6:49 p.m.

Invincible  /  Audra and I saw Invincible yesterday, the Mark Wahlberg, Cinderella story movie about the bartender and substitute teacher from Philadelphia who becomes an NFL player … 10 sep, 7:34 p.m.

Things I’m really into right now  /  Corn Brown + teal Law & Order, especially SVU Sudoku (again) Your mom 06 sep, 10:11 p.m.

Weaknesses  /  Candy is my greatest weakness, especially seasonal candy. We’ve arrived at that time of year where there’s a constant flow of seasonal candy in stores, … 05 sep, 11:09 p.m.

Album-ness  /  Something I’ve been kind of interested in lately is the “album-ness” of an album, which is a sort of binding quality amongst the songs, whether … 04 sep, 9:22 p.m.

Serendipity  /  When I was a kid, I thought serendipity meant the act of finding something when you weren’t looking for it. I guess this kind of … 30 aug, 11:25 p.m.

Three terms I’ve seen used for website, hilarious but kind of adorable, except for the last one  /  “web-site” “www site” (or “www-site”) “web sight” 29 aug, 6:35 p.m.

Replacing TiVo  /  I’m excited because I just bought a TV capture card to replace my poor, dead TiVo. I’m going to put it in my old PC … 28 aug, 11:51 p.m.

Ending  /  It’s become pretty apparent to me in the last week that summer is ending. Sure, the weather hasn’t gotten the memo, but the kids are … 24 aug, 10:55 p.m.

Incredibly satisfying sounds  /  Shutter click on a camera Breaking an egg Pop of a champagne bottle Crack of a baseball bat A sneaker hitting pavement during a run 22 aug, 10:11 p.m.

The Animal Years  /  I’ve been kind of disappointed with a lot of the music I’ve bought lately. It’s not bad, but hardly any of the albums have that … 21 aug, 10:50 p.m.

Cookies  /  I made some chocolate chip cookies tonight. Six dozen, in fact. Actually, there are only seventy now, because I ate two of them. I just … 17 aug, 11:05 p.m.

Integrity  /  Tonight NBC aired the classy extravaganza that is the Miss Teen USA pageant. Now, why I was watching this at all is another discussion about … 15 aug, 11:33 p.m.

One ray of sunshine  /  Movies this summer have been disappointing overall. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest was abysmal, much too long, and just disgraced the good name … 14 aug, 10:16 p.m.

In a fabulous and fiery display  /  I went to the gym kind of late tonight because I fell asleep during Emeril, as often happens. Food network has a pretty good early … 10 aug, 10:55 p.m.

Pain  /  The problem with back pain is it affects pretty much everything you do. Even sitting in my Aeron chair all day at work was afflictive. … 08 aug, 9:33 p.m.

WWDC 2006  /  Okay, who was disappointed by the Steve Jobs keynote today? Me! First of all, Leopard looks slick for the most part, but some of the … 07 aug, 11:05 p.m.

On Blogging  /  During the lunch keynote at BlogHer, one of the questions posed to Caterina Fake and Meg Hourihan was “what is the future of blogging?” or … 06 aug, 10:10 p.m.

Kindergarten  /  I was musing on the plane on Sunday that the beverage service is like snack time in kindergarten. You get your little drink and your … 02 aug, 11:11 p.m.

Pinkerton  /  I just wanted to say I’ve been really obsessed lately with listening to Pinkerton by Weezer. And learning that it’s based on Madame Butterfly and … 31 jul, 11:36 p.m.

BlogHer final thoughts  /  I thought the conference was very well-organized, which is great because it was only its second year. There was never a time when I thought, … 30 jul, 6:15 p.m.

I’m going back to find some piece of mind (BlogHer Day 2)  /  More than once this weekend, Megan and I have both said that if we weren’t speaking at this conference, we would not be here. This … 29 jul, 6:33 p.m.

I may go wrong and lose my way (BlogHer Day 1)  /  So, the talk, what I’ve been half dreading and half looking forward to for months, is over. I feel like for a first time speaker … 28 jul, 3:11 p.m.

Do you know the way to San Jose? (BlogHer Day 0)  /  I hate flying. I mean really, I hate it. I’m not scared, I don’t freak out—it’s just miserable. You’re in this tiny little seat for … 27 jul, 8:11 p.m.

