Halloween 2005

Well. That was fun. I'm glad I didn't get dressed up. There is nothing sadder then needless costuming. This year the kids stated costumes ran the gamut from "under cover cop" to "princess" to a not at all convincing "Michael Jordan" - all bore more than a passing resemblance to "Oliver Twist". A group of largeish, bordering on too big to tricker treater any more got the stink eye and got a pop quiz on what exactly they were dressed as - and asked what they were doing in Kidville - If you are taller than I am - and you come to my door demanding candy? you are going to get at least the second degree; then they asked after Dogger. Sigh. They got their candy.

The cutest kids were a teeny bride accompanied by her Mommy and Daddy and her even teenier brother who was tricker treating from his baby carriage dressed as a Baby Duck. If they had been the first kids at my door I would have given them and their parents all my candy and shut down for the night. Baby Duck!!!

Slow News Day?

On this date in:

1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Palace church, marking the start of the Protestant Reformation in Germany.
1968 President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered a halt to all U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, saying he hoped for fruitful peace negotiations.

Current Birthdays
37 Rob(by) Van Winkle (Vanilla Ice)
Rapper

Judith Miller has totally brought them down.

Happy Halloween !!!!



If Mondays were not scary enough on their own!

Here is a collection of sites with stories appropriate for the day. They range from the likes of Real Ghost Stories and Experiences and True Ghost Stories to actual li-ter-ature by Charles Dickens, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Hardy at Victorian Ghost Stories. All guaranteed to make you think that dressing you’re the legs of your piano is not that bad an idea. The Victorians were a scary lot - scared and ashamed of everything these folks had a preternatural talent of scaring each other (and you) out of their bloomers.

It's too late now, but I suggest this book:Tales for the Midnight Hour for good all around scares. When I first read this book, oh, a long, long, long time ago when I was quite young, I found it so disturbing that I didn't allow it be shelved with my other books, lest I accidently run across it.

There is a story in the book about Stuffed Dog. It is natch, an evol stuffed dog. My grandmother had for many years a very ill tempered and nasty schnauzer, it finally died and a great rejoicing was heard through out the land. Anyway, we went to go see Grandma and the first thing I saw when I walked into her living room was the evol plaster model twin of the evol little dog! I completely lost my shit - the nasty beast was dead and the nasty beast was still there!!!. That kind of terror you can't buy for cash money. Happy Haloween!

Edited to add:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 - With the announcement of a new Supreme Court nominee expected as early as Monday, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, warned President Bush on Sunday not to pick one of the candidates said to be on the president's short list, Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr.

"I think it would create a lot of problems," Mr. Reid said on "Late Edition" on CNN.

(yeah. right. Shrub cares what Harry Reid thinks about his SCOTUS choices. Duh.)

NYT

President Bush to nominate 3rd Circuit Appeals Court Judge Samuel Alito to replace
retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, sources tell CNN.

from CNN.com

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!!

REMEMBER FALL BACK !!!!!!

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!!!!

2pm press Conference

I don't have access to a TV. But reading comments at Atrios by folks that do, they are reporting that the "investigation is not over".

Friday Cat Blogging

BREAKING NEWS

Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, indicted by grand jury on charges of obstruction of justice, making false statements and perjury in CIA leak probe.

Read The Idictment in all its PDF goodness - need Adobe.

5 counts for Libby:

1 count obstruction of justice
2 counts of perjury
2 counts of making false statements

Lied to FBI agents on Oct 14, Nov 26, 2003.
Committed perjury on March 5 and 24, 2004.
Engaged in obstruction of justice by impeding investigation

Fox News (via Wonkette) reports I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Chief of Staff to Vice President Richard Cheney, has resigned.


Why Libby is important

Fitzmas is coming

According to MSNBC - Leak probe details to be released at noon ET


MSNBC

Gah! HATE MSGOP! HAATTTTTEEEE! High Noon has come and gone! I want Scooter Libby on a plate! I want Rove in a food chopper!

Fitzmas?

Do you think we’ll actually find out today? Do you think we will finally get what we want?

There is that chance. A probability. The possibility exists that there will be no good news at all!. That this whole exercise has been another dirty trick from the vast right wing conspiracy. It could happen you know, this would be a great way for the Roveites to work up sympathy points by “proving” that mean old left wing is just a bunch of sour old ninnies trying to make Shrub look bad. The Base would eat it up with a spoon.

Miers backed out, do you think her Christmas card list is going to be much shorter this year after all this? Her confirmation hearings were going to start next week and she certainly couldn’t just say on the eve of, “Hey, ya know what? I think that maybe I want to not do this okay?” I fear for what Shrub will dredge up now to sit on the court. I can only imagine what kind of bottom dwelling, scum sucking, constitution hating, skuzzy, homophobic, misogynistic right wing theocrat he will name in her place. How available is James Dobson?

I went to one of the vigils Wednesday night. It was lovely. I had my choice of two within driving distance and went with the one that I could find in the dark. It lost points for being outdoors and in the cold but it gained points for letting me use my nifty lantern for my light source for the first time. I bought it so that I could avoid burning my self with candle wax every time I went to one of these. Everyone burns themselves with candle wax at candle light vigils, its kind of a “thing”. Stand around, try to light your candle, ask neighbor to light your candle, ask someone else try to light your candle, re- light your candle, have wax burn your hands, have the wax of whomever is standing next to you burn your hands, re light candle, singe hair… It takes about 45 minutes for your average vigil candle and vigil goer to finally burn themselves out.

These really are lovely events though. It’s very heartening to be surrounded by people who agree with you. You have no idea how nice it is to say out loud that the admin is a bunch of crypto fascists and the war is wrong. I can’t do that in my “real” life. We also commiserated about the wait for the Indictments is making us crazy – another conversation I can’t have at work or with the four year old next door. Dogger and Kitty are totally with me, but they aren’t great conversationalists. The crowd also agreed that The Daily Show is awesome and that The Colbert Report rawks.

I guess we were not as vigil-y as we could have been. The other location was at a church and I kind of doubt it had the same vibe. I read recaps of the vigils on various sites and they all talk about the singing of hymns and mourning and general deepness and meaningfulness of the exercise. My group talked about the hip new feminist Rabbi at the conservative temple in town .I joined that conversation because I misunderstood something they said and I asked “Oh my Gawd, have the charismatic come to the Jews!? ‘cause I know what they have done to the Catholics and it isn’t pretty”, the laughed and said, no, but they do have this great new Rabbi and they are all excited about him. So when I heard “Dancing around and waving their hands at the Temple”, it wasn’t literal. I was relived. Being figurative charismatic I can deal with.

I was speaking to the older man standing next to me – at my advanced age I was among the youngest in attendance – I told him my Daddy had worked on a committee years ago in Dallas with Harriet Meirs, and then he one upped me with that he until he retired last month, had worked for several years, with the guy they just busted for a local unsolved murder. I think he won.

TMI

I all ready called everyone I know, so now my bloggy friends, it's your turn.

How was your day? did it start off with you going out to pick up your paper and instead you stepped on a dead rat? Okay. That was 6am.

Time passes.

A SCOTUS nominee withdraws, indictments again fail to come down, more time passes. I go home. I forget about the rat.

More time passes.

I go to out to put gas in Minnie, before I can leave though, I see one of the feral cats. I see it is playing with something. Is it another kitten? it seems very small. The cat is playing with a rat. A live rat. I have found and disposed of 18 rats since I moved here, 3 over the last three days. I have never seen a still live rat. They aren't better live.

Time passes

I come back from putting gas in Minnie $2.44!!!. The rat is no longer live. The rat doesn't have a head any more. It's a dead, headless rat - that I have to dispose of! picking up a dead rat does not get better with time, no matter how many dead rats you dispose of, they are all dead rats. You can not dispose of a dead rat with out the dead rat, it always includes contact with a dead rat.

Grrrr V2.0

As Much as I like the idea of the White House shaking it its collective knickers:

White House anxiety levels

Asked about anxiety levels at the White House, press secretary Scott McClellan said Wednesday, "There's a lot of speculation going around, and I think there are a lot facts that simply are not known at this point. It remains an ongoing investigation, and we'll let the special prosecutor continue to do his work."

from CNN.com


"CNN just reported that Fitzgerald's office reports no public announcements today."

from America Blog

Can't he just let us all out of our misery? If he is tormenting the admin, which it doesn't sound like he is the kind of guy to be into that sort or thing, why can't he just tell us? I know that you and I could keep our mouths shut and be trusted not to call the White House and blab...

