Odds and Ends

Above It All

2012-01-25T14:16:00.006-06:00

The thing I do not "get" today:

People Who Claim They Won't Vote if _________ is the Republican Nominee

I guess they're just too principled-- too much above it all-- to dig out the old nose-clothespin and cast a vote for the lesser of two evils.

I can understand if they're not thrilled with their options. (I mean, I really understand.) I can understand if they're disappointed because "their guy" (or woman) is no longer in the running. I can understand if they're disgusted with the political process in general-- wondering why for heaven's sake we couldn't find a truly outstanding, inspirational candidate, this (or the last) time around. (I mean, really. Is this the best we could do? This is not the cream of our crop. The cream doesn't want to deal with the muck of the battle for the presidency.)

But you know what? I don't care if our party's eventual presidential candidate isn't perfect. If someone really cares about the direction our country's going-- and anyone who lives here ought to-- he needs to get off his (or her) oh-so-principled behind and vote anyway. He needs to lower his exceptionally high, unimpeachable Standards for the twenty minutes it takes to cast a vote, just like the rest of us will have to do.

*sigh*

What is wrong with people?

Citizenship Test & Stone Mountain

2012-01-20T17:29:00.001-06:00

Not that long ago, Donald decided to start the process of gaining citizenship, and as part of that, he had to be in Atlanta earlier this month to pass the citizenship test. Incidentally, he did. Of course. (g)

Now we're just waiting to get the date and time for the swearing-in ceremony. I have no idea yet of when that will be, but so far, this process has moved along fairly quickly. He may even be able to participate in the presidential election, this November! (On the other hand, it may take a while. I think it depends on how many people apply and are accepted in your state of residence-- or maybe even districts within your state-- and Alabama doesn't have a huge population to begin with, so...)

- - - - - - -

Early January isn't an ideal time for a mountain vacation (at least, not the type we're likely to take), but we did drive up early enough that we could "climb" Stone Mountain (right next door to Atlanta). It was the first time either of us had been there (that I can recall). It's pretty amazing to think that the whole thing is just one solid chunk of stone...

Maybe it's because it's been a while since I've been on a mountain hike, but it was fairly intimidating in spots. Easier coming down than going up, of course, but going up... I might possibly have been ever so slightly almost jokingly concerned that my out-of-shape heart couldn't take it. But then I saw people who at least looked much more out of shape than I do, charging ahead, so I tried to be marginally more optimistic.

But seriously. Look at those patches of gray between the trees. That's where you will soon be walking, from this spot. Photos flatten it out, but it's a little scary in person.

There's one section where there are handrails. I guess it's the steepest part of the trail...

On our way down this part, we saw a couple carrying very small children in one arm, holding on to the rail with the free hand. Crazy. I don't think I'd want to do that trail with little kids-- especially not any small enough that they'd have to be held on the steep parts. Just think if the child slipped out of your grasp and fell on the stone... *quease*

When we stopped at some of the steeper spots, the horizon was dizzyingly off kilter. (It's mostly been straightened out in post-processing. On the mountain, it felt like the whole world had wobbled slightly askew.)

The view from the top was beautiful. (Better than our photos can attest, sadly, but all we brought on the trip was our little camera. I probably wouldn't have wanted to hike up with a nice camera, anyway.)

There was this one hippy-ish, long-haired, middle-aged man skimming along quickly and easily in bare feet. Yes, bare feet on a stone path in early January. Well, admittedly it was mild for early January, but it was still a little nippy at the top of the mountain. Not bare feet weather. Personally, I save my barefoot mountain hiking for May at the earliest. (Sorry, no photo of the barefooted hippie hiker.)

At the top, there's this contraption that they use for hauling up and sending down (enclosed) carts, for those who can't (or don't wish to) walk up or down the mountain. That side of the mountain is a sheer drop-off that makes me feel dizzy to think about, so no thanks to that ride. I'd rather walk. Is it just me, or does that thing look disturbingly like part of a roller coaster's track? *more quease*

There's a large carving on that sheer face of the mountain:

But personally, I think the names and dates "regular" people have carved into the stone were even more interesting. Of course, how do you know if the years are accurate? Someone could easily have carved "1879" just a few years ago. (Ok, they probably wouldn't have that nice, smooth, aged look if they were carved just a few years ago, but still...)

All in all, an interesting hike-- especially considering the close proximity to Atlanta, where you wouldn't expect to find much of that sort of thing.

Music Via TV Programs

2012-01-06T08:30:00.000-06:00

All my favorite (new-to-me) music, lately, comes from TV shows... It's probably because that's the only place I encounter new music, since when I listen to the radio it's talk radio, 99.9% of the time.

...Though that anti-smoking jingle they've been playing for the past few months is pretty catchy, even if I don't usually like words like "cancer" and "toxins" popping up in my music...

"Take smoke; put it out!" ;o)

Anyway, anti-smoking jingles aside, apparently I enjoy "dream-pop" and bands influenced by "shoegazing". (Where do they come up with the names for all these musical sub-genres? Not that I'm complaining. They seem appropriate, somehow... just a little funny-sounding.)

Thanks to Revenge, "Anyone's Ghost" is on repeat... (I prefer the Silver Swans version, though the original by The National isn't bad, either.)

More via Revenge...
First, we have "Riverside" by Agnes Obel:

For a beachy 60's throwback, may I suggest "Catamaran", by the Allah-Las?

Then there's "Wait", by M83, found through "The Secret Circle":

To end with something a little more up-beat, it's back to Revenge with "Home" by OK Sweetheart:

Has Target used that song for a commercial? If not, I'm surprised, because it just screams "Target commercial". That's not an insult; I tend to like Target commercial music, though it's best in small doses. Perfect for bouncing around the house to. ;o)

2012 Blues

2012-01-06T07:32:00.000-06:00

Well, given that this is an election year, of course this will be a bad year for randomly, unexpectedly encountering annoying political opinions on blogs (and other places where people express opinions) that are not usually political in nature.

I know, I know. How can I complain when I regularly, well, complain about politics on my own blog? But I do try to keep that contained here on my personal, rarely-updated blog that hardly anyone reads, anyway. Also, I do it often enough that you really ought to be prepared. ;o)

There are a few blogs/feeds I read that I know will (at least occasionally) be political in nature-- some more often than others-- and even though I do still find myself annoyed at the opinions expressed, at least I'm prepared for them. (And if I'm having a "don't even look at me wrong" type of day, I know to avoid them until I'm feeling more sanguine. Or maybe it's the other way 'round. Don't ruin a good mood...?) It's more offensive when the blog/feed is usually crafts-centered, for instance, or books-focused, and then suddenly springs a (seriously irritating) political opinion on you out of nowhere.

Ugh, 2012.
I haven't really been looking forward to you, to tell the truth, but since the alternative was not being here to see it, we'll just have to make the most of it.

Sweden in the News, Today...

2012-01-05T10:29:00.001-06:00

"Wave of shootings baffle Swedish police."

Look, I don't even live in Sweden, yet it's not that baffling to me-- not once you consider that these execution-style shootings are happening in Malmö. (And I guess that's all I'll say about that...)

Every now and then, Donald tells me about something he reads in the Swedish news (or the oftentimes more reliable independent news blogs), and what I hear is troubling, if not downright infuriating. I think I'm more upset on behalf of Sweden than many Swedes are, themselves, because it's not politically correct to be outraged at the abuse of the Swedish welfare system and the impending destruction of Swedish culture as we know it.

Political correctness run amok.

Random Gripe o' the Day

2011-12-30T12:11:00.003-06:00

Good grief.

So, since the government couldn't afford to (immediately) enforce the 100-watt incandescent bulb phase-out, they're relying on the honor system. Anyone selling such contraband should feel deeply ashamed. Very dishonorable of you, you know.

This is such an important issue. Thank goodness the powers that be are staying on top of it.

...If we can't be trusted to decide what kind of light bulbs to use in our own personal private lamps and fixtures at home, no wonder "They" think we can't handle our own retirement accounts and health insurance...

Sometimes you don't know whether to laugh or cry... or buy a punching bag to take out your frustrations on...

Was It 24 CARROT Gold? ;o)

2011-12-30T11:58:00.000-06:00

What a fun news story (for a change)!

"Swede pulls up carrot bearing long-lost ring."

A woman loses her wedding ring in her kitchen. Sixteen years later, long after she and her husband have given up the search for it, she finds it around a tiny carrot harvested from their vegetable garden! Amazing!

What in the...

2011-12-20T12:03:00.003-06:00

So, apparently 60 Minutes edited the following statement out of their recent interview with Obama:

“The issue here is not going be a list of accomplishments. As you said yourself, Steve, you know, I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president — with the possible exceptions of Johnson, F.D.R., and Lincoln — just in terms of what we’ve gotten done in modern history. But, you know, but when it comes to the economy, we’ve got a lot more work to do.”

...Okay... Whatever you say, man.

Good grief! The sheer ego of some people!

Gosh...

2011-12-14T17:18:00.000-06:00

Been browsing Awkward Family Photos (.com) for a laugh.

Found a few:

A Face in the Crowd

Come Together

The Fetal Position 2

...among others.

(There's also an Awkward Family Pet Photos, by the way.)

Facebook = :'- (

2011-12-14T16:18:00.000-06:00

"Author Says Facebook Is Making Us Miserable".
(What have I been saying-- to myself, if not others?)

"Facebook is making us unhappy by making everyone else look really, really happy."

Author Daniel Gulati blogs for Harvard Business Review. He says all that shared information is creating a subconscious "ranking" among friends as our curated selves broadcast online are compared in real life.

"Facebook is bringing down a lot of people's daily sense of well-being."

Well, that's a big part (not all of it, but a very big part) of why I deleted my personal Facebook account.

I realize that it sounds kind of namby-pamby-- if not downright pathetic-- to admit that you start to feel a little dissatisfied with your own life just because Facebook makes it seem like everyone else on the bloomin' planet is thoroughly fulfilled, living up to every potential, happy-happy, 100% perfect (or at least Better Than You), and generally peachy-keen, but to tell the truth, I noticed that every time I visited the site, I came away feeling a degree or two sadder... discontented... somehow deflated. (So maybe I am namby-pamby. Oh well.)

Anyway, it's always nice to find another Facebook decrier. ;o)

P.S. If you love Facebook, I have nothing against you personally. I just ~~secretly~~ hope for the day when your favorite social media site goes up in flames. :o) On to the next thing!

It's About Time

2011-12-13T14:54:00.001-06:00

Via Drudge on Twitter, I read a short article this morning. Why he linked to a Canadian paper, I don't know. Maybe no American paper covered the story? (Can't be bothered to google it.) In any case, the headline is "Hurricane predictors admit they can't predict hurricanes." (Heh. That's probably why this article was selected. Funny headline.)

Brief excerpt:

Two top U.S. hurricane forecasters, revered like rock stars in Deep South hurricane country, are quitting the practice because it doesn’t work.

William Gray and Phil Klotzbach say a look back shows their past 20 years of forecasts had no value.

First of all, I wouldn't say that the hurricane forecasters are "revered like rock stars in Deep South hurricane country". I happen to live in Deep South hurricane country-- right in the heart of it-- and the people I talk to generally seem to agree that the weather forecasters don't really know whether a year's going to be more or less active than usual. They've gotten pretty good at forecasting the general area where a storm will make landfall, but they've proven they can't tell how many storms will develop in a given period of time.

Second, good for them! It's nice when experts are willing to admit it when they realize that something doesn't work. (Of course, many of us had already stopped paying serious attention, anyway.)

What a Sad-Looking Tree!

2011-12-12T10:40:00.000-06:00

We finally put up our Christmas tree over the weekend! Isn't it beautiful?

Ok, this isn't really our Christmas tree. It's just the top portion of our (artificial) tree, put in the stand for the fun of it. Trixie thought it looked pretty pathetic (and was a little concerned that it might topple over on top of her).

Our (fully assembled and decorated) tree looks much the same as it does every year. Still, maybe I'll take a photo or two before it comes back down again...

More VITAL News Via Twitter

2011-12-07T08:02:00.001-06:00

"Mythbusters" put a canonball through a home and a minivan (on accident, which isn't necessarily immediately obvious, with that program), and some idiotic head teacher in Britain turned off his school's heating on one of the coldest days of the year to show students how the school could reduce its carbon footprint. (Because simply lowering the heat wasn't bold enough, I guess. I wonder if anyone explained to him how much more energy it takes to heat a very cold building versus keeping it fairly level at moderate warmth...)

On the other hand, Alec Baldwin was kicked off an airplane (before take off, in case you were wondering) because of his immature behavior... So it's not all bad news, this morning...

For Posterity

2011-12-07T07:43:00.001-06:00

Read this morning (on Twitter) that "government to receive archive of every tweet ever sent". I didn't bother to click the link to read the full story, but when have I ever let a piffling little detail like that stop me from reacting/commenting?

First reaction: Well, that's creepy...

Second reaction: *thinking back over what I tweeted, back when I actually tweeted, wondering if there was anything incriminating or otherwise potentially damning in the eyes of The Government...*

Third reaction: Of course, this isn't really news, is it? I thought we already knew that the Library of Congress was going to archive all tweets (or something like that...). Also, I'm writing a blog. On the Internet. If "They" are interested, they already have access to plenty of information about me. (I don't actually believe they are that interested, at the moment. Just to show that I have no delusions of grandeur.)

Fourth reaction: Wow. If they're keeping these tweets "for posterity", everyone in the future will know exactly how stupid, spoiled, and disgusting so many of our contemporaries are. (Were? Whatever.) There'll be no denying it, now...

Giving Thanks

2011-11-22T16:34:00.001-06:00

It's a couple of days early, but today, I'd like to give thanks that no-one in my family would ever send out a letter like this:

---
From: Marney

As you all know a fabulous Thanksgiving Dinner does not make itself. I need to ask each of you to help by bringing something to complete the meal. I truly appreciate your offers to assist with the meal preparation.

Now, while I do have quite a sense of humor and joke around all the time, I COULD NOT BE MORE SERIOUS when I am providing you with your Thanksgiving instructions and orders. I am very particular, so please perform your task EXACTLY as I have requested and read your portion very carefully. If I ask you to bring your offering in a container that has a lid, bring your offering in a container WITH A LID, NOT ALUMINUM FOIL! If I ask you to bring a serving spoon for your dish, BRING A SERVING SPOON, NOT A SOUP SPOON! And please do not forget anything.

All food that is to be cooked should already be prepared, bring it hot and ready to serve, warm or room temp. These are your ONLY THREE options. Anything meant to be served cold should, of course, already be cold.

HJB—Dinner wine

The Mike Byron Family
1. Turnips in a casserole with a lid and a serving spoon. Please do not fill the casserole all the way up to the top, it gets too messy. I know this may come as a bit of a surprise to you, but most of us hate turnips so don't feel like you a have to feed an army.
2. Two half gallons of ice cream, one must be VANILLA, I don't care what the other one is. No store brands please. I did see an ad this morning for Hagan Daz Peppermint Bark Ice Cream, yum!! (no pressure here, though).
3. Toppings for the ice cream.
4. A case of bottled water, NOT gallons, any brand is ok.

The Bob Byron Family
1. Green beans or asparagus (not both) in a casserole with a lid and a serving spoon. If you are making the green beans, please prepare FOUR pounds, if you are making asparagus please prepare FIVE pounds. It is up to you how you wish to prepare them, no soupy sauces, no cheese (you know how Mike is), a light sprinkling of toasted nuts, or pancetta, or some EVOO would be a nice way to jazz them up.
2. A case of beer of your choice (I have Coors Light and Corona) or a bottle of clos du bois chardonnay (you will have to let me know which you will bring prior to 11/22).

The Lisa Byron Chesterford Family
1. Lisa as a married woman you are now required to contribute at the adult level. You can bring an hors d’ouvres. A few helpful hints/suggestions. Keep it very light, and non-filling, NO COCKTAIL SAUCE, no beans of any kind. I think your best bet would be a platter of fresh veggies and dip. Not a huge platter mind you (i.e., not the plastic platter from the supermarket).

The Michelle Bobble Family
1. Stuffing in a casserole with a serving spoon. Please make the stuffing sans meat.
2. 2.5-3 qts. of mashed squash in a casserole with a lid and serving spoon
3. Proscuitto pin wheel - please stick to the recipe, no need to bring a plate.
4. A pie knife

The June Davis Family
1. 15 LBS of mashed potatoes in a casserole with a serving spoon. Please do not use the over-size blue serving dish you used last year. Because you are making such a large batch you can do one of two things: put half the mash in a regulation size casserole with lid and put the other half in a plastic container and we can just replenish with that or use two regulation size casserole dishes with lids. Only one serving spoon is needed.
2. A bottle of clos du bois chardonnay

The Amy Misto Family (why do I even bother she will never read this)
1. A pumpkin pie in a pie dish (please use my silver palate recipe) no knife needed.
2. An apple pie in a pie dish, you can use your own recipe, no knife needed.

Looking forward to the 28th!!

Marney
---

Apparently it's a real letter. I first saw it here (on Awkward Family Photos), which is also where I saw this photo of Anne Shirley's dream wedding gown. (That is the upper limit on sleeve puffiness. Any puffier than that and the weight of the fabric causes catastrophic puff failure and eventual collapse. Ok, not really. I know nothing about wedding dress construction, and I imagine it is in fact possible to create puffier sleeves... but why would you ever want to?)

P.S. to my family: As a married woman, I feel I ought to be contributing at the adult level. Just tell me what to bring. And how many pounds to make. And what recipe I should use. And what dish (lidded? not lidded? For Heaven's sake, TELL ME!!) to bring it in. And how many serving spoons are needed. Also: will a little EVOO be required to jazz up my dish? If I bring green beans and asparagus, will you disown me, or just sentence me to a month of the silent treatment? Please get back to me ASAP.