Old Navy  /  In the past six months or so I’d say, all of my trips to Old Navy turn out to be huge disappointments, almost solely because … 25 jul, 11:23 p.m.

Selected Rules for Playing Mini-golf  /  No groups larger than foursomes, please! Six stroke limit per hole. … Stay on fairways and walkways. No leisurely swims in the lagoon! … No … 24 jul, 9:57 p.m.

Free  /  I decided to do laundry tonight, but unfortunately I only had enough money for a dry but no wash. When I need quarters after normal … 20 jul, 10:40 p.m.

Heat Wave  /  Am I the only person who isn’t really affected by this crazy heat? I mean, I know it’s hot, I see the weather reports and … 19 jul, 11:13 p.m.

My new favorite magazine  /  … is Men’s Health. Now, I know what you’re saying: “But Maura, Men’s Health is for men! Also, all they ever talk about is how … 18 jul, 6:44 p.m.

Brick  /  This weekend I saw Brick, the Joseph Gordon-Levitt indie film you’ve never heard of. The Cinefilmspotcasting guys both liked it, so I decided to check … 16 jul, 6:08 p.m.

Summer 2006 Update  /  It’s that fantastic time of year where it stays dark out until nine. I’m really more of a fall/winter girl, and usually I’m rooting for … 13 jul, 9:49 p.m.

The 90s  /  So the plan tonight was to come home and pick out a few forgotten albums from my collection to listen to for fun. I actually … 11 jul, 10:52 p.m.

Plate  /  I used to think Tennessee changed license plate designs a ridiculous amount, but upon further research I realized it was only about every five years, … 10 jul, 9:38 p.m.

July  /  Invariably, when the month changes, someone at work will say, “Wow, can you believe it’s [insert month] already?” In fact, it’s now become a cliché … 06 jul, 11:03 p.m.

Raison d’être  /  I’ve had a drop in website traffic lately. I know you don’t really care, but humor me. Last week, I came across this post: Why … 04 jul, 11:11 p.m.

Three  /  I saw three movies this weekend. First up, The Devil Wears Prada, a chick movie based on some chick lit. Honestly, watching Anne Hathaway flirt … 03 jul, 10:39 p.m.

Red  /  Red wine and I are no longer best friends. We can still get together for a few drinks, but there will be no more partying … 02 jul, 3:47 p.m.

Email of the Day  /  Maura: You know, I only get comment spam every once in a blue moon. I’d probably still have it so that posts older than the … 01 jul, 1:07 a.m.

The Moon  /  I thought the moon looked really cool the other (Wednesday) night, just a little sliver. I pretty poorly captured this with my camera: 30 jun, 7:51 a.m.

Baseball  /  Yahoo! Baseball RSS feeds make it really easy to keep up with your favorite teams. Changed my life. No, really. 28 jun, 10:50 p.m.

Reading Material  /  I love reading cookbooks. I’ll seriously just curl up on the couch and read recipes. And I’m not just talking that first read-through to find … 27 jun, 11:48 p.m.

Aubergine  /  I went a little crazy in the produce section tonight. If it was green, I pretty much bought it: asparagus, spinach, peppers, romaine, etc. Apparently … 26 jun, 11:25 p.m.

On Being Incredibly Influential  /  Almost a month ago (yikes!), I posted about my newfound love for the Minnesota band, Tapes ‘n Tapes. (In fact, as an update, I mentioned … 22 jun, 11:36 p.m.

IMotD  /  Winn: gosh, i miss 2000-2002. 21 jun, 11:16 p.m.

Key Change  /  For a long time, I’ve wanted to make a post about key changes (modulation) in music. They’re so rarely used in popular music, sadly, and … 20 jun, 10:47 p.m.

Mouthwash  /  So, I have to tell you, whenever I finish off a bottle of mouthwash, I feel a huge, huge sense of accomplishment. Those bottles are … 19 jun, 10:50 p.m.

A Prairie Home Companion  /  Yawn. You know, the critics really seemed to like this one, but I just didn’t enjoy it myself, besides John C. Reilly and Woody Harrelson. 18 jun, 12:18 p.m.

Produce  /  I made fruit salsa tonight. I like making fruit salsa because it’s a complete departure from my anal ways (besides the tedious chopping); the recipe … 15 jun, 11:18 p.m.

Ryan Adams - Gold  /  For the past two weeks, this is pretty much all I’ve been listening to. Just thought you’d want to know. Ha, in all seriousness, if … 14 jun, 11:51 p.m.