Which tail will wag the dog first?

Several world capitals have condemned Iran's leader for saying Israel should be "wiped off the map," and Israel's vice premier has called for Tehran to be expelled from the United Nations. Hmmm?

Or

A draft U.S.-French resolution being circulated Tuesday among the U.N. Security Council says Syria "must detain" Syrian officials or individuals suspected of involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Wellll?

from CNN.com

Shocker.

BREAKING NEWS President Bush "reluctantly" accepts Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers's request to withdraw her nomination.

from CNN.com

I woke up with a cat on my head.

The time has come for another season of Camp Knotty Pine. I think it was November before I opened up Camp Knotty Pine for the season last year, but its looking like this year’s season is going to start earlier. I may even do the whole Summer/Winter wardrobe switch over this weekend as well.It will depend on how cold it is the next couple of mornings when I’m trying to get dressed. Shivering is so not my favorite way to greet the day - but to be honest, the whole switch over plan sounds awfully ambitious. I’m thinking if I end up trucking my alarm clock upstairs that I will be doing really well.

I knew it was getting Camp Knotty Pine Time when I woke up the last two day seeing eye to eye with The Kitty. I think he got this idea because since it has gotten cold. The first time I rolled over to be greeted with a face full of cat hair I thought “Awe! How cute!” the second time I thought “You know, this is mine, there are two of these, use the other one and when did you get too good to sleep at the foot of the bed?” I’ve heard other people talk about their cats sleeping on their heads when they get cold but Kitty had never done that in the past. Now? Two days in a row I wake up with a face full of cat hair.

To change the subject. When I started my little save money scheme a while ago. I got one very nice credit card bill as a reward that was then followed up by a not a all nice credit card bill that drove home the idea that along with not eating out everyday I also need to not shop EBay everyday either. Lesson learned. Another thing I learned that while I am saving cash by not eating a Happy Meal every day, I am also not getting as much iron in my diet - take that Super Size Me guy! I thought that a ham sandwich everyday as well as a steady diet of tuna sandwiches for dinner and a daily dose of One A Day would be getting me adequate iron in my diet. It turns out really, not so much. I went to give blood the other day and got turned back. I haven’t been turned away in months!

I think that whether you get judged adequate depends a lot on who you get for the finger stick. Some of them could care less what your iron level is and just vant to suck your blood, while others are all anal and by the book about the whole thing and they suck or actually, they don’t suck and it makes me question their dedication to the cause. I felt like telling anal Tech Ratchet that the last time I was in there my blood drop didn’t exactly sink like a stone either and the tech who worked on me let me donate. To be honest, the last time it didn’t really sink like anything at all. It kind of floated in whatever solution they put it in before it finally got bored or drowned or whatever happens to them and it finally started down. I looked at its non-progress and was all ready to grab my stuff and head out and then the tech handed me the folder and told me to take a seat. I said “It didn’t really sink” and she said “it did, it just took a second”. I like that girl.

Technician Ratchet really bummed me out.

Grrrrrr

No public announcement expected today from special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in CIA leak probe, source tells CNN.

Identical Cousins

As I was eating my lunch in the break room hiding behind the Pepsi machine,

“Oh, are you eating inside today?”
“Yes.”
"You always eat outside.”
“It’s cold out.”
"Really? It’s sunny…"
“Yes, and windy”.
"The sun is out"
“It is still cold.”
"But you normally eat outside, right?"
“Unless it’s cold and windy”
"Or raining?"
“Yes. Cold, windy or rainy.”
"So, you’re kind of like a weather vain?".
“Yes.”

After they finally left me to my lunch, I noticed out the window that the building next door seemed to be on fire. I went out to the secretaries’ office and pointed this out. Someone said they thought it was steam. We decided it was probably steam, but that maybe they didn’t know about it. Two of us took it upon ourselves to go to the building next door and let them know that there was steam billowing out of their basement where no steam had billowed out before - Because we’re helpful like that and we wanted to see if that building really was so much nicer then ours as had been reported.

We approach the building and discover a very nice front porch and deck furniture. We don’t have deck furniture! We don’t have a deck either, but that is beside the point. The buildings are identical on the outside other then the exciting deck we had discovered. “They redid this building you know said my fellow detective. ”They redid it for the residents and made it nice and then they moved them out. They won’t spend a dime on us”.. Bastards, I thought.

Then we went inside. They have a proper entry way! much nicer then what we have but decorated in the same cheap ass knock together furniture that they use here when they are going for "homey" instead of "psychiatric hospital". They had a handy "visiting room", which would be a nice plain old "waiting room" for our use instead of visitors to our building just standing around in the middle of the hallway or wandering around lose.

We went through the door into where we hoped there would be some one to talk to about the steam issue, we were struck by how clean it smelled. Maybe a little hospitalish but clean. Our building does not smell like clean. Our building just smells. I would be find with a little Eue de bleach if it meant the building didn’t smell like three week old Eue de Burned Popcorn. It’s gross. The building next door also has pretty tile floors instead of the Eisenhower era carpets that we have. They are filthy and no doubt harbor all kinds of scary things. On the upside though, due to the years this building spent as a psych ward, if you are having a bad day, the carpet is held together with generations of particulate from decades of crushed tranquilizers and if you go face down on it you can get stoned enough not to care very, very fast.

In the other building it appeared that they also clean the floors regularly. We have to wait for a new hole to open in the ceiling before our carpets get any attention. No joke. If Gawd doesn’t see fit to shampoo our carpets neither does housekeeping

The other building seemed to have working lights in the hallway. I wanted to cry. As we were standing there feeling unloved but well lit, a guy came up and said “I bet you two are lost or looking for something!”, we answered that “No, we were not lost or looking for something, that what we wanted was to tell him his building was billowing and maybe he should check that out”. He said “Oh, its just steam”. Okay then.

I’ve worked in this building for four years and I’ve never seen billowing steam happen before. We walked back to our sad, dark, smelly building and decided that maybe they never properly heated the building next door and maybe we did have it one up on the residents. Then we noticed that we don’t have a deck or deck furniture or floors you could eat off and went back to hating our building.

Deep Breaths

October 25, 2005
Indictments Coming Tomorrow; Targets Received Letters Today
1. An uber-insider source has just reported the following to TWN (since confirmed by another independent source):
1. 1-5 indictments are being issued. The source feels that it will be towards the higher end.
2. The targets of indictment have already received their letters.
3. The indictments will be sealed indictments and "filed" tomorrow.
4. A press conference is being scheduled for Thursday.

Washington Note

Vigils

2K

Gah!

I;m sitting here, working and everytime there is a page, the qualify the page as "Blah Blah you have a telephone call on ext.XXX". What else are we going to get? Owls! Burning shrubs? singing telegrams? Gah! The wait for the indictments to come down is making me cranky.

(Don’t) Call me

You know what I do not want to hear when I pick up a call?

“Hi, I have this stupid woman on the line. I’m sending her to you. She’s a moron. Good Luck”.

This is how we in the profession health care field refer to members of the public. And oddly, the caller was as stupid as advertised and indeed, probably clinically a moron. I was glad for the heads up. It’s even worse when they just say

“Hi. I have a call for you” and then hang up and stick me with a moron with out any advanced warning. I like being able to prepare myself for the moronicness in advance. It keeps me from the pneumonia I would get from having to control sighing into the phone and ending up aspiration my You Are The Dumbest Creature On The Planet Why Are You Calling Me induced bile and the eye strain I would give myself from repeatedly rolling my eyes. I don’t think Workers Comp will pay a claim because you ended up in a hospital bed blinded and with pneumonia because were set upon by a moron.