Just Don't Get It: Moustache Edition

2011-11-16T09:29:00.001-06:00

Ok, admittedly, I'm not ~~always~~ ~~usually~~ ever the first to know about the latest fads. However, often I can at least more or less "get" them and their appeal. Cupcakes? Owls? Nyan Cat? Sure, those are fine. I can see how they might've become popular. (I even like all three of those.) This fake moustache craze that's been going on for years (?), though, I just don't get.

How did this fake moustache thing even get started? Does anyone know? All I know is that I've been seeing them with increasing regularity over the past year or so, and I think they're kind of gross. Yeah, that's right, I said it. ;o) Call me an old fuddy-duddy, but I'm not a fan. (Some) real moustaches are ok, as long as they aren't hideous. (If you aren't sure whether or not your moustache is hideous, please ask a trusted friend. Either that or embrace the hideousness and try not to be offended when people look away with an ill-concealed expression of disgust... and possibly a little fear.)

Again, to restate:
Real, non-hideous moustaches? Ok.
Fake ones? Popping up everywhere? Next fad, please!

Ugh. Time for a News Blackout...

2011-11-15T08:14:00.001-06:00

What with one thing and another-- such as what in the world is this ('Google Maps satellite spots bizarre structures in Chinese desert') all about??-- I'm thinking it may be time to take a brief timeout from the news.

Don't want to give myself an ulcer. ;o)

Attack of the Online Acquaintance Body Snatchers

2011-11-14T18:08:00.001-06:00

(I don't write much, here, anymore, though I'm still slightly more active on the reading, photography, and crochet blogs. [Too many blogs.] But that's ok. This blog doesn't cost me anything to keep open, and I like having a place to post when the mood does strike me.)

I just had the weird and unpleasant-- but not unusual-- experience of realizing how different some people are from myself. I mean, I know (surprisingly enough) that many people have vastly different opinions from my own, but (possibly because I don't interact face-to-face with a variety of them on a daily basis) I tend to... well, not forget it, exactly... but at least sometimes not devote a lot of thought to it. Maybe it's more accurate to say that I begin to think that I can always immediately tell like-minded people from the rest.

If I'm not always aware of where people in my "real life" stand on big issues, I'm even less familiar with my Internet acquaintances' stances. Maybe it's just that with most people I interact with/"follow" (on social networking sites, blogs, etc.) online, I'm rarely confronted with their opinions on serious topics. They chat about hobbies and pets. I post photos of crochet projects and autumn leaves. When we interact, it's usually about very light stuff, and it's always friendly.

And then I read a tweet or something that throws me for a loop.

Oh. I didn't know CraftyGal465 was one of them. It's a shock when CrochetPumpkin23, that sweet-seeming person who makes doggy sweaters and donates preemie hats to the local hospital starts tossing around terms like "teabaggers". When ArtsyFartsyL@dy refers to a relative as "god-loving" like it's a bad thing, I'm slightly stunned.

It's a little like finding out your casual friendly acquaintance has been body-snatched by the pod people. Surprise! These people think your beliefs are stupid! Hey, look! They're pointing and laughing at people like you! If they knew what you believe in-- politically, spiritually-- they'd think you an imbecile!

Silly, I know, but there it is...

There's a certain illusion of familiarity in so many Internet-based relationships. It's probably better that way, for most of them. You know what they say about politics, religion, and money. (Says the person who frequently expresses political opinions on this blog.)

Truly Random Thoughts

2011-10-30T08:28:00.000-05:00

• We got down to freezing (32°F) this morning. I think that's our first freezing temperature of the season. (According to our digital thermometer, at least) it is consistently colder (and hotter-- let's just say "more extreme") here than whatever is forecast for our zip code.

• We had an evening fire a week or so ago. I can't even remember the last time we had an evening bonfire. This one reminded me how much more magical a fire seems at night, with the golden sparks flying against a darkened sky. We should do that more often.

• Crocheting with strips of t-shirts is kind of tiring to your arms when you've been used to crocheting with nothing thicker than worsted weight yarn. I'm finding new muscles-- and then wearing them out. I would suggest crocheting rag rugs as a upper-body-building exercise, but unless you can crochet with both hands, you might end up a little unbalanced...

• Going back to crocheting with regular, worsted weight yarn when you've been wrestling with thick strips of fabric and a fat hook is an odd sensation. The yarn is so thin! It's so slack and unresisting! Next time, if I remember, I'll go straight from crocheting fabric strips to crocheting thread, just for the "Alice in Wonderland" feeling of having suddenly grown into a giant. ;o)

• We fixed up the dog pen yesterday afternoon. (One of the posts had rotted and had to be replaced, and the pen needed a good weeding in spots.) Now it should be all fixed up for times when they can't be inside or have the run of the whole yard.

"The People's Microphone"

2011-10-24T11:12:00.000-05:00

So far, I've resisted all impulses to comment on "Occupy Wall Street", but really, this "people's microphone" thing? This thing where (apparently, because they lack a permit to use bull horns) the crowd repeats (word for word, a phrase at a time) what the speaker is saying so that everyone can hear what s/he is saying? It's awfully creepy.

Then there are the interviews with the "occupiers"... (And yes, I know that you can find clueless people in any group. But still...)

Interviewer: What are you here protesting today?

Occupier #1: Uhm... Um... Uh... I'm protesting, um... I can't do this, I'm sorry.

Interviewer: Well, let me ask you another question. What do you hope to achieve by this protest?

O #1: Um, what I hope to achieve is just to get our voices heard, you know. Just...

Interviewer: Can you give me an example of what you want to say as far as your voice being heard?

O #1: Uhh... Um... Meh-- like, I'm sorry; I'm just-- I'm ju-- I'm just-- I'm just I'm just mentally all over the place. I'm really tired. I haven't slept in two days, you know.

...Blah blah he doesn't have a shelter and doesn't want to sleep in the rain...

Interviewer: And what are you hoping to achieve?

O #1: Um...You know, right now the protest is just in its, uh, early stages, so... You know, right now we're just all about getting out there, you know. Making, uhm... Yeah, just........ Um... No, that's it; I'm done.

Then (after being asked), the dude admits that he's tried to, erm, "have relations" while he's been out there, but it was a no-go, because he had no tent. (Man, those Occupier chicks are so demanding!)

Interviewer: What's more important to you, sir-- smoking weed or getting a job?

O #1: Getting a job so I can use the money to buy weed.

Later, the interviewer talks to a female Occupier...

Interviewer: Uh, what are you protesting here today?

Occupier #2: Uhm, we're struggling, so, you know?

Interviewer: You say you're struggling, but you girls are in good shape, and you have the abilities to hold down jobs. Do you think it makes more sense to get a job than to waste your time sitting around here filing your nails?

O #2: Um, f**k working for the Boss. I'd rather make my own money; like, I could control... how-- how much money I make, when I make it... as long as I work hard enough.

Hm. Sounds to me like Ms. Occupier wants to be her own boss... like a business owner... an entrepreneur, or something. But wouldn't that make her, like, you know, evil, or something? I mean, like, what if, um, she decided she wanted to make more money than was, you know, fair? And, like, how would she even know how much was fair? Ugh, this is confusing!! Well, anyways, being your own boss is probly alots of work an' stuff, you know? So maybe not...

Interviewer: How can we fix this economy?

O #2: ...I say abolish money. (...someone in the background chimes in with a "yeah!" so she gets more fired up...) We don't need money... in order to establish a good living-- like, there's enough food and supplies to go around for everybody, except... It's-- it's f**ked up how we have to pay to live, you know? You know what I mean? If we all just rationed s**t out, you know, no one has, like, more than the other-- I mean, I guess... my idea-- my ideals-- I-- I like to live life more like Commie-Socialists? ...But it's like... It's f**ked up how we-- we have to slave in order to live.

Oh. My. Gosh.
I mean, you know people like this exist, but to actually hear them speak (or in your case, read a transcript of their words)... Good ga-rief. Ok, I'm going to go bury myself under a pile of laundry and pretend I don't live in a world where scary-stupid are out to impose their crazy ideas on the rest of us.

Yes, these are the brilliant minds of tomorrow, and they're ready to lead!

On Mr. Big-Name Actor's God-Given Right to Opine

2011-10-24T09:06:00.000-05:00

So, actors, musicians, and other entertainers don't like it when the Public tells them they should "stay out of politics"-- meaning that they shouldn't express political opinions. I mean, how dare they, really? You (the entertainer) have the same right as any other individual to say what you think-- just like any other person out there. Okay, I'll agree that no-one has the right to tell any individual that he/she shouldn't voice his/her political opinion. However, let's be honest about it-- Mr. Big-Name Actor expressing his ardent support for one side or the other of XYZ Controversial Issue is a little different from Mr. Small-Town-America doing the same.

Difference #1:
However little it is usually deserved-- however little sense it makes-- Mr. Big-Name has more power-- a louder, farther-reaching voice-- than the average person. His opinions will reach a much larger number of people than Mr. Small-Town's ever will.

Difference #2:
Many people lend too much credence to the words of the famous. Simply because Big-Name said it was so, the weak-minded will be swayed to support whatever he supports. It's another way of being cool like Mr. Big-Name-- like going out and buying a brand of jeans just because Big-Name was wearing a pair on the latest magazine cover... or wearing a cologne just because Big-Name's, er, name is on the bottle. It's unlikely that anyone will vote for Ms. Candi Date just because Mr. Small-Town writes about her on his blog, but if Big-Name tweets about her, it's a possibility.

Then there are a couple of other aspects of the issue...

First:
Compared to the proportions in the country as a whole, it always feels like the left is (way) over-represented in the pool of entertainers-cum-political activists. If there were a more even distribution (across the political spectrum) of politically loud-mouthed actors, singers, etc., I think you'd see less complaining about entertainers with opinions. I'm not saying this means that left-leaning actors are obliged to keep quiet for this reason alone... Just that it makes a difference in people's level of tolerance for opinionated, liberal actors.

Second:
As an entertainer, your job is to entertain the Public. Ultimately, the Public writes your paycheck by buying your music, going to see your movies, and so on. The Public is your employer, and most employees find it beneficial to stay on the boss's good side (or if that's too unpalatable, look for a new job). So while you're perfectly well within your rights to spout controversial opinions, it may not always be in your best interest. Want to be successful in your career? Maybe you shouldn't actively alienate a large portion of your audience. Sure, it's your right to say what you think-- and to use your status as Mr. Big-Name Actor to make sure it's heard beyond your circle of friends-- but it's the Public's right to boycott your movies, albums, and TV programs if we don't like what we hear. A certain percentage may find it-- and by extension, you-- distasteful. They may not like to think that when they give you their hard-earned money, they're supporting your side of XYZ Controversial Issue though you.

Personally, when I'm thinking clearly, I try to avoid learning too much about entertainers I enjoy, because all too often, I don't like what I read. I don't want to know that they spend every spare moment supporting something I find abhorrent, because then my enjoyment of the music or TV program is tainted-- and sometimes, I'll even refuse to watch a movie simply because the actor's beliefs bother me that much. Maybe it's the same for a lot of people. When they say that actors shouldn't get involved in politics, what they're really doing is begging actors not to ruin this good thing they have going. ("Please? I really liked you in Edge-of-Your-Seat Action Flick III. Don't make me regret naming my pet hamster after you, okay?")

Entertainers (including some pro athletes) enjoy special status in our society. It comes with certain costs-- mostly in the lack of privacy-- but that's part of the deal. In exchange, they enjoy fame, fortune, and a multitude of perks. Also, for some reason, when the average person complains about how unfair it is for Mr. Professional or Ms. Big Business Owner or Mr. Banker to have so much more money than he has, he rarely thinks to complain about the "unfair" paychecks of Mr. Actor, Ms. Singer, and Mr. Pro Athlete. (Aw, you can't begrudge Mr, Sporty-Pants his wealth. That dude works hard for his money, and you have so much fun watching him play every week! Besides, he's part of your team. He's one of the boys.) It's an enviable position to be in, really. Why would you entertainers want to jeopardize that cushy charmed life by upsetting your adoring public?

Anyway, complain as they may, no-one's going to stop you from saying whatever you like, so go ahead and have at it! You'll just have to learn to live with people saying you should keep your opinions to yourself. It's part of the job-- like the paparazzi. Hey, you wanted to be famous, right...?

From Out the Silence ;o)

2011-10-10T08:57:00.003-05:00

I don't blog here anymore, it seems.

The weather lately:
Glorious.
Windows open all the time.
Breezes.
(Relative) coolness.
Please don't ever change; I love you just the way you are.

Our doings:
The usual.
Transfering content from old website to new one (slowly, surely).
Yard work (weeding, trimming back trees, building another burn pile).
Teaching myself to knit. (M.)
Working on a new DNN (DotNetNuke) project. (D.)

Molly's doings:
Snoozing.
Staring doggedly (ha ha) at counter-top (and a plate of leftover sausage).
Watching from the (open) laundry room window as Donald takes his evening run.

Trixie's doings:
Food-cubing.
Bubbling-popping.
Finding dead rat in yard (ew, where'd it come from??).
Carrying dead rat in mouth.
Undergoing de-rat-germ-ifying.

Good times. ;o)

Look, It's an Eskie Puppy!

2011-09-27T06:47:00.000-05:00

Okay...
Eskie puppy videos make (almost) everything better. Even if they do grow up into bratsy little dogs that like to wake you up in the pre-dawn hours, knowing full well that you'll have trouble going back to sleep. ;o)

I ought to go to YouTube for early-morning, puppy-based entertainment, from now on. (And Facebook shall be shunned forever and ever, amen. In that direction lie fail-proof depression triggers.)

Ugh.

2011-09-27T06:12:00.001-05:00

That's all.
Just UGH, about every single little thing.

(Well, somebody's in a bad mood this morning...)

...Sometimes you really need a private blog, so you can gripe about every tiny thing that's irking your very soul at a given moment, without everyone in your circle of family and friends learning about your deepest, darkest inner brat. This is one of those times. I blame my lack of sleep. (Thanks again, Trixie, for the latest pre-4 A.M. wake-up call. [One of a set. Collect them all!] *SIGH* At this rate, I'm going to start going to sleep at 8:30, just so I can get a decent night's rest, once in a while.)

Lie to the Children About Your Favorite Color...

2011-09-26T13:12:00.000-05:00

...It's the only way to fight racism!!

"Dress witches in pink and avoid white paper to prevent racism in nurseries, expert says."

Other great ideas for the prevention of racism:

Dress fairies in darker shades (rather than the traditional pastels).
Provide paints and crayons in "the full range of flesh tones", reflecting the diversity of the human race. (Aren't there already lots of different flesh tones in a good box of crayons?)
When asked about their favorite colors, members of staff should be prepared to lie to the children-- for their own good. "In the interests of good race relations, answer 'black' or 'brown'."

That'll make so much difference in those children's lives and racial relations, I'm sure. Yeah, more likely the kids will give the staff member a weird look. Besides, how many people would ever name "white" as a favorite color? Aren't blue, red, purple, and green more common choices? How could it be construed as negative toward any race to say you like blue the best?

"This is an incredibly complex subject that can easily become simplified and inaccurately portrayed," she [Anne O'Connor, the "expert"] said.

"There is a tendency in education to say 'here are normal people and here are different people and we have to be kind to those different people', whether it's race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age or faith.

"People who are feeling defensive can say 'well there's nothing wrong with white paper', but in reality there could be if you don't see yourself reflected in the things around you. “As an early years teacher, the minute you start thinking, 'well actually, if I give everyone green paper, what happens’, you have a teaching potential.

“People might criticise this as political correctness gone mad. But it is because of political correctness we have moved on enormously. If you think that we now take it for granted that our buildings and public highways are adapted so people in wheelchairs and with pushchairs can move around. Years ago if you were in a wheelchair, then tough luck. We have completely moved and we wouldn’t have done that without the equality movement.”

Well, that must be the problem, then. It's simply too complex for my simple brain to comprehend. Thank goodness there are sharp-witted heroes like Anne O'Connor out there, saving the world from white paper and storybook witches clad in ~whisper~ black.

How Prius Lost My Business ;o)

2011-09-25T09:06:00.002-05:00

Please add me to the list of people who find this commercial horrible, creepy, and nightmarish:

Truly, it is awful.

I solemnly vow not to run right out and buy a Prius, in protest of this creepy ad. (Because you know I was going to buy one, otherwise, right?)

Can't Make Sense of It...

2011-09-22T04:34:00.000-05:00

I am unceasingly amazed by people who are simultaneously aghast at the idea of capital punishment, yet when faced with the infinitely more agonizing moral dilemma of abortion are (to use the modern vernacular) "totally down with that".

I won't deny that, though I support the death penalty in some cases, I also find myself questioning how that support fits in with my beliefs as a Christian. My qualms stem chiefly from the concern that by executing a criminal-- even the most heinous-- we are potentially denying him/her the chance of redemption. I must admit that in certain instances (especially brutal murders), I have trouble caring about that (no inclination whatsoever toward mercy), but I feel I ought to be troubled, because I believe that even those I personally cannot tolerate are still of value to God. (Then again, by the time most of these criminals are actually executed, they've sat on death row long enough to give them ample opportunity to realize what they've done and to turn to God...) To say it's a difficult, confusing issue is a vast understatement.

So yes, I can understand where some people are coming from, when they object on moral grounds to the execution of criminals. What I can't understand is how those same people don't bat an eye at the thought of the senseless execution of the innocent unborn. Yet there it is. So, a couple of convicted criminals were executed last night, and the story of at least one of them has been plastered all over the news for days. How many abortions do you think occurred (in the US alone), yesterday? I don't know, but I'm willing to guarantee it was more than two unquestionably innocent lives snuffed out before they had even been given the chance to draw breath-- and of course you haven't heard a peep about those. Too many of the same people who were outraged-- offended-- teary-eyed over the former are completely unperturbed by the latter. I don't think I'll ever make sense of that mindset.

