First new rule in my house: When doing the dishes one shall not hide the coffee making implement on the drying rack underneath heavy breakable dishes. One shall perch the coffee making implement on top of the pile of drying dishes so as to smooth the morning path from no coffee to coffee.

Second new rule in my house: One shall never let the coffee filters run out.

It has been a frustrating morning.

Yesterday Kottke linked to this article on the NYTimes which talks about how people sign off emails, with "best" being generally regarded as a brush off. I'm horrified, I use it all the time and certainly not as a brush off. I find "sincerely" too formal, and "warmest regards" seems awkward for me so, maybe I'll use "best wishes" for a while? Or "regards"?

NPR is running a craft contest and they are having people show of thier work on Flickr? These are my separate worlds colliding:

"My name is Melody Kramer and I am a web producer at National Public Radio. This month, we are producing a 'do-it-yourself' holiday feature and asking our readers to send in pictures of their homemade menorahs and Christmas ornaments. We will feature the best on our Web site, www.npr.org. The winner in each category will receive a prize from the NPR gift shop. We are especially looking for quirky, funny and/or offbeat designs, and/or designs that mention news items from 2006.

For example:
*A Mel Gibson menorah
*A global warming Christmas ornament
*A red state /blue state ornament

We'd like to ask our readers to post the pictures on Flickr.com with the tag word: NPRHOLIDAYCONTEST. We will feature the best designs in the coming weeks, and also link to individual websites, if the designs are selected."