Earth Hour

Earth Hour just ended here in Los Angeles. I'll confess I didn't start on time, but once I got my act together, Rob and I walked the dogs and then had a drink on our apartment balcony until it ended. We had a candle lit and I do wonder how much that contributed to global warming.

While walking the dogs, we saw our corner store was open for business, but with the lights off. If I'd had to guess who in the neighborhood would participate, I'd never have picked this store. To me, that's the most encouraging part of this exercise -- finding out people I never thought would care, actually do.

Overall, I didn't notice a big difference in the amount of our neighborhood's light pollution, but here's a couple of pictures of Griffith Park Observatory, with and without lights.

Phone Etiquette

Since I do sex toy parties for a living, I have to call people all the time to set dates, follow up on orders, etc.

I make these calls as a group. If I don't reach someone, I leave a discrete message and dial the next person on my list. Sometimes I go straight from my work calls to calls I need to make for the animal rescue I volunteer for, or during the presidential election, calls for the campaign I was supporting.

Invariably, someone will call me back and demand, "Who is this?" without identifying themselves. If I ask, who they are, they ALWAYS say, "You should know, you called me."

Not really. While I did call you at some point, you're now calling me, and because you're a total dumbass and didn't listen to the message I left (hm, what do you think the voicemail option on your phone is for?) you're now calling someone whose name you don't know, for a reason you don't know. Not exactly a productive use of time and I shudder to think what Miss Manners would have to say.

Of course, I can't say that. Instead, I explain that I make a lot of phone calls to know why I was calling you particularly, I need to know who you are. (Can you imagine the political fallout if I mistakenly told a registered voter I was calling about the "dildo party"?)

Usually, that explanation is enough to jog the caller into the world of common courtesy and to actually IDENTIFY themselves. Every now and then, however, a person will refuse to tell me unless I tell them who I am. In those cases, I give my first name and when that produces the expected "huh?", I tell them I need to know who I'm talking to so I can figure out why I initially called them. (All the while, biting my tongue so I don't say, "LISTEN TO THE MESSAGE I LEFT YOU, YOU MORON!!!")

This week, however, I got a total psycho. Even after I told her my name, she refused to say who she was. Finally, I hung up.

But then she called again, and again. My phone was turned off while I was at yoga and a meeting and in that interval, she left 3 messages, all demanding to know who I was, but never giving me her name. I finally matched her number to one of my lists and she was a customer. And she booked a party. Yikes!

Presenting...

...the first tri-color Pentapus. I made him as a baby shower present for my friend Jennifer and he was the only hand-made gift!

"Model" Dog

Here's Idget modeling the sweater I designed for him. Rob calls it his fag sweater because I made the neck so big it slides down for an "off-the-shoulder" look. Oops!

I made one for Toaster, too, but he has a heavier coat and doesn't get as cold as Idget, so he rarely wears it. I'll dress him up some time soon so I can get a picture up here.

And by the way, don't let Idget's, "I'm cute, yet suave" expression fool you. Ten minutes before I snapped this, I'd come home to find he'd gotten into the recycling bin, shredded a milk carton and pooped on the couch. Sigh.

Pretty

Rob bought me this orchid for my birthday. FOUR years ago. Our apartment has bad light for orchids, but I FINALLY got it to rebloom. Woo-hoo!