new blog

I have decided to start a new blog. I haven't seemed interested in blogging to Gravity in a while so I have started a new one. The address is:

http://suburbancave.blogspot.com

finally!!

Now he can finally hold his head up again. Yes, I finally took him to the groomer. I showed her his face. She knew what I usually ask for (since that's the only place I have ever taken him, but he has been done by several people) but I didn't really want his face too much shorter. His ears were matted pretty bad but I didn't want her to tug and tug but she said she would try to comb them out but she might have to take them down to the leather.

I got the call to pick him up and when I went in, she gave me the slip to go pay and explained what she had done. She told me she had taken his face down real short so he could eventually have a French moustache and his brows and he kept shaking his head and fluffing out his ears so she had to take them down to the leather.

Long story short, since I just lost the long story, she worked a miracle and put some form into his face, left some hair on his ears and lightened his poor load considerably. He smells better, weighs less and we're both happier. This was much better written the first time, but this is all you get.

backyard visitor

While checking today for more Langolier holes, or the revisitation of old covered holes, I picked up the firepit cover that I had taken off the firepit and stood on it's side so it and the base wouldn't get rusty. Much to my surprise, the grate had a rider. 

This little guy had knit himself into the holes of the grate cover. I immediately thought "Photo op! and abandoned Ozzy, ran inside' grabbed my camera and took

the grate out into the sun and tried to get a good shot of the snake. 

When I had gotten the best shot I thought I could (I barely missed getting his tongue coming out. I wished my camera had a faster shutter speed, or I was more intuitive) I took the grate and snake over to the transformer thinking that, 1). I really didn't want him that close to the house,

and 2). the sun might warm him up and inspire him to work his way through the grate and back out into the field where I hope he came from.

When I took a closer look at him, after taking the photos, I began to worry about if he could actually get out again. He seemed so intricately entwined, at such angles, that he might not be able to get out again. I know that doesn't make sense, cause he got in there, but look at him. Anyway, I left him in the sun, thinking he would be all charged up, warm and inspired. 

Sure enough, I looked out at the grate later, sitting on the transformer, and he was gone. Hopefully in the direction of the field and not back toward my house. 

Did I mention the last snake I found? I found a 6 inch baby last fall and put it in a Tupperware container, thinking of releasing it, I guess. I put it in the garage and forgot about it, thinking it was safe in a plastic, high edge container. I checked a couple of days later (I forgot about it) and it was gone. Now I tiptoe around my garage like a cat on a wet floor, waiting for that thing to come back out, big and fat from hidden bugs. 

No, I don't think I'll let a foot long snake get happy taking up residence in my back yard with the mythical one living in my garage.

Ozzy, me and scisssors

Ozzy has been having some trouble with his allergies and rubbing his eyes again, so I've had to put ointment on his eyes. All the rubbing has caused his face to get mats, so I've taken the scissors to him, gradually over the past week.

 It started with his mustache, little at a time. I'd cut off a little bit then give him a Pupparoni and make a big deal about him. When it came time to cut off the mats around his eyes it was a little trickier but I used the same format and he let me do it, with the Pupparoni at the end, and a little bit at each session.

He needs to be groomed, obviously, as you can tell by the length of his ears. His nails are too long, too, but I'm not going to try those. I know he must be a pistol for the groomers to do on his face cause that's always what they're doing when I pick him up and that's always where the stray long hairs are. Maybe now it won't be quite so hard for them. 

Anyway, now his face is short and his ears are long so he looks like an Afghan hound with a gland deficiency. Usually he enjoys having his picture taken, but as you can tell by the second picture, he just wanted me to put the camera down this time. No standing and posing this time. Oh, that's a sad face. Alex already told me she's not letting me anywhere near my grandchildren with scissors in my hand.

facebook

I've been spending a lot of time on Facebook lately. I think I got on it originally because Trish was on it and it was the only way I could see what was going on with her. Now I am on and off of it all day. I can get a basic version of it on my iPod although the full version is a lot more fun cause I can take the quizzes and do the things that kill so much time but are the fun part of it. There are people on there that have hundreds of friends, but I have 17. 

But that's why I haven't been blogging so much. I can't actually blog on my iPod, much to my chagrin. I can put in the title and that's it. Bummer. I'm getting out of the habit of picking up the computer so maybe it's a good thing.

We survived the spring snow storm. It came in late last night with the typical Oklahoma wind but it never was enough snow to fully cover the lawn. This afternoon there was barely any snow left but there were still flakes wafting on the wind (since they were wafting you could tell it wasn't the blow-the-chain-off-the-fence usual Oklahoma wind). 

I talked to Josh today, which was really sweet of him since it obviously cost him. His voice sounded better but it was getting kinda croaky by the time he hung up. He left work at noon yesterday because he just couldn't get his voice out to make a sale. Coincidentally, Alex walked in at the same time he had to hang up the phone. 

The wedding plans are coming along. Alex's last day of work is next Tuesday, officially. She's going to still be on the books at Corrino's so she can help them out, but she'll be working with her mom now, doing bookkeeping at insurance companies. But no more being on 24 hour call for the catering anymore. I'm so happy for her and I know she's excited.

That's about it. Just hanging out. Watching CNN. Like I do.

no more Langolier holes

Today was a busy day. First of all, it started at 3:30 am. I tried really hard to get back to sleep but at 4:30 I gave up and got out of bed and went to the living room to play some Guitar Hero. I played until I was tired and making mistakes, so Ozzy and I went to McDonald's and got some Sunday breakfast. 

I thought I would read the Sunday paper. I had given in to one of those teenage solicitors trying to win a contest, in this case a savings bond. I thought that was a worthy goal, and it was only $10 for two months of Sunday papers, so since I had that in my wallet, I did it. Today's was the first paper I have opened, and they have been delivering it daily ever since I gave that kid the ten bucks. 

I can tell the recession is hitting the Daily Oklahoman cause, since I took the paper the last time, the paper is thinner. Not the number of pages, the width. It is now proportionately much more tall than wide than it used to be, enough to be obvious and I think a bit odd looking. Maybe it's just me and twenty years in the newspaper business.

Anyway, the day progressed in an interesting way, considering the way it started. I kept thinking that I would just lie down and take a nap at some point, but I kept finding things to do. I took out the trash after finishing the paper cause with the paper it was just too full not to take out and tomorrow is trash day. I did the dishes and got the counters clean and, in fact, am in the process of cleaning the stove. I straightened the spare room and made the bed again, picked up Ozzy's toys (he pulled his favorites back out), all the while staying in the living room, thereby making Ozzy's day. 

I check my iPod frequently during the day and when I checked the weather I noticed a severe weather alert for tomorrow. The alert is for wind during the daytime but there will be storms moving in tonight. I started thinking about the Langolier holes at the edge of the foundation of the house filling with rainwater. Not really a good idea. I had planned to fill them up a long time before now, as Josh as some Top Soil left over from filling his gopher holes in his back yard and told me I could have it. I tried to call him but he never called back, so Oz and I went for a ride to get some.

