HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!!!

Friday Guest Cat Blogging


my friend Kristins' very nice kitty

Best costumed dog picture of the day

Woof!

The New Place

Well. One whole week in the new building. We love it; we love our 21 century bathrooms and the fact that we now have separate bathrooms for the genders. I wasn’t bothered, but some of the older folks were put out by seeing a man coming out of a bathroom marked “ladies”. Well, they can be at ease, because unless something changes, the lone man on our floor will have his own private bathroom. We also love the mold-free carpeting and the new building smell. What we don’t like is the echo from the high ceilings and the constant sound. We were used to a false ceiling made of acoustic tile and its sound damping qualities. The new building has nine foot ceilings and we there is nothing on the concrete walls to mute the sound, with no doors it can be very loud. It’s kind of like Babble around her at times.

We need doors. I have noticed though that those who complain about the noise the most while they are on a call are the same ones that will stand around in the hall and make noise when they aren’t. It’s only a problem when it affects them.

Since I now I have my very own office I dove right into decorating it, all 80 square feet of it. I have lovely curtains that blend well with my yellow-y walls and mustard trim and a matching (very small) rug. The mustard trim is fine now, in its brand new shiny state, but I’m afraid it’s not going to age well. I’m also wishing I had seen in the future so I could have known I was going to be living in a burgundy and gold world when I picked out blue for my chair color, it’s going to clash. My current chair matches beautifully.

I also brought back all my personal stuff I cleared out of my old space weeks if not at least a couple of months ago. It’s been so long since I’ve seen most of it that it’s all new again. A new acquisition is a bea-ti-ful 16x20 port trait of Daisy that I have because I entered the Year Of The Dog contest, I still haven’t heard back from them about where to send my other stuff, but maybe they are just slow. I guess I could email the guy back but I’m afraid I would appear grasping and that’s not nice.

I went to Doggers Dogster page just to check up on it and apparently she gets more visitors than I thought, she had 318 virtual dog bones (but when I looked again, she was done to zero! I should have hit print screen so I could have proof!) And her page has been viewed 5031 times. She never has bones, she’s sad and unloved. Come in 10th in a contest and suddenly, everybody loves you. I need to change out the pictures there though, there are a couple of them that just suck, and they so do not represent Doggers' doggy beauty. I removed the offending images, what was I thinking?, I mean, ew. I should put the one that won, but it seems so, blah when I have others, but maybe I should. Okay, I did. I mean, it’s a nice picture and how long do I really need the St. Patrick’s Day one anyway? I didn’t like it anyway.

So, now there are three new shots on her page, the first major overhaul I’ve done in a long time. In the process, I found a new toy Picture Resizer , you load your enormous file and it asks you how much smaller you would like it, presto chango, it is shrunk down to a manageable size. I used to have a photo program that would do this for me, but that was two computers ago and I haven’t been able to find a similar product. I mean, you can’t say, this is an 11x14 file and I want it to be a 5x7 – it just says do you want this “75% smaller, 50% smaller, 25% smaller”. But, it makes huge images easier to upload.

IOIYAAR*

White House refuses to answer subpoenas

WASHINGTON - President Bush, moving toward a constitutional showdown with Congress, asserted executive privilege Thursday and rejected lawmakers' demands for documents that could shed light on the firings of federal prosecutors.

Bush's attorney told Congress the White House would not turn over subpoenaed documents for former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor in a fight that centers on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' stewardship of the Justice Department.

Full story here

(it's okay if you are a Republican)

We're so cute when we commit felonies...

I was listening to the radio again the other day and this song started and it had kind of good beat and you know whatever. I'll give it an 8, Dick you can dance to it and it's got a good beat, minus points because the singer was on Murrican Idiot and is a Right-wing Barbie. And once again, I made the mistake of listening to the lyrics. I know this is how Tipper got started back in 85.

Right now he's probably slow dancing with a bleach blond tramp,
and she's probably getting frisky...
right now, he's probably buying her some fruity little drink cause she can't shoot whiskey...

