Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Who is writting the headlines over at CNN.com? Chris Wallace?

Watch: British politician acts a fool, rips Bush
Get drunk and stay that way

Another SOTU drinking game
Remember The date

U.S. Senate votes to confirm Judge Samuel Alito as the 110th Supreme Court justice

Watch CNN or log on to CNN.com

Today is the day that led to the day that women lost control of their own bodies.
For those of you with the stomach to watch it

The State Of The Union drinking game.


Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences78th Annual Academy Awards Nominations

Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role Philip Seymour Hoffman - Capote Terrence Howard - Hustle & Flow Heath Ledger - Brokeback Mountain Joaquin Phoenix - Walk The Line David Strathairn - Good Night, And Good Luck.

Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role George Clooney - Syriana Matt Dillon - Crash Paul Giamatti - Cinderella Man Jake Gyllenhaal - Brokeback Mountain, William Hurt - A History Of Violence

Performance By An Actress In A Leading Role Judi Dench - Mrs. Henderson Presents Felicity Huffman - Transamerica Keira Knightley - Pride & Prejudice Charlize Theron - North Country Reese Witherspoon - Walk The Line

Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role Amy Adams - Junebug Catherine Keener - Capote ,Frances Mcdormand - North Country Rachel Weisz - The Constant Gardener Michelle Williams - Brokeback Mountain

Best Animated Feature Film Of The Year Howl's Moving Castle Tim Burton's Corpse Bride Wallace & Gromit In The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit

Achievement In Art Direction Good Night, And Good Luck. Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, King Kong, Memoirs Of A Geisha, Pride & Prejudice

Achievement In Cinematography Batman Begins, Brokeback Mountain Good Night, And Good Luck. Memoirs Of A Geisha, The New World

Achievement In Costume Design Charlie And The Chocolate Factory Memoirs Of A Geisha Mrs. Henderson Presentspride & Prejudice Walk The Line

Achievement In Directing Brokeback Mountain Capote Crash Good Night, And Good Luck. Munich

Best Documentary Feature Darwin's Nightmare Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room March Of The Penguins Murderball Street Fight

Best Documentary Short Subject The Death Of Kevin Carter: Casualty Of The Bang Bang Club God Sleeps In Rwanda The Mushroom Club A Note Of Triumph: The Golden Age Of Norman Corwin

Achievement In Film Editing Cinderella Man The Constant Gardener Crash Munich Walk The Line

Best Foreign Language Film Of The Year Don't Tell Joyeux Noèl Paradise Now Sophie Scholl - The Final Days Tsotsi

Achievement In Makeup The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe Cinderella Man Star Wars: Episode Iii Revenge Of The Sith

Achievement In Music Written For Motion Pictures(Original Score) Brokeback Mountain The Constant Gardener Memoirs Of A Geisha Munich Pride &Amp; Prejudice

Achievement In Music Written For Motion Pictures(Original Song) "In The Deep" - Crash "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp" - Hustle & Flow "Travelin' Thru" - Transamerica

Best Motion Picture Of The Year Brokeback Mountain Capote Crash Good Night, And Good Luck. Munich

Best Animated Short Film Badgered The Moon And The Son: An Imagined Conversation The Mysterious Geographic Explorations Of Jasper Morello 9 One Man Band

Best Live Action Short Film Ausreisser (The Runaway) Cashback The Last Farm Our Time Is Up Six Shooter

Achievement In Sound Editing King Kong Memoirs Of A Geisha War Of The Worlds


Achievement In Sound Mixing The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe King Kong Memoirs Of A Geisha Walk The Line War Of The Worlds

Achievement In Visual Effects The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe King Kong War Of The Worlds

Adapted Screenplay Brokeback Mountain Capote The Constant Gardener A History Of Violence Munich

Original Screenplay Crash Good Night, And Good Luck. Match Point The Squid And The Whale Syriana

The Oscar™ Nominations


I was going to write a nice non-Oscar ™ related entry for this morning and then I said “Why?”, I’m not going to be interested in hearing about other things and even if I do post an entry I’m just going to post the Nominations on top of it so why bother? I’m going to be up and around early haunting the various reporting sites anyway, why not just do a cut and paste job and give people what they are going to be looking for anyway. It’s not that I’m lazy; it’s that I am a hit whore. Deal With It.

I may also editorialize on the nominations; I haven’t made up my kind yet. I think it will depend on what the noms are for and if people I find irritating are nominated. For example, Reese Witherspoon. I like her but lately her Type Aness Little Mrs. Perfect rap has begun to wear on me, NotRiver Phoenix, I think he would prefer to go back under his rock and not have to spend the rest of his life as an Oscar™ winner. Also I wonder if doing an impression, even a good one, is the same as acting? Where is Rich Little's' Oscar(tm)? I wondered this last year as well and obviously Hollywood and I disagree. I think that creating an original character and making that character real is more worthy of being rewarded than simply aping behavior. I mean, not only is Hollywood out of ideas, they are ghouls waiting around for the next recording star to kick off so they can get their next movie made.

The 2005 Oscar Nominations are as follows :

What? they aren't going to be announced until when Eastern time? 5:30am PST is like 9:30am or so my time? Shiiiittte.'m going to have to come up with something to fill the time.

Did I tell you Dogger has a new bed? She does. She ate the last one and I wasn't going to get her a new one because she's a bed eater and I don't want to be an enabler, but then my parents stepped in a over the enabler job and now Dogger has a new bed. A bed that is supposed to be very hard for her to eat. We shall see., So far she is using it solely as a bed and not as a chew toy. If she eats this one I'm going to throw her in the hole for good. I just really don't think a Dog as old as Dogger needs to be still using a crib, er, crate. She should have aged out of that and into a proper dog bed.

So where are those nominations?

Still nothing


Hmm. What else. I'm going to use my new George Foreman for the first time this week. I'm very excited about that. Kind of. Okay, "very excited" may be over stating it a bit. I am "happy" about it - No still a little on the manic side when speaking about a counter top gizmo, how about "enthused". "I am enthused about using my new George Foreman grill". Still not great but better than "excited".

Did any one else watch CSI Miami last night? Hmm. Just me then, okay. I didn't say I like it, you know, I said I watch it, not I like it. It's always among the Top 20 in ratings, something that really makes me question my fellow Muricans, to be honest. Could it's success be part of the vast right wing conspiracy? is Jerry Bruckheimer a big GOP giver? I watch it because it's on - that can not be the sole reason that it is doing so well. Okay, I don't hate David Caruso, all that much, back in the day he was really, really good on NYPD Blue, he was an ass to the cast and crew but you couldn't beat his performance. On CSI Miami he plays the character as if drugged or emotionally disturbed. I want John Kelly back. Maybe Hortio Caine is the first openly autistic cop? (I fell asleep about 20 minutes in, what happened?)

Nominations out yet? Damn.

Monday, January 30, 2006

I'm not weired

Literal Cat Blogging
There are 5964 Catsters writing diaries for 8726 cats

The Dog Also Blogs
There are 16417 Dogsters writing diaries for 21024 dogs
You Are Somewhat Machiavellian

You're not going to mow over everyone to get ahead...
But you're also powerful enough to make things happen for yourself.
You understand how the world works, even when it's an ugly place.
You just don't get ugly yourself - unless you have to!
The Fonz would approve

Cool is still cool
Pre-Spring Cleaning

You know Friday when you look at the clock and say “Thank God it’s Friday”?, Friday morning I looked at the clock and said “OH!GAWD!ITS!FRIDAY!!!”.