Edited to add:
Yes, I realize that some of the outrage over one of these particular cases was based on worries that this individual might not have been guilty (though from what I've heard, it seems unlikely). This fact doesn't change my confusion over how the same person can agonize over the death of a criminal but unthinkingly support abortion.

Edited again:
Here's an interesting, brief blog post about Christianity and the Death Penalty.

Ha!

2011-09-14T21:32:00.002-05:00

(You have to know something about the authors and/or works mentioned to get the "joke", but at least I think it's funny...)

While googling for book/author recommendations for fans of P.G. Wodehouse, I came across a library website suggesting that if you like P.G. Wodehouse and Charles Dickens, you should try Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton. Ok, maybe for someone who enjoys the darker side of Dickens, Edith Wharton could make a little sense, but P.G. Wodehouse? And Ethan Frome? Surely this "Ellen" (the librarian making the recommendations) jests.

The other recommendations for fans of Wodehouse and Dickens were just as odd: A Changed Man (apparently about a reformed skinhead), About a Boy (it's by Nick Hornby, so I'm assuming it's drama), March (which evidently "drives home the intimate horrors and ironies of the Civil War and the difficulty of living honestly with the knowledge of human suffering"), and War Trash ("painted with starkly melancholy longing").

This is just weird. Or did Wodehouse (of Jeeves and Wooster fame) also pen works of starkly melancholy longing about the intimate horrors and ironies of war and human suffering? Possibly I've simply never happened to hear of them...

After the Storm

2011-09-07T08:17:00.001-05:00

This weather report brought to you by my genuine interest in such things, despite the generally held views of the subject. ;o)

Tropical Storm Lee came through late last week / early this week and brought with it lots and lots of rain. Top-secret confession: I didn't really mind. Well, I was sorry for the animals and people who had to be out in it or who suffered from flooding, fallen trees, etc., but it didn't bother me, personally. Especially considering what a very dry spring and summer we've had, a few gloomy days were no trouble at all. I even like them, sometimes. More so when we don't lose power. We did this time, but not for too long, at least. And if the rain knocks a few degrees off the temperature, so much the better. All told, we got just over 13 inches of rain from Lee (if our rain gauge is to be believed).

Monday afternoon, we noticed the wind shift directions. Instead of clouds scudding by from the south, they were scudding by from the north, then dissipating altogether. What a blissful change! The steamy air replaced with dry (or at least drier)-- the trees across the way crisp, sharp, precise. (Over the summer, I almost forget how clear the air can be. You get used to a slight haze across any distance.)

We've slept with the windows open, the past couple of nights, and woken to temperatures in the 50s. Our windows were open all day yesterday. True, it was almost too warm in the middle of the afternoon, but all through the morning, it was practically perfect. Though the heat and humidity will be creeping back in by the end of the week (summer's not completely vanquished, yet), this brief interlude of autumn has been delightful. Ahhhh, feel that cool air! Summer's beginning to come to an end, finally. (Or will be SOON.) I know many people across the northern hemisphere are desperately hanging on to these last warm(ish) days, and I sympathize... but for my own sake, I'm glad the seasons are on the verge of changing. Thank goodness, this summer does have an end, after all, and won't just keep on going forever.

. . . Don't Even Know What to Say

2011-09-01T07:48:00.001-05:00

. . . Is this woman for real? (Yes, unfortunately, I'm pretty sure she is.) If there are many more like her out there, no wonder we're headed to hell in a handbasket. Lady, please, please tell me you don't vote. (Please?)

Warning: This might make you angry, fill you with despair for the future of our nation, or just generally ruin a perfectly good Thursday. Watch at your own risk.

Ms. Maxy and the Entitlement Mentality

"Hey, We Noticed You Looking At..."

2011-08-27T10:08:00.000-05:00

Hey, Amazon.com!

I noticed you noticed we were looking at cordless phones, and I thought you might be interested to know that we actually bought one from you... just a few days ago. So, no, we are not currently planning to buy another cordless phone, even though this is the second time in two days you have e-mailed us about them.

Sincerely,
Me

P.S. Some people might think it's kind of creepy if you e-mail them saying you "noticed" their shopping habits. (I may or may not be one of them.) Sure, they know that you're an online business and keep track of that kind of thing, but we tend not to think about it on a daily basis, and when it's blatantly pointed out to us, it feels weird, like some guy's been following us around while we shop, taking note of what brand of cereal and shampoo we buy. Alright, occasionally we find it useful, like when we can just click on one of the "recently viewed" objects on the home page, rather that having to search for it all over again. However, this is not the first time you have suggested that I might be interested in something I have just purchased from you. Food for thought.

Waiting for Irene

2011-08-27T05:33:00.000-05:00

In a completely unsurprising development, it looks like (fortunately) Irene won't be nearly as bad as it could have been-- and as many made it out to be. I guess we could cut the media some slack and say that it's best to be prepared for the worst and "avoid another Katrina"... Or we could give a knowing shake of the head and say something about how they'd probably still blow these things out of proportion even if they magically knew in advance that a particular hurricane wasn't "the Perfect Storm", after all. (They can't help themselves!) Or we can just try to simply be thankful that it doesn't look like it's going to be as bad as feared... and leave it at that (keeping lessons learned in mind for future predicted "Storms of the Century").

Cue extended Tropical Weather Rant (mostly composed yesterday, but left in draft mode because I couldn't decide if it was worth clicking "Publish" for...):

Friday morning, I saw someone basically complaining that New Yorkers (meaning those from New York City, I think) weren't taking Hurricane Irene seriously enough.

. . . Honestly, I think they'll be fine. I mean, go ahead and make emergency preparations, of course, and if you live in a flood-prone area or somewhere that may get storm surge, your safety is more threatened-- but in general, it feels like the media is just going nuts over Irene. More nuts than it probably deserves.

Earlier in the week, I listened while a talk radio host encouraged "veterans" of hurricanes to call in with advice for those who haven't faced tropical weather before. Almost every person I heard (didn't listen to the whole thing) either told a horror story or suggested ominously and peremptorily that anyone in the potential path of a hurricane should "GET OUT NOW!!" (Grab your photos, jump in the car, and drive. More or less.)

Obviously, some people should get out-- or have already gotten out, at this point. Again, do you live in an area where flash flooding is at all likely? Right on the water / in an area that might get storm surge? If so, I'd leave. Even if you can't or don't want to go far away, find a local hurricane shelter. Most of the deaths caused by hurricanes are from flooding. It's a serious threat.

However, what most people don't explain is that (depending on the storm's path once it goes inland) you may have to travel very far from the coast to avoid it entirely. Sometimes, the inland areas get violent weather, too-- high winds, tornadoes and flash flooding-- and then you're stuck waiting out some nasty weather in a hotel room, in an unfamiliar place.

If you have pets, they add another layer to the decision, because it can sometimes be difficult to evacuate with animals. (If you truly feel the need to evacuate, though, don't let the difficulty stand in your way. Some storm shelters accept animals, just as some hotels allow small pets inside rooms.)

Also, how long can you (or are you willing to) wait before coming back home, after the storm? Most people want to come back as soon as possible to evaluate damage and just try to get back to a normal routine. Well, everyone else who evacuated will be trying to do the same thing. The roads are going to be busy (again, because unless you left very early, they were probably jammed on the way out, too)-- and this time, there may be delays due to fallen trees, downed power lines, and other debris littering the roads. If you're very unlucky and your neighborhood was hit hard, the authorities may be reluctant to let you back in until things are deemed safe enough.

If no-one in your family has special medical needs/issues-- if your home is out of known flood zones (and especially if there's no mandatory evacuation for your area)-- if you have a sturdy house with no large trees likely to crash through the roof-- if you have a supply of water, non-perishables, batteries, and other emergency supplies... you should be fine. There may be some scary moments, though. (As long as I have my memory, I know I'll never forget those worst minutes of Ivan, huddled with Donald, my parents, and Kimberly in the hall bath and hallway, listening to the rain and wind crashing into the house from what seemed like every angle at once, feeling my ears pop with the dropping pressure, and praying that we'd make it through the night unharmed. I think I owe a few grey hairs to that experience...) Don't be a fool, but don't feel you have no options, either.

Basically, if a hurricane's headed toward your home, there are no perfect answers. To act as though everyone in the storm's predicted path should high-tail it three-states-deep inland is oversimplifying.

So... good luck to those waiting for Irene. The rest of the country is thinking of you. (The media has seen to that. (g))

Watch Fresh, Watch Local

2011-08-23T07:59:00.002-05:00

This report made us laugh last night. The subject matter (a meth lab bust with children on the scene) isn't at all funny, but then there's the "creative" reporting/camera work (keep watching; you'll know it when you see it) and Boomer (who "kept an eye on them").

Donald initially thought this should be brought to the attention of the people behind the "hide yo' kids, hide yo' wife" and "I'm backin' up, backin' up" auto-tune videos, but sadly, I don't believe there's enough there to merit it. Well, we'll keep a look-out for more promising reports.

Household Meme

2011-08-23T06:00:00.002-05:00

I saw this one someone's blog, this early, early AM. I'm not going to link to it, though, because... Well, I never comment on her blog (i.e. I "lurk"-- ooh, sounds so creepy, doesn't it?), I don't think she reads my blog, and I'd rather not draw attention to myself as a lurker. (g)

Haven't done a meme in a long while!

1. What kind of soap is in your bathtub right now?
Never use the tub, so will shower do? I just put a new bar of soap in there, but I have no idea what brand it was. It was cream-colored; does that help? (g) It might be Dial... I tend not to have brand loyalty when it comes to soap (or most things, really). I just get whatever seems reasonably priced and "smells pretty". There's also some Suave (pear and something-scented) body wash in there that I bought thinking it was shampoo. (Oops.) Oh, and another body wash for those who don't want to smell like fruit or perfume.. ;o)

2. Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator?
No way. That stuff gives me indigestion, and Donald doesn't like it, anyway.

3. Is there anything moldy in your refrigerator?
I hope not, but I make no guarantees. I need to throw a few things out, yes, but I don't think they've gotten to the moldy stage yet...

4. Are there any dirty dishes in your sink?
Ha. Why, yes, yes there are, as a matter of fact. And on the counter-tops around the sink, as well. (...Maybe this meme wasn't such a great idea, after all. Some of us make poor decisions when we get up too early...)

5. What would you change about your living room?
Hm... It's really fine as it is... I can't reasonably complain about its size, though with the configuration of doorways/openings, it can be a little limiting in how we can arrange our furniture. Maybe I'd do away with the cable we have stretched across the floor practically all the time-- the one connecting the TV to the computer... We could do away with it and go wireless, and (barring some cataclysm) I'm sure we will, eventually, but it's not that important to either of us, at the moment. The cable serves its purpose. I only notice it when I'm vacuuming or expecting visitors. (If I were being funny, I'd add "neither of which happen all that often", but I do try to vacuum regularly. You need to, with an Eskie in the house.)

6. Are the dishes in your dishwasher clean or dirty?
Yes, you got me. They're dirty. (I'll run it later this morning, okay. Good grief! You're so demanding!)

7. Do you have a can of mushrooms in your pantry?
Does cream of mushroom soup count? Donald doesn't like mushrooms much, and I have no desire to eat a whole can of them, either.

8. White or wheat/brown bread?
"Healthy" bread for me, which usually means wheat/brown. Donald sometimes likes white bread, though, if you count French/Italian-style loaves.

9. What is on top of your refrigerator?
Here, the other person answered "dust". Heh, yeah, there's dust on mine, too, I'm sure. There are also several decorative items-- a ceramic cow creamer, a polka-dotted (and be-daisied) ceramic cookie jar (cream with blue dots), a ceramic "watering can" tea pot painted with tulips (like this one), a cobalt glass ivy bowl, and a blue and white flower pot (also ceramic).

10. What color is your sofa?
One is medium-dark brown leather. The other (which has gotten 99.9% of our use since we bought both couches) is a very-slightly-greenish brown textured fabric. It sounds ugly, but it's not. (Well, I don't think so, at least.)

11. What color or design is on your shower curtain?
In our bathroom, it's a solid moss/sage green with (tone-on-tone) machine embroidered vines and leaves/flowers. We've been using it a while, and it's starting to show signs of that. A replacement is in order. In the hall bath, it's a bright and cheerful striped affair that reminds me of the beach.

12. How many plants are in your home?
Several, but most of them are either spider plants (creepy name, completely innocuous plant) or a type of succulent plant, the name of which I can never remember. (Looked it up. I think it's a type of Huernia.) There's also a dumb cane-- and a "snake plant" that's spending the summer outdoors but will come back in when the weather gets cooler (if it has earned the privilege through good behaviour-- er, "behavior"-- apparently I am slightly British at 5 a.m.).

13. How many candles are in your home?
Too many to count-- or in other words, no way am I going to get up and count them all. ;o) There are many of them, though I use them more often in the cooler time of the year. We have some tapers (though I rarely burn those), some pillars of various sizes, bags full of tea lights (my most commonly used type of candle), quite a few scented votives, and a number of candles in jars (some of which I never burn, but use on an electric jar-candle-warming plate).

14. Is your bed made right now?
No. Donald's still sleeping, like any sane, rational, non-waking-at 3 a.m-and-unable-to-fall-back-asleep person would be. I will make it later, though. That's one chore I do almost without fail (except for days when one of us feels sick / needs more sleep or the occasional lazy weekend). It's quick and easy-- instant gratification and (mild) feeling of accomplishment.

15. If you have a coffee pot, what color is it?
We have a white one (given to us by my maternal grandmother) for when company comes over. Neither of us drink coffee, though I love the smell of it and wouldn't mind having a cup every now and then. I don't want to get addicted to it, though.

16. Electric or standard can opener?
We have both, but I use the electric one most of the time. Hey, it's already standing there; might as well use it, right?

17. Comet or Soft Scrub?
Both. Comet for the stainless steel sink, Soft Scrub (or something similar-- "Scrub Free... with Oxy") for the bathrooms (thanks to the fiberglass tubs/showers).

ETA: Er, apparently, Soft Scrub isn't what I thought it was. (g) I guess I've never used it. Obviously, the stuff I use on the fiberglass is meant to not be gritty or scratchy at all. I have Comet for the sink, but I rarely need to use it. Our sink simply doesn't get that dirty, I guess... Or maybe I have low standards of sink-cleanliness.

18. Is your closet organized?
Kind of. My personal clothing closet could use a tidying, but I know where everything is... And the coat closet has a jumble of things at the bottom that aren't exactly pretty to look at, but again, I know where things are, so I'm satisfied. Donald and I have five (wooden, dining-room-type) chairs awaiting refinishing in our closets (yes, we have separate closets and are totally spoiled for closet space-- one of the really nice things about our house). I'd like to deal with those chairs one of these days before too, too long...

19. What color is the flashlight that you use the most?
...We almost never use a flashlight. The light that gets used most would probably be Donald's "headlight". It was originally intended for running in the fading light of evening, but several times it has come in handy for more practical purposes.

20. What kinds of things are in your junk drawer?
Pens. (Lots and lots of pens and other writing implements.) Pocket knife. Tiny measuring tape (at least I think that's still in there). Rubber bands. Cell phone chargers. Scissors. ...Actually, this isn't really a junk drawer at all, any more. Not since I reorganized it, years ago. No, I prefer to let my odds and ends of "junk" accumulate on the kitchen counter-top, where I can see and enjoy them all the time. ;o)

21. Do you drink out of glass or plastic most of the time at home?
We have a few plastic cups, but apart from one that Donald uses fairly often (and his water bottles for running), we always use glass, these days.

22. Do you have iced tea made in a pitcher right now?
No, I haven't made tea in a long, long time. Donald doesn't drink it, and (at home, and usually away, as well) I only drink water (except for the milk on my cereal). I like cold, sweetened tea to a certain extent, but I just don't care to bother with it for just me... Also, I don't need the sugar, but neither am I crazy about the thought of artificial sweeteners. Water is just easier. Straight out of the tap. (Hardly ever use ice anymore, unless I've been working outside and am desperate for coolness.)

23. If you have a garage, is it cluttered?
Alas, no garage. (One of these days...) If we had one, I imagine it would have at least a corner of clutter. (There. I admitted it. Are you happy now, you mean meme-writer, you?)

24. Curtains or blinds?
Both, in several rooms. (Well, if "sheers" and valance count as curtains. They do, right?) In our breakfast room, we have only blinds for the time being (and I like the new blinds so much, I may keep it that way). Also, there's neither on our over-the-sink kitchen window, but I do plan to put a valance up, sometime. (There was one before we took everything down to repaint.)

25. How many pillows do you sleep with?
Actually sleep with? One, usually-- and I'm very particular about which one it is. (Aren't most people, though?) I sometimes use a second pillow over my stomach if I'm feeling... ill. (The slight weight/pressure and/or increased warmth lessens the discomfort.)

26. Do you sleep with any lights on at night?
There's a nightlight in our bathroom to help us find our way without stubbing any toes.

27. How many ceiling fans are in your home?
I'll have to think about that... (It's probably going to sound like a lot to those of you who don't live in the South...) Let's see... Bkfast room, main room, bed room, plus three more. That would be six. The dining room is prepped for one (even with a separate switch) in anticipation of a time when we use that room more (not as a dining room, most likely), and we may put one in the kitchen, eventually. If we do, then ever single room in the house will have a fan, except for the bathrooms and foyer. They make a world of difference in the comfort of a room and help the A/C work less. (They also work in the winter, when you reverse their motion so that they force the heated air down from the ceiling.)

28. How often do you vacuum?
There's no set time, but fairly often, I think. At least once a week, I guess, maybe twice a week, depending on circumstances. (Please don't judge me because you're like that woman I saw on some reality show who makes her kids vacuum every single day. Please?)

29. Standard toothbrush or electric?
Standard.

30. What color is your toothbrush?
I'm not sure... Mostly white with... red? I don't really care about such things, because I am no longer nine years old with a "favorite color". *eye roll* ;o) Seriously, who notices these things? And to think that I make (gentle, teasing) fun of Donald because he doesn't notice people's eye color!