Neighbor  /  There’s a new guy in the apartment across the way from me. I don’t know exactly when he moved in, but I started noticing another … 13 jun, 10:58 p.m.

Piano  /  I don’t think I’ve talked about piano in some time, mostly because there’s not much to talk about. I’ve been taking lessons for about two … 12 jun, 10:50 p.m.

Cars  /  Make sure you stay during the credits. That’s when the really good stuff is. 11 jun, 11:35 p.m.

Black is the new black  /  In my adult life (although, I must mention here, I feel strange using the phrase “in my adult life” at 24), I have had a … 07 jun, 11:30 p.m.

Random  /  I left the door of my freezer ajar this morning. The door was ajar. The door was a jar. Everything seemed pretty okay when I … 06 jun, 11:46 p.m.

Dark  /  I just started a bit of a chocolate phase, and my brother, Allen, recently introduced us to Hershey’s Sticks, which are delicious and almost guilt-free … 05 jun, 11:52 p.m.

New  /  Sometimes something comes into your life so great, you didn’t even know you were missing it, because, you know, you were doing fine without it. … 04 jun, 11:54 p.m.

Interpol - Antics  /  How did I miss this album when it came out? I liked good music last year (or, late 2004), right? 31 may, 11:32 p.m.

Groceries  /  Here in Knoxville, we’re lucky enough to have a SuperTarget in the near vicinity, which means I can buy pretty much everything I need in … 30 may, 10:50 p.m.

Four  /  Notmyself.com turns four years old today. According to the National Network for Child Care, she now “enjoys singing simple songs, rhymes, and nonsense words,” “loves … 29 may, 3:17 p.m.

Just hug my lips and say good lies  /  Meet the new focus of my new, all-consuming, intense, quite possibly fleeting, music obsession: Tapes ‘n Tapes. I can’t decide if it’s my love of … 26 may, 10:39 p.m.

The Code  /  So after my last movie experience, you can imagine how low my expectations were for The Da Vinci Code. And, what do you know, it’s … 25 may, 11:25 p.m.

An American Haunting  /  My friend Hilary was in town for a few days for work, and last night we got together for ice cream and a movie. Since … 24 may, 11:12 p.m.

The Day the TV Died  /  I came home tonight all atingle to curl up on the couch and watch some DVR’ed television. (Actually, I wouldn’t really call it atingle, because … 22 may, 10:22 p.m.

Fishy Fishy Fun  /  So, let’s talk about sushi. All my life, I’ve thought, “Hmm, raw fish. I have absolutely zero interest in trying that.” But, recently, I’ve said … 22 may, 12:17 a.m.

On Baking  /  I think the reason I so vastly prefer baking to cooking (besides my insatiable sweet tooth) is that I’m anal (like we didn’t know this … 18 may, 11:09 p.m.

Finales  /  It just occurred to me that we’re approaching that time of year where there’s nothing new on television. You know what? I’m looking forward to … 16 may, 10:02 p.m.

Email of the Day  /  Shaun: Here’s a comprehensive list of all the movies I’m looking forward to this year: All the King’s Men Maura: How about The Fast and … 15 may, 11:01 p.m.

A Girly Moment  /  I spent today communing with my inner female (and my sisters): shopping till I dropped, trying on mountains of clothes, eating Special K, listening to … 13 may, 10:51 p.m.

LOST  /  You know, I am a drinker of the (mostly delicious) Jabrams Kool-aid, but I can’t get into Lost…enough. I TiVo it, I watch it, I … 10 may, 11:53 p.m.

5 Browns  /  Tonight I went to a rockin’ concert that kept me out all night… Five siblings playing classical piano. They’re called The 5 Browns. They were … 09 may, 11:58 p.m.

Mint (again)  /  I’ve been using Mint for a little while now, and I’m still pretty fascinated by all the stats I get on my visitors and referrers. … 08 may, 11:42 p.m.

A Ton of Free Music  /  One of the best things about the interweb is all the free porn music you can get. Here are a couple hot, hot (and legal) … 07 may, 8:41 p.m.

Mission: Impossible III  /  You know, I almost didn’t want to comment on this movie because (a) it’s the third installment of a franchise, (b) it’s a popcorn summer … 07 may, 12:56 a.m.