I get a lot of stupid callers but normally to my knowledge, no one screens for stupid on purpose before they send them too me, at least I don’t think that the secretaries are screening for stupid before they send callers to me. They are nice ladies. I mean, it wouldn’t surprise me if a high degree of stupid was necessary to get sent to my number but usually, it isn’t as obvious. I think some people just pretend to be stupid thinking they can lull me into telling them what they want. For example,

Faux Stupid – Hi. I’m an attorney and I need to know the names of the staff your office interviewed in response to an incident.” ( pausing as if this is going to happen)

Me – Gawd you are dumb! That information is so completely confidential that I would be guilty of breaking a federal law and sent to jail and fined and most likely killed by my boss if I were to give that to you, but since you asked for it so bald faced like that and you should know better, here they are!

Right.

Some people call up and are just innocently ignorant. This is not their fault. They call up this number and they think that who even answers is going to make their minds up for them about what facility they are going to put their loved one in. We can’t do that. We have no opinions on the facilities and can offer no ratings or other measures of quality. I can read you complaint allegations all day if you would like. I would not like to spend all day doing that, but hey, public service isn’t for people with better things to do.

I would tell you that our investigators went out, looked at the medical record, interviewed the interviewable, toured the facility and checked all the bed pans and were able to find the allegations true. This is a bad thing . If I just finished reading to you twenty four allegations and I said each and every time “Facility failed to provide services to (fill in the blank)” SUBSTANTIATED”, this means it may not be the best place for your family member. I’m sorry it’s the closest one to you, I’m sorry it has open beds, I’m sorry it didn’t seem “that bad” when you went and visited and I’m really sorry you decided against Choice B Facility because it smelled “too much like a hospital”. It is at that point the caller goes from innocently ignorant to willfully stupid and I end up with eye strain and a head ache and pneumonia.

Oh, Look

It's another Bush appointee! and its another "adviser". He really does need to get out of the west wing more.

President Bush to nominate Ben Bernanke, his top economic adviser,to succeed Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

From CNN.com

Tomorrow’s Lunch Today


1:30 - Sit down to write entry.
1:31 - Remember that I have not eaten lunch nor have I prepared lunch for the following day.
1:45 - Discover lack of dessert for next days meal.
2:00 - Try to figure out what to eat for lunch today. Gnaw on fingers.
2:30 - Remember I got a Happy Meal after church and do not actually need to eat lunch again. Continue to gnaw on fingers.

I go to the kitchen to make Mondays lunch. I am shocked to discover that I have no dessert food. I have ham, I have hamburger roll, I have adequate chips and I have a soda but I do not have dessert food. This is a serious breach. I am all ready with out the right sized reading material to share my lunch with. I mean, I have a book that I am reading at lunch but it doesn’t fit into the space provided in my lunch bag and now I have to carry my book separate from my lunch bag and this leaves me nonplused as well as introducing a new layer of difficulty to my day. I now have to remember to bring the book in with me into the office and then have to remember to take it with me when I fetch my lunch bag so now I have two things to carry with me in addition to my keys and I don’t like this.

Anyway. I am with out dessert food. I need to have something to fill that part of my lunch! It’s important. It goes coke, sandwich, chips, dessert food. It’s not rocket science. But it does have to happen. I have to go to the store.

I was at the store yesturday. I have all ready stored. I went to the bookstore to cash in a gift card and while I was out I went to the store. I went to the drug store, I could have gone to a grocery store then too had I known there was going to be a dessert food crisis! I do not want to go back to the store because I know if I go into the store I will find many other things I also need. The temptation to also get new lights for the front entry way, liquid dish detergent, more dog food before I need it, and the TV dinners I found I can tolerate. I can not afford a trip to the store at this time to buy all of the things that I need at the store, all standing there with their little hands open. They don’t care to see me shake my finger at them and say “Not until after payday!”. I do have change, I could avoid a trip to replenish my dessert food. I could buy something out of the machine in the break room until after the first of the month but this again adds a level of difficulty to my day and I’m not excited about it because now I’ll have to remember to dig through my change dish and fish out change every day and then manage to hold on to my train of thought long enough to remember why I have this .65 in hand and then to put it in my wallet and not back into the change dish because tomorrow’s lunch is far away and not all that important the night before.

If I go to the store I will be forced to buy a pumpkin. No one else has one yet. The whole area is pumpkinless. The Great Pumpkin like the Democrats and the Republicans, failed to send missionaries out to spread their message of good news Halloween is in a week and there are trick or treat aged kids on every corner and the neighborhood is bare. Perhaps they are all too Christian to celebrate a less then biblical holiday - The place looks like a Jewish enclave the week before Christmas - Lights off, blinds shut, Inner Life in over drive. I would be the one house with a light up menorah in the front yard and the house outlined with blue and white lights with the message “It’s The Festival Of Lights! Lighten Up All Ready!” written in script on the roof.

I don’t have the trick or treat candy bought either, last year I bought coupons from Wendys with the logic that if I did not hand them all out that I could not eat the left overs. Which is true, you can’t eat paper and after getting one of the kiddie milkshakes from Wendys, you can’t eat them either.

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!!!

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!!!

For The Love Of...

The Amish have gotten into the swim wear industry! who knew!

from Malono the Shoe Blog

Friday Cat Blogging

Cat Tales

Along side my care and feeding schedule of the animals that are actually my responsibility, I also “take care of” the neighborhood feral cats. I put the quotes around the “take care of” because all I do for them is provided a small amount of food everyday and I occasionally, when I think about it, I put water out for them. I’m hardly their responsible party and I know I’m not the only one who feeds them.

There are three. Big Gray Kitty, Big DSH Black and White Kitty with a collar and Smaller DLH Black and White Kitty – who might very well be the kitten I mentally struggled with trying to decide if The Kitty needed as a companion. While I was struggling with this, the kitten left for greener pastures and I didn’t see it again. I think the smaller kitty might be him. Anyway. There are three of them. Now there are four of them.

They have a new friend.


(Not actually the tiny black kitten in question, but a reasonable facsimile)

It is clearly feral and not at all friendly which will probably extend its life span considerably. I don’t know if it belongs to one of the other cats. I am pretty sure, well reasonably sure that the existing cats are fixed so I don’t think they made it themselves. The kitten could have been dumped, but if you were going to dump kittens, why just one? Are the others, if so dead or alive?

One of the existing cats was missing for a few days though. The big gray kitty whined and cried and carried on about it for it for days until its missing friend, the big black and white cat with collar started to come around again – I think this cat is a neutered male. New tiny black kitten appeared around the same time that cat came back. Tiny black kitten is adorable and seems to know where the food dish is and I think eats from it, so the kitten can’t be that young. Or it could be, I don’t know. The first time I saw it I wasn’t sure what I was seeing – it could have been an orphan sock. It wasn’t until the orphan sock appeared under my tree after work on Wednesday that I was sure we had a new cat in the neighborhood.

The tiny boy next door all ready has a plan for that kitty. He wants to get it in his house. His house is all ready home to three or four or maybe five in door puppies and at least three adult yard dogs. I don’t think the kitty is going to be fooled into entering that happy home. I know I don’t want it to. I don’t want the kitten in my house either, but it can not be allowed in his house in any case – he’s a sweetie, but Baby Gangsta would kill a kitten. I’m pretty sure that the kitten does not want to go into any house for any reason so I’m not all that concerned about that happening. Much.

At work I also take care of a feral cat. Now there are two. The new cat is an adult female (I think) and she eats Smokey’s’ food. Smokey is fluffy and gray and looks like a kitten. In reality, he is at best guess, seven years old and he makes our parking lot his home. Seven is old for a feral cat. He’s a tough guy for sure, but new kitty is fighting with him and she is younger and stronger.

I worry about Smokey, but not like the rest of the Smokey Fans Come Lately that pepper me with questions about how “we" are going to provide shelter for him this winter and what about his shots?. I tell them he’s better prepared for the winter then we are and to wash their hands after petting him if they are at all concerned about his vaccination status. Feral cats will break your heart, it is very important not to give them yours as a cat treat.

Tom Delay Mug Shot

----Or his senior picture, you make the call.

Smoking Gun

That is totally going to bum there guys out.

On This Day


On Oct. 20, 1973, in the so-called Saturday Night Massacre, President Nixon abolished the office of special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox, accepted the resignation of Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and fired Deputy Attorney General William B. Ruckelshaus.

full story here

October just is not historically a good month for Rethuglican Presidents. I remember This Day In History because my very angry Mother sent a telegram to the White House expressiong her, um, profound displeasure at this.