Oh, yeah. I hate that girl. She's a whore. I feel your pain, right-wing Barbie! You are a natural blond! The only one! Just You! And girlfriend, you shoot whiskey like a pro!

Right now, he's probably up behind her with a pool-stick, showing her how to shoot a combo...

What a bitch. She knows exactly what she's doing. Whore!

And he don't know...

That I dug my key into the side of his pretty little suped up 4 wheel drive,
carved my name into his leather seats...
I took a Louisville slugger to both head lights,
slashed a hole in all 4 tires...

Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats.

Wait. You're rid of him and now you're punishing his car? You lucked out and aren't spending another evening at a scuzzy pool hall with him and you vandalized his car? Gawd, send him flowers! For cheating on you! He did you a favor White Trash Barbie! Is it worth it? Is he? I doubt it. If you want his new girl to know about him, sneak in and wait for her in the ladies room... tell her he's a real sixty second man and all the wood she was really feeling was the pool cue and then leave. Maybe go and throw a drink in his face. In. Out. No laws broken.

Right now, she's probably up singing some
white-trash version of Shania karoke..
Right now, she's probably saying "I'm drunk"
and he's a thinking that he's gonna get lucky,
Right now, he's probably dabbing on 3 dollars worth of that bathroom polo...
And he don't know...

A couple of days ago it was you singing Shania up there, you are the last person who needs to be talking about karoke. And lets not throw around accusations of white trashiness shall we? Really. And you know the whole "I'm drunk!" thing because you did it first, you probably hold the patent. And you, honey, shouldn't talk about knock off Polo, the way you rock the Miss Stetsun.

That I dug my key into the side of his pretty little suped up 4 wheel drive,
carved my name into his leather seats,
I took a Louisville slugger to both head lights,
slashed a hole in all 4 tires...


...And now we all know why he's cheating on you! You're crazy and mean. No wonder he found someone a little less insane. More power to him.

And trashing a car like that? It's wrong, it's illegal, it's immoral and it's not cute. And thanks to this song a lot of little white trash girls listening to country radio are going to think that this vandalizing if cars is fun, and liberating and okay and just how you deal with a cheating boyfriend. It's not. If a man was singing gleefully about trashing his girl friends car, the song would never make it to the airwaves ,because violence against women is wrong. Stalking is wrong. Behaving in that manner is wrong.

The crime she is glorifying isn't less scary or wrong because it was committed by someone wearing cute shoes and a hair squishy. She's doing more than breaking her nails, she breaking the law. And the whole song is about how good it feels to break the law and we're not talking about egging his front door or leaving nasty messages on his machine.

Repainting a car - $800-$3500
Body work - $400-$2500
New leather seats - $175 a seat
New head lights - $75-$200

That's not chump change and it's not small claims court he would be taking her to.

Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats.
[Before He Cheats Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com]

Maybe they deserve more than 27%?

The Senate Judiciary Committee today subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office for documents relating to President Bush's warrant free eavesdropping program.

full story here

Oh my

'Bigfoot' expedition planned in Michigan

MANISTIQUE, Michigan (AP) -- Researchers will visit Michigan's Upper Peninsula next month to search for evidence of the legendary creature known as "Bigfoot" or "Sasquatch."

The expedition will focus on eastern Marquette County, said Matthew Moneymaker of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.

"We'll be looking for evidence supporting a presence. ... We hope to meet local people who might have seen a Sasquatch or heard of someone else who had an encounter," Moneymaker told the Daily Press of Escanaba.

Full story here

Dumb, de dum dumbies


I work with idiots. Idiots with graduate degrees, but idiots non-the-less.

We moved away from our mail boxes - our beloved mail boxes, so big, so familiar, now so in a different part of the building now. We now have our own mail boxes. We're all grown up.

Our new mail box is just a baby still. it looks just like our old mail box unit, only much smaller , with much less wood and more cardboard. It looks better than it sounds. In it's past life it was used to store forms, lots and lots of forms, it is plenty big enough for our needs and there are many unused slots for future use. It fits in the bottom third of our existing book case and it was free. Bonus.