We went to Lowe's and I picked up a couple of bags of Top Soil and a couple of other things I need. Last year the water main at the sidewalk between my neighbor's house and mine broke and the City did a terrible job fixing it. It took them a year to flatten down the mounds of dirt. Now it just looks... unloved. So I bought the other bag of dirt to make that look better. It doesn't matter to me that the main is mostly on Dusty's side. It will look better when it's leveled out. I bought a little metal rake that I can use in the gardens but will still level out the dirt. I bought this industrial weed remover with an ergo handle. When I was in the Valley for so long last summer some weeds took root that I can't get out with anything so far. Even if they die the stalk is shrub size and painful to step on. 

Anyway, I came home with those things, and dinner from Sonic, and decided that I had better get the holes filled before I did anything else because if I sat down I would probably just want to stay down and the storm would probably hit and it would all be for nothing. So I trudged that heavy bag of soil to the back (man, that bad was heavy, or I was really tired - the other one is still in the trunk) and opened the bag and just started pouring dirt into every hole I could see. It took the whole bag. 

A couple of things struck me, though. First of all, I'm so used to hard packed Arizona soil that I was shocked when I used the weeder to help put the dirt in place and the weeder went right in and the dirt moved around. What was wrong with this stuff?! There hasn't been any water on it in ages - it should be rock hard!! Oh, wait a minute, there's actually moisture in the air and stuff. 

The other thing is that it's starting to look like spring. What looked like a dead garden in the Langolier pictures now has greenery in it. Granted, some of the green stuff is weeds, but not most of it. The perennials are coming back and the rose bushes are almost all filled in. The weird black leafed shrub is back again and that other shrub next to the door is about five feet tall. I think it's time for some pruning. I'm getting excited about gardening. 

The grass along the freeway is starting to green up. It's interesting that the patches where the fires were are the greenest. I remember Randy's dad burning his yard in the early spring. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. He let me light it once. This was legal!! Really shows the need and benefits of regulated forest burns. My yard isn't all that green yet. I was going to start watering, but it's going to rain, so I didn't. I had a treatment put on it that was a weed and feed. Most people around here do it. It looks like they paint their yards green. But it seems to work well cause there are some really beautiful yards. But what sold me was that the highway department does it and the grass along the highway is beautiful. I just didn't know what else to do to take care of those weeds. I want to walk barefoot in my back yard and not have to fear a half inch thick stalk in the sole of my foot. Plus I want it to look nice for the wedding.

So, where was I? Oh yeah, filling holes. Finished that, came back in and had dinner and called it good. That was it. That was the last thing I did, other than watching OU in the NCAA women's championship. They were the secondary game (ESPN switched back and forth between playoff games) so I didn't get to watch all of the game, but they won, so that was the important part. The only reason I watched was an article in the paper I read today about Courtney Paris, the senior sensation from OU who vowed to pay back her scholarship if she didn't lead her team to a national championship. This has caused varying reactions from commentators, especially considering UCONN is evidently considered to be the powerhouse team this year, giving OU an outside chance at the win. This makes watching much more interesting for me.

So I've managed to stay awake all day which means I'll have a better chance of sleeping all night and normalizing my schedule on a long term basis. I'm gunna be tired tomorrow, but it's going to be a good tired. 

a wedding date!

Yes, you read it right! We finally have a wedding date. Alex told me last night that she is going down to the Hall to make it official there but the date they have scheduled is Sunday, June 14 at 6pm. There is a reason for it being a Sunday, which you will all hear about when you get here, or when I get chattier, but this is a non sleeping morning so I'm not telling this time. Suffice it to say that the date is firm. And it's worth it to get the Hall where they are having the wedding. It was my personal favorite of the places they took me to see. I tried hard to be objective but it kept slipping out when we were looking at the other places, so when Alex said they were going to have it there I did my private little happy dance. LOVE IT! It's going to be beautiful. 

So, now I'm going to be working on the addresses that I don't have for some of the family for Alex in the next week or so in order that she can get working on the invitations. Starting to feel like a real wedding now, isn't it? 

The not sleeping thing is getting to be more sporadic, not a constant thing anymore. I went to the doctor and she changed a few of my meds and I'm feeling better so I think it's just going to take a few weeks for things to adjust. I actually did sleep last night and woke up early and then slept again in the afternoon so this could be just having all slept out. I actually took Ozzy for a short walk last night (at 1:30 am, but you know my neighborhood - we went about three or four houses each way). It's a start. He's turned into such a couch potato I wouldn't want to give him a heart attack by either the exercise or the shock.

So that's it for now, but it's a good one!

Langoliers

Josh suggested last week that the next time I see the pest guy that I ask him about the holes in my yard. Oddly enough, the pest guy called within a day or so. So I did remember to ask him, in my haze at being awakened at the boggling hour of noonish. He asked if I thought I had rats. Well, I hadn't thought of that but the since he mentioned it I've been a little creeped out by it.

He came by on Monday, knocked on my door and we went into the backyard. I showed him the holes shown in the first picture (minus Ozzy who stayed inside this time). He was duly impressed, and went to the other side of the backdoor to look around; moved the plant next to the door and there it was, right behind the bottom and top of the outdoor fireplace (I had put them there, standing on their sides, so they wouldn't rust with accumulated rain and sleet - aren't I clever? not so much, as it turns out) an even bigger hole, and the one with all the traffic, as evidenced by all the little droppings, **shudder**    **shudder again** I took a picture with my foot in it just for size, but you can't really see the gaping size of the hole, or maybe it's just the **shudder** factor.

We talked about what it could be. He must have noticed my reaction because the R-word didn't come up again. He pointed out my proximity to the field just on the other side of my back fence and told me that other developments close to undeveloped land have had problems, too. I told him I had looked around my fence line and hadn't found another hole and he found three of them behind the transformer box, little ones. Okay, that pretty much proved where they're coming from. And, by the way, he did say, without me prodding him, that they were living UNDER my slab. That's right, under my house. Ha! I'm not crazy. Well, at least the pest guy doesn't think I'm crazy.

Anyway, I'm going to give it a little while longer and then get some top soil at Home Depot to fill in the holes. I've been afraid to do anything in the garden. Well, still am, to tell you the truth. Those are mean looking holes. I'm going to buy a long-handled fork, too, emphasis on the loooooong.

I just noticed that Ozzy has divested the chair in my bedroom of the king sized quilt and two pillows that were residing there. I just found them on the floor while Ozzy was innocently curled up on my bed. I looked down to pet him and talk to him and his little right eye is beginning to lose some hair again so his allergies are bothering him, too. He puts his little head on the floor and just snowplows it to rub his eyes when they itch. Poor little guy. With all the wind and no rain for so long its no wonder, for either of us.

It's ten o'clock now and time for breakfast. It seems I've temporarily fallen back into the bad not-eating habit. It's really hard for me to keep up my appetite and I haven't been doing too well with it lately. But, since I don't want to have another gall bladder attack, I know I have to eat. Nothing like the the remembrance of pain past to keep one on the straight and narrow, as it were. 

Oh, and how can I not remember the big news - I got my HLN Headline News t-shirt and autographed picture today! Finally. Now I feel somewhat deflated because I realize that I haven't won the trip to Atlanta. Oh well - I'm a winner! The autographed picture was somewhat smooshed but still, it was autographed and I'm sure that's the important part. I thought about that today, about how much time it must take her to autograph at least thirty pictures every month. No wonder they must wait until the end of the month to do it one time. Lucky for the winner at the end of the month, sucks for the winner at the beginning of the month.

Okay, now I'm really hungry. More later.

toofeses

Teeth. Yes, teeth. My ongoing fascination with teeth on television will be tonight's rant.