Educate Yourself

Go here and read the History of the Plame Scandal in The Washington Post if you don't really have time to sift through all of it, go to America Blog and read it's excellent distillation of the story.

In yesturdays Huffington Post James Moore got a little excited and called the Plame Scandal The Most Important Criminal Case in American History. I'm not sure I entirly agree with him on that statement, but it is another Plame primer for us to read and learn from.

Kewl!!

Halloween isn't for a while yet, but this handy tool/time killer will help you work out your pumpkin carving techic and let you look at ideas before you commit them to pumpkin. Simply carve your idea into the pumpkin and then you are satisfied, hit "done" and it shows you what your jack'lantern will look like fully carved and lit.

Everything Looks Better In The Dark

Well that was anti-climactic. It turned out that yesterday was only a Wednesday and not anything special. Damn it.

So since the prosecutor cut me a break and is freeing me from holding a vigil in front of my computer for another evening, I am going to be able to hopefully get a lot done. I need to pick up more pred for Kitty, allowing of course that the vet’s office gets it together and gives me a new scrip ( I ended up waiting for 75 minutes!) Okay, pred for Kitty, then I have to go to the hopefully, Dollar Store and pick up more triple antibiotic and anti-itch stuff for Dogger (didn't make it) then I need to go to Kroger and buy their el cheapo-ist brand of cat food because Kitty seems to tolerate it very well and it costs less then a quarter of the stuff I have to get from the vet runs me ($17 for 3lbs v. $5 for 15lbs) then I have to go get my pictures taken care of at Walgreen’s. Damn. Of course the vet, The Dollar Store, Kroger and Walgreen’s are not even kind of close to each other even a little. The vet and the dollar store are the furthest away and if push comes to shove I could do the dollar store shopping at Kroger but it would cost more but it would be less driving around and less time waste and that should count – but it doesn’t. Time is not deducted from my checking account and money is, so really … but you know, time is gas and gas is money and X amount of driving is calculable…and now my head hurts.

Then I still have to run around and make the house presentable for my Dad when he comes through town today (I am issueing him a blindfold instead). Whew. You know, I bet the Dogger could get as much exercise if I just take her with me in the car when I run the errands. She would look around a lot, stretch her neck a little… maybe every time I pull into a new parking lot I could walk her around it?


Last night instead of store hoping or vacuuming or cleaning the house I went back to the fair. I really wanted to see it at night and the fair is much better when you can’t see it as well. The lamest things look better when lit up, for example, The Worlds Smallest/Largest Fill In The Blank?



Is way more impressive at night, and the lame--o kiddy rides look substantially less lame with lit up like a Christmas tree.



Even the crowd seemed cooler at night
The girl yopu really can't make out in this picture?




had wings tattooed on her shoulder blades. They aren’t actually visible in the shot, but you know, it was cool. I think the crowd looks better after dark because the lack of teeth and abundance of mullets are slightly less obvious in the dark.

The midway is awesome at night.

Texas Court Issues Warrant for DeLay

A Texas court on Wednesday issued a warrant for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's arrest, and set an initial $10,000 bail as a routine step before his first court appearance on conspiracy and state money laundering charges. Travis County court officials said DeLay was ordered to appear at the Fort Bend County, Texas, (Houston) jail for booking, where he'd likely be fingerprinted and photographed. DeLay's lawyers had hoped to avoid such a spectacle.


San Francisco Chronicle

He Sure Does Know How To Pick Them

"What's the deal here? Why do costs outstrip inflation? A college education is one of the most expensive and important things you'll ever buy, and, yes, it's still a good value, blah, blah, blah, but you can find out more about a lot of other products."

- MARGARET SPELLINGS, Bush appointee, secretary of education, on tuition increases.

"Yeah. College is too expensive for ya? The armed services has lots of "products" available."

What a beyotch.

From: Wikipedia
Margaret Spellings is the current Secretary of Education under the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush and was previously a Domestic Policy Adviser to Bush. She was one of the principal authors of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act.

Before her appointment to George W. Bush's presidential administration, Spellings was the political director for Bush's first gubernatorial campaign in 1994, and later became a senior advisor to Bush during his term as Governor of Texas from 1994 to 2000.

No Final Report Seen in Inquiry on C.I.A. Leak

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - The special counsel in the C.I.A. leak case has told associates he has no plans to issue a final report about the results of the investigation, heightening the expectation that he intends to bring indictments, lawyers in the case and law enforcement officials said yesterday. The prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, is not expected to take any action in the case this week, government officials said. A spokesman for Mr. Fitzgerald, Randall Samborn, declined to comment.

From The New York Times


Bummer.

Post Apocalyptic Scenarios

It might be Indictment Day! Or it might not. It might just be Wednesday.

The Grand Jury works Wednesday through Friday and we may or may not get the indictments today or even this week – if it is Bushco bad news it will come out Friday afternoon. It would be nice, you know for us, but don’t hold your breath and don’t expect any of the really bad guys to end up with as much as a slap on the wrists. The players possibly going down this week are going to be deeply unimportantalthough, quick to fall on their swords and within months will quietly get low level jobs with rightwing think tanks – but scenario would be only if Fitgerald accidentally got an assistant to a big fish, the little fish who assist medium fish and fall on their swords will add nothing to the political landscape.

I hope the left isn’t banking on some sort of mass indictments to come out of this and some how do away with the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. I doubt there will be any cosmic retribution for Rethuglican bad acts. No one we know is going to be named. Remember when all those Reagan appointees ended up indicted during his presidency? And what an enormous change that made on the political landscape? Yeah, in the election cycle that followed we voted in his VP and in the early 90s we suffered the Republican Revolution that we are still suffering to this day... So don’t think that even a high end inditee is going to change anything.

I still want them all though. I want the whole west wing emptied out and frog marched out. I want Cheney to become the new Agnew. I want Scooter Libby to wind up in a cell, I want John Bolton to really learn about what it feels like when everyone really is out to get you. I want Alberto Gonzales to get a first person perspective on torture. Okay, that is mean. What I really meant, is I would like him to spend a lot of time in a prison library studying history of torture as a method of questioning through the ages and its effectiveness. Bless His Heart!

Wonkette has kindly made up an Indictment Bingo card for us. It has all the heavy hitters plus the folks who are low enough on the totem pole of evol to most likely to go the woodshed for the whole mess: Fred Fleitz, Andy Card, Stephen Hadley,possible Deep Throat 2005? John Hannah The bingo card also indulges our magical thinking with the inclusion of: John Bolton, Karl Rove, Condi Rice, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell and Alberto Gonzales as possible recipients of some Grand Jury style beat downs.

What else?

I saw that some progress is being made with baseball. They seem to have finally made some headway in deciding which teams are going on. I could care less. I did have a brief moment of slight caring when I saw the Yankees got cut, that made me happy, but only for a second. Now if by some miracle, the Texas Rangers were playing for all the marbles, - and I am aware that would only be able to occur in a post apocalyptic scenario season - then I would be interested. I might even watch the games, if we still had TV in a post apocalyptic scenario season… But, there is about as much chance of the Rangers going all the way in a non-post apocalyptic season scenario as there is of Dick Cheney or Karl Rove or Condi Rice getting indicted this week.

Rumors of Rumors of Rumors

Dick Cheney rumored to be thinking of resigning?

via Atrios

Autumn


Where is a nice three day weekend when you need one? It stopped raining and once it dried out, it was all of a sudden, autumn. The drug dealer mowed his lawn and out of nowhere, little baby grass started sprouting in my previously dead yard.it’s all pretty and the weather is nice right in time for me to be at work all day.

Dogger, sadly, is very itchy. I’ve tried to tell her that flea and tick season is over and she can pack that itching away with her bathing suit but so far she is clinging to summer. She thinks that if she keeps scratching that somehow she can hold onto summer for a little longer. She needs to move on and I need for it to cool down enough to kill or send into hibernation whatever is chewing on her back there and making her itch this far into the season. She didn’t used to itch and all of a sudden My Dog Has Fleas is more then a rhime.