31. Do you have a welcome mat on your front porch?
Don't really have a front porch. I think there's a mat out on the... would you call it a stoop or a covered entry? Honestly, our front door isn't very welcoming right now... Another of those outdoor projects I'm trying to put off until the weather improves. We do have a mat outside the door we use most, though. It doesn't actually spell out "WELCOME", but I think it's implied. ;o)

32. What is in your oven right now?
Nothing. It's not even 6 a.m., so I haven't begun the day's baking, yet. Hee. (g) I don't bake much this time of year. I worry it will heat the house... I'm probably just being silly. But no, we don't store pots or pans in our oven, so the only things in there are the two wire racks that came with it. There may be more in the warming drawer, though... Possibly some cast iron skillets (which I never use these days) and a broiler pan?

33. Is your microwave clean or dirty?
I think it's pretty darn clean. (Whew! Or is it too little too late?) I try to keep it that way by using those spatter-protection plate covers. It's easier to clean those than the inside of the microwave.

34. Is there anything under your bed?
Not a lot of stuff, but yes, there are at least a couple of things. One is a cardboard box with carpet remnants. (We saved them from when the house was built, in case we ever needed to temporarily patch our carpet.) I think my knitting looms are all down there, too, in another box. Our bed frame is too low to the floor to allow much underneath, or else that's probably where I'd store some of our gift-wrap supplies. (I used to do that, with our old bed.)

35. Chore you hate doing the most?
Aw, do I hafta choose just one?! ;o) I don't know. I hate so many of them! Well, cleaning the bathroom is high on the list. I don't imagine anyone enjoys cleaning toilets, and the fiberglass shower can also be a major pain in the behiney (as they say), especially with our super-duper mineraly water. Then there's mopping and window-cleaning... oh, and practically anything outdoors (weeding, spraying)... Keeping the floor perfectly clean is impossible in our house. I realize this, and yet it still frustrates me to work hard to get it pristine, only to see a trail of grass, sand, whatever brought in the next time the door is opened. *sigh*

36. What retro items are in your home?
If only you'd asked this before we got rid of our cool 70's sofa! That thing was retrolicious! (g) I have no idea, really. We have some older things passed down from family, and we have some yard sale / thrift store finds that I suspect are also old (well, not new), but "retro"? Not sure. Maybe the Fruxo plates we brought from Sweden? They look retro, at least. We found them in a thrift store. I can't find a photo to show you, but I can explain that Fruxo is a brand of Swedish candy. (Of course.) The plates are brightly decorated with the candy's logo and illustrations of various fruits.

37. Do you have a separate room that you use as an office?
Yes, but it's more "businessy". Personal computing is done in the main room.

38. If you have a yard, who mows it?
Donald does (I say guiltily). I still haven't been taught how to operate this newer mower. And the longer I can keep it that way, the better! ;o) Seriously, I wouldn't mind mowing most of it, but I'm scared of mowing slopes, so he'd probably still get stuck with that part. (I'm sorry, Donald...)

39. Is there anything on your kitchen floor right now?
Oh, you mean the inevitable dog hair and dust I need to vacuum / sweep / mop away? Other than that, not much. There's the IKEA stepping stool. Its legs are touching the floor. Is that what you meant? (g) There are a couple of dog water dishes on the floor near the sink, too, waiting to be washed.

40. How many mirrors are in your home?
About three hand mirrors. Probably one or two in makeup compacts. A few other small ones here and there. One in each bathroom. One in our bedroom. One in the foyer, and one in the dining room. Oh, and the plain one from our bathroom (before we got the nice, new one) is still in the house, too, "just in case". (Just in case what? I don't know...)

41. Do you have any hidden emergency money around your home?
None of your business. ;o)

42. What color are your walls?
Kitchen/breakfast room: golden mustard yellow
Main room: pale cream
Bedroom: pale apple green
Master bath: sand / beige
Dining room: two shades of green (separated by chair rail)
Hall bath: sky blue
Spare room (books, music, exercise): periwinkle blue (two shades)
Other spare room (mostly craft stuff): light sage green
Office: yellow-orange
Foyer: red
Hallway: cream
Utility room: mauve & green

43. Which rooms in your house have wallpaper?
None. At all. Seriously, look at all those colors of paint listed above. Does it sound like we left a single wall free for wallpaper? No, I didn't think so.

44. Do you have a peephole in your front door?
No. Don't need one, though, considering that there's a window in it. :o\

45. Do you keep any kind of protection weapons in your home?
...Some of these questions ask a little too much. Yes, we do. I'll leave it at that. (The element of surprise, you know.)

46. What does your home smell like right now?
Nothing much at all.

47. Favorite Candle Scent?
I don't really have a single favorite, but one candle does come to mind as a favorite. It's supposed to smell like cypress and bergamot, though I couldn't tell you exactly what cypress or bergamot smell like. (g) This candle's scent is difficult to describe-- somewhat sweet, slightly spicy, maybe woodsy, and masculine. Donald doesn't like it as much as I do, so I only heat it (in a jar) when he's not around. It can be a little too powerful a scent for me, too, so I use it in small doses.

48. What kind of pickles (if any) are in your refrigerator right now?
Hamburger dills. Sometimes I get a little jar of sweet pickles, but they don't last long (which is mysterious, since I'm the only one in the house who eats cucumber pickles of any kind). Donald does have some pickled beets. I've never tried them, so I guess I can't claim that I don't like them. I just get a strong feeling that I wouldn't like them. ;o)

49. Who are in the pictures you displayed?
Family, ourselves, our dogs.

50. What color is your favorite Bible?
Dark blue.

51. Do you have plenty of cabinet space in your kitchen?
I can't complain (not this once, at least (g)). If I run out of space, it should just be taken as a sign that I'm mismanaging what I have and need to reevaluate what we really need and how best to organize it.

52. Ever been on your roof?
No. Donald has, though, to replace some shingles that blew off in a storm.

53. Do you own a stereo?
Yes, a couple. One old one that I got back when I lived with my parents and sisters. (That one's in the craft room.) The one in our bedroom is newer, but we've had it several years, now. (It doubles as an alarm clock.) There are two smaller radios in the kitchen, too. Why are there two, you ask? ("How big is your kitchen, anyway?") Well, the nicer, newer one very mysteriously doesn't pick up the FM talk radio station I listen to most of the time... and the other is an old, flimsy, beaten-up little radio that you have to turn a dial to tune from station to station. It would be a pain to change it from 710 AM to 106.5 FM twice or more every day, so I keep both of them in there. It's perfectly logical, I tell you.

54. How many TVs do you have?
It's going to sound like we do nothing but watch TV, but we have three. One is pretty small and rarely used. (Mostly just when Donald exercises indoors.) It and the second (also not large) one (which is in our bedroom) both had to have adapter boxes when they stopped broadcasting in analog. (In other words, neither is new.) The third is our "main TV", in the living room.

55. How many house phones?
Hm... I'm not sure if one or two are hooked up. We have an old cordless phone that we use most of the time, then there's a simple, corded one for power outages. Actually, we just ordered a new phone last night. We certainly need one. Our current cordless phone is so old that it interferes with our wireless Internet if it gets too close to the computer.

56. Do you have a housekeeper?
No, I'm our housekeeper. And I'm so good at it, too! ;oP

57. What style do you decorate in?
Um, whatever I like that is reasonably practical and affordable? So... eclectic? Casual but traditional, with country farmhouse influences (in the kitchen, at least)? I like to look at pretty rooms in glossy magazines, but I'm not interested in following a single "style" to the letter.

58. Do you like solid colors in furniture or prints?
It depends... I think I like something in between-- something mostly solid, or that looks almost solid from a distance, but with enough variation in color that it will camouflage the inevitable mishaps of life (stains, for instance).

59. Is there a smoke detector in your home?
Yes. Multiple ones, in fact.

60. In case of fire, what are the items you would grab if you only could make one quick trip?
Oh, I hate that kind of question. I was thinking about this recently, though... I guess the first obvious answer is photos... but these days, so many of our photos are on the computer, so maybe I'd also include our external hard drives. The documents in our firebox are obviously deemed important, so maybe I'd try to chuck those outside, too. Otherwise, I'd have a hard time choosing what to save. Well, our dogs, of course. They'd be first (assuming there are no people in the house). They're not really "items", though... (g) The cameras, maybe...

61. Do you know how to work your electrical box?
Kind of.

62. What temperature in your home is most comfortable to you?
If we're going on comfort alone, I'd probably keep it several degrees cooler in summer and warmer in winter than we really do. In reality, at this time of year, I let the thermostat get up to 81 or 82 during the hottest part of the day, then (gradually) lower it to 78 at night to make sleeping more comfortable. (Ceiling fans make this practice easier.) I don't remember what numbers I aim for in the winter... We usually set it lower at night, since we're definitely going to be warm enough in bed, then try to keep it as low as possible during the day without sacrificing too much comfort. (The space heater and layers of clothing help with this.)

...That feels like an odd question to end with, but so be it! (g)

They're Ba-aack...

2011-08-22T12:29:00.000-05:00

I just saw a pair of (conjoined) lovebugs on the kitchen window.

How do I always manage to forget about those things until they re-emerge for their (weeks-long) biannual bug-love fest?

Yuck. One more thing I could happily do without... But at least during this season, I don't really want to spend much time outside, anyway.

Just Another Luddite

2011-08-19T08:34:00.002-05:00

"A Third of People Completely Lost Without Their Smartphones, Survey Says"

Well, that's something I never have to worry about, at least. ;o) (I already spend too much time plopped down in front of the computer. Why would I want to develop a cell phone addiction, too?)

Though my (non-"smart", spartan, extremely rarely used) cell phone is capable of it, I have never even sent a text. Ever.

Of course, I'm also one of those weirdos who don't use Facebook. (I've finally even gone so far as to start the "permanent deletion" process on my FB account.) Blogging is better. :oP

On a Darker Note...

2011-08-17T09:54:00.001-05:00

This infuriates me, every time I think about it.

I don't understand how the concept of dogs being "unclean" animals ever came to be. It's just... unfathomable to me. How can anyone believe that an animal-- a whole species-- is not only categorically "unclean", but even deserves to be tortured? They believe that dogs were created by their religion's god, correct? (I assume. I know little about their religious beliefs.) Why do at least some of them believe their god would make something so entirely despicable as to deserve such treatment? It's barbaric-- it's inhuman and inhumane-- it's just downright stupid-- and it fills me with white-hot rage and hatred (sorry, I'm not perfect) for anyone capable of such cruelty.

Again, I don't know about that religion, but as a Christian, I can't believe that God would smile upon the torture of any animal. (And there's a big difference between killing and torturing, to explain why I eat meat, use leather, etc.)

That story... It's enough to turn your stomach.

On a Lighter Note...

2011-08-17T09:23:00.000-05:00

Ha!

"Abercrombie to pay 'Jersey Shore' cast to stop wearing its clothes."

"We are deeply concerned that Mr. Sorrentino's association with our brand could cause significant damage to our image. We understand that the show is for entertainment purposes, but believe this association is contrary to the aspirational nature of our brand, and may be distressing to many of our fans,“ an Abercrombie & Fitch spokesperson said in a statement. “We have also extended this offer to other members of the cast, and are urgently waiting a response."

That's hilarious.
It's even funnier when you consider that Abercrombie & Fitch doesn't exactly have a sterling reputation, itself.

Sure, it's probably just a way to get some free advertising, but I'm still amused.

Funny... I've never watched "Jersey Shore"-- never shopped at Abercrombie & Fitch. (I don't know if there's even one anywhere in this area. Maybe in one of the malls?) So how do I know anything about either one? Clearly, both entities have done a good job of getting into the news.

Over $1.4 Million Per Job, to Date

2011-08-17T08:51:00.006-05:00

***Understatement Alert!!***

"Seattle green jobs program falls short of goals".

Last year, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn announced the city had won a coveted $20 million federal grant to invest in weatherization. The unglamorous work of insulating crawl spaces and attics had emerged as a silver bullet in a bleak economy - able to create jobs and shrink carbon footprint - and the announcement came with great fanfare.

McGinn had joined Vice President Joe Biden in the White House to make it. It came on the eve of Earth Day. It had heady goals: creating 2,000 living-wage jobs in Seattle and retrofitting 2,000 homes in poorer neighborhoods.

Well, I'm going to be brutally honest here... I think that their stated goal of weatherizing a mere 2,000 homes with the whopping $20 million was (how shall I put this?) pathetic. That's $10,000 per home, and that's ridiculous (imnsho). I don't believe it should cost that much to insulate a single home-- particularly a home in a "poorer neighborhood", which one assumes would most likely be modestly sized. However, from the headline, we know that they didn't even manage to do that.

(Also, should it really take 2,000 people to weatherize 2,000 homes? You're obviously not going to have all the projects going on at the same time, and it shouldn't take a crew of capable workers that long to complete one project and move on to the next. I'll admit I'm no business genius or construction know-it-all, but that sounds like more people/jobs than would be required for the task, does it not?)

So... How many houses do you think they were able to "weatherize"? Three quarters of their goal? Half? Even a measly one quarter?

But more than a year later, Seattle's numbers are lackluster. As of last week, only three homes had been retrofitted and just 14 new jobs have emerged from the program. Many of the jobs are administrative, and not the entry-level pathways once dreamed of for low-income workers.

Only three homes. Fourteen new jobs (many of which are administrative-- so surprising, considering that this is the government we're talking about). In over a year. (The article goes on to explain how and why local officials are cautiously optimistic, blah blah blah.)

Wouldn't it be nice if this kind of inefficiency and waste were rare enough to be genuinely surprising?

Changing Seasons? One Can Only Hope...

2011-08-15T16:51:00.001-05:00

It seems like everywhere I look, lately, there's someone writing about how it's starting to feel like the very earliest beginning of autumn. Usually, this opinion is presented with a twinge of sadness and a wish to hold on to summer a little bit longer.

Obviously, those people do not live around here. Sure, we're enjoying some temporary relief from the humidity and very highest temperatures, but it's only at my most unrealistically wishful that I can think autumn will be here soon. "Soon" is relative, of course; if you think a month and a half are soon, then yes, we may get a taste of autumn "soon". The way time goes whooshing by, yes, I guess it's fairly "soon"-- we're closer to summer's end than summer's beginning, thank goodness-- but it can't get here soon enough for me.

Dry air. Cool nights. Open windows and fresh air streaming through the house. Falling asleep to the sound of a nighttime breeze-- sleeping well in the natural coolness-- and waking to find the morning air beyond the cozy bed bracingly chilled. Slanting, golden sunlight in the afternoon. Feeling like going on daily walks again. Snakes and insects slowly retreating from the world for a time. Leaves crunching underfoot. Plenty of things to photograph-- all changing from day to day. Beautifully just-spooky-enough-to-be-fun late-October magic in the air. A bonfire crackling and gleaming through the fading twilight. Long-pants weather. Maybe even (dare I say it?) long sleeves weather. An excuse to finally dig out and wear scarves and hats.

...Basically it's just a whole bunch of the things that make life sweet-- and it means an end to the months of feeling like nature hates me. Being outdoors can finally stop feeling like a punishment, for a few weeks at least. ;o) Yes, I'm ready for that.

The Sci-Fi Approach to the Economy

2011-08-15T11:43:00.001-05:00

LOL.

It's the economy, Earthling.

"A Large, Amoral, Brutalised Sub-Culture"

2011-08-10T18:09:00.001-05:00

"UK riots 2011: Liberal dogma has spawned a generation of amoral, uneducated, welfare dependent, brutalised youth."

I have to agree, and unfortunately, we're facing many of the same problems, here.

Zombies, Spiders, & Snakes (Oh My)

2011-08-09T07:24:00.005-05:00

The news is depressing, lately. ("But when is it not?" you ask. So true.)

- - - - - - -

An odd jumble of things I was thinking about yesterday (the London riots, music from zombie movies, etc.) led to an exciting night of vivid dreaming about zombies. (I am now about to relate that dream, in part. Those who dislike reading about other people's dreams should consider themselves warned.)

We were living in a beautifully dreary (green-on-the-verge-of-autumnal, almost perpetually cloudy-skied) English neighborhood. Zombies roamed the world-- had done so for long enough that people had moved past the freak-out stage of reaction and now just accepted them as a threat. That threat kept people tethered to their own personal safe zones, but we were afforded some small comfort by the fact that the zombies were mostly only mobile after dark. (Yeah, subconscious. Way to mix zombies with vampires...) For some reason, we ended up moving in with the family next door. (Consolidating resources? Safety in numbers?)

There was a fair bit of mundane interaction with this family-- conversation, routines, making do, repairing things. One day, while we worked on something outdoors during the relative safety of daylight, the wife/mother spoke of how she came from New Zealand, originally, and wished she could go back home, though she was afraid of what she'd find. I sympathized, of course, but commented wryly that at least the weather here suited me well. She was tired of clouds, and on cue, we glimpsed a fleeting patch of blue sky.

We and the family had plenty of safety measures in place and were doing as well as could be expected. We even discussed the possibility of putting up some sort of makeshift, protective passageway between our two homes, so that we could travel between them at night, in an emergency. But despite our planning, I had a gloomy sense that these things-- zombie scenarios-- never end well. Something always goes wrong, eventually, no matter how careful you are. Someone always has a moment of thoughtlessness, of stupidity-- wanders off too far-- or for reasons beyond his control, comes face-to-face with the monster when least expected. And, of course, since it was my dream, where I have the most amazing ability of prediction, that's exactly what happened.

I'll spare you the gory details. ;o)

- - - - - - -

I've seen a couple of large spiders on the outside of the house, lately-- not the exotic, alien-looking "banana spiders" that come later in the year and turn a woodland path into a creepy, crawly obstacle course of giant webs and palm-sized arachnids that seem to be invisible until they're dangling mere inches from your face. These are probably somewhat smaller than banana spiders, but they're darker and fuzzier to make up for it. There's something sinister about them-- but then, I don't like any spiders very much. It's this type of thing that makes me so unique, which is why I bother mentioning it at all.