First of all let me lay the groundwork for this by recalling the "Friends" episode where Ross wanted to whiten his teeth for a date and left the whitening strip on his teeth for too long. His teeth were not only white they were too white. When the lights went off his teeth glowed in the dark. It was hilarious. 

That episode is always in the back of my mind when I watch the news shows that I always seem to have on. It seems to be a prerequisite that an online personality, or anyone that is going to be on air, or wants to be on air, has to have their teeth whitened. The problem has become that the level of white being achieved is not a natural white. We have gone past that. Way past. We have achieved blue-white. Just like the headlights. 

Yes, we now have headlights for teeth. And like the annoying, in-your-face brights, you can't avoid the pearly whites in the split screen world of today's news broadcasts. When three of the four mouths going ninety miles an hour are flashing like morse code and one poor little mouth is in a corner merely speaking, you can't help but notice (well, I can't). Sadly, that person is usually a "normal" person, i.e. not in any public relations industry, a lawyer, a legislator, or in show business. And their teeth aren't by any means yellow - their teeth are normal and merely white. Just not glow-in-the-dark blue-white.

Not that there are not good reasons to whiten your teeth. How much whiter can we make them? They are turning faint blue already - take a look. We have halogen teeth, people. This is just a trend that has gotten way out of hand, and I think the next thing we are going to see, and I don't know how long it's going to take to see it, is the costly repair of over whitening. There's a reason nature didn't want us to glow in the dark when we smiled, and just because we don't get pounced on when we smile at night now doesn't mean we need to do it. Moderation people, moderation.

part deux

Now where was I before I got so engrossed by the speech? Oh yes, the chat rooms. I found that I was really turned of by these people who were so familiar with the talent, the on-air personalities. They weren't really there for the news, they were there to chat up the talent. They get all familiar with one another and then the talent gets familiar-ish with them and then it gets clique-y on the part of the chat people (I'm extrapolating here since I wasn't really around long enough to see the process start to finish). 

I don't know - it's all friendly and everything, but for me it's disquieting. I like that glass wall. I like the personalities up on the screen. It's not that I don't like the talent, because I do, very much. Especially on that show. But it felt like going to a Star Trek convention when I was in the chat room. You know I loved watching Xena but going to a convention ONE time nearly kept me from ever watching again. It's one thing to love a show, it's another thing to LOVE a show. 

Luckily, there was the weekend without the morning show, and the news on the weekend is not nearly as good, so by the time the Monday show came around the nasty taste in my mouth was forgotten. Unfortunately, though, I was also sleeping better and haven't been wanting to try to stay up to watch the show and now the trip to Atlanta game is over. If I win that would be awesome. If I get my t-shirt it'll be a miracle! If I get to go to Atlanta INSTEAD of the t-shirt.... yeah, that would be better.

Itching like crazy..... must take medicine before I start taking my skin off. I can't cut my fingernails any shorter. When I take these pills I really sleep, when I eventually get to sleep, but I sleep really late in the day. ACK!!! BRB 

the cost of winning

As I wait for the President's speech to begin, wondering if I should start this or not, I look back on the past few weeks and my time spent with the "talking heads." I'm going to go ahead and write this because I have an overwhelming need to write today, for some reason and the thought of just sitting here and twiddling my thumbs is abhorrent, for some reason.

I still haven't received my t-shirt from Headline News. I wrote an e-mail to the person who sent me the "winner" notification and got a very nice email in return saying that they had had a very hectic schedule and were behind at the moment. Still, I go to my mailbox every day and look for it. I have played the game two more times, only placing in the top ten once. I did find out the way to win the trip to Atlanta, it seems, is to be a winner of a t-shirt. They will be in a drawing for the trip. Well, I actually feel better about that at least I'm in the running. 

Interestingly, in the days following that, I found I was kind of repelled by the news. I'm not sure why, but I think it might have something to do with the news groupies in the chat rooms associated with the game. It's not that they weren't nice people. For the most part they were. The first day the group, as I left, were very supportive and congratulated me as I left, and as I signed on the next day congratulated me again. However, there was one guy the second day that acted like a teenager who needed to be slapped down, who was looking for a fight, posturing and primping like the jerk you just want to avoid. The worst of all chat rooms. 

Headline News, in the morning, is very loose and chatty. The online chemistry is friendly and cheerful - that's very much the charm. They have, I think, eight different chat rooms going on as the news goes on during the morning. They encourage bantering and the on-air personalities jump into the chat rooms during the breaks. Even Robin Meade's mother popped in the other day. 

***Yaaayyyy - Janet Napolitan is coming into Congress right now, having just being introduced as a member of the President's Cabinet. Way to go, Janet!!!!

***I wonder if the President's hand ever hurts the morning after, after shaking so many hands the night before?

More later

babysitting and stuff

Cassie and Vinnie Christopher stayed over last night so Josh and Alex could go to Tulsa for Valentine's Day. I was very excited about them coming over. Vinnie sat on my lap every chance he could but Cassie pretty much parked herself at the front door waiting for their return. For most of the time Ozzy seemed to be kinda depressed. If the three of them went outside, the other two would come in and he would be sitting outside at the door and I would have to ask him if he wanted to come in before he would. 

However, something must have clicked in this afternoon because he was wild and wooly and ready to play. He got up and was trying to coax me into the living room. I wanted to take a shower first but it always takes me a bit to motivate myself first. As I was sitting there he started biting and picking on Cassie, then reached over and stole the blue squeaky elephant from Vinnie!! Talk about feeling your oats! I threw the squeaky for Vinnie and let Ozzy continue to believe he had Cassie right where he wanted her.

My other big news this week is that I won a trivia contest on CNN's Headline News on Wednesday. I drank a mocha frappuccino in the evening the night before and was good to go when Morning Express came on at 5 a.m. I decided to try the Challenge game that they are always talking about, since I was up anyway. They play from 7-9. It's a jump in and play when you want to, but you only get the questions as they come up and they're only asked once. Anyway, I ended up in third place, which I thought was pretty good. There were some pretty hard questions in there, and some predictions like "Will she say "Morning Sunshine" when she comes back in?" or "What was the first newspaper that she read the headlines from?" I was tired but attentive. Did I mention that I had another mocha frappuccino somewhere along the line? I got some I wasn't even aware I knew. The other people in the blog room said that getting into the top ten is pretty hard.

They pick a random winner and the top winner every day, and then there's a grand prize winner. I got an e-mail later that day that said I was a winner in the game. My first thought was that I was the random winner. After all, I finished in third place. So I filled out the information they wanted and sent it back to them and set my alarm for just before 7 am this morning. This was the same night I had three dogs going in and out and up and down off the bed and not enough sleep from the night before. But I woke up and played again, listening for Robin to say my name. 

I didn't do as well in the game today. I seemed to have used up my trivia juju on my winning day. The reason I wanted to play again was thinking that the grand prize (a trip to Atlanta) might be accumulated points. But I still tried but didn't end up in the Top Ten, even though I was within ten or twenty points of it. Listening to the news, Robin announced that HLNfanatic (I think) was the random winner. Hmmm, I thought that was what I had won. I must now keep watching. So I did. I watched and played, not well, very sleepy, and then it happened. Robin said that Vickilea was the winner of the Challenge game and had won a t-shirt and an autographed photo. Hoooooray!!! I'm a winnner!!!! Never have had anything like that happen to me before. She not only said it that one time, she said it one other time, too. I'm guessing the two people that were in first and second place had already won before and were ineligible. Fine by me. I like being the winner. And the people in the chat room congratulated me as I left yesterday, and again this morning. I thought that was very nice.