My first thought was Okay. I need to brush my teeth and get dressed and get the hell out of here. I tried to call work but no one else seemed to be at their desks either. I did this because a year or so ago one of the ladies in the office was late one day and it turned out she was late, because she was late, the lady had died. I didn’t want to panic anyone unnecessarily.

I went to check Dogger and saw that over night she had eaten something fluffy. I didn’t know and I didn’t care. I gave her a couple of cookies and locked her in her crate Sorry Dogger, but you’re going to have to deal. I’ll be back at lunch. Oh, and whatever you ate? I hope it agreed with you because you all ready had your breakfast. And I left for work.

Another odd thing about Friday. All day we were getting calls from the Charlotte press and all day I had to tell them that we do not speak to the press they need to call X number and talk to X guy and that I’m not going to tell them as much as what time it is so they should stop asking me. Well, I found out why the press was calling all day and it wasn’t pretty

An Alzheimer's patient who disappeared for four days was found in a storage room of the nursing home where she lived, but the woman later died at a hospital. Mary Cole, 66, had disappeared Monday from Liberty Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, authorities said. She was found Friday under a table in a storage room at the center.

That sound you are hearing are the heads rolling.


Well. Onto happy places. This weekend my Dad came up and we, emphasis on “my dad”, cleaned up the grounds and generally tidied the place up. Its mildly depressing though that all this stuff ended up being tossed





And you can’t really tell how much work was done. I mean, My Dad wanted us to clear the leaves out of the back yard (which would, admittedly, made a big honking difference) but I wanted to let the leaves stay to act as mulch for the yard. Otherwise there isn’t any soil left and nothing grows in the dust that’s left and when the dust gets wet it turns to mud and the yard looks even more awful -so the leaves have to stay for two reasons: A) I’m hoping that if the leaves stay there long enough they will eventually break down and compost themselves into usable soil that will successfully grow grass back there, and B) they camouflage the dirt and make and thus the yard looks less like a missile site than it would otherwise. That’s how I see it, anyway.

The front yard on the other hand has adequate soil. I had months ago, declared the front yard a leaf free zone except for the leaves that were safely corralled under the shrubbery - keeping the plants warm! My Dad didn’t feel the same way and those had to go. Poor cold shrubs.

Now that the leaves have all been evicted and my plants are all going to catch cold and die. On the up side, after they have all frozen to death, I can plant more azaleas! and maybe a new rose bush as well.

Oh. And we found this



I didn't see it before beause when I look into the back yard it is just to check to see if Dogger has eaten the heat pump yet. This is too small and too perfect to be Dogger damage.

Dogger didn’t do it.

The Rat community was so happy with how I have taken care of their dead over the years, that they wanted to come live with me! I should have run over the little dead bastards with my lawn mower.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!

Saturday, January 28, 2006

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!!

Friday, January 27, 2006

Gmail

Does anyone want Gmail? if so, send me your first/last and email and I'll hook you up.
Friday Cat Blogging

Remember

The Challenger
He'll be dead soon

The Bolivian new left-wing President, Evo Morales, has cut his salary by more than a half to a little over $1,800 (£1,012) per month. The decision means that the salaries of all Bolivian public sector employees will be reviewed, as no official can earn more than the president.

Mr Morales said the money saved would be used to increase the numbers of doctors and teachers.

Mr Morales suggested that members of Congress should cut their salaries too. The former llama herder and coca leaf farmer was inaugurated last Sunday as Bolivia's first indigenous president. He has promised to fight corruption, introduce a new tax on the wealthy, and renationalise energy companies.


Full story here
Friday Morning Happy Poll

Found at and stolen from First Draft

According to the latest ABC News/WaPo poll an overwhelming majority of Americans want George Bush to come clean on his Assministration's dealings with confessed felon Jack Abramoff.

Do you think the Bush administration should or should not provide a list of all meetings any White House officials may have had with Abramoff?

Should 76 %
Should not 18%
No Opinion 5%

Do you approve or disapprove of the way Bush is handling Ethics in government?

Approve 42% (-3)
Disapprove 56% (+4)
No opinion 2% (-1)

Which political party, the (Democrats) or the (Republicans), do you trustto do a better job standing up to lobbyists and special interest groups?

Democrats 46% (+4)
Republicans 27% (-7)
Both 1% (-1)
Neither 20% 9 (+3)
No opinion 5% (unchanged)

Do you think the overall level of ethics and honesty in the federal government has risen, fallen or stayed the same with Bush as president?

Risen 18% (+1)
Fallen 43% (unchanged)
Same 38% (-1)
No opinion 1% (unchanged)
Novel thoughts

I stayed at work instead of going home and being useful during lunch today because the book I’m reading is screeching to its long telegraphed ending – Why, why, why is it that characters in thrillers have never actually read one themselves? I sit there and think “ isn’t that guy really familiar? Don’t you know him from somewhere? Why don’t you ask why so and so is coming to see you? Haven’t you ever read James Patterson or the Kellermans? Or even Kathy Reich’s? I should not have figured out who the Crazy Mass Murdering Killer was before the books’ highly trained Tormented Law Enforcement Protagonist finally pulled her head out of her angst and put two and two together.

And speaking of bad guys. Why is it that in these books the CMMKs are always so good at what they do? And why, while they are so good at what they do, why are they so crazy? Crazy does not make you good at things. Crazy makes you bad at things. It must be a tight rope the author walks on. If the crazy guy has it together enough to do his crimes and walk away from them he may not be crazy enough, too crazy and he can't be that organized. He must be written somewhere between Psychotic but well organized and Psychotic but sitting in the corner finger painting with his own feces. The CMMK is never written as a mouth breathing moron who can barely tie his own shoes. The CMMK is always smart and witty and fun to be around. He is never some asshole you want to just punch, he and it mostly He's, always seem about as supiour as they see themselves. The TLEP is the shlubby guy or gal with bad breath, a ruined marrige and an alchol problem. The TLEP always seems to want to die almost as much as the CMMK wants to kill them.

These crazy bad guys in the books always end up shot dead after they are finally tripped up by their crazy, I imagine because they get so annoyed by TLEPs total disregard of their crazy. In the books the CMMK is almost always right under TLEPs nose, masquerading as the shifty lawn guy or TLEPs daughters’ new 30-45 year old white college educated boyfriend who keeps to himself and designs jewelry made from bird beaks or even more insidiously, as the wacky whack job standing in front of TLEPs house with a sign around his head reading "I AM THE CRAZY MASS MURDERING KILLER". But no,TLEP totally disreguards all of that because he/she "knows" CMMK so well.

After much running, jumping, psychoanalyzing each other and, ultimatly, confession hearing, The TLEP shoots the CMMK (because writing court room scenes are boring and outside The Authors skill set). The TLEP spends the rest of the book licking his/her considerable wounds and angsting over his/her total disregard of CMMK allowed CMMK to kill over and over while TLEP self indulgently navel gazed and chased down straw men and red herrings because there was no way in hell the shifty lawn guy or TLEPs daughters’ new 30-45 year old white college educated boyfriend who keeps to himself and designs jewelry made from bird beaks or even more insidiously, as the wacky whack job standing in front of TLEPs house with a sign around his head reading "I AM THE CRAZY MASS MURDERING KILLER".