Dogger did get to spend some quality time in the front yard for the first time since the kids across the street moved in. I didn’t feel comfortable leaving her in the front yard after I noticed that the kids had started congregating out there playing with Dogger with out me there to supervise; as much as Dogger misses the kids, she was thrilled to be outside and not in the back yard. She really likes visiting with the passers by in the front yard so much more then she likes visiting with the spiders in the back yard.

It turns out that Spiders are really Borg like – you talk to one and you’ve talked to them all, I mean, Dogger said it was cool a couple a times but since then she has been complaining of the spiders circular reasoning for months . She said that the spiders are also really, really clubby and just about impenetrable for a non-spider to make any head way with and forget about being able to choose what the book clubs’ Book of the Month is going to be, Answer? Charlottes Web for the 279th straight month. The only time they considered a non-spider themed book was when they briefly discussed reading Old Yeller and Dogger thought that was a jibe at her. It was really uncomfortable for her and she ended up dropping out of the Book Club.

Now that it is so nice out I felt comfortable opening one of the windows in the office so that Dogger can get some fresh air during the day. It had the unintended consequence of drawing The Kitty into the room as well. The Kitty does not go in there if Dogger is in there too and over the weekend Kitty and Dogger shared the space. Kitty was in there so he could hiss nasty things to the feral cats that hang around on my porch. I don’t know what they were saying to each other but I noticed Kitty later on the computer looking up libel laws and personal injury lawyers. Kitty and I may need to have a talk later on. I’m not sure I want to have my cat adding to the number of nuisance suits clogging up the courts. I wonder if Animal Plant has a Judge Judy? Because I know I don’t want this to go to Animal Cops, I have too many teeth to be arrested on national television.

Gas Pri$es

I just paid $2.59, the Pirates are charging $2.89.

I see a "message" tee in the making

AUSTIN, Texas --Rep. Tom DeLay will likely be booked in a Texas county jail this week despite attempts by his attorneys to bypass the fingerprinting and mug shot process.

count down to The Smoking Gun making it available for us all to see: 10, 9, 8...


Boston.Com

Ew

Your job could be worse: Porn Clerk Stories "we all abuse the hand sanitizer..."

Carnival Of The Soul(less)

I went to what passes for a State Fair around here, if you actually have any past experience with a real State Fair, I went to the Elementary School Carnival of North Carolina.



Yes. The state fair is a carnival. And not a good carnival either. No freak shows save for the “Worlds’ Smallest Woman” and the whole side show experience could be summed up as “Petting Zoo”. I mean, who really has never seen a really large pig or a Clydesdale - wait, this is the NC State Carnival, Budweiser doesn’t send its horses, so maybe they never have seen a Clydesdale but still, Worlds Largest Horse? among the “Worlds Largest/Smallest” was a horse, a pig, a steer and a possibly lobotomized black bear.



Very sad. If you are going to be on the midway you should at least have the chance to be grossed out by something! That is why they sell all that food, I mean once the sight of the Worlds Largest Toe Nail has caused you to lose your turkey leg, you are going to want to refuel - they know that! They’ve done studies on how soon after a visit with Goiter Gal that you will be ready for another pig on a stick. Its all computerized now. The whole lack of freak show isn’t a sign that the carnival company whose running it this year is all PC either, they allowed booths by both the Sons of The Confederacy and The Republican Party - so the freaks were there, I was grossed out. If they want it to be a family activity, they should have put the sons behind a curtain. They did have a freak show, they just weren’t out on the midway.



And, even worse then no official freak show, there was no free stuff! How can they call themselves a State Fair with a clear conscience, when I wandered around there for three hours and ended up with no free stuff! I should have walked out of there with fifteen pounds of crap I will never use, my spine freashly realligned and warm with the knowlege my chakras are where they are supposed to be; and I should have been full to bursting with all the free peanuts, fudge, honey and Brunswick stew samples that they should have been forcing down my throat.

Further proof of what a rethuglican freak show it was, as I was looking for The Worlds Largest Pumpkin I ran into a recreation of the Oval Office that included card board cut outs of George II, George I, Cheney and Clinton and for five bucks you could get pictures of you and your loved ones embracing a card board image of the President of choice or if that wasn’t your deal, a photo of you in the Oval Office was also available.



If that wasn't enough, In this area you could buy post cards featuring 15 year old photos of George II and Cheney as well as enormous buttons ( they were the size of trivets!) with photos of all the past presidents, with a huge shot of George II in the center.



If Shrub isn’t your favorite totalitarian ruler, you could also check out Ronny’s limo circa 1983. For the ladies, they had gowns worn by Dolly Madison and Jackie O, neither looked real, and for the kiddos they had stuffed replicas of Air force 1 and Marine 1 for sale, also that didn’t look real.

I did finally find the Worlds Largest Pumpkin and an display of Ag products



and after a huge search, the farm animals!



I was afraid these yahoos threw a State Carnival had forgoten about the animals. I was getting worried after the only meat products I could smell were on sticks. Once I did find them I was a little disappointed. They only had three or four different kinds of Cow! And not even that much choice of goat and only one kind of pig! I did get to hold a baby duck though and that made me happy, I may end up with some sort of farm animal byproduct based lower GI complaint, but I did get to play with a baby duck, it will be worth it.

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!!

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!!!

Friday Dog Blogging, Cat Blogging, Panda Blogging...

America Blog made me do it. They linked to the San Diego Zoo and their baby panda and they had this



That isn't photo shopped. Those are real. The picture is from a breeding facility in China. This has been a banner year for Giant Pandas.

Friday Cat Blogging

Ubiquitous Harriet Miers Post

I read her blog, see link at right, but dayum! my home girl is racking up the hits! I totally hate her! OMG!! who knew a nomination to the SCOTUS was all a blogger needed to get massive hits?! I thought it was all about blogwhoring. Little did I know.

This is Kewl

I'm sure all of you are old hands at this site The Way Back Machine but I just found it. I dug up an URL of a long gone site that had belonged to one of my friends, I entered the URL and magically, there it was. Nothing is ever really deleted from the internets.

Give Till They Leave You Alone

It was left in my box. It was left in all the boxes and scattered through the break room and casually left behind in the bathrooms and tucked under everyone's office door and slipped under our wiper blades. I'm pretty sure It’s that time of year again. It’s time for the STATE EMPLOYEES COMBINED CAMPAIGN!!! ( italics and punctuation theirs) Can’t you feel the excitement. I’m just giddy. Giddy. I tell you. They yearly Guilt Guide has arrived. I mean the “Resource Guide” and I didn’t even score a free pencil out of the deal. Last year I got about four free pencils and a chip clip.

This does make it moderately easier on us though. In years past they had a little get together and lined the needy up to parade past us and after the parade of the pathetic, made them dance for us. It was very cruel.

What is even crueler is what the groups do to us. Do you know how hard it is to walk past a group of therapy Clowns as they take turns drawing little tears on each others faces?. Then there is the group that rescues puppies from wood chippers, (video available upon request). The puppy rescuers play hard ball, they bring actual puppies and them shove them in your face and tell you that because of a lack of funds these puppies, the ones licking your face right now, are going to put through the office shredder - but for your donation.... And then the clowns strike back with real live sick chillrin! And another group that provides meals for volunteer rescuers, but they don’t have any cute rescuers to show you because they are all in India saving old people and babies! and if you don't donate, there will be no PB&J for their dinners!

It is hard. I reflexively was going to give to the American Red Cross, but the big ARC isn’t in the Guilt Guide, just the local outfit and I all ready give them my blood. I was going to have to crack open the Guide.

It doesn’t help that every door in the building has little signs : “Buy a cup of coffee or supply life saving medicine? Get Dessert or provided companionship for an elder or child? A movie every weekend or house the family of a sick child?” plastered all over them. I don’t know who is in charge this year, but they are really, really, good.


And in real life? I don’t need to feel guilty about anything. I got my credit card bill today and frankly, enough of the milk of human kindness flowed through me to feed, clothe and doctor a small flooded hamlet in Louisiana. I’m too poor to have things flow! Dribbling is all I can really afford to do and I flowed like a river. Since the earthquake, I’ve explored the power of prayer instead, does anyone know how many Novenas it take to feed a villager?

I did finally did decided my big yearly $60 donation will go to the Raleigh Rescue. They’re my neighbors after all and I’ll be able to see my money in action and gasp, my piddly little donation might make a difference.