I had fun doing it both days and think I'll keep the alarm set. Maybe even try setting the coffee on automatic. Today, though, there was an idiot in the chatroom that was annoying everyone. I'm not sure there was a moderator in there cause he was insulting, even though an automatic warning about the blogging rules comes up every now and then.

So, those are my two big days for this week. And then today I got my WWE mag in the mail today, so I can come down slowly (nah I read it already). Ahhh. Life is good.

storm season already

A tornado touched down in north OKC today. It did a lot of damage but so far it doesn't seem to have caused to have caused any fatalities. Three minor injuries. It sucked a man out of the window of his mobile home, but it didn't kill him. They don't know what it is on the F scale yet, but the meteorologist I watch thinks it will be an F3. 

Josh called me first thing this morning to let me know there was a tornado watch, but my weather radio had just awakened me and I had the TV on to the weather alert. He called me off and on during the day to make sure I was still okay. He's such a good guy. He was watching the weather coverage while he was at work.

This is only February and this was a serious storm. Storms like this don't usually hit until the spring, which definitely isn't in February. I have no idea what this means for the storm season this year, if this is an El Niño or La Niña year. I'm just glad that, if the storms are going to be like this, I live in OKC cause the weather coverage here is top rate. You can watch it on TV, get it simulcast on your car radio, get it on the web and I can also kinda get it on my iPod.  

On a different note, I ended up watching the presidential speech at 3 a.m. on Fox, who showed it with the press conference afterward. I never thought I would be thanking Fox for anything political.

stoopid TV guide!!!

ARRRRGHH!!! I wanted to watch the presidential address tonight - the first one of the new administration. I figured it out, with eastern standard time and all, for seven o'clock.... but the guide... noooo, the newwwwwss said eight. I hate them. No, that's too strong. I need to watch my words. They have so much power. Not MY words, just words. I should know better. I'm ranting. Deep breaths. Breathe. Breathe. Dang it.  I had to have it on cable tonight. Crap. Of all nights to be watching dumb videos on YouTube.

Thank you, Keith Olberman, for saying the name of the "hero pilot"  of Flight 1459 correctly. It's Chesssssssley, not Chellllllsey. Unless it's like Bret Favre and it's tricky. And I'm pretty sure its not. 

I think YouTube rotted my brain.

more talk, no action

I'm watching the Senate debate the Stimulus Bill today, as the Republicans say over and over again that they can't see how the bill would create jobs. It's amazing to me how the partisan system creates tunnel vision along party lines. 

CNN.com today has listed what has been cut from the the bill in the Senate so far. Eye opening. I can see where some of the cut programs could be cut, but I can see a lot more of the programs providing jobs, particularly in housing (yes, housing) and construction. The Republicans have been pounding the pulpit about this bill not providing for housing needs and yet they have demanded the housing cuts. Do they rely on America only hearing what they say and not ever reading or seeing the facts?

The Republicans have had eight years to screw up the economy from the abundance that Clinton left for Bush. Now they're on the Hill crying that we need caution to keep from making a mistake. The camera is close in on the Senators, of course, but I'm curious to see how many people are actually in the chamber today. Although they are technically in session today, I'm pretty sure they show up for their twelve minutes to speak and leave. They want their speech in the Congressional Record. If the camera were to pull back, I'll bet that there aren't more than fifteen or twenty people in the entire chamber, if that many.

Obama has only been in office for short of three weeks and this is close to getting out of his hands. They are saying that he is going to hit it hard, like a campaign, starting Monday. I know he was busy building his cabinet and certainly has been working, but this seems to have needed more "hand holding" than anyone anticipated. Don't forget, even after it gets through the Senate it has to go back to the House and Nancy Pelosi, the Queen of the playground and protector of the education parts of the bill.

We're in for an even bigger fight when it leaves the Senate. What is the unemployment level going to be at by then?

my turn as a talking head

ARGH! The Republicans are making me crazy!! Reaganomics - I wish that craze would just go away. It didn't REALLY work and now the GOP is dragging it out as an alternative to the stimulus package. 

No, it didn't work. Reagan cut taxes ONE time during his time in office and then raised taxes continually after that because the tax cut was so massive he had to adjust it over and over again. Check the facts. Trickle down economics is a joke. This return is part of a Legacy Burnishing, just like they're trying on Bush, but time away is helping. But don't get me side tracked. Still, last night there was a big board up on the Senate floor with the bullet points of Reagonomics. Oy.

What good is it going to do to give corporate tax breaks if there are no customers to keep businesses open? Republicans want tax breaks for families..... oh and singles, too. McCain, for example, thinks that government is inefficient in spending money so therefore it is up to the private sector to bring the economy back. Great in theory, but the private sector is tanking and thanks to greed mongers like Bernie Maddof, even the elite are taking a hit.

This is the GOP being the GOP. Unfortunately, Obama went too far in being bipartisan when he delivered the stimulus package. He's like the nice girl meeting "Mean Girls" who have lost their money but not their meanness, which is their power. As soon as the Republicans realized Obama was trying for a bipartisan victory, not just a victory, he gave them power, and they took it, and they've been gaining more every day. It took him a week to start asserting his presidential muscles in the news again, and now he's got a mess on his hands. 

Unfortunately for Obama, the stimulus was left in the hands of Nancy Pelosi in the House, who's attitude towards bipartisanship was "We won," which only fanned the flames of "Oh yeah, well look what we can do to you anyway." Someone needs to tell her that you can be the big kid on the block and still be gracious.

The GOP's new battle cry is "This is a spending bill!" Well duh. That's what stimulus is all about. And of course the government is going to do it. They're the only one with money in this economy. And the statements that the Republicans, no matter what state they are from, that the bill is all pork you have to take with a grain of salt. The guidelines were that the projects had to be shovel ready (and that was 70%, last I heard), and governors were consulted as to what they needed in their states that keep people from losing jobs. For example, schools being built means teachers wouldn't be laid off, in addition to the construction jobs it creates. Is that pork for the education lobby? And by the way, even if whatever government department got a bunch of computers, which I'm sure they needed, wouldn't that mean a huge order for some business, and several manufacturing plants?

Stimulus means spending. Economists, without (D) pr (R) in front of their name, and one with "Nobel winning" in front of his, have said that money has to be spent to kick start this economy. In fact, they fear that the stimulus is far TOO SMALL. Our economy is huge, the largest in the world, and we're starting to penny pinch, in a manner of speaking. The figure the economists have thrown out that would be necessary to turn around the economy is 2.2 trillion, not even half of what Obama has proposed. 

Oh, and banking. It was announced, or revealed which might be closer, last night by the congressional oversight committee that the amount that we were getting for our investment in the banks under Bush's secretary of the treasury Paulson was $66 for every $100. Paulson reported that we were getting "par" performance - basically $100 worth of investment for every $100 spent. But with independent audit, it was found that we paid $256 billion for stocks and warrants worth $176 billion under the TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program). That was under the GOP watch, and I use the term "watch" really loosely. 