Maybe I should start reading romance novels.

Sorry this is posting late. I over slept for the first time in nearly five years Damn that nice warm Kitty!

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Empathy

This little guy totally feels me today.


(jacked from Cute Overload )
Jerks and Treats

Dogger broke her old toy record! It took her exactly one month to destroy her most recent Cong ( the cheap alternate to a real Kong ™ toy) I gave it to her Christmas Eve and I had to take it way from her on January 24th. I didn’t have to take it away I’m just not sure what the doctor recommended allowance of rubber is in large dogs, and I don’t want her to go over the limit on that. She is bouncy enough as it is.

So, Dogger and I are going to have to go to the store. I got lucky finding that Cong toy at Poverty Barn before Christmas and I don’t think I’ve seen any there recently, which probably means a trip to Wal-Mart and that is always a risky proposition. All those cheap things I didn’t know I needed before I saw them.

Or maybe I should just stay home and clean my kitchen. I should mop the floor as well, but my mop head is even filthier than my kitchen floor so I’m still going to have to go out and go to the store, but maybe I can limit my exposure to cheap things I didn’t know I wanted by sticking to Poverty Barn – where there is also vast quantities of things that I didn’t know I wanted, but they are even cheaper things I didn’t know I wanted.

Before Dogger and I go anywhere tonight, we are first going to walk to the post office so I can pick up a copy of the local Indy paper that I don’t read anymore. I only pick it up as back up reading should my morning paper not arrive – like it did again today! Well, it arrived it just arrived late, after I had all ready called and complained about it again. I am beginning to wonder how many days in a row I’m going to have to call and complain before anything is done about this? Since I called this morning, tomorrow morning is almost guaranteed to be on time, but that Friday is in question.

The good thing about the routineness of the paper being late is that I have had the chance to develop a different morning schedule to mesh with the increased free time not due to not being able to read my paper affords me... For instance, I have started a morning Pilates work out with The Kitty and taught Dogger to balance a cookie on her nose for up to an hour! You never know what you can get accomplished until you can’t get your daily dose of local and international outrage in.

Changing the subject. I was talking with my friend who’s Mother died last weekend, she is now sick with what ever her daughter was sick with last week and now she tells me her boyfriend of the last six months broke up with her on Monday. I told her I hope she burns that son of a bitch down for that. What kind of person breaks up with a mourner? How sleazy do you have to be to break up with a woman whose mother just died?

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

You're Seth Gecko, you bastard.
Fun at the Titty Twister.


Which B-Movie Badass Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
I still say Republicans are brain damaged

We are our bias
Born stupid

You may have heard of the "ugly American". Meet the ugly Italian .
Bush can't do the math

Feds say they'll cover states' drug tab

Federal officials said Tuesday they would reimburse states that bought medicine for senior citizens and disabled people who could not get help through the new Medicare drug benefit. The benefit began on January 1. Under the program, Medicare beneficiaries enroll in private plans that get a government subsidy to provide prescription drug coverage.

Bush’s trillion dollar problem.
How to Cat Blog

Effective Cat blogging just got harder . Damn Cute Overload for raising the bar so high!
Ride my train of thought

There was a letter waiting for me at home the other day, it came from some transportation survey thing and it was telling me that (should I decided to co-operate) I would get the opportunity to represent 109 families in my area. Go Me. They called me last night to make sure they sent it to a real address and then we had a lovely talk. I only had to re-affirm 12 times that I do indeed live alone and there are no children of any age living with me, I do not bike to work ever and I did not choose the location where I live because of the availability of near by bus stops. They seemed disappointed in me because I do no use public transit at any point during my day and when I had to tell him I do not own a bike, I think he teared up.

The guy was also somewhat put off that I am not a student, I don't know any students and no students live at my address and that the neighborhood schools played no part in my buying this house. They didn’t think to ask me about grocery stores, proximity to a church or synagogue of my choice, how close the on ramp, hospital, and fire stations are – things that matter to me.

They are going to send me a little diary thing to fill out to chart my driving habits for a day. I feel like a vehicular Nelson Family, I’m trying to decide if I should save up my errands for that day so I can really impress them with the efficiency of my errand running or if I should just go to work and come home and lock myself in the house so as to impress them with my dedication to fuel conservation and love of the environment. They kept making me repeat back the day I’m going to be doing this, it’s very important that I remember that JANUARY 31 is the day and that I should not under any circumstances keep track of my driving on any other day and to make sure I don't try to keep track of where I drive on say JANUARY 30th on accident. They are going to send me a packet in the mail with the date clearly stamped on it with instructions to only journal my errands on JANUARY 31, so I can write down all the trips I take The Right Day. On that day, they are going to call me and debrief me about my day. It’s going to be a very exciting phone call.

changing the subject

Oh, I am not a complete failure as a human being any more! I went to go give blood on Monday and I was successful! When the woman took the finger stick I told her I had better do well on this, I studied for it. She was confused. I have made a concerted effort to eat more iron rich foods for the past couple of weeks and it helped. I am not anemic, at all, actually but the damn Red Cross won’t take blood from you if your blood count is under a certain number. Monday night I was 39, 38 gets you booted to the curb. I asked a doctor what number really constituted anemia and I was told under 37.

Afterwards, I passed on the red rubber bracelet thing this time as my reward and went with the write on/wipe off board. It says “Things To Do” and at number one is Donate Blood - which you can only do every 58 days so really, if it is the number one thing on your to do list you really do not have enough to do – and besides once you sign up for an appointment the Red Cross will not let you forget it. They send postcards, they call you at work, they are not going to let a donor get away with out a fight.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Even if it is a ploy, I like it


The Washington Times is a mooney owned house organ for the GOP. It is trash. However, their little magazine ran this, and even if it just a ploy to scare the base and make them feel like their beloved leader is at risk - and we all know he isn't, the article reads:

The Bush administration is bracing for impeachment hearings in Congress.

"A coalition in Congress is being formed to support impeachment," an administration source said.

Sources said a prelude to the impeachment process could begin with hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee in February. They said the hearings would focus on the secret electronic surveillance program and whether Mr. Bush violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Administration sources said the charges are expected to include false reports to Congress as well as Mr. Bush's authorization of the National Security Agency to engage in electronic surveillance inside the United States without a court warrant. This included the monitoring of overseas telephone calls and e-mail traffic to and from people living in the United States without requisite permission from a secret court.

Impeachment proponents in Congress have been bolstered by a memorandum by the Congressional Research Service on Jan. 6. CRS, which is the research arm of Congress, asserted in a report by national security specialist Alfred Cumming that the amended 1947 law requires the president to keep all members of the House and Senate intelligence committees "fully and currently informed" of a domestic surveillance effort. It was the second CRS report in less than a month that questioned the administration's domestic surveillance program.

The latest CRS report said Mr. Bush should have briefed the intelligence committees in the House and Senate. The report said covert programs must be reported to House and Senate leaders as well as the chairs of the intelligence panels, termed the "Gang of Eight."