Speaking of things I noticed.



She dropped a note on my lap -

Dear Mama,

Why don’t you Dog Blog? You Cat Blog The Kitty . Why can’t you Dog Blog Dogger?

So, for Dogger.

Friday Dog Blogging

Glenda The Good Witch Got a New Gig

Happy News.Com

Flats

I think I need to find new work shoes. I was traipsing around Lowes on Tuesday and I noticed that one shoe seemed to have developed a flat tire. It felt funny. I found somewhere to perch and I took my shoe off and looked at. I didn’t see anything that looked like a flat yet when I put the shoe back on and walk away, I could feel it.

So I’m walking around with a flat in my shoe. I feel a prounonced list. Very odd. I guess I should have replaced them the first time they doubled as slippers.

I was traipsing around Lowes in hopes of doing something about my Curb Appall list. I was shopping for grass seeds for the bald spots in the front – the back yard is going to take more grass seed then I can lift into Mini so that job remains checked off. Anyway. While I was there, I saw

This



In real life! Being all snow globey! I want one. I want one bad. They have a 4 foot version that would be right for my house too. They are adorable! See, you have to know that I am an inveterate snow globe collector.

Not even half of them


I have a lot. I have many. I have all the ones that should be yours but I got to them first and now they are mine. I even have half the holy snow globe grail, I have one of the two mythical Fargo snow globes! So far mythical Fargo snow globe number 2 is out of reach and costs more then the 8ft blow up snow globe, so to sooth my self, I need the air blown snow globe.

Sadly, everyone wants these! They sell out as soon as the stores get them and I doubt I’m going to find an orphan at Poverty Barn this year. I can’t find them anywhere they should be, and those places that should them, did have them but not any more. Wal-Mart for example? Does not have its Christmas display up yet! Shocking! I tell you. Lowes does and Wal-Mart doesn’t? This seems wrong. Lowes even had a special a/c running in the space with the plastic trees they had displayed to make it cold and Christmas-y feeling.

The 8 foot version is even more impressive but even I think it is a bit side show as well as costing too much which, sadly, is the real reason that I think it looks like it belongs in a side show.

I did find out why there are so many air blown – that is the official name of those blow up figures you see around, air blown figures on peoples front yards, they are for the most part, not that expensive. I saw a Snoopy and his Dog House one from A Charlie Brown Christmas and it was not that expensive. If you want a Santa and Sleigh it was like $49 – not all that pricey really.

Of course, the snow globe was very expensive. The 8ft runs $200+ while the 4 foot is closer to $99. If they would print a cause and effect thing on the box that would make the decision easier. You know, it costs X amount to keep this thing running 4 hours a night for a month verses the cost of running Lights, which would run you X amount for 4 hours a night for a month. They would sell me the 4 ft one if they could prove it was cheaper over the long haul.

Bush: Religion factor in Miers pick

no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Artical 6


"People are interested to know why I picked Harriet Miers," Bush told reporters at the White House. "They want to know Harriet Miers' background. They want to know as much as they possibly can before they form opinions. And part of Harriet Miers' life is her religion."

He spoke on a day in which conservative James Dobson, founder of Focus on Family, said he had discussed the nominee's religious views with presidential aide Karl Rove

Earlier Wednesday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asserted that Miers would bring "a unique brand of experience" to the high court and would that the concerns of critics would be eased once more is known about her.

Asked why Rove would have discussed Miers' religious views if the president ascribes to a conservative judicial philosophy that backs a strict interpretation of the Constitution regardless of one's views on various issues, McClellan said it was just part of an "outreach" to help people get to know Miers.

from CNN.com

Baby, its (going to be) cold inside

The three-quarters of Americans who use natural gas to heat their homes could see even greater sticker shock when they get their fuel bills, the agency warned. It sees the cost to heat by gas rising 47.6 percent in the case of typical weather to $1,096, and by more than two-thirds to $1,242 in case of colder-than-expected weather. Even a warmer-than-expected winter will see natural gas heating bills rise 29.8 percent to $964, according to forecasts.

I use electricity to warm my house, but it looks like the days of a nice hot shower are over. This year, while I am cursing my Heat Pump for not working as it could - I can be warm or I can pay my mortgage, I can not do both. I can thank Mr. Heat Pump for at least not being run off natural gas.


from CNN.com

"Sock Puppet, Asshole, Worst President ever..."

New Rules from Bill Maher.

Curb Appalling


I’ve been watching too much Curb Appeal in the evenings. I’m starting to look at the front of my house and what I am seeing is not appealing. My house has Curb Appall.

The front door needs to be stripped and repainted. The screen door needs its glass repaired and I would love to paint out the ugly aluminum ness of it – it is a very fancy door, but it is also a very aluminum door and it just lacks a certain something, I would like it better if it were invisible. While I am painting out the door I would also like to paint out the aluminum windows as well, which would also look better invisible. I also am not in love with my porch lights. I think that my cute little post war faux Tudor needs a little Tudor-izing. If I’m going to rock a round door I need to do something to high light it. Speaking of Lights, I saw

these


On Ebay and fell in love. They have the same curve to the glass that my door has and the steep roof line that reflexs the real roof line. Curb Appeal likes that kind of duplicatation of theme. I think the lights are adorable. They are more period then the ones I have now and they just look cuter as well. I’ve emailed the seller to see if they both work and if so, I might bid on them. I have no idea what I would do with them once they arrived, but you know. I’d add them to the list. As one for the single women on my street I have to pick up the slack, I’m the only one with no flowers in the yard.

Curb Appeal, sadly, isn’t coming to my house. If they were I’d imagine that they would replace the porch lights, paint out the screen door, give me new house numbers, tear out the lawn, remove the gawd awful shrubbery, plant an English style flower garden, and probably add some sort of water feature/ bird bath while they were at it. I would think they would replace the roof too. And I would too, if I had a budget of more then $9.99 for parts and labor.
I also want, as part of the curb appeal project to finally get started on my front entryway. It’s very ugly and it is not getting less ugly the longer I don’t do anything about it. It’s a tiny little space, all be it, larger then the back entry way, but still closet like and home to three doors, so it isn’t like there is a lot of wall space to worry about. I did go look at wallpaper books a long time ago now and decided on a design plan, but never got beyond that.

The little wrought iron fence around the deck needs work too. I should paint it; I think that would make it look a lot nicer. I also need to as I look at the front of the house, go to Lowes and get some grass seed. The yard is starting to look a little denuded and for the first time, denuded lawnwise, it is not Doggers doing, It seems to be suffering from lawn pattern baldness! I think in real life it isn’t a baldness issue as much as a parasite issue. Yuck. I’m definitely going to do that job as it takes no skill and less knowledge to drive to the store and pick up a bag a of grass seed and then through the seed around as needed. I need to do something about the back yard too, but right now I’m in curb appeal mode and thankfully, you can not see the backyard from the curb.

My Curb Appeal To Do List

Tackle front entry way
Replace porch lights
Paint fence
Strip and re- paint front door
Paint out aluminum screen door
Repair glass in screen door
Replace house numbers
Paint out ugly aluminum windows
Replace door hardware with period detail?
Seed yard

Reminder

Note for my Raleigh area readers, are you remembering what today is? today is October 11 . Today is an election day, go forth and vote! We have several local races being decided today and historically there will be a very low turn out, your vote (really) counts. Its for the mayor and a couple of city council seats and in some areas school board. Revolution starts at home. I voted at lunch time and was only ballot number 67.

Aunt Cookie needs to get on the stick

Paris patisserie specialises in canine delicacies

Do you want to talk to God?

Go do it

How English are you?

Do you speak the Queens' English . I got 52%, which either means I watched too much BBC or not enough, because I feel I should have known what blimey means, I mean other then it is a mild oath.

That obnoxious noise you hear is squeeling from the PETA HQ

Farmer Eaten By Own Animals

Weekends.

This morning I was weighing my lunch hour options. I was weighing my options about plowing into my now five day old bag lunch. It was supposed to be last Thursdays bag lunch but I ended up running errands and getting a Happy Meal instead. It would have been Fridays bag lunch but we had the birthday luncheon and so it stayed in the bag until today – but first, I ran a couple of quickie errands.