My first task after we moved was to labele the individual slots Fine. I have a label maker. It was easy and when I was finished it looked very nice. I checked that off my list and moved on to things that were less easy and not going to be as tidy. I thought I was finished with the mail slots. Nah. Of course not. We had three days to get used to the mail boxes. Three long days of having to remember that your name is under your mail slot. Not above, not on the side, not next to it... It is really exhausting having to try to remember that when you see your name you take your mail out from the open slot immediately above it. Above It, not below it, not beside it, above it. I'm so tired now.


"We" couldn't "get" this. I was instructed to "make the labeling more clear". Black letters on white labels. In bold face. I didn't know how much clearer I could make it. I was annoyed. I thought that perhaps braille might be a solution. No, I did a quick poll and we are dumb not blind. I made a note of that. "Not blind, just really, really dumb".

So. I labeled each slot along the side as well. Now, our little mail slots are labeled twice. If they can't find their names now or are confused about where to find their mail... I'll smile and find away to label them a third time, perhaps on the back wall of each slot. Maybe I'll just stand there and direct them to their box, maybe I can cut out the middle man and just walk from office to office and give them their mail personally and we can reject the whole mail slot thing all together.

Then, there was a second labeling issue. We have a number of desk trays that we use to to hold mail and other documents that are to be sent to our satellite offices. These are also labeled clearly. I thought.

Turns out that when I labeled them, clearly along the front of the boxes, I failed to know that if there was paper in the tray, it would block the label!!!! and render the purpose of the tray a mystery. Really, they claimed they couldn't figure out which tray was in use. We send things to four offices. If one of the boxes is rendered anonymous and the other boxes are empty? Which box is being used? I might also note that we aren't exactly sending reams and reams of paper off to the other offices. It can be picked up, actually flicked, you can flick the paper and see what tray it is.

I took a deep breath, cursed each and every one of my fellow employees, a couple more than the others and relabeled the trays, this time in the wall of the book case next to the opening of the tray! No more mysteries.

The next round of complaints is going to be that the mail box unit is too close to the floor and too hard to quickly check your slot. The only free part of the wall available for this would put the boxes beyond the book case - they would now have to go all the way into the "room", which also now is home to our fax machine and a whole bunch of boxes that do not belong to us. It is a small room. A walk in closet with a box case, fax machine and a bunch of large boxes. I bet you money.

Drug Addict

Dogger had another foreshortened visit to the park last night but it wasn't her fault and it wasn't about another dog either. It was The Kitty's fault.

Kitty's pred was running low again and I was making my monthly
call to the vet to grovel for one more month - before his good blood test I was practically having to plead with them to fill his script each month. I didn't love this.

I also didn't love the $17 a month I was getting soaked for either. The vet in Marquette was charging me $10 for a month. I wanted my $7. I always wanted to ask for a copy of the script, but I was afraid they would think I was either 1) accusing them over over charging me - because they were or 2) A bad, cheap Cat mommy. I mean, really. I like them, they are nice people, they love my pets , but they were significantly over charging me for pred.

My cat has to have his pred. No pred, no relief, no fooling around. So I call every month and hope that they aren't keeping too close an eye on how many months in a row it has been since his last blood work. I don't want to hear about it, I just want my cat's drugs.I called up and expected our usual dialogue.

Me - Hi, I need my drugs

Them - Hold Please

Me - Pleasepleasepleaseplease

waitingwaitingwaiting

Them - Okay, but Kitty is going to need blood work done before we can refill this...

Me - I can't afford it this month.

Them - Okay, but next month?

Me - Fine.

I can't afford it next month either and we'll have this conversation every month until the stress kills me and I end up voluntarily bringing him in before they can hold me at pred-point to force me to do it. This time it was different. "Do you want the pills or would you like a copy of the prescription?". I was like "Um, you mean I can have the prescription I can take it somewhere else cheaper!?" Score!

