Bits and pieces – the Bittsinging

I’m been getting Camp Knotty pine fixed up for the fall session. I mowed the back yard, swept the carport and got the cabin tidied up. The Nephdogs are coming and don’t want them to think I’ve been slacking since they were here the last time.

I’ve been slacking since they were here the last time. If I were a vacuuming woman (I'm Not) I could say “There isn’t any of their hair upstairs”, and that would be a lie. I have dog hair dust gerbils up there that keep the real rats at bay. No one wants to deal with a hunk of fur that big. I did make the space a little more dog friendly –in that I made it so that the dogs can’t reach any of my stuff so that I can stay friendly to them. I had to find new places for my little herd of moose and I put my collection of empty cardboard boxes away. I mean, I always want to chew on them when I’m up there alone for hours, so why shouldn’t they? . But then I remembered They have the capacity to lick themselves. I don’t think I need to provide any time fillers with that in play.

I will be making dog cookies while they are here. I’m going to try Carrot dog cookies to see if that is something dogs would like. I do have some research that says, “yes, dogs will eat carrot dog cookies” since I went to the mall and saw carrot dog cookies for sale. I’m going to have to figure out how they get the carrot pieces to be so visible in the cookie. I wonder if they laid each individual carrot piece on individually? Because I’m not going to do that. I’m also going to make one batch of the old stand by, cheese, because I all ready know all the dogs like that. I may also put some peanut butter in the mix too. If I get really wild I can add powered milk to the batch too. All the batches will even feature my own home grown garlic. How much time I anticipate spending making food for myself this weekend? None whatsoever. I am the saddest person ever, I know.

I’m going to go canvassing again this weekend. I’m going for a Three-Peat. I’m sadly, going to miss the debate on Friday because I agreed to go see a play that I didn’t realize was on this Friday. If I had been thinking I would have said “Yeah. This Friday? Are you kidding? I know you really mean a Friday that is not This Friday? Because you know? THE DEBATE is on and I have three dogs to look after and the Kitty and THE DEBATE is on and I have to be up early on Saturday and why the hell are you wanting to go to a play when THE DEBATE is on?” but instead I said “Okay”. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb!

It better be a great evening of theatre – because that old saw “A bad night out at the theatre is still better than a good night in front of the TV” is total bullshit. Bad TV you can turn off, bad theatre you are trapped with for hours! And if the show is really, really awful and you were a very, very bad person in a previous life - after the play finally, mercifully, ends, you will then have to find nice things to say about it to the people who worked on it – and they all know that no one calls anything they enjoyed, “interesting”.

Thanks to Blondesense for this screen shot. Who knew Network TV had balls and were so forthright about things? 

What to wear

The Rethuglican fashion dilemma - to wrap yourself in your flag or in your sheet?

link from Atrios

Tsk, Tsk, Tsk

Judicial Watch says "Don't delay dump Delay!" and this is just about a little bribery, the real deal hasn't even started up yet.

link from - The Daily Kos

Vist Vaccinationland

I was stupid yesterday. I actually said out loud “I think I’m going to get Task “A” finished and the start on Task “B” and then if there is still time, I’ll get a head start on Task “C”. Right.

The first barrier to that plan was the Cheese seminar. That took up a good ninety minutes in another building after I got back I realized that it was almost time to go for my flu shot. Super. I have an assigned time to be there, I left ten minutes early and I fully expected to run in, get my shot and run out. I was supposed to go to lunch with lunch buddy. Then I got to the gym – still thinking I was going to go to lunch.

It was full of people. The line snaked around the gym. They had two cafeteria tables set up and four nurses. A total of four nurses for several hounded people. I got into line and noticed that everyone else seemed to have some paperwork in his or her hands. I got out of line and went searching for my paperwork. I lost my place in line. I came back with my sheet of paper and filled it out – still thinking that the line would move quickly, yeah, just for me! It hadn’t been moving before I got there, but it was going to move for me.

So I’m in line and I’m looking around and see a woman from my office. I thought, “Hmmm. Why is she here? Her last name starts with a “K”. That’s why this line is so long! its all those people coming in whenever they feel like it. If you can’t come at your assigned time, read the damn email – “come in the afternoon in the “unable to make assigned time time”, don’t be in line with me! This rant filled a few minutes. Line not progressed.

So. 11:45. I call Lunch Buddy and break the news that I may be here for awhile, like maybe past noon.