I needed to mail a couple of bills, and sooner the better is always the way to do it – sadly, “sooner” on one would have been early last week and not early this week so it needed to go, and I also needed to order more checks.

Did you know that Monday was Columbus Day? And that the feds don’t work on Columbus Day and neither do bank employees? If the Shrubment is really serious about saving energy and money they would either cut way back on the federal holidays that the federal employees enjoy, or make sure we all celebrate them – because it would add to the number of days the powers that be would not be having to heat and air condition our office buildings, for example, during the month of February, no one would be at work, it would be one giant federal holiday for us all. The Feds work a grand total of about 3 days and not in a row during the month of February, why should the rest of us slog to work everyday. Think of the savings! Three day weekends for all! And if I didn’t have to go to work Monday, I would have known that they didn’t have to go to work either and I would have saved both money and gas.

Anyway. I was dissed on both my errands. I came back and broke open my lunch. Oddly, even after all that time it was still okayish. I ended up in the break room, where lo and behold, no one else eats lunch, at least not during the lunch hour so I was able to eat my now five day old lunch and read my book in peace, hiding behind the Pepsi machine.

On Friday, I pulled away from my drive way and noticed that the people across the street had a lot of trash out, and that most of it was not trash. I also noticed the house was strangely dark and all the blinds were open. My neighbors have left and where ever they are now they don’t have their mattresses, the baby’s highchair, their grill they used a lot and several large plastic wheeled toys. By the time I got home the grill and highchair and the toys had migrated across the street to another neighbor’s house. The kids didn’t have a chance to say good bye to Dogger and they really, really liked Dogger. They were her very best kid friends. They really adopted Dogger after their dog either ran away or was given away after it ran away too often. I came back from vacation and the dog was gone I guess while I was lining up people to cover me at work while I was gone I should have been lining up someone to do Dog duty and keep an eye out for him.

Dogger and I are both sad to see them go. They lived there a little under a year; I know that because the oldest little girl asked me if I was going to hand out Wendy’s coupons at Halloween again. I asked another set of Doggers Friends and they said the kids were with their Father and Grandmother. No word as to where their Mother is. I really am going to miss the kids across the street; they translated the Tiny Boy for me and kept him honest. Now I’ll never know if his tales of chaos are true or recaps of Grand Theft Auto , trust me, you do not want a four year old with plastic hand cuffs to read you your Miranda Rights .

Phhht

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The Web publishing phenomenon known as the blogsphere has millions of sites but only a small number gain significant audiences, according to data released on Friday.

"Blogging is the fastest growing form of content on the Web," said Jim Lanzone, senior vice president of search at AskJeeves, a unit of IAC/InterActiveCorp and a major Web search site. "But the number of sites that really matter is narrow."

"The rest of the sites are like a tree falling in the forest," he said.
Just 60 sites are "hot," defined as attracting more than 5,000 subscriber links, Lanzone said.

More Phhht.

Do It Yourself

In honor of the weather turning fallesque and snow on the ground in some places, I give you Make Your own Snowflake . Its just like those cut out snowflakes you made in school only now its cyber!flakes! with 100% fewer paper cuts . I sucked at mine but if you go to the gallery, most people seem to know how to make it work better then I did. It's fun.

Learning Experiences


While I was going through Doggers pockets over the weekend, What? It was raining! What do you do when you’re stuck inside all day? If you say “I launder the slip covers and the duvet and vacuum the indoor/outdoor carpets in the entry way, then I’ll put the all the garbage cans in the house into the shower and give them a thorough cleaning and then while those are soaking in Mr. Clean, I’ll re-organize my linen closet”, you suck and need a life. I won’t get to “ showering my garbage cans” until there is a power outage and then, it would have to last at least two days before I would tackle that level of domestic usefulness.

Anyway. I found Doggers journal. I had no idea she kept one. If I had known I would have set her up on Blogger years ago although I’m afraid she’s more of a Live Journal kind of girl.

WOW! What an exciting day! Mama took me in the minivan and we drove around! It was so great! I got to look out the windows and see stuff and Mama even taught me some new works about "One Way Streets" and I learned that One Way Streets are the work of the devil and if I ever see one, I’ll protect Mama from it because I’m not afraid of One Way Streets!...

While she decided that she does not share my fear of One Way Streets, she is afraid of:

Over Head Cables
Jet Trails
Long Hanging Tree Branches
Really Tall Trees
Clouds
Dry Cleaning Bags
Children’s Bikes
Busses
Semis
Low Flying Planes
Helicopters
Umbrellas
Motorcycle Engines

and now, Choppers. Not even Choppers with their engines running. Parked Choppers.

Mama took me to a scarey place! We were just taking a walk and it was fun! We saw people! And there were smells! and it wasn’t hot! It was fun! And then Mama made me go down this way and there was this really, really big scary truck! And it was standing there looking at me and I didn’t want to walk past it where it could bite me and Mama kept pulling me and I wouldn’t go and Mama made me go and I was scared! Then we went down another way and we saw the scariest thing yet! Big things with wheels! Not like a scary big metal shiney smelling not dog beast, an even bigger metal not dog beast! Lots and Lots of them! Everywhere I looked there were more fo them waiting to bite me! And I was scared! And I didn’t want to go! And Mama tried to make me! But I didn’t let her! I wouldn’t go! I lay down and stayed there and even Mama couldn’t make me go past them. Mama even gave me a cookie but I wouldn’t eat it!

There was a Chopper Festival downtown. It was kewl. I’ve watched a lot of American Chopper but I haven’t seen many close up and I really wanted to see some and this was as good an opportunity as was going to present itself. I brought Dogger with me because I thing its good to expose her to new things. Usually, it works out well.

I hardly got to see any of the bikes and none up close. Dogger was throwing fits every four feet and I had to finally take her back to the van and we went home. I should mention it was also raining off and on - or I would have walked there, but Dogger likes walking in the rain about as well as she turned out to like Choppers. Even really pretty Choppers with cool paint jobs and neat-o keen wheels. I saw one with a cloud motif and it was gorgeous. I would have loved to look at it more closely but Dogger was not co-operating.

Saturday after the Chopper debacle and before we went to Broskey and Alphagals to watch Texas beat the shit out of OU., we caught the tail end of the St. Augustine’s Home Coming Parade. Dogger added another item to her list:

Marching Bands.

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!!!

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!

Friday Cat Blogging

The Hell Mouth 2005

I was innocently walking through my living/dinning room on Wednesday and saw

this



I stood there and said "Hmmm. I really need to do something about the spider webs around here. I closed my eyes and looked again.

And then I lost my shit.

I went outside to check if maybe during the day a car had lost control and ran through the neighbors yard and through my fence and into my house. Nope, no signs of a hit and run. I went to the basement to see if perhaps the house was collapsing. Fortunately, no signs of imminent collapse there either. The damage seems isolated to my dinning room wall.

I did the only thing I could think of at that point. I called my Daddy for help.

Me – OMG THE SKY IS FALLING THERE IS SUDDENLY A CRACK IN THE WALL IT’S LIKE 4 IN CHES WIDE and SIX FEET LONG, OMG I could totally fall through it!!!!

Daddy – You could fall through it?

ME – If I got up on a chair and I were leaning against the wall…THE SKY IS FALLING!

Daddy - It’s fine. It’s a 50 year old house. Things like this happen, we’ll fix it, don’t worry about it.

Me – DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT? IT WASN’T THERE THIS MORNING!!!! THINGS LIKE THIS DON’T JUST HAPPEN!!! OMG ITS IS SO NOT FINE!! It’s like four feet long and two inches wide! And it wasn’t there yesterday!!! OMG!! The Kitty has been freaking out and this is why! He could hear the house imploding!!

Daddy – It’s fine. Cover it up with yellow paper if it bothers you. It’s okay.

Me – What?

Daddy - Yes.

Me - NO IT IS NOT OKAY!!I AM NOT DOING THAT!! THE SKY IS FALLING AND OMG! What if it was an earthquake! OMG! It hasn’t rained in forever and the soil is giving way and the house is SINKING!!

Daddy – It’s fine.

Me - THE SKY IS FALLING!!!.

