Project Miner

Lots o’ people call me cheap (my Grandma most frequently, but I’ll save the internets from her “only funny because I’m a cranky old black woman” racist slurs). I don’t think I’m that cheap, but what the hell do I know? I figure if I am cheap, then I probably know some good ways to get deals. And if I do, then, hell, some people may find my shopping habits interesting. I’ll stick to my internet shopping, since that’s really all the shopping I do anyway.

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Katy went for a walk yesterday with Ona and got cornered by our nosy old neighbors. They apparently talked for 30 minutes about random nonsense and neighborhood rumors. One cool thing that came from it, though, was the guy said “Ona? Muntz? Wasn’t there an actress named ‘Ona Muntz’ or something 60 years ago?”. A quick google search turned up the actress Ona Munson (close enough, says me):

She is best remembered for her role of southern madam Belle Watling in the classic 1939 film, “Gone With the Wind.”

From the main blurb on her wikipedia page, it sounds like she would have been the tabloids dream come true if she was alive today. I can’t imagine this having gone over well in the pre “sex, drugs and rock n’ roll” era. Not necessarily the best role model for Ona, but hell, sounds like she had fun…

Munson was married three times, to actor and director Edward Buzzell in 1927, to Stewart McDonald in 1941, and designer Eugene Berman in 1949. She also had numerous lesbian affairs[1].

In 1955, plagued by ill health, she committed suicide at the age of 51 with an overdose of barbiturates in her apartment in New York.

A note found next to her deathbed read:
“This is the only way I know to be free again…Please don’t follow me.”

Just a quick update. I was in DC last week for bid-ness. Felt wicked guilty leaving Katy and Ona home alone, but family stepped up huge and spent the night with Katy (my Mom one night, her bro another). When I got back Thursday late afternoon, the nanny (btw, we hired a part-time nanny so Katy can work Mon/Fri) watched Ona so Katy and I went out for dinner (@ Nino’s, which was just OK) and got caught up. Very nice welcome home.
DC was pretty fun, though one day was nothing but meetings for 10+ hours. Ouch. Highlights, chronologically:

• Monday night met up with Jim and Amy (Thomas sucks and seems to not like poor little Muntzy anymore) and had a fabulous dinner at some Italian place in their hood. It was very reminiscent of the early days of hanging with them in DC – we went into a restaurant not expecting much and the Carliles put the food charm on the waiter and we ended up in food and booze heaven. We shared a cheese/meat plate, I had filet mignon with a portobello sauce, Amy the butternut squash ravioli and Jim some fish from the Mediterranean Sea. All were excellent. Yeah, even Jim’s fish was edible to Eric the fish hater.
• Tuesday, went to dinner with Jol and had an awesome time. Went to some chili place (Hard Times?) in Alexandria (near my hotel in never-never land) and had great chili with onions and cheese. Yeah. We just hung out and talked and it was great to relax from the day and just chill.
• Wednesday night went bowling with some work peeps and Jol. Always fun to bowl and great to bond with the work gang. Jol bet me (again) that he’d win at bowling and he lost (again). This time whoever lost had to pick all the underdogs in our NFL pick ‘em league. Haha, sucker. I did get a little tipsy and make a fool out myself (again)… My bowling name is “El Burro” and the waitress came and asked me if I wanted another drink, but called me “Sputnik” (or whatever Waldner’s bowling name was). Drunkenly, I raised my arms and shouted “I AM EL BURRO!!”. And then ordered another.
• Thursday I flew home after worky. Was so exhausted from meetings and hotel sleep (if you can call it that) that I don’t remember even boarding the plane. I woke up in Atlanta and though “wow, that was quick”. So, yay, good flight.

Now at home and back to the ole grind. Ona is doing well, still fighting reflux but we’re finding a routine. She likes to be pissed off between 8pm and midnight, which is “daddy’s shift”, so I get crying Ona most of the time. But, last night, she was super awesome and showed me the love. Yay. I will start a Picasa album for her pics soon and will post a linky link.

Something totally random to talk about… who would play me in a movie?

I wish I could say it would be somebody all hot and desired by the masses, like Brad Pitt or something. But, I know who I am and know it’d have to be somebody geekier than that.

Thomas always said if I were a woman I’d be:

He called her “Muntz Chick”. I guess I can see the resemblance. She’s pretty hot, I think, so yay me as a woman.

When the show was popular and I had an afro, I was often told I could play this guy’s long-lost kid:

But, since I’m half black that probably wouldn’t go over so well. Sorry, that was too easy.

Thomas also pointed out the guy who probably looks and acts the most like me (well, at least when I was in college and he was on “Undeclared”). His nose looks much bigger than mine in this picture and he probably looks more like the bastard child of me and Nick Palermo (don’t think the blog readers know him — he was a super cool guy I worked with in high school) but his mannerisms seem to be similar at least:

If he had a more raspy voice (maybe Marge Simpson’s voice?) and cussed a lot, that’d work. I can’t really think of anybody else who looks like me, though Troy often tells me I could have been a stand-in for this guy:

Haha, though I don’t see it. I’ve never realized how huge that head band was.

Thanks to my turtle-like posture and my job as a keyboard jockey, I will probably look like this in 25 years:

So, to the five readers out there, who would play you in a movie?

For those not familiar with the term, it’s basically blurred out words in an image presented on the internet. The point is to have people decipher it to prove they are human and not an automagic computer spambot (wikipedia page).

Can anybody tell me wtf this was supposed to be? I guessed “peYJAV” (which sounds like it should be something dirty) and was denied. Boo.

Haha, so awesome. And I feel like this pretty well sums up my outlook on my social life…