Administration sources said Mr. Bush would wage a vigorous defense of electronic surveillance and other controversial measures enacted after 9/11. They said the president would begin with pressure on Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Mr. Bush would then point to security measures taken by the former administration of President Bill Clinton.

"The argument is that the American people will never forgive any public official who knowingly hurts national security," an administration source said. "We will tell the American people that while we have done everything we can to protect them, our policies are being endangered by a hypocritical Congress."
BREAKING NEWS Senate Judiciary Committee recommends Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito's confirmation to full Senate on 10-8 vote

Break out your burkas girls our rights as individuals and citizens of this country are over in 3, 2, 1 ...
Baby otter

If you frequent Cute Overload, you have all ready seen this little otter, but for those of you who have not:

Old, Old, Old

I am so old. I had the chance to go see a band play over the weekend and I totally turned it down, nothing against the band, but they weren’t even scheduled to come on until midnight! Do you know how late that is?

I did think about it, for about a second, and then I thought about the next morning, that would come so quickly after the night before and I knew I couldn’t do it. Later, after I said No, I thought more about it. I said to myself Stop being such an old fuddy duddy! It’s Saturday night! You don’t have to be up at the crack of dawn Sunday morning! You can do this! Come on, it’ll be fun! You did this kind of thing all the time at school! Gawd, parties didn’t even get started until 11pm! and then I started thinking about what I would wear to this midnight concert, But dayum. I don’t know. What do people where to clubs these days? I doubt they wear a lot of blazers and slacks and I’m pretty sure “relaxed fit” is not part of the average club goer’s wardrobe. I would imagine that tasteful hoop earrings would also not fit in. Don’t they require glow sticks and marabou feathers for entrance these days?

In my day we had to do with out glow sticks, in my day it was all about spandex and darkness. If you really need to wear a glow stick around your neck to light people the way to your tits - you're dumber than the guy in the maraboo feathers you're trying to bring in for a landing.

We also invented house music - which sucked as much then as it does now, by the way, I was forced long ago to listen to house while hung over, and I think it made the hang over longer than it should have and this was back when I healed much faster than I do today. I’ve never forgiven the genre for the quick trip to Mythirtiesland.

We also invented stupid tats in stupid places. We were stupid before it was “stupid” to be stupid. The only things I have pierced are my ears – but I had those done in elementary school, not sophomore year over srping break to piss off my parents. I’m pretty sure that today piercings don’t count unless the placement puts your future employability at risk. I suppose for the tat requirement, I could have stenciled something edgy on my arms…

I can just see me surrounded by Ex or Red Bulled fueled young hipsters, or Cheer Wine fueled whatever passes for hipster in this backwater, and I still think I would not compare favorably, not outfitted with my cold war era pre irony soviet flag pin and my neon ear plugs. I think I would just look old and I doubt the sweet young things would be impressed that I rememeber when Bono was just a rock god.

I didn’t go. These days the only way I wear spandex anymore is under my clothes and I would also need more than one day to get over being up and around at 2am. You know you’re old when you rate a good weekend by how many of your chores you got done.

Q - How was your weekend?

A - Oh, it was great! I got the laundry done, washed the car, vacuumed the house, called the guy about the driveway, washed the dog and went to the store – that was on Saturday, on Sunday I was really busy!


Sigh.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Nephdogs Quest

This is nephdog. Nephdog is very sad.



His toy is missing!

So he's been looking




And looking




Where is that toy?



Nephdog decided to go outside

To look



and look



Back inside!



Nephdog is tidy!



Where is that toy!


Where else can Nephdog look?

Should I look Upstairs?



Upstairs it is!



It has been a long day filled with looking and looking. Nephdog takes a nap and dreams of where his toy could be







Where is that toy!!



Nephdog is really stressed.

He needs to relax. He needs a massage.



Nephdog feels soooooooo much better.



But what is he looking at?



Ahhhhh! Together at last!!



The End

Sunday, January 22, 2006

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!!!!

Saturday, January 21, 2006

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!!!

Friday, January 20, 2006

Friday Cat Blogging

Whimper

You must go see these puppies!
TGIF

Aren’t ya glad?

I’m looking forward to see if EarthLink is going to continue to step in and take over for my alarm clock that I so selfishly turn off over the weekend. EarthLink bravely stepped up to be my wake up service last weekend. They knew that I was just going to sleep my morning away and no doubt fritter all my free time away lounging around doing nothing so they had the guts to call and wake me Saturday and Sunday at exactly 9:33am to ask if I was interested in high speed internet access for $29.99 per month. I would be if it was for more than 6 months and if they had not woken me from a sound sleep to try to sell it to me.

Saturday the call went like this:

RING
RING!

Me – Hello?

Them - Earthlink! Babble, Babble, Blah, Blah, Blah $29.99!! 6 months!!! Interested?

Me – Um.

Them - Blab, Blab, Talk, Talk, Talk!

Me - Wha?

Them – Babble, Babble, Blah, Blah Earthlink!!

Me – Whu?

Them – Is this not a good time for you? Should we call back a later time?

( it took her that long to realize that I might not be up to rattling off my credit card number)

Me – Yezzzzzzz.


Really, by that time I was awake for the day and not happy about it. I thought about that all day, but especially when I was trying in vain to find something on TV at 10am Saturday morning that wasn’t Paid Programming or Happy Gilmore.

Sunday at the exact same time.

RING

Me – Yes?

Them - Earthlink! Babble, Babble, Blah, Blah, Blah $29.99!! Interested?

Me – Do you know what day this is?

Them – Babble, Bla – Yes?

Me – You called me yesterday, at this very time.

Them - Yes?

Me – This is SUNDAY MORNING!

Them – is this not a good time? Should we call back?

Me – No! This is not a good time! This is Sunday morning! Why are you calling to bother me on Sunday morning? Don’t call me back!



I noticed this week that they sent me a flyer with the same spiel on it. What is not on the script is how much it costs after the six months. A lot. It costs a lot. I pay them more than I should now with my existing dial up service that I have had for years and predates EarthLink by three or four take over’s and mergers and name changes, and I am holding onto to it Damn it, because of my email addy is spread far and wide and I don’t want to think of having to deal with a new one and besides I am perfectly happy with dial up. I don’t need high speed access I am also still paying them because they are not AOL.

I shouldn’t be so precious about my email addy. I have three others I use with some frequency but I don’t feel the same way about them, they aren’t the same. I wonder what the Guinness World's Record for holding on to the same email addy is?


Why the Democrats need to grow a pair : Democrat apologizes to Rethuglicans for pointing out they are whores The rethuglicans would, never, never, never, never, never apologize , ever.

Thursday, January 19, 2006



Dust balls do evolve into hamsters!
Ew

College Republicans now even more distasteful.
Beasties

Normally, I have no time for hamsters. They look too much like the rats I have to fish out of my yard from time to time but in this case, how could I not fall in love with these little guys?
Healthy Fare

Dear Employees:

Your agency wellness committees have planned an exciting wellness fair for employees on Wednesday, January 18, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Haywood Gym. I will be there at 2 p.m. to talk to you and the media about Healthy Weight Week and our DHHS Wellness Initiative, and at about 2:15 p.m. I will lead a half-mile health walk on campus. I hope you will join me.