One of the first things Obama did was make the process transparent and put watchdogs in place. We're going to be getting more value for out money. We're on the board of directors now. Still, he has to start flexing his muscles and stop letting the mean kids try to pick on him. We chose him to lead him because we need hope and direction. We need a clear leader. When it gets murky and messy like this, we need someone to come in and spray things off and put things back in their place. The Republicans need to stop "politicking" and remember that we, the people are in desperate times and need something done now.

perils.....

Here are a few perils that have crossed my obviously not-busy-enough mind lately:

• NOT changing the channel when you're doing something else. Unfortunately, I was all caught up with shredding papers from my office tonight and left the channel on twice when I should have turned it off. Now I'm plenty warped. I watched a police reality show about the perils of police work with each incident more horrific than the next. This particular show seemed to be misnamed. It ought to have been named "They're Out To Get The By-Stander!" Now I'm afraid to drive my car.

Not traumatized enough, I watched the Comedy Channel where my innocent and passive viewing was punished by the train wreck that is Jackass 2.5. I was well into it, and recognized Wee Man from Celebrity Circus, when I realized I couldn't turn away, even as it got stupider and more disgusting. Oh, the humanity. 

• SURROUND SOUND! Okay. First of all, most people that upgrade their audio systems have some sort of expectation of the sound that will come out of their speakers. Josh has upgraded me twice now. Each time the sound quality has improved, the last time pretty dramatically. Still, this past Sunday, while watching the Super Bowl, it surprised me when the sound effects came on. Those of you without surround sound, or without it right at your head, might not have noticed how much one particular graphic sounded like my heater coming on, but I did. I was getting up and going to the kitchen and I heard the heater coming on - odd - then coming on again right away. How weird is that? Worried me for a minute is so as I went about my business in the kitchen trying to figure out why the heater was doing that. I sat back down and heard it again, this time in perfect timing to the graphic, and coming out of the speaker. Drat. Got me again. Earlier in the game I heard what I thought was gravel hitting the door, as did Ozzy, and we almost got up to check out what was going on until I figured out what it was. 

You know, all the sounds they're putting into music and shows are driving me and my dog just a wee bit nuts. He and I are all the time looking at each other and turning off the sound to try and figure out if it's the TV or "real life." Live or Memorex, to the Nth degree. 

Not that I'm complaining. I wouldn't change it for anything. I would like a scorecard every now and then. Just to keep everything straight.

still ice on the ground

It was in the 50s today and yet there is still ice on my sidewalk. I really don't know why it's lasting so long, but I like it. Oddly enough, Ozzy slipped on it briefly as we went to get the mail this evening. I've been walking on the sidewalk mostly and now on the driveway since it's cleared up nicely.

Last night there were some parking lots that still had some serious slush in them. I have a pair of fake Uggs that work really well with traction, as it turns out, so I've been wearing them. I would love to have a pair of the real thing, and may get a pair some day, but still saving for the honeymoon. We talked about the wedding date last night but they're still working on it. There are a lot of factors right now. 

At the Bridal Shop there was a 3 year-old boy named Griffen, although he said his name was Rover. I told him he must get called a lot during Red Rover. He said his name was BLUE Rover. When asked about anything, he did it or watched it "yesterday." What a cute little guy he was. He was wearing black cowboy boots just like the kind I bought for Josh when he was very little (too little to object, I should add,). He was really talkative and friendly and had fun flirting with us as the shop was closing and Alex and her mom were finishing up with their sales person.

When we got back to Alex's house, Josh was cleaning his office. We sat in there while Alex looked up something and Josh did something. I watched The Whole Nine Yards. I had brought my iPod nano cause it stopped working again and Josh has "the touch." I go it to work once before when it stopped but hadn't been able to resurrect it this time. I handed it to him and he had it for less than 30 seconds before he handed it back to me, all better.

Today was a quiet day. Tomorrow is going to be all about the Super Bowl. Ozzy's going to like it cause we're going to be in the living room with all his babies. When Vinnie Christopher was here last night, he pulled all of Ozzy's toys out and made a pile of them beside my chair so I could pick my favorite to throw. Ozzy thinks his white friend Vinnie is the sexiest thing he's ever seen, and he wore his little self out by the end of the night.

dress shopping with Alex

Alex picked me up tonight, and Kelsey was with her. Ozzy was so happy to see both of them. But they didn't stay long. We got into Alex's car and drove over to the north east side, I think, to check out a Bridal store. 

They had already gone shopping one night, and Alex emailed me pictures, so I had an idea of what style she likes. She tried on four dresses tonight at the store, where we met her mom and her other sister, Paige. I'm not going to describe the dresses in detail because she still hasn't bought the dress, but there was one dress that she tried on that, when she came out, we all went "wow." I think that's a pretty good reaction. She had said the first time she tried it on only her sister was there and the reaction wasn't what she was hoping for. I like the dress a lot - her mom, her two sisters and Alex, too, but she has another store to check out. If this is the one she gets, Paige is the one to mention it - I can't wait to see the look in Josh's eyes the first time he sees her in this dress. It really reflects her personality. She looks beautiful in it. 

We finished up and headed back to J&A's house. Kelsey's car was there, and I stayed to hang out for a little while. Josh helped me by fixing my iPod nano which tends to just shut down as I use it in the car. I brought it back to life one time, and he did tonight. Alex downloaded the pics I took of her in the different dresses so I don't have to worry about how to email them (I use hi res) and we talked about blogs we have been reading. I mentioned Stuff White People Like, which I read about on CNN and checked out - it's pretty funny. And it turns out that Alex had checked it out just lately, too. Only she got there through the blog site passive-aggressivenotes.com. That's a funny site. I've been reading it since she left after bringing me home. 

When she did bring me home, we stopped at Arby's and got dinner, since Josh had already eaten, and brought it back to my house and we ate together and just talked. We hadn't spent a lot of time together for a while so it was great just to sit and catch up, and, as always with Alex, it's so easy and time flies so fast. Josh called three times before Alex actually left. I have such a good time when I talk with her. I love her so much and am so happy and lucky that Josh made such a good choice of partner. I have to admit that I didn't need a wedding ceremony, or a ceremony of any kind to feel like Alex was family, Josh's partner, or my daughter-in-law. I've felt that way for years. It seems so odd to think of women who think their sons pick women that they don't like (well, not so hard - that was my mother-in-law) or that put the son in an emotional tug of war. I'm so glad there is none of that. Whew - life is too short to have to live it that way. Josh and I are so lucky that he found Alex and her entire family. They're keepers!!

not busy, not busy

I didn't do much today, as is usual for "the day after." I talked to Michele and we played for a while on Rock Band. My time of not playing for the past week or so wasn't good for my playing and she really beat me bad, like she does more often than she would admit.

When we finally wore our important body parts out (her arm, my fingers) we called it quits and Ozzy and I went to do our running around. We went to the Wal Mart market, then to Walgreens and stopped at Sonic for dinner. There's still slush on the ground in the parking lots, which is interesting to drive in.