- - - - - - -

This weekend, we found another skinny snake stuck in the silicone (?) caulking around the exterior of our kitchen window. It's so bizarre, the way that keeps happening! That's at least the second one we've found in that window, alone. (There have been more in the bay window.) We can't be the only ones having that particular problem-- but a quick Google search yields no relevant results, so I'm not sure what's going on, really.

The ones that get caught on the kitchen window have a better chance of survival, since we're more likely to spot them and try to free them before it's too late. Donald managed to get this one loose and drop it outside the fence. It was another of those corn snakes, I think. I'd much rather have them around than something worse, so live, little snake, and eat up all the food before your big, bad cousins decide this is an attractive location.

Worlds Colliding!

2011-08-04T14:42:00.001-05:00

(Via James Lileks on Twitter...)

If you're familiar with The Andy Griffith Show and the original Star Trek TV series, maybe you'll appreciate this "worlds colliding" moment. Apparently, two Star Trek episodes used the "Mayberry" sets when the crew of the Enterprise visited an Earth-like planet. Check out some stills on this site: Mayberry in Star Trek.

My favorite is the one where Kirk and some lady are walking right past Floyd's Barber Shop-- with the name right there on the window. (g) If only they'd gone in and visited a while with the friendly denizens of Mayberry!

A Bit of a Stretch...

2011-07-29T12:11:00.001-05:00

Hitler cat 'overlooked for adoption because of markings'.

Seriously? The so-called "resemblance" would never have occurred to me if it hadn't been pointed out; it's pretty weak.

...Anyway, someone will want that kitten for sure, now, with all this publicity.

Random Stuff

2011-07-29T09:52:00.001-05:00

And I mean random.

- - - - - - -

Via Twitter--

Valerie Jarrett: Obama 'getting absolutely no sleep' because of debt crisis.

Oh, no!
*wipes away a tear*

This whole situation is infuriating.
...I'll leave it at that.

- - - - - - -

Donald dislikes "Primetime: What Would You Do?"

Haven't seen it? Here's the description for tonight's episode:

Scenarios (suggested by viewers) include a little person being mocked for his size; a teenager telling her boyfriend that she's pregnant and wants the baby--to his loudly expressed disapproval; a child disapproving loudly upon hearing his dad is gay; a young woman in a wheelchair being offered help in public when she doesn't need it; and a boy being harassed by others boys because he has red hair.

Ick. This show gives me the shudders. Why didn't they bring back Candid Camera, instead?

Programs on Michael's "Change the Channel QUICK" List:

"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"

It was ok in the earliest episodes, but then it degenerated into every single week being about people with the most depressing stories they can find, tears being a must, and the designers going crazy and doing weird, over-the-top things every episode. I'm glad if people in bad (beyond their control) situations basically win the lottery and get a free home makeover, but... I don't want to watch it happen over an emotional hour of TV. I just don't like it.

"The Doctors" and "Dr. Oz"

Medical stuff? And in a "talk show" format? No, thank you. Not now, not ever. This is pretty much how I feel about most "talk shows", but the medical aspect makes me hit the "next channel" button with record-breaking speed. (I may have mentioned before-- in passing-- that I run screaming from serious medical/health-related stuff? I was telling the truth. Fiction, non-fiction, fan fiction-- doesn't matter. I don't like it. I can barely fathom that there are enough people out there who do like it that programs like these stay on the air...)

- - - - - - -

When I pulled aside the curtain on our kitchen door this morning (preparing to open it to let Trixie out for her morning stroll), there were two deer standing right outside our gate! That's probably the closest I've ever been to a wild deer. I was so surprised I didn't notice if they were does, bucks, whatever. (I tend to think neither of them had antlers, though.)

- - - - - - -

Sometime in the past month or two, Donald spotted a young armadillo rooting around in our side yard (outside the fence). We got some photos and videos of it. Maybe I'll get around to editing and uploading some of the video soon... (What a treat for you all! ;o))

- - - - - - -

Someone ought to make a satire of The Rainbow Fish in which the rainbow-scaled fish is replaced by a fluffy-haired dog. The other (short-haired) neighborhood dogs are jealous of Fluffy Dog's luxuriously long, silky fur and begin demanding that she share patches of it. Fluffy Dog is guilted into giving away all her fur (after some exceptionally bad advice from a mysterious alley cat), and in the end, every dog in the 'hood has a patch of her fluffy fur. Fluffy Dog herself now looks something like this:

...Only uglier.

The story continues for a page or two more to say that since the other dogs only liked (Formerly-)Fluffy Dog when and because she gave them her beautiful fur, their friendship is shallow and short-lived. Soon, they're off pestering the new pup on the block (a poofy poodle) for a lock of his curly hair. Fluffy Dog, realizing that she has given away her natural-born gifts for nothing-- to a group who don't even truly value them-- is left sad and alone. Until her fur grows back in, that is. Then the others will be back for more, because it isn't right that she should have something they don't have.

The End. ;o)
(Maybe it's already been done?)

- - - - - - -

There are people actually looking forward to this new movie about golf.
I am baffled.

Of course, I am also fully aware of the fact that there are plenty of people who'd be baffled by the things I look forward to, so...

(That Cowboys & Aliens thing looks interesting, for example.)

- - - - - - -

Musical obsession of the moment-- Patrick O'Hearn's "Beyond This Moment":

Just to Say...

2011-07-26T07:09:00.004-05:00

This is just to say that I am (nobly ;o)) fighting the urge to copy, paste, and reply to some of the nonsense I've read on Twitter this morning regarding Obama's speech last night and the general debt limit increase... and taxes... and how you are evil and selfish and Just Plain Bad if you don't want to pay more taxes... and how apparently the rich aren't paying their "fair share" (which is probably impossible for them ever to do to the satisfaction of everyone else). According to some, if you are rich, you should be paying more taxes than poor people. (What a novel idea.) Thing is, I thought the rich already were (and are) paying more in taxes than the poor... This is puzzling, because I keep hearing something about how the top 1% of taxpayers earn 20% of all income, yet pay nearly 40% of all taxes. And then you have 51% of wage earners who pay no federal income taxes at all! It certainly seems like the rich would already be paying (much) more than the poor... I must just not be smart enuff to figger out how all them newfangled math'matics and percentigers work. Or sumthin'.

*sigh*
Replying to such nonsense here wouldn't do any real good, of course, because the people who wrote those things won't ever see this, and even if they did, I seriously doubt I could ever get through to them. Yet I'm too non-confrontational (and cognizant of the fact that it wouldn't do a thing except maybe make me angry and sick and jittery) to reply directly to them. Oh well. Such is life. Class warfare is easy. Rich people are BAD people (so why does everyone want more moolah?)! Why trouble our pretty little heads about anything of more substance?

To Be Filed Under "Who Gives a Crap?"

2011-07-19T09:25:00.001-05:00

I apologize for being crass, but really, who does think this is a worthy investment?

Your Tax Dollars at Work

Thank goodness we're paying our Fair Share™, 'cause this is important work they're doing with our taxes. It's a huge relief to know that the federal government is on the cutting edge of such vital research. Our lives will be infinitely improved by this study, for sure.

Derailed Duck

2011-07-15T13:33:00.000-05:00

Two crazy Swedish guys break an amusement park ride. ;o)

(But really, they weren't spinning it that fast-- not so fast that you'd think it should come loose. Good thing there were no kids standing in the duck's path!)

News Snippets

2011-06-30T08:51:00.001-05:00

Snippet the First:

Former presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) thinks he could have done a good job leading the country.

“I would have been a good president,” he said Wednesday on Fox Business Network’s “Imus in the Morning.” “Maybe even a great one.”

Well, it's good that he's managed to stay so humble after all those years in politics...

Snippet the Second:

Speaking of/to a group of illegal aliens in the U.S., Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said this: "When I look around this room, I see America's future. Our doctors, our teachers, our nurses, our engineers, our scientists, our soldiers, our Congressman, our Senators and maybe our President."

Um, yeah... About that... Not really, unless you plan on rewriting the Constitution. ...Then again, I'm sure you'd have no problem with that, would you, Mr. Durbin? Let's just throw the whole d--n thing out and start from fresh, right? It's so out-dated, anyway.

Snippet the Third:

A foreign national who flew from New York to Los Angeles last week with a stolen boarding pass and ID card has been arrested at Los Angeles International Airport, according to federal authorities.

Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi, a Nigerian-born man who was found with the stolen ID and up to 10 old boarding passes containing various names, was arrested Wednesday after attempting to board a flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta; five days after passing through layers of airport security at New York's JFK airport to board a plane with a day-old boarding pass.

I guess the TSA is too busy checking babies' diapers and humiliating terminally ill women in their 90s to worry about little things like, oh, boarding passes. (Gah!) Seriously, guys. He didn't have the correct ID. The pass wasn't for the right date. It wasn't even the right flight number!

I want to know what this guy was doing. Why did he even want to fly all over the place? Was he just taking a cross-country vacation, or is there more to the story? In any case, the honchos at the TSA have a lot of nerve expecting travelers to meekly accept all the crap they're put through when the TSA can't get a simple thing like this right.

Analytics Again

2011-06-29T12:56:00.000-05:00

It's been a long, long, long time since my last Google Analytics post. (The last one was toward the end of January 2010, to the best of Blogger's blog-search function's knowledge.)

This may not interest anyone but me, but it's my blog, so...

As usual, I'm only looking at keyword searches (that led to this blog) in the months since my last Analytics post.

At the top of the list, generating a whopping 29.43% of visits (from people who find me via a search engine), is "absolutly pure milk". Ha! As I've probably mentioned before, we have a couple of pressed glass tumblers that Donald brought from Sweden with that text raised upon them. I wonder how many of the people searching for that phrase realized that "absolutly" is a misspelling...

"Crusti croc" (a brand of chips) comes in second place-- 4.13% of my blog traffic is coming here in search of information about snack food. (Fascinating, isn't it?) ...Oh, and I see that there are variations on this theme peppered throughout the list, so even more people are looking for information on Crusti Croc.

Rag quilting, vintage fashion, and black rat snake eggs continue to make up a large number of the search engine hits. (If I add up all the various quilting-related hits, it would easily top "absolutly pure milk".)

Random Searches That Caught My Eye:

marabou chocolate / marabou amigo
80's cartoon moonbeamers / meet the moonbeamers fabric
more dead birds / dead birds 2012 / any more dead birds?
cockapekapoo
anole eggs / do lizards lay eggs
outdoor oddities / oddities of the ocean
ken doll
atm job killer
playskool wonderfalls
"become a social worker in 1 yr"
"new puppy smell" / new puppy smell description / puppy smell worms
when does puppy smell end / why do puppies have a smell?
caterpillars that sting
chewy whoppers
arguments against penny tax in baldwin county al
dollar tree laser pointer
g your hair smells terrific / recipe for gee your hair smells terrific
green card interviews
how to pronounce chickasabogue
modesty personified
the loony left 60 minutes
"but why do we have to pay for the land? the land's free..."
"fav or fave"
"hop-and-go-fetch-its"
"killing weeds with electricity"
"odds and ends" it took laundary to cleanthe area
"opinions depress"
"turbo boil"
"unrelated string of words"
"why is st. john pronounced" ("Why"? (g))
affordable ingredients in making a catsup using tomato
autumn oddities
buy gele hallon / gelehallon equivalence
can we make everybody happy? why
can you think of at least one example from a recent movie in which a linguistic code was used to convey information about a character? what was it?
do snakes have lips
dog shaped rag quilts
dying wasp+gif animated
endorsed by aliens as a safe place to survive the demise of civilization
explain "this that the other"
fabric for curtains in vampire diaries kitchen
got megapickles? t shirt
happy fourth thursday
how many children have choked on kinder surprise
how to say none of my business norwegian
insert wolf whistle here
itchy hands vibration mowing lawn
lashed terribly
let's find odds and ends
milk duds sverige
mrs howell eating beets video
muffin vintage
mutant mosquitos
once upon a wintertime
photos of christmas betls (Huh?)
pizzapolice blog spot
psychotic moments
radio ad young boozer
sam's club ultra sonic bark stopper
sniblet
swedish vacuum candy
the danger of shopping online
ugliest irish
urban yodeling
what singer looks and sounds a lot like rod stewart?
what was catsup in 1820
wild man of chickasabogue (Again. Still never heard of him...)
zenni opitcal felons

And that's all she wrote. (As they say.)

Rainbow Fish

2011-06-29T09:44:00.001-05:00

I guess this Rainbow Fish storybook came along after I was out of elementary school, so no well-meaning teacher never read it aloud to my class. Having heard it mentioned a few times over the years, today I finally took a minute to look it up.

Get ready to roll you eyes, if you must, but I have to agree that it is somewhat troubling.

Most of all, however, it's boring. It seems that the people who remember loving the book as children mostly just liked looking at the glittery/shiny scales in the illustrations. The story itself is a real snoozer.

Then there's the "moral" that in order to be accepted by others, you have to sacrifice whatever it is that makes you unique. If you possess something that others desire, you really ought to give it to them. Otherwise, you're just a big old meanie and no-one will ever want to play with you. (Another moral: You shouldn't hesitate to ask for whatever you want, even if it happens to belong to someone else. Heck! Why should they have it, if you don't? But maybe I'm overly sensitive on that point; I've always found that kind of thing particularly annoying...)

As for it being A Child's Garden of Socialism... Yes, I can see why some shudder at it, but I can also see why others roll their eyes. Basically... I wouldn't read it to my own theoretical children. For one thing, there are just way too many better stories available. For another, I wouldn't want to teach young, impressionable minds that individuality (and individual property) must be modified (or divided) to fit the mold (or make things "fair").

Sure, you want kids to learn about sharing, but there are limits to how much anyone should be expected to share. Would people view this story differently if Rainbow Fish hadn't been quite so rude to the little fish when it first asked for a scale? Let's say Rainbow Fish had answered in a more neutral voice, "I'm sorry, but no. If I give one to you, everyone else will want one, too, until there are none left at all. Besides, your own blue scales are very pretty just as they are!" (And from that point, it turns into a story about knowing and valuing your own special qualities.) Would that have been acceptable? Would Rainbow Fish still have been expected to pull its own scales out (which, ew, by the way) and hand them out to the other bratty fish? (Well, they did shun Rainbow Fish whey he/she/it didn't want to part with his/her/its scales, and that wasn't very nice, either, was it?)

Ugh! ...This story is just depressing. And annoying.
(Which seem to be the only types of things I ever blog about anymore. Sorry.)

The Beautiful People

2011-06-21T20:12:00.000-05:00

I imagine you've heard about this, right? There's an onling dating service/community (which has been around for years) that you can only join if you are deemed to be acceptably "beautiful". You submit your photo, and then people (of the opposite sex, I believe) who are already members vote on whether or not you are physically attractive enough to be worthy of the honor of paying however-much-a-month to (digitally) mingle with the other beautiful people.

It's disgusting, of course. Undeniably, looks are a factor when you're dating and seeking a potential spouse, but this is taking things way to far.

The site has been in the news a couple of times this month, most recently because it just purged 30,000 "insufficiently attractive" people who had somehow been accepted after the site was hacked. The newly-rejected former members will have access to counselors, in case they're feeling depressed because they're (apparently) not as good-looking as they thought. (So thoughtful of them.)

More amusing is the other reason they made it into the news. They've compiled their data-- I'm sure this is all highly scientific-- and come up with the most and least attractive nations!

This month the site created a stir in Ireland when it said that Irish men were among the ugliest in the world. Apparently it only accepted nine percent of male Irish applicants to the site were accepted. Only 20 per cent of Irish women are accepted, compared with nearly 70 per cent of Swedish women who sign up.

British people are the most likely to be rejected. [. . .] Norwegian women and Swedish men have the greatest chance of being accepted into the club, while Brazilian and Danish men are also popular particularly with women from Sweden and Iceland.

"Swedish men have the greatest chance of being accepted into the club", huh? There'll be no living with Donald, now. ;o)

ATM: The Job Killer

2011-06-15T12:13:00.003-05:00

So that's why everyone's joking about ATMs today.

...Ok. If it was a joke... Um, not amusing. (Dear Sir: Making jokes about the lack of jobs and the general craptastic-ness of the economy is probably not a good idea, at this point in time.) If he was serious, what does he propose we do about the scourge of the job-thieving ATM? Should we do away with everything that performs a service that once could only have been fulfilled by a person? What's next? Vending machines? Automated car washes? Oh, I bet those "self-checkout" things in grocery stores are high up on the list, too.

Anyway, the ATM has been around for quite a while, so I would imagine that most ATM-related job casualties also came some time ago. I certainly hope he's not suggesting that the Rise of the ATM has anything (meaningful) to do with the current abysmal employment stats. (That would just be dumb.)

Ew, Ew, Ew!!

2011-06-15T09:48:00.002-05:00

"Family Driven From Home by Hundreds of Snakes"

True, they were "only" harmless garter snakes, but that's still awful and shudder-inducing.

The most shuddery part of the article is this: "The garter snakes were so prevalent that the ground around their home appeared to move", according to the family.

Eek ick uck!
That is so gross!

They bought the house aware of the snake situation, but they thought it was overblown. Yet everyone in and around the small town of Rexburg seemed to know about the "snake house."

Hm. I wonder how the real estate agent brought that up-- and what they thought the "snake situation" would be like. (Let this be a lesson to us all. If a house is rumored to have a "snake situation", RUN.)

"It was just so stressful," Amber Sessions told the AP. "It felt like we were living in Satan's lair, that's the only way to really explain it."

Creepy.

The house, which the Sessions bought for $180,000, has been taken over by the lender. It is now on the market for $109,200.

I wonder about the size and "niceness" (you know, apart from the snake infestation) of the house... Also, shouldn't it be possible to get an exterminator in there to clean the snakes out? I'm sure it wouldn't be cheap, but I'd say it's a necessary expense!