The wellness fair is a kickoff event for our wellness programs. This is an important opportunity for employees to learn more about improving their health and wellness and about the increased workplace support to help employees who want to become more active, eat healthy foods, quit tobacco, and manage stress. At the fair, employees can sign up for campus walking clubs, participate in dance and exercise classes, take a health assessment, sample healthy snacks, and learn about one-on-one resources available to help in quitting tobacco and developing a personal wellness plan.


We could start by getting rid of the designated smoking areas?

Our department is strongly committed to creating workplace policies and environments that promote and support employees in making healthy lifestyle choices. We are working with agency wellness committees and the department's management team to provide all employees the opportunity and time to engage in more healthful behaviors during their workday.

By allowing smoking on campus?

I look forward to joining you at the health fair next Wednesday.

Sincerely,


Wow. I didn’t know I was supposed to stay for an hour. I can’t imagine what I would have done for an hour. I mean once I filled out not one but two surveys about what I would like in our vending machines – answer, “I would not eat Moon pies if they were available and I would not care for vending machine bagels”. Twice. I did pick up some nice freebies



1 blue Frisbee
1 wild berry muffin
1 green highlighter
1 10oz bottle of bottled water
1 lunch sized bag of baked lays
1 package of snack wells cookies
1 water Mellon fruit snack bar
1 apple
And a teeny, tiny bottle of hand sanitizer to clip to my key chain


I also drove to the fair this time. I would have walked had there not been these pesky 30 mph winds that we’re having. The 30 mph winds being a vast improvement over the 45 + mph winds we were buffeted with Tuesday night. All night. Wind is loud. Wind getting trapped in a carport is even louder. I lay there for most of the night and waited for my roof to peel off, or more realistically, waited for the drug dealers’ roof to peel the rest of the way off. Eventually, the wind died down or at least it started to rain harder and the rain took over the sound effects responsibilities for the remainder of the evening. It was fun.

By this morning, it was pouring and of course, my paper was late again. I complain and complain and my paper is late 3 days out of 7 but he seems to specialize in being late on days when it rains. I’m waiting for him to figure out that if I am out there waiting for him in the morning, it means he is late and I have all ready called to narc on him. I know for a fact my paper is supposed to be there at 5am and I wouldn’t care at what point between five and six he got there as long as I wouldn’t have to keep going out there to look for him until 6:30. Arrrggh. The last paper guy used to throw it on my porch; this guy likes to play hide and seek with me. I’m not playing, if I can’t find it, it wasn’t delivered and I don’t care if you can see it from the street - the paper is where I can see it or it isn’t there at all.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

How much?

Remember the good old days? when a candy bar cost a quarter? Okay, I don't either. There are no good old days, but for arguments sake, go here and check out how much things cost back in the day and what they would cost today.
Weekend

I want everyone to notice how right I was on my Golden Globe ™ predictions, except for the ones I got wrong or couldn’t bring myself to care about. I have to give the HFP some credit though, I don’t think the first award was handed out until after 8pm and they still ended at 11pm more or less on the dot. Take that four hour plus Oscars ™.

I went to the weekly staff meeting this morning.

How was your weekend? Did you have a good time?

I didn’t go to the mall or check out the flea market or even do any substantive house cleaning. I wasn’t totally useless, I did do laundry and emptied and filled the dishwasher and walked the dog and colored my hair. I spent a lot of time watching DVDs.

I haven’t rented anything in a while. When did it get so expensive? And when did Blockbuster ™ decide they needed even fewer movies in their stores? I was just taken aback by how shallow the selections were at both stores I ended up renting from – and before you suggest some crunchy, high minded, "peace and brotherhood", independent DVD rental place, I should tell you that those self same crunchy, high minded, "peace and brotherhood" indy places don't locate in the ‘hood and the two video stores I use, I have to drive out of my neighborhood to get to. I guess in the ‘hood we’re supposed to keep ourselves occupied taping incidents of police brutality and probably entertain ourselves watching tapes of our last home invasion outing.

Whatever.

I watched Empire Records again. I think I didn’t see it at the time (1995) because the cast was too young and I wouldn’t have gone to see a movie with even a whiff of high school kid angst when it came out, as I was still suffering from a John Hughes induced High School angst hang over, which is a shame because I think I would have liked it. I never saw The Craft either, for the same reason, but I still haven’t seen it and Gawd knows, if it came out more than three years ago Block Buster ™ isn’t going to have it so it might as well be lost to the ages now.

I also watched an Australian production that turned out to be A Serious Film About The Politics of Marriage and Infidelity with a bad case of Altman envy. It didn't help that through the entire movie it was over cast or raining and no one ever smiled. It was like watching a Bergman film with fewer Norwegians and more shrimp on the barby.

My Mother called me to point out there was a story in the paper about the son of a neighbor, whose death just went from being classified as the death of an unworthy dead drug addict to that of being the death of a worthy homicide victim. When he was just a homeless drug addict found down in a yard they assumed he fell from the roof – cause ya know, why bother finding out what really happened.

From the story in the paper:

Chavis was found at 8 p.m. Aug. 26 in the back yard of 716 1/2 E. Martin St., bleeding from head wounds. Unsure whether an assailant attacked Chavis or whether he fell, Raleigh officers began investigating the incident as an aggravated assault, said Jim Sughrue, spokesman for the Raleigh Police Department. They learned from a surgeon who operated on Chavis that he had been struck in the head with a sharp object, possibly an axe or machete.

Oddly, not a fall, he didn't do it to himself. Hmmm. He died on October 5.

The death was ruled a homicide because the initial attack left him with a severely fractured skull, according to his autopsy. Detectives from the city's homicide unit picked up the case. One of the first things they did was to search for a weapon, which wasn't done during the five weeks of the initial investigation (GOD!! if he were in their eyes a more upstanding citizen, would they have actually done their job? would he have been a victim in need of justice? Would they have checked for weapons and thoroughly investigated what happened if he had been more like me and less like him? aren't we all worth the effort?) when they retunred to the scene they recovered an iron bar, 2.5-inch nail, metal vise-grip, axe, axe head, sledgehammer, lawn mower blade and aluminum baseball bat were seized from the Martin Street house, according to a police search warrant recently made public.

Walter Chavis Jr., 57, has a distinction: He was the only person killed in Raleigh last year whose murder remains unsolved.

Later my best friend from home called first to tell me her mother was dieing and later to tell me she had died.

"I had a good weekend".

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Better than vitamins



Want more? The Daily Puppy

from Cute Overload
Time Killer

Kill your free time dead with the amazing Egg Toss game
Who will,who should and who did
Golden Globe Winners 2006

(blankety, blankety blank "network problems".)

I was going to do a long scholarly analysis of the Golden Globe (TM) nominees until I looked at the handy insert that Entertainment Weekly provided and after a brief study period I learned that of the nominated 32 films and the 30 TV shows nominated that I hadn’t seen any of the movies and watched only 2 of the TV shows. (scroll down for complete list of winners)

I’m not familiar with any of the TV actors or the shows they are on, I would say as a fan, Hugh Laurie should win for his category and so should Jason Lee and My Name Is Earl. But. Even though I am not at all familiar with any of the other shows or actors or have any desire to become so, I do have opinions. Completely merit-less, but opinions on them non the less. So. My thoughts on who should win what. This is being written at 3pm, Monday the 16th. I will also post who actually won. I watch these awards shows so you don’t have to.