I picked up the script at lunch and it was good for three refills at the pharmacy of my choice. I would like to point out that the prescription that I take, the human being, costs me $4 a month. The cats' prescription costs almost four times as much each month and that sucks.

I would have taken the script to Sam's right after work, but I want Dogger to have as much time at the park as she can get and the earlier I can get her there the more drama-free time she has to run and play. I do kind of miss my park friends but I can exchange small talk other people whose names I don't know at five as just as well as at seven. I keep telling myself that, but damn it, I miss Max and Eno and little Lulu and the sweet little bulldog girl and my bassets and Karma and Camu and I miss their dog Moms and dog Dads too. It makes me sad and makes me even more pissed at Drama's people. But, Daisy deserves to have a good time - it is after all a dog park not a Coffee Klatch. But maybe I'll try it out later on after awhile. I think though, for the time being it's good for Dogger to be around the significantly less aggressive dogs that play at the park earlier. Dogger doesn't seem to have any special doggy friends there, but she also doesn't have anyone she needs to dominate and nobody is gunning for her at five either.

Anyway. I cut the visit short so I could hit the pharmacy. Dogger was cool with leaving and actually left under her own steam, no pulling, tugging or cursing required - because I promised a trip to the "store". A trip to the store means she gets a second trip in the car and she loves riding in the car. I think she even enjoys hanging out in the parking lot - it's too hot for too much of that, so I had to run in and run out of the store pretty fast. We sat in the car with the A/C running and killed the ozone for fifteen minutes until Kitty's script was ready.

$4. A year of pred will run me $48 for a year, if I had kept having it filled at the vet it would and has run me $204 a year.

Sleeping on it

I didn’t know how much the reunion last weekend and the move this week had taken out of me until I roused myself Friday night. I started out with the idea that I would bring Dogger upstairs and treat her with some time spent on the bed with me. I would read my book while she looked on adoringly. Dogger normally is never allowed on the bed or upstairs for that matter. I thought that I would read my book and Dogger and I would enjoy some togetherness.

Kitty was pissed. As it turns out, Dogger also expressed a preference for the lower left quadrant of the bed, well, she’s so large that she also expressed a preference for the lower right and center quadrants as well. She was just happy to be there. Kitty sat on his tree and muttered to himself She can just try to come up here. Big stupid dog. She wouldn’t last a minute up here on Mount Kittymajaro . THE DOG I S IN MY PLACE! It’s not FAIR. I bet the bed is going to break now. How much is that bed supposed to take? I bet it’s going to wobble now. It’ll never be the same again. I hate the dog!

Dogger for her part was all I’m on the bed! I’m on the bed! I’m on the bed! Am I supposed to be on the bed? Is this all right? I’m on a bed but it’s not my bed . Mama’s on the bed. I’m on Mama’s bed! I’m on Mama’s bed! I’m on Mama’s bed!

And then she fell asleep.

And I fell asleep.

I woke up because the over head light was on and I was hot and my mouth tasted like old sock. I got up and turned on the A/C and turned off the light and went back on the still made bed. All this woke up the dog, but kind Dogger that she is, she panted me back to sleep. Her panting made the bed rock ever so slightly and it lulled me back to sleep.

I woke up again a while later because now I was cold and my mouth now tasted like a really old sock. I decided that Dogger needed to go to her own bed and I wanted to not sleep in my clothes. I was sure it must be really, really late - two, three ay-em at least, it was 11:30 PM.

Dogger seemed relieved to be in her own bed, but no more so than The Kitty. I turned on the alarm, finally brushed my teeth and went back to bed, again.

I slept until 10:30am . I didn’t do much on Saturday. Late in the day I finally went and put gas in the car and Dogger and I went on a hike with Broskey, Alphagal and Tiny E. I of course, brought my camera.



Earlier, on my way back from getting gas, I went by campus and took this picture of my new building.



I affectionately call the yard “Future Parking Lot” as by Tuesday there will be a 100 people duking it out over 36 available parking slots.

HAPPY BLOGGER SUCKS SUNDAY !!!!!!

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!

Friday cat Blogging