High School  /  Myke Scaffidi, are you out there?! (Thanks, Emma.) 05 may, 11:49 p.m.

Completely awesome, yet absolutely trivial, things for today  /  I had a hot, delicious soup for dinner. It was almost like cooking. Whoa, daily glow moisturizer actually works! (Even the generic kind.) I completely … 03 may, 10:49 p.m.

On Cooking  /  I’ve gotten really disenchanted with food lately. Yes, food. I hate cooking it. I hate deciding what to get. I hate spending money on it. … 02 may, 11:18 p.m.

Loopy  /  I’m going crazy. But in a good way. 01 may, 11:04 p.m.

13% Actual Movie, 87% Expectation  /  American Dreamz I’ll be honest… I didn’t really care if I caught this movie. I like Mandy Moore, but unlike most of the country, I’m … 30 apr, 11:30 p.m.

Most-loved  /  Maybe you remember my post from December about how my youngest sister, Audra, gets the most love. As my family often does, we took this … 29 apr, 11:24 p.m.

Relative speed  /  I was on the phone with a client today, and we were waiting for something to happen with a program, and he said to me, … 27 apr, 11:58 p.m.

Minty Fresh  /  I know I am woefully, embarrassingly late to this party, but I bought and installed Mint today, and, wow, am I in love. In my … 26 apr, 11:10 p.m.

Good things for today  /  Free ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s Delicious Mexican food Sleep 25 apr, 11:21 p.m.

Hotlanta  /  Remember that time Emma and I went to Atlanta for the weekend, did lots of fun stuff, and geeked it up by meeting fellow bloggers … 24 apr, 10:35 p.m.

Sounds like…  /  Yesterday’s post reminded me of another funny, early days at my job story. When I first started work, my bosses had trouble pronouncing my name. … 21 apr, 11:28 p.m.

Subvert  /  I often use words when I’m not completely sure of their meaning. The most recent one was “subvert,” and, specifically, “subverting users’ expectations.” I was … 20 apr, 10:42 p.m.

Offbeat  /  I’ve decided that if I could meet any CNN corespondent, it would be not Anderson Cooper but Jeanne Moos. If you aren’t familiar with her … 19 apr, 11:02 p.m.

The Case of the Disappearing Text  /  I ran into a really, really weird Internet Explorer quirk at work this week. On one of the pages on one of my sites, when … 18 apr, 10:23 p.m.

Shameless, shameless self-promotion  /  Honestly, I hesitated to mention this at all, but I’m going to be speaking at this year’s BlogHer conference in July. A couple months ago, … 17 apr, 9:17 p.m.

The Fire  /  It came to my attention today that my knowledge of the lyrics to Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” has become woefully rusty. (You … 16 apr, 9:32 p.m.

Dogwood  /  Attempting to get some depth of field with my compact camera. 15 apr, 8:58 p.m.

Coconut  /  I have this rather unsightly problem in that I shed hair like crazy. I’ll admit, I do play with my hair a lot, but that’s … 12 apr, 9:16 p.m.

The Art of the Mix  /  Yesterday I got my superawesome mix CD from Shaun (to counteract my music boredom), and it got me thinking about mix CDs in general, because … 11 apr, 11:08 p.m.

Thank You for Slither  /  Thank You For Smoking is a “satirical comedy follows the machinations of Big Tobacco’s chief spokesman, Nick Naylor, who spins on behalf of cigarettes while … 10 apr, 11:10 p.m.

I’m in heaven when you smile  /  Far too often, I find myself completely bored and disgusted with my music collection. I think in our brave, new, internet-obsessed world, with our iPods … 09 apr, 12:46 p.m.

Boot Camp  /  Who is excited about installing and running the Windows XP operating system on your brand-new, shiny Intel Mac? Oh, right, not me. You know, I … 06 apr, 11:09 p.m.

Empowerment  /  I’ve mentioned this before, but I always hate talking about Wordpress, because I’m turned off by the crazed following that worships it like the second … 05 apr, 9:40 p.m.

Developing. Locally.  /  Although you may not make a point to kill your social life and geek it out like I do, chances are if you’re reading this, … 04 apr, 10:29 p.m.

24  /  Did you watch 24 tonight? Let’s chat. 03 apr, 11:59 p.m.

IMotD, Movie Edition  /  Because I don’t feel like writing real content anymore. Talking about Inside Man: James: Though I’m really not sure how I feel about Jodie Foster’s … 02 apr, 11:05 p.m.

