Nibbles.

So, this woman had a rat on the bus today. Actually she had two rats. One in hand, and one in her hood (obviously).

I tried to hold back my repulsion—it wasn't so much the rats, they actually looked cute, but it was the fact that she let one of her little buddies lick and possibly bite. Her face.

Thanks Muni for the good times!

New/Old Things

Here at Nibby Co., we try very hard to use as many recycled/re-purposed materials for our products as possible. Since the stationary biz is innately wasteful, this is especially important, and we constantly strive to reduce waste and lessen our carbon footprint. Plus, recycled materials are super cool!

I've been collecting vintage maps for quite sometime, and I'm proud to say that all of our envelopes are handmade from these beautiful specimens. I've also found some super rad dot matrix printer paper (with the holes on the sides!), which will also make perfect envelope stock. I really think it's a win/win/win situation. I don't have to pay for envelopes, old maps are cheap, and the final pieces are more personal and special than regular ho-hum envelopes.

Here are my favorite map finds from my most recent trip to Urban Ore in Berkeley. Once you get past the prevailing cat pee odor, Urban Ore is a bountiful land of treasures and artifacts. It's a must-visit.

You see, we neva eva do nothing nice and easy.

As I mentioned previously, I taught my niece how to dance Tina Turner-style á la Proud Mary over Halloween weekend. I think the photos say enough:






I believe you'll find our moves to be pretty spot on:


Just a tad nice.... and rough.

WTF, Jehovah.

Just in time for the holiday season, I received a nice little note from my local Jehovah's Witness, inviting me to a free bible study. Apparently it's a matter of life or death.

The note itself (which is a photocopy) is pretty hilarious, but the fact that it was addressed to my first, middle and last name is alarming. First of all, how is my information that readily available? Second, how did this person muster up the brain power to even find someone's personal information, operate a copy machine, purchase and use postage, and essentially master the technique of lo-fi spamming?

Observe (click to enlarge):In case you're unfamiliar with reading crazy, I have typed out the letter for your convenience:

"To whom it may concern, I am one of Jehovah Witnesess, my purpose in writing. I would like to offer to you a free home bible study. It's a matter of life or death. John 17:3(?), Jehovah God thrir his Son Jesus Christ is going to make thong better soon check is.

65, 21, 23, 24, 25. Contact local kingdom it cell of Jehovah Witnestess asked for a free home bible study

—M Suttise."

And the envelope and accompanying pamphlet:

THERE'S NO TRUSTING THIS HAIRCUT.

A few questions/observations:
> Even though this person clearly looked up my information, he/she/it still managed to misspell my name. Not in the honest "just added an 'h'" way, but in the confusing, "why?" sort of way. Just call me Saroh.
>Couldn't quite get the spelling of your own name the first time, eh?
>The prospect of my thong getting better is intriguing.
>Check is... in the mail? What??
> No need to discuss the random set of numbers, it's pretty obvious what they represent. (Read: bat sh*% crazy.)

Thanks, but no thanks Jehovah.

Thoughts, anyone?

Dancing with Latoya.

I'm an avid TV watcher, and I'm not afraid to say it. Nothing annoys me more (that's a lie) than those smug individuals who, at the mention of television, give major stinkface and scoff, "Oh, I don't even own a TV." Well good for you, I now have no interest in talking to you and I say goodday.

Granted, there is some appallingly bad programming out there (I'm talking to you CBS), but there's also some gems, and I don't appreciate the judgey judging me for loving Tabitha's Salon Makeover. You don't even own a TV, so how do you know!?!

Recently a co-worker declared to me "I don't watch TV because it's made for people who are dumber than I am," but then preceded to rant about how awesome True Blood is. I guess she meant to say, "I'm a liar," to which I would agree.

Moving on. I haven't yet watched last-night's episode of Dancing With the Stars (I believe it's the semi-finale?), so I can't guarantee that this natural phenomenon occurred yet again. But by far this is my favorite part of the show:

Yes, that's Latoya Jackson in the middle (or at least her robot), and no, I have no idea why she's there. Every week on this season of Dancing with the Stars, Latoya and sometimes Jermaine have inexplicably been in the audience. At some point during the show, the camera would pause on their melting faces and Jermaine's painted-on hair, mention their names and move on. This always simultaneously confused and delighted me.