Best Film/Actor/Actress - Drama

Will Win - Brokeback Mountain. Gay shepherds are so hot right now. I don’t care for westerns, so no matter how trendy gay shepherds are, I’m not going to go see it.
Should Win - Good Night and Good Luck . There is some chance I will actually go see this. I love George Clooney..

Best Actor

Will Win - Heath Ledger, Gay Cowboy movie, for “being so brave” Vomit.
Should Win - Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Capote or David Strathairn, Good Night and Good Luck. PSH is excellent and the best actor or his (my) generation, DS because of my Clooney love and I want him to be rewarded for being a good Democrat and a proud Liberal.

Best Actress

Will Win - Toss up, Gwyneth moved to Europe on purpose and the HFP is European so that may go in her favor, but Proof did no business and no one saw it. She may give good interview, though and that would help her cause. Two actresses went ugly for parts, Felicity Huffman for Transamerica and Charlize Theron for North Country. This is CT second trip to the ugly well, - she has all ready won for going ugly, she may lose points for ugly hoarding.
Should Win - Felicity Huffman. I feel sorry for her being stuck on DH when she should be on a better show with a better cast.

Best Film/Actor/Actress Musical or Comedy

Give it up for The Producers!! Woo-Hoo.

Moving on.

Best Actor

Will - Joaquin Phoenix, because River Oded before he could be properly awarded. Don’t look at me like that.
Should - Cillian Murphy so the HFP can feel all superior because they saw Breakfast on Pluto and the rest of us didn’t even know there was a movie called Breakfast on Pluto.

Best Actress

Will -

Gawd. Who am I kidding? This is making me tired. I could care less. Okay, deep breath...

Okay.

Will - Judy Dench
Should - Judy Dench

Best Supporting Actress
Will - Scarlett Johanson for being 21 years old and not being anything at all like Lindsey Lohan.
Should - See above.

Best Supporting Actor
George Clooney for Syriana


Okay, skipping five or six or seven music and TV categories I don’t care about.


Best Actor, Drama

Hugh Laurie

Best Comedy

My Name is Earl

Best Actor, Comedy

Jason Lee.


Who Did Win

Best Film Drama - Brokeback Mountain
Best Actor Drama Film - Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
Best Actress Drama Film - Felicity Huffman, Transamerica
Best Supporting Actor Film - George Clooney !!!, Syriana
Best Supporting Actress Film - Rachel Weisz
Best Film Musical or Comedy - Walk The Line
Best Actor Musical or Comedy Film - Joaquin Phoenix
Best Actress Musical or Comedy Film - Reese Witherspoon Walk The Line
Best Supporting Actor TV - Paul Newman, Empire Falls
Best Supporting Actress TV - Sandra Oh Grays Anatomy
Best Director Film - Ang Lee Brokeback Mountain
Best Foreign Language - Palestine, Paradise Now
Best Screenplay - Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana Brokeback Mountain
Best TV Drama - Lost
Best Actor Drama TV - Hugh Laurie !!! House
Best Actress Drama TV - Geena Davis Commander and Chief
Best TV Comedy - Desperate Housewives
Best Actor Comedy TV - Steve Carell, The Office (great speech)
Best Actress Comedy TV - Mary Louise Parker, Weeds
Best Mini Series TV - Empire Falls
Best Actor Mini Series - Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Elvis
Best Actress Mini Series - S. Empatha Merkerson, Laackawanna Blues

Monday, January 16, 2006

HAPPY MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY!!

Sunday, January 15, 2006

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!!!!!

Saturday, January 14, 2006

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!!

Friday, January 13, 2006

Friday Cat Blogging

TGIF

If you didn't all ready know, today is Friday the 13th. Take cover now.

I just noticed something. I left a comment on another site, people do that, leave comments, its thing. Anyway, I left a comment and when it posted; my picture was next to it. Like an icon. I didn’t know about that feature. I’m not sure I like it, it seems kind of looserish to have your head shot as an icon. I fixed it of course, I will now be known by my affinity for happy meal toys, which is also pretty looserish when I think about it but I think I’m just not going to think about it.

It just seemed weird. I didn’t know that. I mean, I even leave comments from time to time on other sites but I guess I haven’t left any on a blogspot site before or I haven’t run across anyone using blogspots' comments option. I don’t use blogspots’ comments option, why when there are so many others that are easier and less blogspotty in nature and why would they use that picture as an icon? couldn't the ask? And if so, why didn’t they make that clear? Whatever. I’m done with it, I’ve moved on.

What else.

I found out what Dogger would do if she didn’t get a walk. Dogger will run back in forth in the back yard until she has completely torn up the turf and rendered the land ready for planting. I just need to get my hands on a tractor and I’ll be on my way. Wait, seeds! I would need seeds before I needed a tractor and what is it that tractors do anyway? Dogger has done an exemplary job leaving furrows in the land and I’m pretty sure that is a tractor function, so maybe I don’t need a tractor. What would I plant? What would Dogger not destroy? What wants to live in the ground and be covered by dead leaves from the neighbors’ giant tree 11 months of the year? I mean, it’s not like I’m going to go out into my back yard to tend to the crop. I mean, really. Farming? me? I kill silk flower arrangements. I’m not going to be able to deal with a crop unless it’s a crop of whatever makes up the weeds in my front yard. I wonder if I could count the wind onions? I do have a way with wild onions but at the same time,I killed garlic. Do you know how hard it is to kill garlic?

You put the little garlic piece into the ground, you cover it up, you leave it there for months and then you dig it up. The less you do to your garlic then better. It likes being ignored. I gave mine the silent treatment and it died from hurt feelings.

I’m not a walking bottle of Weed B Gone, I did notice that the grass seed I put down in the front last fall has sprouted. I thought it died after we didn’t get any rain for all that time and I never bothered to water it myself and then I forgot about it. And then it got scabby. You really don’t want something that appears scabby in your front yard – but that could explain why the drug dealers clients sometimes come to my door, the drug dealer has a nice lawn… I mean my yard looked like it had picked up something on vacation that needed a shot to get rid of.

Have you ever heard of fairy rings? My yard had Fairy Scabs, or what happens to fairies leave behind after they don’t wash under their wings thoroughly enough or let fairies they don’t know very well try out their wings in the fairy bathrooms between classes or get drunk and share wings with fairies they just met but they think they know well enough all ready… You never can know anyone well enough to let them use your wings.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

I was wrong, he is an Idiot.

"It may be hard for you to see, but from when I first came here to today, New Orleans is reminding me of the city I used to come to visit," he said. "It's a heck of a place to bring your family. It's a great place to find some of the greatest food in the world and some wonderful fun."And for folks around the country who are looking for a great place to have a convention, or a great place to visit, I'd suggest coming here to the great New Orleans."

Many New Orleans neighborhoods are still abandoned wastelands, with uninhabitable homes, no working street lights and sidewalks piled with moldy garbage. The levee system is as vulnerable as ever. Barely a quarter of the 400,000 people who fled have come back, demographers estimate.