So, if any of you are looking to relocate to Rexburg, Idaho... ;o)

ETA:
Here's a better (more fleshed-out) article about the Snake House.

"Culturally Backward"?! Excuse Me?

2011-06-10T12:33:00.005-05:00

From NewsBusters (with video):

"Chris Matthews determined that Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner could be in danger of being forced out of Congress by Blue Dog Dems who face uphill battles in red states because, as he put it, 'people in the rural areas of this country who are Christian conservative culturally - you can say backward if you want...don't like this kind of stuff.'

...Yeah, because it's so "backward" to believe that a married man should be faithful-- in thought and deed-- to his wife. (Weiner's outright lies-- before he decided he had no choice but to confess and apologize-- when he was "caught" were a classy, oh-so-admirable move, too, for those who would argue that his personal life shouldn't have any effect on his political life.) But what can you expect from Chris Matthews? Every time you turn around, he's saying something like this.

ETA: Wow. I haven't paid much attention to Weiner before the recent scandal, but apparently the guy is not only a liar and a cheater, but also an incredible jerk. He's the kind of person you feel you could cheerfully strangle (especially after watching that collection of clips). But, hey, other than that, he seems like a really nice guy. No wonder so many women have found him so enthralling. (Gag.)

Two Irksome Things

2011-06-09T11:53:00.002-05:00

I don't call myself a feminist (though I certainly believe in the worth, value, and abilities of my fellow women, and in our God-given rights as human beings)-- but a couple of things I've heard this week have irked me...

First:
Regarding the Weiner scandal-- I've seen people marveling over his infidelity (and yes, it is infidelity, whether or not he ever made physical contact with those other women) when they see a photo of his wife, a woman they find "pretty", "gorgeous", "beautiful", etc. The gist is this: Why would a guy feel the urge to "wander" when he had this kind of woman at home? And then there will be someone saying, oh, they've seen it over and over again. It's crazy, but some men will cheat on a beautiful wife with a "troll". (Come to think of it, I heard the same thing just a couple of weeks ago when the Arnold scandal broke.)

I know, I probably shouldn't expect better of (many) people, but good grief, that annoys me! What does it matter whether or not a cheater's wife is especially physically attractive? If he married her, he made a commitment to her, warts, stray hairs, extra pounds and all.

I guess it's (unfortunately) only natural to be find it even more shocking when a man cheats on an attractive wife than an unattractive one... Still irks me, though. And really, people, don't we know by now that in these cases, it usually has nothing to do with the looks or other qualities of the spouse? The issue is with the cheater him or herself. S/he would cheat on anyone.

Second:
Some woman called in to some talk radio program and suggested-- no, that's too mild a word-- insisted that the reason (some? most? all?) women-- including conservative women-- don't like Sarah Palin is sheer jealousy. They'll never admit it, but it's because they envy her. She "has it all". Palin's a "10" (on the physical beauty scale), and if a woman is below an "8", she simply can't stand to see another woman-- a "perfect 10"-- do well. These less attractive women can't help themselves. They're eaten alive with jealousy.

Ugh. Lady, you're a traitor to your sex. Please don't speak for the rest of us.

I won't deny that there can be jealousy among women (over looks, yes, among other things), but can you say that the same is not true of men? More importantly, plenty of us don't base major decisions on petty jealousies, no matter what we look like.

(My disgust over this has nothing to do with Palin herself, by the way. There are things I like about her and things I don't... Of course, I'd vote for her over Obama in a heartbeat, come 2012, but that's not saying much. I think it unlikely the GOP could produce a candidate I would not vote for over Obama... Just being honest.)

Rain & Toothpick Sculptures

2011-06-09T08:44:00.000-05:00

We've gotten rain a couple of times this week. (Hurray!) And yesterday was even a decent soaker! (*wild applause*) There were no little rivulets of water running around the yard, during the rain, as there might normally have been; I guess the ground just slurped it up like a dry sponge, so it never had a chance to puddle up... We're still many inches behind what's typical for this area at this point in the year, but this is progress.

- - - - - - -

Have you seen this toothpick sculpture of (some) of the landmarks of San Francisco? The detail is amazing. And if that's not stunning enough, there are multiple tracks for ping-pong balls to roll through the sculpture, too. (Check out the video at the bottom of the linked page to see them in action.)

Random Grumpy Topics

2011-06-05T09:32:00.001-05:00

• It's still really, really hot and dry here. We got a sprinkling of rain on Friday, but it was barely enough to wet the ground. Or in other words-- more, please.

Maybe our digital thermometer is telling tales, but it's been recording temperatures of over 100 with alarming frequency, lately. Yesterday, it peaked at 105°F or 106°F. (I can't remember which, and again, maybe it's not accurate, but...) I'll keep you posted on whether or not the grass spontaneously bursts into flames.

On the other hand, this super-hot weather is a handy excuse for not doing much work in the yard. ;o)

• To add to the list of reasons the Internet is Evil: "Could the Net be killing the planet one web search at a time?" Well, of course it is. Is there anything we humans do or don't do that doesn't "kill the planet"? Sheesh. What was God thinking when he put us here, anyway? Also: This is why we can't have nice things!!

• The infinitely abhorrent Bill Maher says he thinks "anybody could be president in this dumb f**king country". Well, based on the current administration, there's reason to suspect he may be right. On the other hand, if you hate this country so much, Bill, why not move right the heck out of it? Pretty please with sugar on top? (P.S. You disgust me.)

• The E. coli scare in Europe is just the sort of health-related news story I try to ignore, because they have a high propensity for freaking me out. (I don't like health-related news, and I am even less interested in raw vegetables now than I was before.)

There. I'm all grumped out for the moment.

Real Mature

2011-06-02T14:06:00.000-05:00

"Yearbook causes controversy after it names George W. Bush in a list of 'worst people' of all time".

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. - A middle school yearbook in Arkansas has created controversy around the country after it named Former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in a list of the "worst" people of all time.

The yearbook included a list titled the "Top 5 worst people of all time." The list begins with Adolph Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, Charles Manson, but then lists Bush and Cheney.

Students didn't vote on the list, and it was taken from an opinion website. Parents in the community are outraged.

"I'm furious as a parent and as a board member and as a tax payer and as a resident of Russellville," resident Chris Cloud said. "It's wrong."

Parents spotted the list after the yearbooks were printed. The school's solution was to cover the list with tape.

The superintendent said the yearbook's editing process is under review.

I saw "Arkansas" and was surprised (despite it being the origin of Clinton). Then I read that the list wasn't even the result of a student poll. Aha. Well, that would explain that...

What was the teacher in charge of the yearbook staff thinking, putting some random (not to mention ridiculous and pointless) list off a website in the school yearbook? Maybe, "I need an excuse to leave this job, but my wife-husband-whoever would never forgive me if I out-and-out quit"? Actually, it's possible s/he never even saw it, but that's not much of an excuse. There's a reason the student yearbook staff needs a teacher to guide them and approve what goes in and what doesn't.

The Pizza Police

2011-06-02T13:03:00.001-05:00

Ok, are people seriously griping about how Sarah Palin ate a slice of pizza? (She *gasp* used a knife and fork instead of her fingers.)

Let's just be honest here. If she'd used her bare hands, someone would be saying that she lacked class because of that. No matter what she does, it's "wrong".

Personally, I usually eat pizza with knife and fork, these days. I don't think I did when I was younger, and I don't have to have utensils even now, but I do prefer it that way. It makes less of a mess-- no greasy fingers, smears of tomato sauce on your face, choking hazards of stringy cheese, etc.

Anyway, why should anyone care how someone else chooses to eat his or her pizza? Why does it matter? What is this? An episode of Seinfeld? ;o)

Rain Dance, Anyone?

2011-06-02T10:54:00.000-05:00

With the recent deadly tornadoes... with flooding elsewhere... with all the other major weather-related woes people somewhere are always facing, I probably shouldn't complain, but I just can't help it: It is so hot and dry here. And I am so tired of "so hot and dry".

I really, really hope this isn't what the whole, long summer has in store for us. I mean, yes, I know that where I live, it's always going to be hot in the summertime. But I don't recall it usually being this hot this early in the summer-- and as for the drought, it's now officially rated "extreme", so that at least is not just a trick of my selective memory. After the wonderfully cool weather we enjoyed just a month or two ago, this feels like a slap in the face.

Or in other words, (in my whiniest voice, with a stomp of the foot for good measure) I'm not ready for summer yet!

Confession: Every year, during the hottest months, I have at least a few days of wishing we'd settled in Sweden instead of the Steambath State (which some say is Florida, but is also a fitting description of Alabama). Of course, in exchange for long, hot, humid summers-- with the occasional hurricane-- we'd have to endure long, dark, cold winters and so much snow you get sick of it... Stupid weather. No matter where you live, it finds a way to annoy you. ;o)

...I just wrote a whole blog post about nothing but the weather. Clearly, I don't care if I lose my last few readers...

Shocking Political Article (Not)

2011-05-24T21:37:00.001-05:00

"Study: Liberal leanings hurt Republicans' place in history"

I know, I know. You're so shocked. So was I. (...Ha ha.)

Here's just a snippet:

Political science professor Joseph E. Uscinski, one of the study’s authors, said the new analysis shows that the overwhelmingly liberal academic community consistently ranks Republican presidents about 10 spots lower than the public would.

“I don’t think anyone is surprised,” Mr. Uscinski told The Washington Times. “Among the political scientists and historians that I work with, Democrats outnumber Republicans 8 to 1.”

What was eye-opening, he said, was the stark difference between the historians’ assessments of Republicans and the grades given by the public.

“On average, all the Republicans get the short end of the stick,” he said. “But the one it impacts the most is [Ronald] Reagan. It’s often difficult for people to fathom why he’s ranked as low as he is.”

. . .

In the C-SPAN rankings - the focus of much of the University of Miami analysis - Reagan in 2009 broke into the Top Ten, behind Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Thomas Jefferson, Dwight Eisenhower and Woodrow Wilson.

But on other surveys, the late conservative icon falls much lower. A 2010 Siena College poll has Reagan at No. 18, behind Bill Clinton, Lyndon Baines Johnson and Barack Obama.

Come on. Who could seriously rank Obama above Reagan? (Or Clinton, for that matter, but whatever...) If nothing else, wouldn't you require more than two years to form a solid, realistic opinion of a presidency? I guess they figure Obama's ranking using the same clairvoyance (precognition, to be precise) that the Norwegians used when they decided to give him the Nobel Peace Prize. :o\

Mysterious

2011-05-20T10:36:00.000-05:00

Since getting the Kindle, I've been spending more time looking around at books online, and I have to say, I'm amazed by the number of "niche" mystery series there are available today. There's something for everyone, no matter what your hobby or interest (assuming you like cozy mysteries, which I do). I already knew there were series about cats, knitters, and crocheters, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the number of other niches... but I am.

Here are some of the niche cozy-mystery series themes I've seen so far:

Knitting or Crocheting (as stated)
Salons/Stylists
Candy store
Food/Restaurants in general
Cheese shop
Wine country
Travel agent
Pet-sitter
Crafts (soap-making and so on)
High fashion
Vintage clothing shop
Card-making (another craft)
Quilting

(And I'm sure there are more.)

It reminds me of Barbie dolls. There's one for (nearly) every career or interest!

Personally, I think the card-maker mysteries seem the strangest of the bunch. I'm not sure why... It just feels so completely random.

Three Things

2011-05-18T17:08:00.000-05:00

Thing One:
For those keeping track, I am a very bad photo-blogger, but I have been taking at least one photo a day, and eventually I'll make myself upload them. Maybe. (Meh, we'll see.)

Thing Two:
"New report finds medical costs to rise 8.5 percent in 2012"

Oh boy. Thank you, Obamacare!

Thing Three:
In lighter news, the CDC warns the public to prepare for a "Zombie Apocalypse". (Sort of.)

Trixie Jumps Through the Hoop

2011-05-14T16:00:00.002-05:00

Trixie jumps through a hula hoop on command. Er, well sometimes she does.

Trixie "Finds It"

2011-05-13T12:58:00.000-05:00

We play a game called "Find It" with Trixie. We take one of her toys, hide it somewhere (while she waits in another room), and tell her (as you've probably already guessed) to find it. She enjoys it, and I think it's fun to watch as she sniffs and puzzles out the toy's location.

Things I Like About the Kindle

2011-05-08T20:47:00.000-05:00

There are a few obvious things that you know you'll like about an e-reader, before you even hold it in your hands.

There's the amazing portability of enough reading material to keep you busy for years (unless you read a lot more and a lot faster than I do). You can carry a whole little library around with you (in this device that weighs less than some paperbacks!).

Then there's the to ability to load something new from Amazon in seconds, when connected to a WiFi network. (There's also a certain degree of ability to access other parts of the Internet, though it's definitely not what the WiFi Kindle was designed for-- and it shows.) So far, I much prefer to shop on my regular computer than on the Kindle itself, but it's nice to know that I can get new reading material while on the go (as long as I can find a hotspot).

I knew that I would love all the easy access to free books. (Technically, most of them have been free for years on-line, but I don't like reading off a computer screen for hours at a time. Reading from the Kindle screen is nothing like reading from the computer monitor. It's easier on your eyes, more portable, and more intimate, somehow, if you that makes any sense. (g)) There are many wonderful works in the public domain, and occasionally you'll find a more recent title available for free (as a promotion). Some people complain about the lack of a live table of contents in some of the free classics, but personally, I tend not to skip from chapter to chapter very much, anyway. Either I read from start to finish or I go directly to a favorite part (which is fairly easily estimated and jumped to, if you've read it enough to have a favorite part). Of course, you can often get a version with the live table of contents for just a dollar or two, if it's important to you. Most of the time, I think I'll be happy saving that dollar or two for something else.

So, those are some of the things I knew I'd like, but while using it these past few days, I've also already found myself appreciating a few other features that I hadn't really thought as much about before purchasing it...

First, no-hands reading.

This may be less of an issue if you typically read hardcovers (particularly those that are well-loved/beaten into submission), but often I find that when reading a book, I must keep at least one hand on it at all times, to hold it open to the right page. If I want to eat while I read or just not have to hold the book open constantly, I must find something heavy enough to weigh down both sides of the book. It can be difficult to position the makeshift weights so that they don't either slide off or block the text.

With the Kindle, of course, this is not an issue. It's so lightweight that holding it up for hours is less likely to become tiring, but if you like (and I find that I often do), you can just set it down in front of you (or prop it up on something, to get a comfortable angle). There are no pages trying to snap back shut. You still have to press the button to the page, but until they figure out a way to let you control the e-reader with your mind, I guess we're stuck with that. ;o)

Second, dictionary look-up.

When I was young and full of aspirations-- when time seemed to stretch ahead of me in years long and many ;o)-- I was more likely to stop and look up an unfamiliar word when I came across one in a book. These days, of course, that happens somewhat less often (thank goodness), but when it does, but I find myself less and less likely to bother looking it up. I rely on context clues. Educated guesses. Call it laziness, if you will (though that's awfully judgmental of you, don't you think?). In any case, I rarely bother to stop reading and flip through a dictionary (or run to the computer). That's where the Kindle comes in, with its fancy built-in dictionaries and look-up system.

I have to say, I'm impressed. I've tried out the Kindle's default dictionary a few times already and found it very useful. You just move the cursor to the front of the word you want defined, and up pops the definition. Hit another button if you want to read more about it in the dictionary, and go back to your book with another single tap, when you're done. It's so quick and painless, I think I'll be looking up unfamiliar words more often than ever!

Third, status bar (and "status dots").

When reading a non-digital book, I like to be able to tell at a glance approximately how much I've read. It's just a useful thing to know, and it can be motivation to keep reading or save the last few pages, depending on your mood. I hadn't really thought about the fact that when reading a digital copy of a book, you might not be able to gauge the length of a book so easily.

Fortunately, whoever designed the Kindle did consider that. There are no page numbers on a Kindle, but at the bottom of every "page" (screen?), there's a thin, unobtrusive progress bar indicating how far you've read in that particular book-- and the numerical percentage of the book you've read (40%, for instance). Another neat little feature is a tiny inverted triangle that marks where you were when you started reading in this particular "sitting".

Something I think I'm less likely to use, but which is also potentially nice to know about is a row of "status dots" below each title in the Kindle's "table of contents"/home screen. Under each title, there are a row of dots. You can tell two things from these dots. First, the length of the row varies in relation to the length of the work. (I'm not sure how it's calculated, but you can tell at a glance whether it's a short story or a lengthy novel.) Second, the dots become emboldened to indicate how far you have read in the work (which is how it works as a status bar).

In closing, I still like it. (g)

(Incidentally, I opted for the slightly cheaper "Kindle with special offers", and in my opinion, the ads and offers are completely unobtrusive. They only show on the screen-saver and in a thin band at the bottom of the "home" screen-- never when you're actually in the middle of reading something. I find them very easy to ignore-- if anything, kind of interesting to look at-- but then again, I'm not easily bothered by non-noisy and non-pop-up ads, in general.)

...Well, enough rambling about that for now, I guess. :o)

E-Reader Convert?

2011-05-06T20:02:00.000-05:00

Whatever could it be?

(Ha. As if I haven't been stalking the USPS delivery status page for the past few days...)

Yay! It's my Kindle!

For a long time (well, as long as they've been around), I wasn't sure how I'd feel about an e-reader. I certainly wasn't sure enough that I'd like one to put (what I considered to be) a lot of money into buying one. But then the prices went down some... and I had a small gift card to use (thanks to Amazon Associates)... so I finally gave in...

And I think it's love at first sight.

I can already tell that I'm going to do a lot more reading because of this little gadget.

It's pretty neat.

...Now I'm off to do some reading. :o)

"Yes! Its Hurts"

2011-05-06T15:35:00.000-05:00

This blog post/photo gave me a laugh. (g)

It's a sticker found somewhere in Stockholm reading-- in part-- "I ❤ Tattoos" and "Yes! Its Hurts".