Time is marching on but I am not. I thought the line has moved up two whole spaces, but it turns out, it was just someone going up to the person in front of her to ask for the time. The line has not moved, it was an optical allusion. I call lunch buddy and tell her to go it alone. She says she’s not hungry and can wait.

The woman in front of me is all proud of herself for bringing work to look at while she waits. Yeah, yeah. You’re so prepared. We all bow at the feet of your preparedness. I have a purse full of credit card receipts to read.

I check my wallet to make sure I have my insurance card or any stray Skittles™. After way too long – I find it! My card not any Skittles™. In another 15 minutes the line might progress to the point where they have chairs. I also notice it’s cold and I’m under a vent and I will be under that vent for the next three days because the line is not moving! .

I notice another person from my office in line. A “J” person. The reason that the “K” person and the “J” person are in line? They aren’t flaunting the rules. The line hasn’t gotten to them yet. They are still on the “H”s! I’m an “R”! I’m going to be here forever! No wonder no one came back and warned the rest of us about the line! They are all still in it! It’s some kind of clinical spider web! The harder you try to get out of it, the longer the line gets! “Oh No! Someone just went to go see what the hold up is, damn! That caused one of the nurses to go on terminal break! Damn!damn!damn!”.

I got there at 11:20 a.m. I left there, cold and hungry at 1:00 p.m. I got a tiny bit of Task “A”, none of Task “B” and lets not even get into how much of Task “C” is still done.

but at least I got one…

Hee! hee!

Rude Pundit as John Edwards to Dick Cheney at tonights "debate".

thanks to Rude Pundit

What fools these mortals be

To paraphrase Al Franken The lying liar is lying again (Rumsfeld version)

from Atrios

The World’s Greatest Failure!

I go to a “Who Moved My Cheese” seminar.

That was an hour and half I’ll never get back. We learned that the key to optimism is to never, ever, ever take the blame for anything. Mess up on a report for work? Boss is a moron who doesn’t understand the content – not that you in any way could have made the information presented easier to understand or put it in the correct form or wrote in complete sentences or used spell check.

To be an Optimist you have to keep those failures external it’s about the "personalness" of the event -. "Wow, I missed that deadline because I was I.M –ing with Lars from Norway", My boss needs to be more open to change.

Failure is only temporary. - "I lost that file, wanna go get lunch?"

Successes are permenant - There are 327 files I did not lose! Look! Here is a whole one right here! It’s right where it is supposed to be! This one is not lost at all! That is so great! Keeping track of 327 files is hard! I can’t believe I only lost one. I am going to parlay this into a whole multinational dedicated to filing! I rock so hard! .


It’s also all about how pervasive the successes is - "I filed all the correspondence and thus I am the most amazing file clerk ever and this victory over paperwork has made me able to dream about a world where I am in a supervisory capacity over other file clerks who will beg to hear me speak on my brilliant file clerking skilz. They will learn at my knee and go on to cover the world with efficient filing and tidy files. I wonder who will play me in the inevitable biopic? My victory over this bin of files will make the world a better place, will bring on world peace and will feed the hungry!".

Failure for the optimist is limited in scope - "I didn’t get the bin filed, bummer. Time for lunch!".

The Pessimist on the other hand has the really nasty habit of taking blame for things that went wrong.

Failure is internal - "I suck, I did badly, I should drown myself in the toilet. Why did I wake up this morning? Everything I touch turns to shit. Kill me now! I’m just going to mess it up if I try it myself".

Success is external - "Everyone else did so well on that report! The office is sure to get a commendation from HQ for this I hope no one asks me what my contributions were".

Failure is permanent – "I lost the file and I’m never, ever, ever going to find it. The archive will be incomplete and it’s all my fault. We are sure to get sued. I shall quit with out notice and flee the country".

Successes are temporary – "I found it, but that only means I’m going to lose something else."

For the pessimist it’s the pervasiveness of his failures that make him a real buzz kill.

Failure is universal – "I did it wrong! I set it up wrong and I can’t fix it! This is going to suck for the whole office and quite possibly every employee of the company! I’m going to get fired and my boss will too! This is the biggest mistake ever, by anybody in any capacity. People may actually die as a result of my faulty sticker putting on cover sheet skills. I hope I die first".

Successes are limited – "Yeah. a couple of people did not die, but it’s really wasn’t that big a deal anyway".