Before returning to Washington Thursday night, Bush planned to attend a Republican National Committee fundraiser at the sprawling oceanfront estate of Dwight Schar in Palm Beach, Florida. Schar is CEO of NVR Homes, a major homebuilder and mortgage banking company, He raised more than $200,000 for Bush's re-election campaign.


They are still finding bodies. Sure come to New Orleans and get you some crawfish! Maybe do some disaster tourism while you’re at it! GAWD.

more of Bush being an idiot at CNN.com
What do they call it when you are physically unable to learn?

President Bush continues to do a heckuva job installing unqualified cronies in key government posts.

Even though the Michael Brown debacle at the Federal Emergency Management Agency is still good for a few laughs on the Leno and Letterman shows, Bush may inject new life into late night TV monologues with his recent appointment of Ellen Sauerbrey to head the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.

There's actually something even worse about Sauerbrey's back-door recess appoint to this post than her zero experience. She is revered by the religious right for her strident opposition to sex education, safe sex initiatives, emergency contraception, abortion and the entire range of women's reproductive health services that are absolutely vital to refugee populations.

The New York Times was a bit more blunt: "Ms. Sauerbrey has zero experience in emergency management and refugee resettlement."

Zero experience. That's an astounding benchmark, impossible to beat. There is no less-than-zero level of experience. What kinds of disasters and refugee situations does the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration address? Rwanda. Darfur, Sudan. Kosovo. Iraq. Gaza Strip. Southeast Asia tsunami. Pakistan earthquake. It's the last place anyone wants to see a director with zero experience.

Previous directors of the bureau have served as U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, director of foreign disaster assistance at the Agency for International Development and senior deputy assistant secretary of State for Refugee Programs. One of them was a Republican appointed by President Clinton.


full story here

Nowadays they say some one who has lost the ability to learn they say they are demented and we feel bad for them. In Shrubs case his inability learn could stem from the fact that he is an moron and on days when Unca Karl hiding from the special prosecutor not around, he reaches idiot status. See, you learn something new everyday, I had no idea that a moron had more mental capacity than an idiot!
Now?! Now?

"the Army had finalized specifications for the plates and planned to hire a contractor to provide 230,000 sets this year. Some military units have already used their own procurement money to buy such armor."

New body plates add protection on sides, in response to study They studied this? this was something that needed "Study"? 2106 + deaths later and they needed to study the idea of better armor? and the troops on the ground have had to "used their own procurement money" to get these for themselves? GAWD!!! Why does the administration hate the troops?

from The Dallas Morning News
Health Fare

I was going to go to the annual employee health fair. I got up, put on my coat and left the building. I even walked to where the health fair was supposed to be held.

I like fairs and I like health and I like to believe that I am fairly healthy amd I like to think that this is in part to my yearly visits to them. I mean if you hit enough health fairs you can keep a pretty good eye on your various vital signs and if you find a partially fancy health fair you can watch your cholesterol as well. And the best part? They are free.

You do have to deal with the Fair part though. There are all these tangentially health related pseudo “health care” providers that you have to fight your way through to get to the actual health care providers – usually office workers from whatever insurance company is hosting the fair. The real nurses, if there are any in attendances, are outside smoking between their sitting at insurance company booths handing out magnets and pens shifts. It’s okay though, I would rather have a cheerful, non-smoking office aid remind me happily that smoking is bad than have a nurse in the midst of a nic fit, monotones me the anti- smoking rap while she digs through her purse for her lighter. Also, I don’t smoke.

The last time I went to one of these the state kindly located it so far away from the campus that I had to blow my lunch hour to attend. How can it be healthy to force all those state workers to not eat lunch? Lunch is important. Important but not more important than making sure we all spent as much time as possible wedged into chiropractors booths and magnetic bracelet displays on our way to get our body mass index checked out on our way to the free apples.

Anyway. I walked over to the alleged location of this year fair. I walked all the way there. I mean, I didn’t have to either. I could have driven but no, I was being healthy in preparation for the health fair. I was on my way when I thought to myself what time does this thing get over? What time is it now?, I assured myself that it wasn't over until at least three and it was not that late yet. It was two. And then I said to myself : wasn’t there supposed to be some sort of group walk thing at 2pm? I wonder where they all are. I don’t want to be in the way of that. I mean, a whole flock of state employees bearing down on you could be dangerous. The centrifugal force alone would be deadly. I need to move out of the street..

But there were no roving flocks of state employees. I thought I read FREE on a poster for the fair. State Employees really come out for FREE. If they were giving away FREE euthanasia we would line up for it. I saw no state employees.

This wasn’t looking good for the health fair. But I kept going. I found the place where I was pretty sure the poster had said it would be. I was pretty sure. More or less, it didn’t matter - The doors were locked.

Then I said screw it. I’m going back to work. I don’t know where the stupid fair is being held and now I don’t care. Humph. Obliviously a last years was so sucky that no one took the bait this year. They over salted with chiropractors and this year nobody went. Humph. I went back to the office.

The health fair is next week.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Pat Roberts spits shoe out of mouth, "What, was my mike on?"

Shockingly, the Israelis less willing this week to fund Roberts Jesusland theme park.
Hokay...

Beedogs. Dogs in bee costumes.
Now that all the other problems in the world have been solved

You know it's a slow news day when your local news leads their broadcast with the news that Mr. Blackwells best and worst dressed list is out. You can tell CNN is having a slow day when the news that Angelina Jolie is knocked up is a a headline.
Blah

It is totally cloudy and it was no warmer at lunch then it was when I came in and it's foggy. In January. It is days like this that make me throw Dogger into the yard and tell her to run laps or I may just end up putting her into the van and driving her to the field and letting her run around there. Ideally, our walks do not include riding in the van as I think of it as being counter productive to the whole goal of exercise in the first place.

If I don't end up walking Dogger I still have things I could be doing to be active. Dogger, however does not get the calorie busting benefits of house cleaning -I suppose I could load her back pack with disinfectant and paper towels but sadly, I don't see her as being all that helpful.

The house really needs to be cleaned up. I did the putting away of the decorations but that just uncovered a whole layer of clutter that I had been disguising with the decorations. You know if you though some tinsel on a spider web, it really makes it almost seasonal and a dust hamster strung with lights is a very decorative object. I have this whole downstairs bedroom that I haven't been able to use since before the holidays and I'm pretty sure that I might need to investigate some of the more furry piles in there. I think the assorted dirty laundry, crumpled up Christmas paper and orphan pairs of sneakers may have joined forces and created another cat. I'm not sure.

The whole place needs a good going over but I'm just not feeling it. It has to get done and I should be spending my evenings doing it this week but Monday there was a really good House rerun and a new CSI Miami and that ended oddly. I think David Caruso smiled or something. It was off putting. I've been watching that show since it started and I wasn't aware that the Horatio Bot 2000 had that emotional capability. I didn't think he had emotions at all, so the whole smile thing creeped me out. I think he did this because the plot devise suffering from Love Story Cancer asked him out; until I saw this show I had no idea that aggressively treated breast cancer had as a side effect of treatment, lush flowing hair and a lovely complexion and a killer bod not to mention an awesome rack. In CSI Miami world, while cancer treatment doesn't make you at least temporarily go bald, you do become stupid.