Redirect  /  A while ago I started using Feedburner to serve my feed. At the time, I could have made a post and asked everyone to switch … 01 apr, 8:06 p.m.

IMotD, Web 2.0 Edition  /  Shaun: that’s just a fun word. Shaun: ogle. ogle. ogle. Shaun: very web 2.0. Maura: ogle.icious Shaun: haha. Maura: oglr (beta) Shaun: brilliant. let’s go … 30 mar, 10:12 p.m.

Next Generation  /  A while ago I gave up pretending Star Trek: The Next Generation isn’t one of my favorite television series, ever. New episodes of current shows … 29 mar, 10:53 p.m.

Exchange  /  This is a story about euros. I kid you not. A little over a month ago, I started auditioning text editors for my Mac, for … 28 mar, 11:31 p.m.

Killing my inner child  /  I love fishies. I love kids. So who knew my recent visit to the Shedd Aquarium would extinguish any desire I ever may have felt … 27 mar, 11:54 p.m.

The Craze of Wide  /  When I was working at Best Buy (I know, I don’t like to remember it, either), they took their standard, book-style Sunday ad format and … 27 mar, 1:33 a.m.

Ass=kicked  /  Trying to take in a large city in a couple of days is practically setting yourself up to fail. That I experienced what will hopefully … 25 mar, 10:43 p.m.

The roads in Illinois…  /  Would so never cut it in Tennessee. Boo, IDOT! 23 mar, 11:42 p.m.

Wedding pr0n  /  I’ll admit it: I love a good wedding. The details, the planning, the dresses, the flowers, the cake, the food… Yeah, I’m a girl, and … 21 mar, 10:02 p.m.

Frustration  /  Something that always makes me nuts and drives me to ridicule is when people “like OMG can’t handle having a site anymore! Closed! Or, better, … 20 mar, 8:59 p.m.

My dream man…  /  Will provide me with my very own washer and dryer. Yes, I’m that easy. One of the cons to my cozy little apartment is the … 19 mar, 11:22 p.m.

IMotD, geek edition  /  Maura: I love how LiveJournal is considered trivial and silly because it’s a bunch of 15-year-old girls, but it’s got some serious technology behind it. … 17 mar, 5:44 p.m.

Wilco, Tennessee Theatre  /  A Tip of the Hat™ to Wilco, who tonight: Brought the rock Played a new song Played two encores (I’ve never had two encores in … 17 mar, 1:14 a.m.

25 or 6 to 4  /  Maura: Emma and I are going to Chicago for a weekend during her spring break. I really need to book the hotel, actually. Shaun: What’s … 15 mar, 9:52 p.m.

Things that don’t bother me anymore  /  Unread feeds in my feedreader. I’m only one person, and I really can’t read everything every day. Sometimes I even manually mark huge groups of … 14 mar, 11:36 p.m.

Don’t sit down  /  Something I’ve been struggling with lately is the efficient, or at least improved, use of my free time. During a weekday, and most often in … 13 mar, 9:49 p.m.

Recent search engine referrers  /  “what does my last name mean?” I don’t know about my last name, even, so I’m pretty sure I don’t know about yours. “commitment issues” … 12 mar, 11:16 p.m.

Caché (Hidden)  /  This weekend I saw Caché, a movie you probably haven’t seen, and, I’m guessing, probably haven’t even heard of. (Personally, I have to thank the … 11 mar, 2:18 p.m.

Lean Cuisine?  /  You know that commercial for Lean Cuisine, where the four women are at the ice rink, watching some skaters practice, and they’re talking about what … 09 mar, 7:15 p.m.

Housecleaning  /  I was deleting and moving around a bunch of files on my server tonight, when my .htaccess file got lost, so all of my archives … 08 mar, 11:31 p.m.

Now with live comment preview!  /  One of the things I’ve wanted to do for a long time is enable a live comment preview, even though no one on the internets … 07 mar, 9:59 p.m.

Burning out  /  On the way back to Knoxville today, Emma and I had a conversation about whether it is better to burn out or fade away, with … 05 mar, 9:55 p.m.

Paul  /  Did I tell you I saw Running Scared last weekend? Well, I did. I had to follow up that sweet Eight Below action with even … 04 mar, 8:38 p.m.