You know if Shrub could find his "cheese" the world would be a better place. The seminar is pretty much about dealing with changes and learning to chart progress towards inevitable change so as to not be surprised by change when it does happen, everything changed and he is still in the same empty room looking for his long gone cheese.

There's one born every minute

Rumsfeild "doesn't expect a civil war in Iraq", but who expected the Inquestion? If I were a betting gal, I would lay money down on this one. What I think he's really saying is "Golly! We didn't expect Civil War so soon, we're in the middle of it now and we started it".

The next comedian gets to try his luck on FOX


FAUX spanked their reporter and took away desert for everyone else. TV Newser has the memo slash riot act

link from Atrios

Shrub thinks Whistleblowers are dirty little Tattle Tails

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 - Over strenuous objections from the Bush administration, Congress is moving to increase protections for federal employees who expose fraud, waste and wrongdoing inside the government.

Lawmakers of both parties say the measures are needed to prevent retaliation against such whistleblowers, who reveal threats to public health, safety and security but the administration says the bill unconstitutionally interferes with the president's ability to control and manage the government.

from The New York Times



The current administration doesn't want federal employees to be protected from retaliation because he thinks that all its going to lead to is needless litigation, because Whistleblowing is the exact same thing as some yahoo suing Wal-Mart for a slip and fall! Keeping secrets secret, is so much important to the current administration than calling attention to harmful or needlessly expensive situations.

Federal Employees trying to save tax money and protecting American Lives = Trial Lawyers and Needless Litigation. Shrub hates Americans.

link from America Blog

School House Rawk

I read America - The Book and so should you. It reads like the unholy union of a history text and USA Today, if USA Today was as left as FAUX is right and some one let a TV Show write a History Text.. Here is a really good review from The New York Times, no registration required.

link from Television With Out Pity TDS forum.

All creatures great and small

Blessing of The Animals

In Observance of the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, there will be a brief Blessing of The Animals this afternoon, October 3 at 5:00pm in the church parking lot. Bring your family pet to receive this special blessing commemorating St. Francis’ great love for all creation


It should have read “5:00 p.m.! Not one second later., don’t even think we’re going to wait around in the lot for you! We have things to do too, you know, don’t doddle! and I also think that the “brief” part should have been underlined and in bold face. They weren’t kidding. I pulled up at 4:59 and they had all ready started. I had no idea the animals and I were supposed to have booked ahead and signed up for line placement and wrist bands. I tried to be nice and not parade my dog through a wedding and I got the evil eye from the priest. Thanks Father. I almost missed having Kitty blessed because I didn’t think I could get both dog on her leash and the kitty in his wheelly crate across the street. Hannibal couldn’t have done it - elephants through the Alps? Not that big a deal, dog and cat across a busy intersection while a wedding party was trying to leave the church? Not going to happen. I had to go around, first with Dogger and then after, at light speed with Kitty. Don’t think he didn’t love that part.

Dogger was easy. I stood there, Father asked her name, splashed her with some holy water and blessed her and moved on to the next dog. The crowd said a prayer, dispersed and the priests tried to back to their football game all ready in progress.

“Hey wait!” I said. “I have a cat out in my car!” and he needs you guys!. “Fiiinnnneee. Damn. Get him, where are you parked? I know they were trying to get back before half time, but really! I tore back to the car with a very excited Dogger and fetched a very not excited Kitty. I got back to an almost empty parking lot. It was me and a couple of other “late comers”. It was now five after five.

Kitty got barked at by a puppy. The priest said “Be careful there we don’t want to do a funeral too!”. Thanks Father. Kitty got his blessing and I took the animals home.

Dogger now wants me to go get her The St. Francis version of the bible and a copy of Left Behind ( in the crate). Kitty bit me after I let him out of his box. He got his though. I let him celebrate his new, some what blessed state by letting him into the back yard . He was out there for about ten minutes and it started to rain. God wanted Kitty to be fully immersed.

Two canvasses down, 30 something days to go

This weekends canvass went much better than last weeks death march. This time we only had 33 doors to knock on, unlike last weeks 100+. We were finished by 2pm and I could still walk. And ya! We found four whole voters! Woo-hoo!. This time after we were finished I didn’t want to die or kill anyone. I’m going to do it next week too. You should check and make sure what your states ballot looks like. In North Carolina if you vote a straight ticket you are not also voting for the president. You have to vote for the president separately. And also, a straight ticket vote does not include races that are non-partison. Find out how your ballot works and what it is going to look like before you vote.

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!!