I haven't done any driving in slush since Colorado, really. And, my street isn't really that melted, so it's still pretty icy. Pulling into my driveway was fun, too. On a good day, about a third of the time, I end up stalling the car because I'm overly careful because the curb is so sharp. Tonight I did the same thing only restarting involved having to go over the curb and up a grade from a standstill. On hard packed icy stuff. Whee. I did make it, tho. When I got out of my car in the garage and walked around the front of my car, it did smell a little hot. Poor baby.

busy, busy

Josh called today and we met Alex at her work. Well, it didn't go quite that smooth. We had to go back to Josh's house cause he wasn't sure he latched the door. Then we had gone several miles from there and the alarm company called me to tell me that the motion sensor had gone off at my house, so we had to turn around and go home to turn that off. You know, Ozzy doesn't do that when I leave him alone, only when I leave with someone else. Josh reminded me that I leave through the front door when that happens. I should have known better than to set the alarm today because Sheba has been on a tear for the last 24 hours. She jumps up and off the bed and tears through the house, and she seems to entice Ozzy into chasing her. I'm sure that was when the alarm went off.

Anyway, after all that, and after picking up Alex from her job, we drove into downtown OKC and visited the Civic Music Center, to the Hall of Mirrors. Then we went on the the next couple of places - the rustic Farmers' Market and then the Petroleum  Club on the 35th floor of the Chase building. All interesting venues. I took the opportunity to take photos for the OKC photo blog page, and I think I got some good ones. We ate dinner in Bricktown, at Abuelo's and then we came home. We stopped at their house for a few minutes and got to see a few pictures of wedding pictures and play with the babies, and then went to the Best Buy by my house. I had never been there before. It's a nice one. Then home. A full afternoon and evening, some good photos, lots of fun with Josh and Alex, as usual. I think there are more venues to go to, which will be more fun, and wedding dresses on Friday.

today's weather

This isn't snow, it's sleet. I could actually hear it hitting the house last night, along with a clap of thunder somewhere along the way. Thunder sleet. I had never heard of thunder snow, or sleet, until a few years ago. Anyway, it sounded like someone throwing course sand at the house. At least it was less slick today then the ice we had yesterday.

Not much posting because not much has been going on. I haven't been online a lot, and I haven't been outside a lot. I did do to the University of Oklahoma campus and drive around a little bit, took a few pictures. It was pretty warm then, and it was only a couple of days ago. 

Ozzy is fine with the weather because it isn't wet outside. He didn't pause one second to trot out into the sleet. When it's raining I always get at least one evil (for Ozzy) eye at the door. And the sleet is so solid, and he is so light, that he barely left any footprints.

I keep testing the mat out front to see how frozen it is. I don't know why but I never thought about it freezing until yesterday when I decided to check the mail. I don't know why because, in my head, I had decided it could wait a few days, then I changed my mind. I looked out the door and thought I could identify the icy spots. Wrong-o. I took one step and down I went. My feet didn't sweep out - one went one way and the other buckled under so I basically sat down really hard on my knee. I iced it, and my lower back really good last night so it's all good. I actually scraped my knee through my sweats (good trick), so it's a little more sore, but it's not even bruised. 

The news said that there were 126 emergency calls for slips on the ice yesterday - it happens so quick. They showed a bit about the postal workers, and the guy showed the strap-on hooks for their shoes that the Post Office issues, yet one of the most seriously injured was a Postal worker who hit her head when she fell. Snow is so much easier to deal with than the ice. 

Oath in 3D

There's a feature at CNN.com called Photosynth. It's a Microsoft application that you have to download, but after you do you have an incredible view of the inauguration. What it does is take all of the digital shots that have been uploaded to CNN.com and integrate them into one big 360 degree shot that you control. I don't think it's exactly the definition of 3D, but it's fun to play with. Because it's digital you can zoom in and see the faces of the dignitaries and celebrities, and the expressions on the faces of the Obama's, and the Bush's, should that be your choice. You can also go out into the vast audience and "people watch" from your laptop into a moment captured in time. Really fascinating. I tried to see if I could read what was on the music stands of the Marine Corps Band, but I guess you can only do that in the movies and on TV. 

Inauguration day

Oh dear, it's three a.m. and here I am on the computer and wide awake again. And I was doing so well. I blame it on the Girl Scouts and the President. That makes sense, doesn't it? Unfortunately, you probably said, "Yes, for you." Sigh. Here comes the explanation.

Being a huge fan of the talking heads, and since there is so much inaugural trivia being bandied about, I've had the coverage on all day, and still have it on. I've got my alarm set for early this morning (well, later this morning), so I can watch it, but now that's a bit in jeopardy. 

This afternoon the doorbell rang. There was a little bitty girl there being prompted by her two eager parents with a stroller. She was selling.... Girl Scout cookies. Her Troop was asking her, her mother told me, to sell 72 boxes - this one little girl! 72 boxes! Holy cow! The mom said they had never gone door to door before but what are you going to do? So, I did my part and bought, of course, the thin mints and also a box of shortbread. The mom laughed and said that was what most people had been getting. I think they had stocked up on those. Smart woman. She had loaded up the stroller with the cookies. No ordering and getting the cookies later. Immediate satisfaction. I have had many thin mints tonight. Too many (not so many as to be ashamed, too many to fall asleep. Stupid caffeine.)

So, other than a trip to Sonic for dinner, I've been watching the coverage for two days straight. And will watch it all day tomorrow. How can you not watch it? I'm a political junkie? pop culture junkie? Both. 

Enough. I'm going to turn the computer off and try to go to sleep. Turn off the TV?Umm, probably not. But I'll turn it down reallly low. 

listening to talking heads

Once again can't believe it's been so long since I've posted. I'm not going to try to play catch up. Nothing much has happened, and too much. I was going to post one day while I was watching TV, and that was the day the plane landed in the Hudson, Roland Burris was sworn is as the Junior Senator from Illinois and the new Attorney General designate was being questioned by the Senate. So much to comment on. So much going through my head that nothing came out.

I'm watching the coverage from Washington, DC. The Mall is teeming with people who are there to participate in the free concert and to see Obama. The Inauguration is going to be crazy. I'm glad that I have had a chance to see the Mall and the surrounding area without all the people so I have some perspective. I'm not going to discuss politics, but it's nice to have, and to see, the country have hope. We're in the middle of so many difficult times but we finally have a man of principles who is guided by inner morals not by a power hungry Vice President. 

Okay, I won't go into that. Bush is gone and back on the ranch and not a day too soon. We all have our own opinions.

****News Flash*** The Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl. Bidwell always said they would be a winning team when they had their own stadium. I guess he was right. 

fire on the service road

I was going to load a lot more pictures but I'm giving up now. I've been fighting with the computer and the server for way too long now. I'm lucky to have one up and I'm calling it good. 

I couldn't sleep this morning, after playing GH with Michele last night, and more after she signed off. By nine am this morning I decided to go to Mickey D's and get some breakfast, so Ozzy and I popped in the car and drove through the neighborhood and snuck up on MacDonald's. Imagine our surprise on our drive home to find that the service road, the area between the freeway and the road, was on fire in two places. I slowed down and grabbed my camera. There wasn't too much traffic and the guy who was behind me pulled into Best Buy anyway.

As I finally pulled through the dense smoke lingering over the street, I noticed there was a police car was parked in the opposite lane with his lights flashing, keeping his eye on the fire. There also seemed to be one out on the freeway, parked and doing the same thing. I pulled away from the smoke, noticing that Ozzy was shaking again, as he does around smoke. We came back home and had our breakfast, smelling of grass fire, which lingered quite a while.