Catholics and pancakes  /  Did you see the advertisements for National Pancake Day at IHOP? I figured this must have something to do with Lent, and, sure enough, it’s … 02 mar, 11:11 p.m.

Now with 12px text!  /  Things I’m giving up for Lent: Candy Soda Winter designs So… I really only feel 89% good about launching this tonight, and I haven’t rebuilt … 28 feb, 11:56 p.m.

green is better  /  The Cool Wintergreen Crest Pro-Health Rinse is so much better than the blue because it has less dye and doesn’t turn my tongue a color. … 27 feb, 11:35 p.m.

del.icio.us vs ma.gnolia: beyond random periods  /  I’ve spent a bit of time recently looking at the differences between del.icio.us and Ma.gnolia, with del.icio.us being arguably the most popular social bookmarks manager, … 26 feb, 9:18 p.m.

Teachers  /  I think I’ve touched on this before, but I have quite the soft spot for teachers. Geeks, too, but for this post, we’re talking about … 23 feb, 10:40 p.m.

Nothing new  /  I’ve been strangely obsessed lately with my answer to the question, “What’s new?” More importantly, I haven’t had a good answer to this question in … 22 feb, 11:14 p.m.

RSS and links geekery  /  If you’re looking for an absurdly simple and easy-to-use RSS and Atom parser, possibly one written in PHP (and, really who isn’t?), may I recommend … 21 feb, 10:22 p.m.

Day o’ Presidents  /  In honor of this beloved bank holiday, I thought we could all share our favorite president. President of what? Go crazy. Here are some of … 20 feb, 10:40 p.m.

Paul Walker + doggies = crazy delicious  /  Last night I saw Eight Below, the story of Jerry Shepard (Paul Walker) and the loves of his life, eight Husky dogs. Inspired by a … 18 feb, 8:41 p.m.

A million little dollars  /  I bought James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces at my local kickass used bookstore this evening. I mention this to you for two reasons. The … 15 feb, 10:39 p.m.

This IS a post about Valentine’s Day.  /  In honor of this Hallmark holiday, I’d like to take a moment to talk about the person in my life I love the most: me. … 14 feb, 10:46 p.m.

Te Amo  /  For Valentine’s day, my mom got all of us conversation hearts in Spanish. They are the coolest. They say things like: HOLA MI VIDA PAZ … 13 feb, 9:34 p.m.

Branding  /  I have long been bothered by but long kept quiet about seeing my website linked all over the internet as “Not Myself.” Now, I shouldn’t … 12 feb, 10:17 p.m.

Random CSS tip (?) #582  /  I’ve ran into a situation a couple of times lately where I’ve had problems unstyling an unordered list <ul> (so I can change the bullet … 11 feb, 11:39 p.m.

Usernames  /  I got invited to try out the Ma.gnolia beta, and, inspired by Rachel, I decided to try to get “maura” as my username, which I … 09 feb, 10:45 p.m.

Hillary  /  I’m reading Hillary Rodham Clinton’s A Living History right now. (I’ve temporarily abandoned My Life, and by temporarily I mean I haven’t picked it up … 08 feb, 10:45 p.m.

A few good podcasts  /  Cinecast The Onion Radio News Slate’s Daily Podcast NPR: Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me NPR: Story of the Day Radio Free Burrito (Wil Wheaton) Blankbaby … 07 feb, 10:42 p.m.

My RSS Wishlist  /  An aggregate feed of my LiveJournal friends page. Feeds for free Blogger accounts. Photos in the Uncrate feed. Feeds for each of the sections of … 06 feb, 10:55 p.m.

Super Bowl XL  /  Yeah, I watched that. I made pigs-in-blankets for myself, because that’s what the Super Bowl means to me. Emma and I were rooting for the … 05 feb, 11:32 p.m.

Wordpress  /  I’ve long resisted trying out Wordpress for various reasons including (a) I was unlikely to switch anyway, (b) as much as I like trying out … 04 feb, 10:39 p.m.

Things that are good  /  Mild abrasives Refraining from tearing things down for no reason Clean dishes A comfy bed Chick flicks Vaseline Intensive Care lotion Sweaters 02 feb, 11:59 p.m.

gumshoe  /  Dear Gentle Readers, You are my favorite people in the whole world. Really, I love you. Next time you’re in Knoxville we’ll go out and … 01 feb, 11:03 p.m.

paying to drive  /  No toll roads in Tennessee, apparently. Sweet. 31 jan, 11:53 p.m.

