Paperwork - another resolution for 2005

I detest organizing my paperwork. Keeping track of bills usually means placing them in a drawer to throw 'em away a year later. I usually don't do anything until they start increasing the font size on the invoices, which is generally a good sign you need to hurry up.
That's why Internet banking is such a wonderful invention; I'm usually in front of the damn thing anyway, so paying a bill should only take two minutes and voila, you're done for that month! It's a shame not every organization has entered the 21st century yet, like my doctor, which is why something had to be done.


So today was the day. I collected everything on my bed, the only way to make sure it was actually gone by the time the day was over. I got a huge folder and a hole puncher and went to work, last letters on top. Medical insurance, pet registration, bank statements -always nice-, letters confirming the fact that I am no longer a home owner -yey.
I have to admit that now I'm done, my head seems a little less crowded too. Let's see if I can keep this up...

Retail therapy

I present to you the first new items I bought after a long dry spell of almost a year. (I swear I had not seen the new lay out of H&M's before..)

A really cool asymmetrical purple sweater, that Mingus also likes:

A great 70's style warm poncho:

And a very funky T(it)-Shirt:

Smell the rain?

I came across this picture today:


It's called Le Manege de Monsieur Barre, by Robert Doisneau and when I saw it, I was almost transported onto the square. Even though it's in black and white.
I'm almost sure I can hear the rain coming down on the merry-go-round. It must have been one of those sudden French rains that you never see coming. An hour later, the sun would be back and people would start popping out of their hiding places.

You can practically see the water run towards the drain on the right, and then there's that smell...

I had to know what that rain smell was, and Google gave me this:

"There are two main smells associated with rain. The first is ozone which can be produced by lightning. This has an acrid smell. The common rain smell is a gas called petrichor. Volatiles evaporate from plants and are absorbed by rocks, concrete etc. When the rain hits the rock, the volatiles are released into the atmosphere and you smell it. This is a clean fresh smell.

So there: Petrichor is your word of the day.