Yes, I think that falls under both "bad motto" and "bad grammar".

"Delivery #1": Arrived!

2011-05-05T21:24:00.001-05:00

We got the call earlier this evening that the baby finally ended up being delivered by C-section. (Sounds like it was a long, hard day. I hope everyone involved will get a good night's sleep tonight!)

It's a girl, and mother and baby are both well. :o)

(As far as other details go, I don't have a great memory for numbers... 8 pounds something, and I think either 20.? or 21.? inches... I do remember that Mom said she looks like she'll have very curly hair, like Kimberly did when she was little.)

Congratulations, Carrie and Victor!

ETA:
The details:

. . .

Clarabel Arden

born at 6:17 PM (Central Time)

on May 5th, 2011

. . .

weight: 8 pounds 10.2 ounces

length: 21.5 inches

. . .

(Objectively, I still think it's a little strange that when a baby is born, almost the first thing everyone wants to know/wants to tell is his or her weight and length. I guess it's just because there's simply not much else to say-- quickly, easily, and non-sentimentally-- about a brand-new infant... Anyway, since it's probably been the custom since babies began, who am I to buck tradition? ;o))

Welcome to the world, Clarabel Arden! :o)

Waiting for Updates

2011-05-05T13:25:00.001-05:00

Regarding "Delivery #1":
As far as I know, the baby hasn't arrived yet. From what I've read, it sounds like it's probably been a long, hard past couple of days, but it shouldn't be much longer...

Regarding "Delivery #3":
Why doesn't USPS update their "Track & Confirm" information more often? The first, last, and only info I have from them is from May 3rd, which is kind of ridiculous when I expect the package to arrive either tomorrow or Saturday. (I think that at least once before, we received a package before they updated their info to indicate that it was anywhere in the area.) If they're not going to update more often than that, why bother having a track/confirm feature at all?

Not a Gamer

2011-05-04T17:12:00.000-05:00

On a whim, I just played a game of Pacman. However, I have decided that once was enough. I can't take the stress.

Seriously, though, computer games / video games stress me out. Surely I'm not the only one...

Deliveries

2011-05-03T17:22:00.001-05:00

Delivery #1: Pending.
It was beginning to look like Carrie and Victor's baby would come on his/her due date, but now we're not so sure. The last I heard, things were slowing down, and the hospital was probably going to send them home for the time being-- but I guess things could start again at any time. (This must happen a lot. It seems like you rarely hear about a pregnancy that doesn't have at least one false start. Failing that, the baby comes all at once, without much warning at all, and a non-medical-professional has to step in and be the hero/heroine. [Obviously, my knowledge of this subject comes primarily from TV shows.])

Delivery #2: Arrived.
Some much-needed rain can through, and it brought with it an incredibly refreshing cool breeze. How I've missed you, fresh air! This type of weather at this time of year is bittersweet, because I know we won't get much more of it before the long, hot summer sets in (and refuses to budge until October). I am already jealous of the relatively cool summer Sweden will probably enjoy. Meanwhile, the Swedish papers will report how disappointed people are by the lack of sun and warmth. Oh well. None of us are allowed to be too happy. ;o) At least we have our windows open this afternoon. (Bliss!)

Delivery #3: Just waiting for the USPS...
I'm expecting something in the mail, now that Amazon has finally seen fit to ship it. (Yay, Amazon! I take back those mean things I was thinking about you earlier today. (g)) It's fun to have something to look forward to in the mail, but it's hard to be patient...

Well, You Can't Make Everyone Happy...

2011-05-02T13:14:00.001-05:00

Apparently, some Islamic scholars "criticize" Osama bin Laden's burial at sea as a "violation of Islamic tradition". And then there are others-- myself, for example-- who did a double take at the news that he was buried at sea at least partially to comply with some Islamic law that dead bodies be buried within 24 hours of death.

Um, 'scuse me a moment... What?!

Ok, I get the whole "no nation would have wanted his body, and we didn't want to give them the chance to make a 'shrine' of a specific burial spot" aspect-- so fine, burial in a non-disclosed location or at sea-- but I don't really give a bleepity-bleep how he would have wanted to be buried, and personally, I'm astonished that they even took the "rules" of his religion into consideration at all. My opinion? Just be thankful that we're a decent enough, civilized enough nation that we didn't put his sorry carcass on display somewhere. (M'kay?)

And the argument that this "disrespectful" sea burial will entice retaliation? Oh, come on. We know they're going to want to retaliate, no matter how he was disposed of. They've wanted to kills us, all along. That's not going to change anytime soon. (Oops, maybe I should've labeled that with a spoiler alert...) So basically, just shut up, scholars and clerics.

Oh, and have a great day.

Another Very Important Issue

2011-04-28T16:05:00.002-05:00

"Calling animals 'pets' is insulting, academics claim"

Domestic dogs, cats, hamsters or budgerigars should be rebranded as “companion animals” while owners should be known as “human carers”, they insist.

Even terms such as wildlife are dismissed as insulting to the animals concerned – who should instead be known as “free-living”, the academics including an Oxford professor suggest.

Good grief.
Don't these people have anything more important to think about?

So far, Molly and Daisy haven't released a statement regarding their preferred title. I'll keep you posted, though.

Tuscaloosa Twister

2011-04-28T06:45:00.002-05:00

I just can't get over the photos and video from yesterday's huge tornado in Tuscaloosa...

While I have always had a strong(er-than-average, I think) fear of violent weather and the possibility of being in the path of a tornado (which is probably the most frequent, consistent subject of my nightmares), even I don't really expect tornadoes in this number or of this magnitude, in the South. I used to think my degree of fear during tornado warnings was probably a little less than rational. This isn't Kansas, you know. Now I'm not as sure my level of fear is unwarranted.

People are less likely to have a basement, down here, than in some other parts of the country. If something like that is coming toward you, sheltering in a windowless, interior room (or closet) and covering yourself with blankets or a mattress might not be enough...

Prayers for everyone affected.

The Internets Are Creepy

2011-04-27T10:11:00.001-05:00

(And often annoying. But I'm resisting the urge to write about that today. Well, except for that little thing about Grooveshark, but that doesn't count, because it's not what's really annoying me online right now.)

Yesterday I uploaded that video snippet of Trixie playing with the Nylabones, and I mentioned the brand name in the description (both on YouTube and here in this blog). Well, this morning I noticed that a third entity (not YouTube, not Blogger-- somewhere I definitely didn't post or mention the video or Nylabone at all) recommended that I "follow" Nylabone. Coincidence, or somehow linked to yesterday's activities online? I don't really like these creepy little reminders of how much the Internet probably knows about us all.

(And yet here I am, "feeding" it even more information. Oh well. (g))

Typical

2011-04-27T09:34:00.001-05:00

Ugh!
Two days after I start using Grooveshark to put a music widget on this blog, they appear to have disabled that feature. Man, do I have great timing, or what?

Maybe this is temporary... Otherwise, annoyance.

Trixie Barks at Bones

2011-04-26T17:34:00.000-05:00

It's so much fun when the People slide one of the dogs' Nylabones over the hard surface floor and send it flying toward you! (Just take Trixie's word for it.)

...Of course, it's a little anticlimactic, because, in the end, it's still just a gnawed-up plastic bone. Oh well. Such is life.

What You Missed

2011-04-26T15:50:00.003-05:00

Let's see... What fascinating things have we been up to, lately?

Patio--
Donald put up a partial wall of lattice on the east- (and easement-) facing side of our enclosed, covered patio, and we decided to use more railing to finish the adjacent portion of the north-facing side. (We originally planned to make that portion a partial wall of lattice, too, but after we were further along in the process, we changed our minds.)

I need to do a little touch-up painting, but I think that the patio is pretty much done, now. We've started paving (with stepping stones) the little path from the patio to the gate for our next outdoor project.

Library Book Sale--
A few weekends ago, a neighboring county's library system had their annual book sale. It's become a tradition for us to go (for the past few years, at least), and Kimberly usually comes along with us. All three of us found some books we had to have. Donald found loads of P.G.Wodehouse paperbacks (among other things), while I found that almost everything I selected fits into the mystery genre. At fifty cents for paperbacks and a dollar for hardcovers, you can feel like you're splurging without actually spending that much at all.

Big Lagoon & Tarkiln Bayou--
Last week, Donald had to drive further than usual to meet with a client, and because it was just around the corner from a couple of state parks we've enjoyed visiting before, I came along and he took off the rest of the day so we could to take advantage of the proximity.

We hiked hither and thither. We stopped for a yummy fast food lunch in between parks. We saw pitcher plants, a squirrel building a nest, sparkling blue water, mysterious black water, sugar-white sand, marsh grass, cattails, ferns, dragonflies, lots of anoles and skinks, a jumping fish, birds of prey, and a moccasin (in the shallow water below the little nature trail bridge). (ETA: Donald reminded me that he spotted a large, bright green frog-- not far from the moccasin-- and that reminded me that we also saw a largish turtle out for a swim. The turtle's already made an appearance over on our Flickr photostream, for all you turtle-lovers out there. ;o))

I was dumb and didn't think I needed to bring sunscreen, so I ended up with a slight sunburn on my forehead and cheeks. Next time I'll bring the sunscreen. (Donald was spared because he wore a hat.)

We took photos, but I haven't felt like editing and uploading many of them, yet. We'll see whether I ever do. I don't think many of them turned out that great, and I've already posted photos of those places, after a previous visit, so...

Fireflies--
We've been seeing lightning bugs here in the early evenings. We've had the best luck seeing them before it gets too completely dark... or late. There's something magical about fireflies-- watching those twinkling lights against the dark trees and seeing a small, brief spark drifting just ahead of you... Less magical is the annoying whine of a mosquito right next to your ear as you try to enjoy the moment. ("Ring the dinner bell, gals! Soup's on!")

...And some other stuff I can't really remember at the moment. Oh, Easter, for one, I guess. (We had an "immediate family" Easter at my parents' house.) Also, we got some plastic card covers/protectors for some of our newer games. (That's very interesting. You'd never have forgiven me if I'd forgotten to mention that.) Have we earned board game geek status, yet? ;o)

...And I guess we'll call this finished. (You can only take so much excitement in one day.)

Trixie Is Famebus!

2011-04-25T17:19:00.005-05:00

Again! ;o)

She likes to hunt (and pounce on) bugs (real or imaginary?) in the taller grass around the yard. The only real downside of this method of bug-hunting is the mouthful of icky grass. A small price to pay.

Naïvité

2011-04-21T12:38:00.004-05:00

I'm probably just being naive, but the comments on this story surprised me.

Am I heartless for not feeling all that sorry for the mother? I mean, obviously I don't know all the circumstances. Possibly she's been a decent mother, over all. Maybe there was just some awful mistake-- or there was a one-time lapse in judgment that led to the drug being in her home... Though one wonders how her kid knew where the drugs were, what the stuff even was (unless she saw someone using it and calling it by name), and um, why an 8-year-old wouldn't know it was illegal and shouldn't be brought to school and given to the teacher. (Any chances she wanted her mother to get in trouble? ...No, probably just not a very savvy kid.)

However, mostly it's this: Seriously, woman, how hard is it to just not use or possess marijuana?

You know, I sometimes feel that I lack willpower. I can't seem to make myself keep the house and yard in the sparkling, perfect order I would like. I've failed to exercise consistently. I still haven't made myself learn Swedish. But at least I manage to not use harmful (oh, and also illegal) drugs, even though there are no young, corruptible children to witness it if I did. Go, me! ;o)

(What? Too smug?)

Uncivilized

2011-04-20T08:21:00.002-05:00

(Because I read this article this morning.)

For much of the past decade, the Iranian government has tolerated what it considers a particularly depraved and un-Islamic vice: the keeping of pet dogs.

Let me pause right there and say that if-- if-- I had any doubts about certain governments and their systems of belief, the thought that they'd label dog-ownership as depraved would be enough to make up my mind for me. Such a thing must be based either in ignorance or in evilness. Being familiar with good dogs and the intelligent, loving help they offer to any who seek it, I am convinced that such animals are one of God's most thoughtful gifts to mankind. How could owning a dog (responsibly and kindly, without intent to abuse it or other people through it) ever be an example of depravity? It's simply ridiculous.

During periodic crackdowns, police have confiscated dogs from their owners right off the street; and state media has lectured Iranians on the diseases spread by canines.

But apparently, many Iranians have ignored this nonsense and gone on having pet dogs (good for them!), which the state has more or less allowed or pretended not to notice. However, that may change with the passage of proposed legislation that would criminalize dog ownership and introduce $100 - $500 fines for owners and confiscation of canine pets.

The article goes on, of course. Most of it is predictable or familiar (dogs are "unclean", they're a "vulgar Western habit", they're the thin edge of the wedge of Westernization, they're a sign of rebellion against the powers that be, blah blah blah), but it's still interesting. And sickening. It's not the most sickening thing about Iran (and similar), but still... it's bad enough. What is wrong with some people?

Awww

2011-04-15T14:16:00.000-05:00

Have you heard about this?

Deer Stands Guard Over Goose (with live video)

The News of the Day, Twitter-Style

2011-04-12T15:14:00.001-05:00

(A format of blog-post you've come to know and love, I'm sure.)

"JAPAN NOW ADMITS: IT'S CHERNOBYL..."
Awful.

"Feral chickens roam wild in N.O. since Katrina..."
Picture them... bands of wild chickens terrorizing the citizens of New Orleans. (Actually, it sounds like they're mostly just being annoyingly loud in the early morning hours.)

"Wisc. man finds live missile in bathroom wall..."
Wha...?

"CHOCOLATE MILK UNDER FIRE..."
Well, of course. Chocolate milk is the root of all evil, as you know.
I seem to remember drinking chocolate milk with my lunch a lot as a child. I was still "skinny". Today, I never drink chocolate milk. I drink unflavored 1% milk (because Donald doesn't like skim milk). Am I that skinny now? Hmpf. No, I am not. Clearly, chocolate milk keeps you fit and trim.

"Couric Blames Local CBS Affiliates for Poor Ratings..."
Ugh. Just ugh. I've never understood her so-called appeal.

"Sex workers scared as serial killer stalks Long Island..."
Well, maybe they should consider a change in career. I mean, I'm not saying they should expect people to try to murder them, but come on. They have to know it's not exactly a safe "job", even under the best circumstances. It's like saying that drug dealers are worried about their safety. Yes? And?

"Thermal Cameras On Boston Streets Can Show Activity Inside Homes..."
Weird. According to the story, the point was the show heat loss in city homes, but I guess there's some fear that the cameras might be a little too powerful. What's the point of of showing heat loss, anyway? People should already know that they need to properly insulate their homes. Is someone trying to guilt-trip people into using less electricity/heating? (That really irks me, btw.)

"Egypt army sets new limits on free speech..."
Limited free speech? Oxymoron time!

"Indonesian clinic touts smoking as cancer cure..."
Well, it's about time someone recognized the healing properties of smoking.

"Girls robbed of $150 at lemonade stand..."
$150? Where were these girls selling lemonade, and for what price?! (And why were they keeping $150 at the stand instead of putting it somewhere for safe keeping?) Oh yeah, and what a downright mean thing to do. (Apparently they were raising money for a young, disabled cousin, so it's even worse than your average stealing-from-youths story.)

"'IDOL' RESULTS CONTRIVED?"
NOOOOOOOOOOO! ...My faith in everything has been shaken.

"Vegas woman dies after backroom cosmetic surgery; Botched buttocks enhancement..."
Again? (There was a similar story, one of the other days I did a "news on Twitter" post.) I still don't see why anyone would even want to undergo this procedure.

"UN proposal would give 'Mother Earth' same rights as humans..."
Cuckoo!

Um... Okay...

2011-04-11T14:47:00.000-05:00

Yes, whoever designed this ad, this demonic-looking photo of a child has inspired me to become a social worker in 1YR. Especially after having seen Case 39.

Days of the Week So Far

2011-04-07T10:52:00.001-05:00

(By defining characteristics only.)

Sunday:
Baby Shower Day.
We had an immediate-family get-together to shower the expectant couple (C. and V.) with baby-related gifts. They were almost able to squeeze it all into their vehicle, but not quite. Now we're waiting to see if the new addition to the family will be a boy or a girl. The due date is in early May, so we don't have too long to wait.

Also, Patio-Wall Day.
Donald managed to put up the lattice "wall" on the east- (and easement-) facing side of the patio. We were putting in the final screws just as it was getting too dark to work. I think it looks nice, but I need to touch up the paint here and there. We have just one section of railing to put on the patio-- and then I guess we'll be done. There are plenty of other projects we want to work on, though. It's never-ending, I guess...

Monday:
Nothing New Day.
(Can't recall anything of real interest from Monday. I'll try to do better next time.)

Tuesday:
"Two Snakes in One Day" Day.
I saw the first snake in the morning, on our porch-- probably the same one I saw before-- sticking its head out cautiously from the ceiling.

Then in the afternoon, I was clearing things from the glider on the patio. I lifted a large plastic bowl (formerly one of the dogs' water bowls) from the top of an empty plastic pot (the kind plants come in from the nursery), and-- ta dah!-- there was Snake #2. It was only another small rat snake, but I hadn't been expecting to make the acquaintance of a snake of any description at that particular moment. It didn't seem to be in a social mood, either, and immediately sought escape through one of the pot's drainage holes. I couldn't have that, because the dogs were both right there. To avoid a nasty scene, I carried the pot (with half the snake in and half the snake out) to the "outside the fence" side-yard and let the snake go. I'd rather have it than something worse, so take care of yourself, little rat snake. Eat up all the food in this area so the moccasins and rattlesnakes will be unimpressed and move on to better hunting grounds!

Wednesday:
Roundup Day.
I sprayed Roundup in the morning. I'm hopeful that I didn't get too much of it on anything I didn't want to kill. So far, nothing's showing signs of sickliness (including weeds), but I guess it takes a couple of days before you start seeing results. The results I have already seen are soreness from lugging around a 2-gallon garden sprayer (which according to the all-knowing Internet would weigh approximately 16.68 pounds). What? You aren't impressed? Hmph.