Why are they there? Is it because they're related to a legendary dancer who tragically passed away? It certainly isn't a matter of being relevant, although they are sort of relevant by association. True, the majority of the "stars" on DWTS are not household names, but at least they've accomplished something to get them on the show. To me, Latoya is only really famous for her last name, her (ugh) Playboy shoots and her 2007 VH1 celebreality show Armed & Famous:
Regardless of that hot mess, does it really justify a season-long run as an audience member (for which I'm SURE she's getting paid)? And why do I care so much about this?

Next year, I want to be Michael Jackson.

Halloween is usually a holiday that I'm indifferent about—I can't be bothered to put the effort or money into a costume, and even when I make an attempt, I always feel underdone. Also, I don't care.

This Halloween, however, was surely a treat because my parents, sister and my sweet niece all came down for a visit—and we did some serious trick-or-treating. I can get behind the kiddie part of Halloween, not so much the cattle-like shuffle into the Castro just to get shot at (and pay double for drinks). Meh.

We all stayed at the appropriately old and spooky Palace Hotel, which reminded my mother of the Overlook Hotel, and was convinced that twins would appear in the hallway at any moment. My niece and I christened our hotel room by reenacting Tina & Ike's version of "Proud Mary," complete with Tina-style hair flipping and a half-glittered Hannah Montana microphone (the dog got to it), as a prop. It was such a good time, that I got requests from Isabelle to "dance around" for the rest of the weekend. I'll follow-up with some priceless photos.

On Halloween day, we stopped by Paxton Gate Curiosities for Kids, for what I thought would be a fun costume party. But, it turned out to be more of a cooking class, and we arrived just in time for the compostables discussion (these are the moments that I really adore living in San Francisco). The instructor informed the children that although they were using compostable cutlery, that they should reuse them as much as possible, prompting one of the kids to announce that his family just got a brand new compost bucket. Very exciting.

Isabelle was luke warm about the "party" to begin with, and after half-heartedly cutting a few slices of an apple for the "witches brew," we moved on. To be honest, the party was a bit of a disappointment, but if nothing else, it was worth it to see another grown man dressed á la Where the Wild Things Are, an energetic little boy talk to himself for 10 minutes, and my niece giving the whole situation stink eye.


We ended up in Noe Valley for trick-or-treating, which turned out to be a splendid idea. The streets were packed, the Victorians looked haunted, candy was flowing like wine, and my skeptical parents even had a good time—it was magical. With plenty of candy and eyecandy for the evening, Isabelle announced that, "Next year, I want to be Michael Jackson." But later followed up with, "Or maybe a princess." We'll see.


Moving on to November...


October was a decent month, productivity-wise, but man! It really flew by. October? Hardly knew her!

My big goal for the year is to premiere Nibby Co. at the SFCB Holiday Faire, and as you can imagine, there's a lot of work to be done. Let's review October, shall we?

≥ File Fictitious Business Name. Done and done and done.
≥ Publish FBN ad in local newspaper. Thanks to the SF Examiner, this was easily accomplished. To quote Martin Lawrence from Bad Boys, "Shit just got real."
≥ Complete Isa run #1 and #2, start #3. I'm not entirely sure what I meant by this, but I mostly have just run #1, maybe some #2. I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with it.
≥ Continue to refine blog. Although this is an on-going goal, I think I've managed to make a lot of progress.
≥ Shut down computer. Hah!
≥ Blog an average of 3/week Double hah!
≥ BUSINESS CARDS: Finish designing and print. Very important. Hmm. I'm much further with the design, but they're not ready to print. Perhaps November.
≥ Finish Celestial run. I'd say so.
≥ Begin illustrations for calender, design rough layout. Very exciting, lots of progress here! I've been working on this project since last year, so it'll be a big accomplishment for me.
≥ Brainstorm and begin designing holiday cards. Sure, why not? I began, I brainstormed, now I need to finish.

New Goals for NOVEMBER:
(I'm going to break these down a bit more)

≥ Complete all calendar drawings, scan and edit.
≥ Purchase bulldog clips and card bags.
≥ Print calendars.
≥ Brainstorm/plan packaging for calendars.
≥ Design two holiday cards and matching labels.
≥ Try to blog.
≥ Print crops.
≥ Print business cards (for realzies).
≥ Order custom stamp.
≥ Plan table setup.

Now that I have another job (oy!), finding the time to get my goals accomplished will be more of a challenge this month. You can do it Sliv!