H (as they call him on the show,"Horatio" has to many syllables) new girlfriend got busted buying felony weight grass from a guy in a park out in the open in broad daylight in full view of officers. Or maybe it just makes you think buying drugs from very stuiped drug dealer under stupid circumstances is a good idea? I guess the super new treatments let you keep your looks but fry your descion making skills. Sadly, with this chick, it may be permanent. The treatments also make you want to date the Horatio Bot 2000 . I will point out though in her defense, if you are going to get busted buying drugs in broad daylight in front of cops - it's a very good idea to first have a cop brother and your prospective boyfriend in charge of the police lab. Makes the charges and the jail time just vanish, much like your IQ.

Also this week standing in the way of my house cleaning, I'm pretty sure that Law and Order isn't a rerun, there is a new E.R plus a first run Monk! I mean all those shows to watch in the comfort of my nice warm blanket verses shoveling out a damp, ice cold room. Have I mentioned how much I hate being cold? and how much I like first run TV?

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Eye of The Tiger...

Mouth of The Kitty
Extreme Cat Blogging

up close and personal
Manic Monday

Machinery really has let me down. We have two soda machines in our break room. A Pepsi machine and a Coke machine. I use the Pepsi machine only in the direst of circumstances - for example, I walked over to another building last week because they have a functioning Coke machine and we do not and I really, really needed a Coke.

The Coke machine is still broken. I was sure that it would have been taken care of by now. It’s been over a week and as of this morning it has swallowed at least as much as the GNP of a small, relatively prosperous third world nation. And so I can’t use it. I am sad. I mean fool me once, but fool me a third time? Even I am not that desperate for a soda.

This afternoon I decided I wanted something carbonated and I didn’t want to walk across the street and wait for someone in there to buzz me in so I could get a coke. I decided to suck it up and use the Pepsi machine for my carbonated soda needs. The Pepsi machine also has sticky notes on the front of it but it has fewer and they are from longer ago and I saw someone while I was at lunch getting a soda out of it successfully so I thought it was going to be less of a gamble than the Coke machine - also the Pepsi machine has orange soda and I like orange soda. I didn't need a Coke this time so the orange soda was good enough even though does not have caffeine, it contains enough sugar to even it out.

I put my change into the machine and held down my selection and waited. Nothing. I was becoming concerned. Finally after holding the bar down for three days I heard the machine let the can go and send it on its way. It never made it out! Noooooo!

I reached into the machine. Ew. I don’t know if I did a gynecological or a proctologic exam on it but I did ascertain it was severely constipated and probably impacted. I tried to rock the machine to free my drink but they designed it to thwart that kind of behavior. The front of the machine isn’t solid and it is just enough to tall to get a really good grip on it and the damn thing weighs a lot more then standard soda machines. I was able to make it shudder a little but not nearly enough to make it let go of my soda.

I added another sticky note to it and went and reported to the secretaries who said they would tell the office manager who is new and doesn’t know who to call and complain to about it so I’m just going to have to wait for both soda machines guys to get there and hope that somebody is paying attention to the fact that they are there so they can tell them what is wrong. You would think it would be hard to not hear the sounds of a soda machine being opened and refilled, but it happens. You would also think it would be hard to forget letting the soda machine guy into the building in the first place…

Also, my phone doesn’t work. The message light won’t go off and it won't let me retrieve my messages and the buttons don’t want to press down all the way. I tried to call another extension and nothing happened. Machines 3 Me - 0

Monday, January 9, 2006

Sad

2,206
Without a Tinsel

Well, Christmas is over.

I took the tree down, in the wrong order. That sounds funny, I removed the decorations in the wrong order, I took the tree down in the right order. First I took off the ornaments that don’t have boxes to go home too, then I took off the garland. This was a mistake. I think you are supposed to denude the tree of everything decorative except the lights then take the garland off. I’m sure that would have worked better. It got done though.

I miss the decorations all ready and I’m still winded from running their boxes up the stairs. The living room looks different now, like an Embassy Suites, nice but not lived in. I went out and bought some sheers for the windows but that didn’t do anything to dispel the “not lived in” problem. I can’t think of what was there before that I liked and what is not there now that is making me not like it.

While I was doing all this undecorating I was also watching my Without A Trace DVD that finally arrived. It took so long to get here I kind of forgot why I wanted it in the first place, way to go seller! No “Great Transaction! Fast Delivery!” feed back for you. I ordered it before Christmas and it arrived after New Years. The seller let me know that she had a cold and would be getting out to mail it “soon” and I, feeling all Christmas spirit said “No hurry, no worries!”. She emailed me later after I was getting antsy about where my DVDs were and announced she had just moved cross country and she would mail it Tuesday. Gawd. Whatever.

I watched the whole first season between Friday night and Sunday afternoon. I didn’t have any more to put away but I hadn’t finished the season yet so I did laundry and folded stuff while I watched the last couple of episodes. If you have roughly 18 hours to kill watching TV it’s a good idea to multi task so you don’t you know, end up with a TV watching hang over or something or wake up Monday morning a realize you blew the whole weekend watching a CBS procedural drama. I would have also hated to waste an entire weekend watching Anthony LaPaglia and Co., char actors regardless of network, sublimate their own issues for 18 hours.

"No personal lives?" You say, "is WoAT a Jerry Bruckheimer production?", Yes, yes it is! It is exactly like all his other shows except the male lead does have a personal life. He also sometimes does not speak in a monotone and I think he weighs more then the other leads of the other Jerry Bruckheimer fill-in-the-blanks-police-procedurals. Also, this show is about FBI agents and that makes it really different from the CSI shows. Kind of, but not really. I think they spend more time flashing their badges and questioning witnesses then the CSIs - the FBI agents are more like the cops in the Law and Order universe. I like the FBI agents on WoAT, I don’t want to think they are part of the same FBI that listens to our phone conversations and does whatever Shrub tells them to. I want them to be like Booth or whatever Angels name is on Bones is, I want them to be nice FBI agents who vote Democrat and hate injustice and love the constitution.

(Dogger finally got her bath)

Sunday, January 8, 2006

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!!!!

Saturday, January 7, 2006

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!!

Friday, January 6, 2006

Friday Cat Blogging

Walking with Dogger

I had to work at work. I know! it is so wrong. Anyway, in a bid to kill two birds with one stone, I attempted to both write and entry and walk the dog.


"Hey Dogger, wanna go for a walk?"


Whats the hold up?


"No, I said wanna go for a walk not wanna go for a ride."


That's what I'm talking about!


On The Road Again!


Oh No!


Over Head Wires! Clouds!!! Oh The Dogmanity!


"Look Dogger, its the park!"



I am not a swinger. I do not swing. Posted by Picasa


Do you see what I see? Posted by Picasa


Doggy nirvana! Posted by Picasa


Hurry! Posted by Picasa


"Ball!" Posted by Picasa


Ball!Ball! Posted by Picasa


Now What? Posted by Picasa


"Oops! I forgot to tie the gate shut! Time to go Dogger! Posted by Picasa


Vrooom! Posted by Picasa


It's becomes a cliche' because it really does happen. A lot. Posted by Picasa


I'm Hungry Posted by Picasa


"Thank Gawd you’ll eat the cheap food". Posted by Picasa


Did you say "Food?" Posted by Picasa


Time for Dinner! Posted by Picasa


Glubglubmunchmunchchew Posted by Picasa


The End