So far, Thursday is working out to be Catch-Up-on-Everything-Else Day. ;o)

First Snake of the Season

2011-03-31T15:33:00.001-05:00

The chatter about the escaped cobra in NYC reminds me that we saw our first snake of the season a couple of days ago. It was pencil-thin, poking its head out of a corner of the siding on our porch. Probably another rat snake. We seem to have a lot of those around here. (Four or five have gotten stuck in the weird, clear caulk around the outside edges of our windows-- mostly the bay window and small kitchen sink window.)

Actually, I just remembered that this wasn't the first snake of the season, because Donald found another small rat or corn snake when he was moving things out of the shed a couple of weeks ago! So this makes number two. Still, I'd much rather have multiple rat snakes wandering around the yard than a single moccasin. (Grandpa has already seen the first one of those for the year, too, down at the pond.)

...This has been the Snakes-to-Date report for March 2011. ;o)

Because It's SO IMPORTANT

2011-03-31T14:01:00.000-05:00

(That's why I'm writing about it.)

So, the guy (David Ferrer, whose name was new to me today-- because that's how much I care about tennis) who "lobbed" the tennis ball into the stands in the general direction of a baby who'd been crying and (I guess) disturbing his concentration...

Point 1:
Who brings a baby to a big sporting event? (Honestly, though, who brings a baby to even a high school sporting event, if they can possibly avoid it?) Maybe I'm stupid and everyone does that all the time... but it does seem a little rude. If I pay good money for a seat and someone's baby is crying right next to me, I have to admit that it gets on my nerves. (It also annoys me when the woman behind me on an airplane coughs onto the back of my head. So don't do that anymore, lady. Seriously. Just put your hand over your mouth, next time. It's not that hard.)

Point 2:
Yeah, the player shouldn't have done that. I wonder if he was penalized in any way. (You'd think that would be against the rules...)

Point 3:
Oh, please. Are you telling me that you require absolute silence to play your silly little game? Why are tennis and golf players so precious, yet in football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and so many other sports, the players somehow manage to function amid thunderous cheering, boos, and general noise? It took those nightmarish vuvuzela things to faze soccer players, for instance. But apparently tennis is a matter of life or death. "Ladies and gentlemen, the tennis player will now attempt to hit the ball with the racket. This is very dangerous and requires intense concentration. We ask that you remain silent..."

...And then when most of them hit the ball they shriek, groan, and grunt in ways that must be calculated to distract the opponent (not to mention embarrass the more prudish members of the audience).

...For someone who never watches tennis, I still managed to work up a nice rant. It's one of my special gifts. ;o) Anyone wanna trade?

Repetition

2011-03-30T14:08:00.003-05:00

My day so far:

Sort & start laundry.
Paint lumber (for finally finishing the patio cover).
Stop to switch around laundry.
Paint. (Because of the way things are set up and the dimensions of the lumber, some of it can only be painted on one side at a time, so each coat is a four-step process.)
Complain to Molly about my aching back.
Stop to switch & fold laundry.
Paint.
Complain to Trixie about my aching back.
Repeat until sanity hangs by a thread.

Oh, and did I mention that I have to wash out the brush after each painting session? I do, because I've learned from past brushes ruined that putting it in a bag in the fridge doesn't work that well for me. I tend to let them wait around too long, and after that, they're niver the same again (as Judy Plum would say).

I need to get these boards painted and done. They're set up in the middle of the kitchen (with cardboard underneath to catch drips-- as if I ever dripped paint! Ha!), which means that my Kitchen Work Triangle is all messed up.

I feel like I'm walking around in circles in there (because I am), and Molly keeps getting in my way. Now, Molly tends to stand right in my path, anyway, but now that the kitchen is doubling as a lumberyard, the spaniel speed-bump effect is exponentially more noticeable.

Well, I think I can get this bundle of lumber painted and finished today, if I keep at it. Then there are three more ("differently dimensioned") boards all primed and ready to paint, oh boy. And... I'm trying not to be aware of it, but there are even more boards out on the back porch. Will it never end???

I guess I can set those up to be painted outside, at least. (The only reason we put this first batch inside was to avoid the rain that has already come through.)

...Or maybe the painting will just slip my mind altogether for a day or two...

Ah. Time to go. The laundry's buzzing!

All the News That's Fit to Tweet

2011-03-28T06:57:00.001-05:00

...because everyone knows that Twitter is the best source for news.
...Right?

Prince William slips off for secret stag weekend...

No comment. Actually, I don't see why anyone would care.

President Obama speaks on Libya tonight from the National Defense University in Washington.

Yay. I'll plan my entire evening around this. Maybe even figure out how to use the VCR again so I can have a copy to watch over and over again until the tape breaks. (Because we are the Flintstones, living in 2010 without a DVR. TiVo? What's that?)

SOROS GROUP PLOTS 'GUERILLA WAR', 'SABOTAGE' ON FOXNEWS...

That sounds about right. Yeah, that's pretty much what you'd expect from a Soros-led group. Ah, I see; it's Media Matters. Long have they held a cherished spot in my conservative heart! ...But is this really "news", at this point? ...I see. Now even the founder is admitting the whole "guerilla war" and "sabotage" thing, apparently. Well, that's nice.

Poisonous Egyptian cobra escapes Bronx Zoo...

It wasn't a pregnant female was it?

Sweet, Simple Things

2011-03-27T10:11:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it feels like it doesn't take much bring you down and practically ruin your day, but at least it doesn't have to take much to make you happy, either.

“It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.”
--Laura Ingalls Wilder

Sweet, Simple Things from This Weekend:

Playing Saint Petersburg with Donald
A handful of malted milk balls to munch on while we played
Working on my new doily-- the first "for me" project I've done in quite a while
Learning that I can follow written patterns for doilies (Yay!)
Trixie's obvious joy in a simple game of "Find It"
A breezy yesterday
Crisp green pepper slices and pickles on a sandwich
British mystery novels of the 1920s and 1930s
Nearing the end of a month (which means a fresh challenge for the photo blog)
Feeling interested in and even looking forward to some of my "need to do"s for the week to come

Humble: It's a Funny-Sounding Word

2011-03-25T10:52:00.001-05:00

Humbling Things, Should I Begin to Think Too Highly of Myself :

Trying to brush Trixie's teeth when she doesn't want them to be brushed. (I was trying because I'd noticed that some of them are looking a little dirty around the gum line). She can make her mouth tiny, and I never dreamed she had such muscular lips.

Working hard at cleaning the floor, only to find that it's already getting dirty again by the end of the day. Or (in some cases) by the end of the hour.

Stepping into the front yard and finding 2- or 3-foot high weeds in the foundation plating, where I could swear there were no weeds a day or two ago.

The seemingly self-propagating piles of papers and stuff I need to go through, sort, and Do Something With. (Where do they come from?!)

Good intentions. Lack of follow-through. (That says it all, really.)

Oh well. That's just life, I guess.

Guilty!

2011-03-24T09:12:00.000-05:00

I know-- some "experts" swear dogs are incapable of feelings of guilt. "That dog doesn't feel guilty! Even if he did eat the cat treats, he forgot about it two minutes after it happened! He can just tell by your tone and body language that you're displeased, so he reacts accordingly." Personally, I'm not convinced, but either way, this video gave me a good laugh.

Little Miss Sunshine, That's Me! ;o)

2011-03-24T08:19:00.006-05:00

Dez Bryant Kicked Out Of NorthPark For ‘Pants On The Ground’

He (apparently) is an NFL player.

Bryant and three of his friends were ejected from the NorthPark shopping center Saturday after a dispute between Bryant and two off-duty officers over the men sagging their pants below their hips, exposing their underwear.

A Tuesday police statement says officers working off-duty Saturday as security at NorthPark encountered Bryant and three companions wearing the drooping pants.

When the officers asked the four to pull up their trousers, Bryant launched into a profanity-laced tirade. According to the statement, when confronted, Bryant told officers. “What the ****, you stopped me like I stole something.” That prompted the officers to escort the four from the mall.

Police say Bryant refused to leave, however, until his “representative” could arrive and he parked in a fire lane until a friend arrived and persuaded him to go.

No charge was filed, but a Miscellaneous Incident Report was filed.

Classy. (And I would expect no better from far too many of these "modern-day gladiators", unfortunately.)

When will people finally realize how utterly ridiculous (and trashy) it looks when you don't keep your pants pulled up? Exposing the top three or four inches of your underwear is an insult to everyone around you. (Also, I thought it was widely publicized about a year ago that if you "sag", then you're "lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground"...)

Even if you defend his right to "sag" (oh, gag!), it sounds like he has no respect for authority (or probably anyone else). Hey, I don't care if they were off-duty officers at a shopping center. If an average person (read "not a very well-paid athlete) attracted the unfavorable attention of those officers, I doubt he'd be treated gently after "launching into a profanity-laced tirade".

But whatever.
I guess we have bigger problems to deal with...

Like Obamacare and this, for instance.
(But back when it hadn't been passed yet, you thought Obamacare was such a wonderful idea, Rep. Weiner... I'm confused. If it's so wonderful, why are you considering getting a waiver for New York City, should you become mayor?)

...And then you're reminded that so many of our problems are due to people like this one member of a craft-related Yahoo newsgroup I'm subscribed to. Yesterday, she posted a message about how if you're at risk of losing your home, you might want to check out this website, because there are some very old laws in some states that might help you. And then there's a little snippet that she forwarded: "Very interesting. Took this out of an article on AOL about how a couple gained title to their new home after only one payment, and now owns it free and clear. It pays to check out these questions and answers."

Yeah, it paid for that couple. What about whoever ended up picking up the rest of the tab for their new home, since the couple who now "own" it "free and clear" only made one payment (which obviously wasn't for the entire cost of the house)?

Now, let's just say the tease about the couple with the one-payment home isn't legitimate. (It sounds fake to me, but who knows. Maybe in some very, very rare circumstances, it could be true.) My point is that some people-- too many people-- like this woman-- read that and think, "Wow! What a great deal, if you can get it! Maybe I can get my house almost for free, too! Maybe I can get away with paying for only a quarter-- a half-- whatever percentage of the original price of my house!" Never mind that you agreed to pay X amount of dollars for the house. Never mind that someone is going to get a raw deal, if (1) you don't pay a fair price for the house, and (2) you keep it and live in it anyway.

Maybe I'm just being mean. (Wouldn't be the first time...) Maybe I'm just jealous, because we had to pay for all of our house. No magical old law came along and let us thumb our noses at our creditors with a merry round of "nanny-nanny-boo-boo". (Then we'd just have had to figure out how to live with the shame.)

Look, I know times have been tough, but for most people, if you find yourself unable to pay your mortgage, at least some of the blame falls on your own shoulders, whether you want to admit it or not.

Whatever. I'm just sick of people feeling entitled to this, entitled to that. I'm tired of the "If I want it, I should have it, by golly" mentality-- the "I'm owed this, simply by virtue of my fortuitous existence in this country" attitude. If so-and-so has one, you should have one, too! 'Cause otherwise it's jut not fair. Why should you have to work for it-- to pay for it, really? There's no need. Not with good old Uncle Sam to foot the bill, thanks to the redistribution of wealth and the printing of more moolah. Just put it on the tab! We're only $14,240,283,447,859 (give or take a few) in the hole. Once you're in for $14 trillion, what's a few thousand more, right? Obama can just pay for it out of his stash-- his special Obama-money stash.

Ugh. People. No wonder I prefer my dogs to most of 'em.
(...And, no, I don't wonder why I don't have more friends.)

ETA:
Ah. I looked it up (brilliant of me, really) and found the story. It's true, and I have to say, after reading it, I still don't feel all warm and fuzzy over their "luck". (Good grief. Am I even human that I not feel the warm fuzzies?!)

Things like this are what stop the cozy feeling:

Matt acknowledges that at the time they bought a larger, previous house in 2003 "we couldn't afford the property." But like many Americans, they say they were a product of the mortgage industry, which at the time was handing out loans to almost anyone with a pulse.

Oh! Well, that explains it, then. You were duped, you poor darlings! You were merely a "product of the mortgage industry", so obviously you bear none of the blame for the unfortunate circumstances in which you found yourselves.

And also like many Americans, they used their home like an ATM, refinancing into a larger mortgage as equity climbed with rising home prices (and the extensive remodeling they did) just so that they could have money to pay for the upgrades as well as purchase the vacant adjoining lot.

Well, I don't know about you, but that makes perfect sense to me! Home = ATM. Yep. Got it!

This part amused me (beastly person that I am): They got their first loan on "their 6,000-square-foot dream home" (with a "vacant adjoining lakefront lot"-- courtesy of the ATM-home) through the wife's employer (First Horizon Bank)... so when that didn't work out, "it was awkward". (You don't say!)

"I owed them money and I defaulted, so I didn't want to pursue another loan through them again." The 32-year-old was also embarrassed and decided it would be better to keep her personal finances separate from her workplace.

...Yeah. Probably so.

"I don't like people saying we won a 'free' house," says Matt. "It's not like we entered a raffle and won. We lost practically everything we ever worked for."

Fine, but don't pretend that you were merely innocent victims. There's a reason you "lost practically everything". You (and your wife, who is a mortgage loan originator) should have known better. Sorry. It may not be pleasant to admit, but that's the way it is.

Dude is Psycho.

2011-03-22T15:28:00.000-05:00

Crazy ol' Chavez-- always good for a laugh:

Chavez says capitalism may have ended life on Mars.

Capitalism may be to blame for the lack of life on the planet Mars, Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday.

"I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet," Chavez said in speech to mark World Water Day.

Seriously?
You have to wonder if certain people know how ridiculous they sound and just pretend not to be aware of it... or if they're truly, legitimately that out-of-it.

...Personally, I've long suspected that the vast and advanced (subterranean) civilization of Mars fell prey to a vampire-zombie-plague outbreak that wiped out the entire population in a matter of days. It happened about 1,673 Earth-years ago, in fact.

In Which I React to More News Tweets

2011-03-22T07:31:00.000-05:00

"Scientists create animals that are part-human."

Yeah, I'm sure that will end well.

It's probably not (yet) quite as bad as it sounds-- as usual-- but still...
You think any of those scientists saw Splice?

"FBI's Next Generation ID system launched: Fingerprint, iris, VOICE, tattoos, palms, face..."

...Wait. So you mean all those old "futuristic" movies in which someone sneaks past security with just a pair of "borrowed" eyes, possibly a spare thumb, were pure hokum??

Also, I gather that we're supposed to be surprised that they apparently have such effective voice recognition. But somehow... I'm just not.

Incidentally, that story reminds me of this one ("The Government Wants To Buy Software To Fake Online Grassroots Social Media Campaigns"), which I only heard about yesterday, through Donald. I haven't read much about it, but my first reaction is that it's creepy:

"HBGary Federal wanted to create software that could make it easy for staffers to create and maintain a massive number of fake online social network personas, allowing them to control virtual armies of totally fake people, whose only mission is to spy on others and spew paid-for propaganda. But, what's even more amazing is that not only did the emails reveal HBGary Federal employees talking about building a platform for letting people more easily manage an army of fake personas, but that the US government put out a request for exactly that kind of software last June, with its request for 'Persona Management Software.'"

Like so many things, it could have uses for good, but what about when it falls into the wrong hands? People are so easily swayed by popular opinion/peer pressure. When a fake "popular opinion" starts popping up everywhere, will they bother to think critically about it, or will they just go with the flow? (That's a real tough one, huh?)

"Libya War Cost Headed for the Billions..."
"'Gold Bug' Gaddafi can afford mercenaries for months, perhaps"
"Portugal braces for govt collapse amid debt crisis..."
"Nuclear Plant Contaminates Sea After Damage to Fuel Rods..."
(...and so on...)

You can always count on the news to cheer you right up!

"First Calls for Obama to be Stripped of Nobel Peace Prize..."

Well, he never should've received it to begin with, but honestly, who cares one way or the other, at this point? History will still be history, regardless of their silly little prize. (Even Donald, a Swede, scoffs at the Peace Prize. How much of this is due to the fact that it alone of the Nobel prizes is awarded by the Norwegians instead of the Swedes, I leave you to decide... ;o))

"Man shows up for DWI hearing -- with an open can of beer!"

That is so pathetic that I can't even make a joke of it.

"Report: Majority Of Newspapers Now Purchased By Kidnappers To Prove Date"

Oops. That one's from The Onion. ;o)

What's in My Bag

2011-03-17T15:47:00.001-05:00

Hey, I actually did it!
And it's such an accomplishment, too. ;o)

Incidentally...

2011-03-17T09:33:00.003-05:00

If you want to make your own washable, reusable cleaning pads for the Swiffer WetJet, you don't have to fiddle around with elastic or velcro strips to hold them into place.

I found someone blogging about how she made hers from scraps of fleece (polar fleece-- not genuine fleece, by the way ;o)), and found that they stuck to the velcro-y stuff on the Swiffer just fine (especially after being pushed around the floor a few times).

I didn't have any fleece scraps, but I did have some old, unwearable flannel pj bottoms in the rag bag, and flannel seemed at least as sticky for velcro as fleece, so I gave that a try. And yes! It works! No velcro! No elastic! Just flannel on one side and old towels (terry cloth) on the other, and it stuck perfectly.

And because (out of consideration for my readers) I believe this will conclude the saga of Swiffer, I'll conclude this entry with... "and they Swiffered happily every after (except for those times when nothing but a really thorough mopping would do the job)! The End."

ETA:
Argh! Well, the first one I tried worked great. Then I used a couple more today (after publishing this post, of course), and they were less amazing... In fact, the towel side stuck to the velcro fairly well (after a little doing), but the flannel's sticking ability was less than impressive. Oh well. If all else fails, I have plenty of cheap elastic to use up.