I played again today on GHWT, then Michele came online and we played together for a bit. Last night was a bit longer for me. I stayed up until after midnight, after Michele signed off, until my fingers were having problems bending normally and my mind wasn't actually telling my fingers what to do anymore. I was in a zooooooone.

 Tonight I was doing okay, but my mind isn't at that zen place again. I get distracted to easily. I would begin a song and notice the strut my guy was doing on the stage as he was waiting and realize I missed the beginning of the song. Restart. Or one time I was playing and they did a close up of the drummer and she was wearing a leather bra. Huh? Aww, I lost my place. They do the details so well but it gets distracting. The best part of playing for me has been the learning to ... well, kinda zen out and pay attention to the music. I got over it last night and did a couple of perfect songs. You get gold stars for that. Yay.

Ugh. Must put something in my stomach. G'night.

uh oh, politics

I always have the TV set to news, its just what I do. I like to have the noise in the background. When I started this blog it was because of the Dubai ports thing. Now I must comment again because of the plethora of political fodder.

First of all, the governor of Illinois was impeached today for allegedly putting President elect Obama's Senatorial seat up for sale. He's allowed to appoint the successor. Since he was indicted by way of wire-tapping for the offense, he decided to appoint someone anyway because he could. He's not going down easy. He appointed a man who at one time ran against him. More about that man later. The governor, who ran on a platform of reform against corruption in government (gotta love Chicago politics), has never actually said anything directly toward the indictment saying that the House is picking on him for trying to "help the people." Political theater.

The senatorial successor, Roland Burris, tried to show up for his first day of work at the Capital in Washington only to be turned away at the door. The Secretary of the Senate refused his credentials because they weren't signed by the Secretary of State of Illinois, who refused to sign them because of the scandal of the indictment. Mind you, there was no impeachment at that time, there was no conviction, there was only the indictment. He is still the legal governor of Illinois. Was he the legal Junior Senator of Illinois or not? The top Democrat in the Senate, Harry Reid, said before he showed up that they wouldn't let him in, and they didn't, but Burris still showed up and made them keep him out. 

Okay, before this all started I didn't know and didn't care. I thought when Gov. Blago (his name is really long and I don't want to type it) gave his press conference and announced that Burris was his choice for Senator - poor guy. He's so happy and he was chosen by a loser. He can't possibly really be a Senator, yet he's taken that stance and stood by it ever since. He showed up for work, had the door shut in his face and then come back the next day. Good for him. He's making them work at proving he's not the Junior Senator from Illinois. He's stating his case and making them prove every word and not playing their politics as usual.

The other stories being thrown around are the new documentary about Sarah Palin where she complains that she would have been treated differently if she had been the Democratic choice. I think I agree. The Republicans are kinda snooty. She wonders how the media is going to treat Caroline Kennedy compared to her as a candidate. Hmm, it's not fair, but it's not going to be the same. Whether it's spoken or not spoken she is the daughter of John Kennedy and there is an unspoken deference for her. Still, when Kennedy first announced her interest in the Senate seat, there was an undo amount of air time on that huge amount of chicken that she put in her mouth in the Harlem kitchen. Really, was that necessary? She might not have been the executive of a town or state budget but Kennedy has not been idle her entire life. She has been kinda busy with her own public service agenda.

The other thing Palin was moaning about was the unfair shots the media took at her family. She said that Obama at one time said that family was off limits and she naively thought that hers were off limits, too. Actually, he said that in reaction to the shots being taken at her family. I wish she had remembered that. And, when you drag your family up with you on the podium at every stop around the country, you can't call it "off limits" when someone mentions them in the press. She needs to get a thicker skin. She clearly intends to be around for a while so some lessons on dealing with the media are sorely needed. Really, Sarah, get a consultant. A high priced one would be good. Cause people still find you interesting, but it can go bad fast.

I imagine that I'll still be watching the same things tomorrow. It's kinda like watching a soap opera that way. Oh, yes, there is one more thing. The BCS Championship. It's kind of unreal, actually. I watched the last half of the game. OU lost. Very sad for our team. I woke up and turned the TV on and went in to take my morning pills and heard the President elect in his press conference talking about - the BCS bowl? the commentators talking about the Oklahoma connection of one of the nominees? is this the press conference? Headline News was asking for comments all day on if people like the way the BCS Championship is decided. The President elect is commenting on it during his press conference. Really?

On a different note, I played my new Star Wars Lego game yesterday, when I opened up my new/ different XBox. Yes, the note that came along with the XBox they sent back said that they didn't fix my XBox they sent a different one. It didn't say a new one, it said a different one. It froze twice while I was online, but I'm afraid that might be because my internet speed is too slow. Until it does that to a game when I'm offline I think I'm good. At least the game started, although that did me no good when I was playing. I suck. Josh and Alex got me this game cause it got good ratings "for people like me" (who SUCK at games like this!). It is fun though. I got my Jedi lego man to jump and use his light saber to cut everything around him into little lego pieces, and lift things with his Jedi mind powers. It really is cute.

I also got to play GHWT with Michele online using my new wireless headset. Thankfully it turns out Michele's headset is fine and when I finally synced mine with the box we were all good to go. We played a lot of sets and when we went head to head Michele kicked my butt. 

Whew. That's it. That's all I have. No, you can't have any more. I'm done in.

blogs n XBox

I just checked out my niece's (Heather) new photo blog site and once again she has a really good photo up. Here's the url to check it out:  http://heathersdailyphotos.blogspot.com 

I recommend checking it out. She was keeping track of my cousin's site, and of mine, and liked the idea of the daily photo; but unlike ours, hers isn't confined to a city. She's done some extensive traveling and has taken a lot of photos wherever she's been. I'm looking forward to what she's going to post in the future. 

I finally got the email I've been waiting for today. My XBox has been shipped. At last. The only thing better will be when the UPS man knocks on the door. I'm going to be so out of practice when I get it. Michele has finished the game on Medium now (GHWT), so we'll have plenty of songs to choose from. I also have the new Star Wars game that Josh and Alex gave me that I have yet to try. Oh, and my new wireless headset. We'll finally get to find out if it was my old headset or Michele's.

It was still 30 degrees outside today, so I didn't really do a lot. If I had a lot to do I might have ventured out, but I didn't. No money to spend or need to spend it, so therefore no need to use the gas. I switched out pictures in the big frames in my office (that's been waiting for quite a while), and cleaning/ shredding is the next thing to come. Whee.

working my brain

I just posted my photo to OKC Metro Daily, and today's is particularly good, if I do say so myself. I lucked into it because I went out with Ozzy so he wouldn't eat grass. (Today the pest guy was here and sprayed the yard so I wanted to make sure Oz didn't spend too much time on it.) I, unfortunately, also found a hole that some sort of critter seemed to have made by digging down under the foundation of my house. When I called the pest control people the woman wasn't the least bit surprised and had the name of a man quite handy - Critter B Gone. Great name. Well, it's not the man's name, but you know what I mean. I called Josh to ask him what he had done about the critters in his back yard and he basically told me that I hadn't seen the hole and there wasn't anything in the hole even if I had seen it. Sigh. Would he talk like this to anyone else in the world? Do I even have to ask?