Daddy – Talk to your Mother.

So. Not calmed down in the least, I took pictures for posterity. Or so when I come home and can see daylight, I’ll be able to proudly stand back and say “Look how it has grown” – the good news is, it is going to rain and the crack might “heal” itself, or, it could turn into a Hell Mouth.

Cracking Up



Measured Freaking



The yellow paper idea is not helping and I ran out of post it notes and that was very traumatic and don't suggest yellow legal pad paper because it's nopt a solid color like the wall. It matters! I'm coming from an "OMG! THE SKY IS FALLING!!" place. Besides, it’s making me think of the short story and that is not helping my mental status re: The Hell Mouth opening up in my Dinning Room, in the least.

Gold Digger re-mix

Remember when I said I heard this rap on the radio in the cab the other morning? and I thought it was kewl? Well, I found the lyrics. It s remix of GoldDigger, which due to the fact I am too old and too white, and in a Clear Channel hell, I had never heard until Kayne West was the musical guest on SNL last week. Anyway, go here to listen to the remix.

Iraq Speech

Did you watch? Yeah, neither did I. Fortunately for us, Wonkette did.

Oh, do shut up Tony Blair!

LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair says evidence points to Iranian ties to bombings in Iraq, although Britain does not have definite proof.

"We cannot be sure," Blair told a news conference Thursday, but "there are certain pieces of information that lead us back either to Iranian elements or to Hezbollah."

from CNN.com

You lap dog! if you and your Master want so much to go to war with Iran, then by all means, suit up and go, leave the rest of us alone. And when, when did you two need "proof" of anything. Gawd! You suck!

Up All Night

I finally caught up with The Kitty this morning at about 3:20am, and had a chat.

Me – Do you know what time it is? (I’m exhausted and with out my glasses. I could be speaking to a stray pair of my shoes)

Kitty – Time for something completely different? (Bingo!)

Me – You could say that.

Kitty – It’s time to get down, its time to party!

Me – No. Not so much.

(Kitty's kittysenses pick up something may be amis Come Here!)

Kitty – ( from under coffee table) It’s time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.

Me – In a matter of speaking.

(It was hard to get and keep Kitty’s attention, he had emerged from under the coffee table and was now trying to teach his toy to line dance.)

Me – No, really. Do you have any clue as to what time of day it is?

Kitty – Time to get down, time to par-

Me – No! It is not time to party! It is time to be lying down, it’s time to sleep.

Kitty – No fooling around?

Me – Exactly. No more fooling around. It’s quiet time.

Kitty – The bar is closed? I don’t have to go home but I can’t stay here?

Me – You are paying attention! Yes, it is closing time. Time for bed and you do have to stay here.

Kitty – I could be dancing, dancing, dancing!

Me – No, and I tell you what, no more AOR for you either. Disco is dead and you will be too, if you keep me up any longer.

Kitty – I could have danced all night, I could have danced all night…..

Me – I’m going to lock you in the bathroom.

Kitty – Feed me?

Me – Nope. There is food all ready there.

Kitty – It’s not my fault! It’s the full moon! It’s making me craaaaaazzzy!

Me – Beeeeeeep! It is not a full moon. I should be so lucky. It isn’t even close. It’s a newish moon.

Kitty – I’m scared of the dark!

Me – You’re going to be scared of the dark in the basement if you don’t straighten out.

Kitty – I’m protecting the house from intruders. There is nothing that says “This house is occupied like the sound of, well, sound.

Me – The alarm is protecting the house from intruders. There is nothing like the sound of sound to keep me awake.

Kitty – I am ever vigilant!

Me – Yes, so much so that you are protecting me from the hazards of 8 hours of contiguous sleep!

Kitty - I’m a drug addict. I need help! Ack! There are bugs under my fur! Spiders! Spiders falling from the ceiling! OMG the floor is eating my feet!

Me – Do you know what happens to people with sudden drug problems? They get thrown into the...

Kitty – Ew. The Shower. No. Suddenly, I’m all better.

Me – No. I think time in the shower would help you. I do dread the part where I have to drag your drug addicted self all over the house pouring coffee down your throat.

Kitty –Ew. Very Special Episode.

Kitty – Yeah. Very TV sitcom cliché.

Me – And not in a fun “aren’t we so smart meta commenting on this irony based way” either.

Kitty – Commenting on commenting on commenting. Zzzzzzzzzz.

Me – Good.

Why so excited about avian flu? Aren't we still scared of SARS

Oh, wait, Shrubs ratings are tanking. The Base needs good fear mongering to keep them in line and after over planning and fear mongering for Rita and having it blast rural Louisiana instead of urban Houston, Shrub is really looking for another disaster to compensate for his Katrina failures. He is just praying for a disaster that is not caused by his policies.

Researchers reconstruct 1918 virus. Scientists say research might help them better understand bird flu

Yeah, great idea. sounds like the tag line for the next CrazyMel Gibson movie. Wait until Shrubs slashing of CDC budget and functions comes to light.

A call by President George W. Bush for Congress to give him the power to use the military in law enforcement roles in the event of a bird flu pandemic has been criticized as akin to introducing martial law.

Great. Now, you know Gawd Forbid, but isn't this kind of thing the function of the National Guard? Oh, wait they're all over seas.

Whatever

"Nick and Jessica have not separated. Rumors to the contrary are simply not true,".

Translated as:

"Damn it! Pay more attention to us! whiiinnnnneeeee! If you clap real hard the "marriage" will not die! It has nothing to do with a break down in contract renegotiations with Nicks people! The only co-star Jess is sleeping with is him! Honest, totally! We are in lurve! Ask Jessica's Dad! We made him move out of our bedroom months ago! Are you paying attention to us? Buy our records!! We are so not total fame whores! We did not stage a sham wedding and subsequent sham marriage just so we could have our own show and now that it's over, we are so not all ready shopping as yet unnamed reality show about being divorced Nick and Jessica Style"

The Power of the Internets

I ask and I receive. I want a million dollars.

Start to clutch your pearls...

First Tom and Nichole and now Nick and Jessica.

from Gawker.com

Demented Casseroles

Crazy

I think The Kitty has dementia and short term memory problems. Several times lately he has carried on and whined and did the dance of Feed Me! Feed Me! While acting as his own back up band and dumping things that clatter to the kitchen floor. This gets my attention and I go to put food in his bowl and find that this is all ready food in his bowl – not a lot, but certainly enough to tide him over until one of his scheduled feeding times. I don’t do the free feeding thing for him so I usually have to be free to feed him when ever he wants. I don’t mind most of the time, it’s just when he does this at 3:45 am and I get up to feed him and there is all ready food there that I get annoyed. Does being on pred for an extended period of time make you demented and hungry? Because I do not want to have to look into long term care facilities that specialize in feline dementia.

Yes, I know when he gets all demented and social, I should just lock his furry butt in the bathroom, but that would mean that I would have to keep the doors of the various cabinet’s secured shut all the time and I sometimes need to access those cabinet’s and besides, I never think about the status of the bathroom cabinets unless it’s the middle of the night and I am thinking about stashing the kitty in there and realize I can’t because they are not secured shut. I end up going back to sleep and forgetting all about my cabinets door securing issues until The Kitty wakes me up again at 2:15 am.

Kitty is back on pred, well, he never stopped being on pred but his pred ran out and I thought he would be shifted to another med when the pred ran out but the vet is out of town and I get to spend another two weeks cutting Kitty’s pills into quarters. It is not easy, they don’t come with little handy to use tracks all ready cut in them for easy cutting them into quarters like they do for halfs. I’m never sure that the pills are cut in exact quarters, but I figure he gets the dose one way or the other. He really did the best on a higher does, but higher doses of pred aren’t really good for him. A higher dose would also make him crazier and even hungrier then he is now, and those are two side effects we could do with out, especially since the more crazy and hungry he is the less sleep I get.

Just My Luck, another pot luck

Last week I was dissed by the powers that be and ended up bringing chips and dip to a casserole luncheon. This week I am prepared. The invite made it clear that the lunch will be on Friday and I have most of what I need all ready. I did finish last weeks aborted casserole dish and I have learned from that. This time whatever I make will not taste like paste – its going to taste like tomato soup or something else red. Damn it.