X-Files  /  If you’re like me, you’ve always wanted to own the X-Files on DVD but sadly weren’t raking in a million dollars a year. After abysmal … 30 jan, 10:41 p.m.

My nerdiness is getting out of hand (fours meme)  /  Only because it’s from Rich. Four jobs I have had 1. Cashier at Target 2. A desk job having to do with insurance 3. Sales … 29 jan, 11:13 p.m.

Myspace = black hole of suck  /  Okay, why does everyone love Myspace so much? (Like, 580 million dollars much?) Myspace is a black hole of suck. It’s down/slow/buggy all the time. … 26 jan, 10:55 p.m.

Thinking…  /  My new check card looks very much like my credit card, and I’m going to get them mixed up. 25 jan, 10:42 p.m.

The New World  /  This weekend I saw Terrence Malik’s The New World, starring Colin Farrell and introducing Q’Orianka Kilcher (oh, yes, she is Jewel’s cousin). I guess going … 24 jan, 11:21 p.m.

A post you can comment on  /  Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or white chocolate? 23 jan, 10:17 p.m.

iTunes MiniStore  /  Blah blah, iTunes MiniStore privacy issues blah blah. Honestly, I would love an opt-in service that would scan my music library and tell me what … 22 jan, 10:20 p.m.

Wikipedia  /  I edited my first Wikipedia article today. Was it a glaring inaccuracy? A maddening grammatical error? No, someone used “only” twice in one sentence. A … 20 jan, 10:25 p.m.

Conversation heart messages for 2006-01-18  /  GOT LOVE? E-MAIL ME SOUL MATE TOO HOT LOL BE TRUE MAD 4 U FIRST KISS MY CUTIE AWE SOME 18 jan, 6:46 p.m.

inane  /  This morning I woke up, showered, dressed, and went to work. After work I came home, ate dinner, did laundry, went to the gym, showered, … 17 jan, 11:36 p.m.

Kottke-style URLs  /  One of the things I’ve been geekily obsessed with lately is getting Kottke-style URLs for my individual archive pages, i.e. /yyyy/mm/entry-title-with-hyphens with most notably, no … 16 jan, 7:14 p.m.

living the life  /  Emma got me a French press, so I can now make coffee at home whenever I want. We used it for the first time tonight, … 15 jan, 11:19 p.m.

Snow  /  There was a tiny bit of snow early this morning. I’m pretty sure I counted two, no, three flakes. When I was little and lived … 14 jan, 11:42 p.m.

Crafting emergency  /  Tonight I stopped into my local A.C. Moore (a craft store, if you didn’t know), and I happened to take notice of the store hours … 12 jan, 11:30 p.m.

To popup or not to popup  /  One of my favorite things about del.icio.us is the posting interface. It automagically suggests tags for you, which you can click to add, and with … 11 jan, 10:26 p.m.

Real men of genius  /  Just a quick public service announcement: you can listen to (and download) many (but not all) of the “Real Men of Genius” radio ads at … 10 jan, 10:33 p.m.

Site improve… Oh, nevermind.  /  When I’m managing a ton of CSS, I frequently use a base PHP file in which I include various other CSS files I may need … 09 jan, 10:58 p.m.

Site improvements, part 2  /  Nothing you’ll really notice, but I did some revamping for myself on my archive pages, using Movable Type’s modules for the first time (modules are … 08 jan, 11:59 p.m.

Site improvements  /  I’ve made (and will make more) some minor site improvements/tweaks, so I’m going to geek out and tell you about them. Feedburner I (301) redirected … 07 jan, 11:20 p.m.

“the bitter iPod woman” or “the internet thinks I hate men”  /  My ode to my iPod post got linked again a day or two ago at a highly-trafficked website (one I’ve never heard of, though). I’m … 05 jan, 10 p.m.

1978933  /  Requests for pages, 2005. 04 jan, 11:28 p.m.

Books 2005  /  (I completely thieved this.) The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - gets the “most enjoyed … 03 jan, 10:54 p.m.

for Brandon’s birthday, a haiku  /  Twenty-five, old man quarter of a century now get over it! 02 jan, 11:57 p.m.

first 5K of 2006  /  Resolution Run 2006: beat my previous 5K time by five minutes. Suck it, 2005! 01 jan, 11:23 p.m.