Ozzy and I went to the doggy store and bought some new food for him. Michele said that Ginger's breath smelled tons better since she had been eating Beneful, so Ozzy is now trying Beneful, too. There were several different types available, and since he doesn't have a weight or age problem, I had to figure out which to get, since it costs $12 per bag. A big decision. It's not like he's going to eat the bag quickly. The bag weighs as much as he does! They didn't have a smaller bag. So, I held up the different bags to him and the one he spent the most time sniffing - twice - I bought. Made sense to me.

I'm still trying to figure out the software situation so I can work on the genealogy project with Uncle Tom. Heather and Bill gave me some really good advice tonight on the phone. I'm going to work on what they told me and see what happens from there. I would like to talk to Josh about it, but after this afternoon it doesn't really feel like it would be worth it.

So that's about it. A good picture opportunity, a chance to get out of the house and some brain time with Heather and Bill. My day in a nutshell.

City Daily Photo

I just spent a couple of hours, again, perusing all the photos on the City Daily Photo site. By the time I finished all 17 pages there were new ones on the first page. Since they're just thumbnails, and I don't go to all the pages, it isn't as daunting as it sounds. There are some beautiful pictures being posted there and I recommend the site whole heartedly. It changes daily, obviously, but more than that - it uploads hourly from the participants' sites. Browsing the site was what made me want to participate. I really enjoy it, but it's a real challenge to keep up with the level of photography they have there.

On a different note, I had the World Series of Poker on in the background, for noise you know. Unfortunately, they declared a winner and it went off the air. So, I had to switch channels lest some sporting event come on I would have to watch. I naturally turned it to the Sci Fi channel (like I do) and now I am watching a western vampire movie. Why do I do this to myself? It is so bad. Just for the record, for those of you who know, it's Bloodrayne 2 (I hear a chorus of "ahhhh's" in the background. My people - they know.)

I haven't done much of anything else today. I had lunch (I hear clapping in my head) and have done my photo blog, but that's about it. It's in the 30's today but according to the Weather Channel, it feels like 23 degrees. Then again, can we really go by that? That was two whole minutes ago. It could be 20 or 30 degrees different degrees different by now.

Did you know that Billy the Kid was a vampire? Hmm, who knew?

movies, the good and the... ?

Since I didn't get to see the movie with Kathy and Michele yesterday, I went to see it today, while Kathy was still in Phoenix visiting Michele. We all went to see "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." It was very good and I really enjoyed it. I went at the last minute, parked a long way away, went in while the previews were playing and sat in the next to the last row. Hmm, you would think that would add up to stress, but it didn't. It worked out perfectly. I didn't have to wait for anything, got in, sat down, watched the movie and got out. It was great. I called and talked to K&M when I got home and we all talked about our favorite parts (no spoilers here), which is the best part of going to the movies together.

Well, then tonight I watched another movie, and I feel I must share with you about this movie. Why, you say, why must I? I feel I must divest myself of the burden of the whys and wherefores of this movie. Let me give you a rundown. First of all, the title is Doomsday. Sounds like a good sci fi movie, a genre I particularly enjoy. Ah, sucked in already. What, you say, no names sound familiar? The first warning sign. Wait, there's a familiar name - Malcolm McDowell. Oops, another warning sign. Back to the rundown - here's the plot and a quickie overview of the movie and the last two hours of my life (do you note a trace of bitterness?....)

The setting is the near future and a plague has erupted in Scotland (why must they pick on Scotland?) When it is found to be incurable a huge wall is built in place of Hadrian's wall (the historical wall that Rome built to keep out the pagan barbarians) to keep Scotland isolated, along with a no fly zone and total sea isolation. Scotland is left to curl up and die with no supplies or power, etc. Before being cut off, a brave mother manages to convince a soldier to give up his place on a helicopter for her little girl, who has been shot in the eye (yes, her eye). Tearful shot of the mother being left behind.

Now we are in the year 2035 and the little girl is a hard assed soldier who uses her false eye, which detaches, as a tool for advance detection. I kid you not. Pluck it out, roll it out it the hallway, it sends back images to her watch. ???!!??  She's hard as nails and is the logical one to be called when the virus resurfaces in overcrowded London. They must send in a team when it is discovered that **gasp** survivors are seen in flyby photos of Scotland. They must send in a team to find the doctor who was working on a cure in Glasgow and see if he's still alive or if he found a cure. 

They get into Scotland and find post-apocalyptic youth who are tattooed, punk, and eat humans. Our hero is tougher than them, fights her way out while saving a sweet innocent girl who turns out to be the daughter of the doctor. Score! They make their getaway to the train station just in the nick of time and make their way out of the city on a steam train along with a fresh faced (and therefore obviously normal) boy with a bow and arrow (?). They abandon the train in the middle of nowhere and climb a mountain and end up in a nuclear bomb shelter. (Are you still with me?). It's their way of getting through the mountain. The boy and girl have no idea what it really is.

As they emerge on the other side of the mountain into a smokey glen, they hear a low rumble. The boy and girl shout to run. The brave hero stands firm even tho it turns out that its the doctor's executioner (it turns out that the doctor is a bad guy, and father of sicko city goth/punk kid and brother to innocent girl. Oy). The rumbling is a black knight on a huge horse (I kid you not - a knight). Our brave she warrior, now without all her technology, but her eye still in her head, stands toe to toe to the knight and they are taken to the evil doctor.

Yadda yadda. Doctor is crazy, they must live off the grid because the world is evil and they are survivors, the world created the virus, yadda, yadda. Doctor punishes his daughter with hot branding iron (this movie spares no gore or sickening sound effect) and throws brave hero into unarmed combat with huge knight, whom she beats up and ultimately kills as they all break out and escape. 

They get back to fallout shelter and open some boxes and find Bentley, yes, a Bentley as in a car, sports car to be exact. And a box of cell phones. How conveeeeenient. So they gas up the car (while a slew of horsemen are chasing them) and make their getaway out of the mountain.... onto the roads of Scotland..... and here comes a cop car, driven by insane city punks. Just like a Scottish Mad Max.

Really?? Mad Max now? Okay. Lots of road carnage. Much stunt driving. Much gore and bone breakage. Hero calls her boss, the police chief, who has to tell his boss, big bad guy, who sends in a helicopter. Our hero delivers the vaccine, doctor's daughter and her only remaining team member, a doctor, to the helicopter and confronts the bad guy and he tells her his evil plan (stupid, stupid man). She chooses not to go on the helicopter, and it takes off and leaves her. 

We find her now in her house in Glasgow where she has found a picture of herself with her mother, sitting on the floor crying a little. Her boss comes in, as they now know the area must be safe. He tells her that the bad guy has gotten away with it and she pulls out a disc from her watch/recording device which works with her fake eye and gives it to her boss. He takes it and tells her to be safe and takes off in his helicopter, leaving her to the city. Bad guy foiled. She gets in the car and drives to where the goth/punk kids live, now without their leader whom she killed on the battle on the road, and she becomes their leader (it is implied).

Ah - I am purged. Really, if I hadn't have written it down, would you have believed it if I had just written it as a sci fi/ post apocalyptic/ Arthurian/ cannibalistic/ doomsday story? Who in their right mind would put all those together? I've watched a lot of bad sci fi movies and, sad to say, this wasn't the worst of them. That has to go to some of the movies made by the Sci Fi Channel. Who pays for this stuff? Who writes this stuff? I have dreams that are waaaay better than these movies. I need to write them down more often. Benjamin Button - now that was good writing. I recommend that movie - go see it.