arcadia

perusing an online job description -- it says you need to be able to type 35 wpm, does that mean the words need to combine into sentences & all that? b/c i could type cat cat cat cat & so on and get like 85 wpm. also, says that ability to multitask is required, and i wonder if they actually want multitasking, or multicompleting. b/c i can do myriad tasks simultaneously, but cannot promise any will actually get finished.

speaking of tasks, ran 4 miles today and don't remember exactly, but it was something like 37 mins total time. yay me. another task of todayness - returned a plethora of purchases from the hollerdays. regret to say that not all returns were accepted, meaning that return return-trips will be required. also - nursed the 157037 odometer thru emissions testing & got tags for another year. also - during the return-fest, purchased some manpanties for my old man. teal manpanties, no less. heh heh heh. teal manpanties... blimey.

did you see that the titans won yesterday? they beat the colts, but the colts were past 2nd string & digging into the 3rd string, so all that says is the titans can beat someone else's practice squad. at any rate -- this puts the titans in the playoffs, which is something of a milestone. don't have much faith in their being playoff worthy or making it anywhere in the playoffs, but it's kind of a relief that they got back in the post season.

different people do different things.

we were standing beside the dryer in gramma-bec's garage, so i know i was in preschool b/c we lived at gramma-bec's before we moved to the lake house, and we lived at the lake when i started the 1st grade. so, shaman & i were standing by the dryer, and i was relating some tiresome preschool drama of mistreatment. i don't remember the story, but i do remember that i was complaining about something somebody did to me. shaman's response was -- different people do different things. at 4 yrs old, i was struck by this truth. it is such a bedrock, duh-honkus truth that even a 4 yr old can understand it... yet, b/c of the nature of bedrock, duh-honkus truths, it is also something that i've carried with me my whole life.

different people do different things. well, of course they do. there is no getting around it, and if you just settle down and accept that right off the bat, you're free. different people do different things, so you do not have to judge them, nor accept them, nor understand them, nor change them. all you have to know is that you can expect others to behave differently from the way you behave. be prepared to hang onto your hat, go along for the ride... or not.

different people do different things. and, seeing as how you are a people, you can do different things, too. you can rise above, or sink below. you can choose a road less traveled. you are not bound by the strictures that bind others, because...

different people do different things.

vandy & ut both won mens basketball games today. vandy is 12-0. w00t!

finished tony abbott's firegirl today. it is a short but touching story of a 7th grade boy's reaction to a young girl who was burned in a fire and joins a 7th grade class for a few weeks while she is undergoing treatment. the situations & emotions are portrayed with excellent subtlety. abbott has written 60 books, and it would appear that he has learned to do it well.

currently watching giants v patriots. it's just before halftime, and it looks like there's about to be a fight. the referee is mike carey, and he is one of the best. he calls a fair game and explains the calls well. he also has one of the best deliveries in the nfl. the broadcast usually doesn't show his complete delivery b/c it takes too long to develop. i can't explain it... it's simply good. watch him sometime, and you will agree. here is his pic so you will know him when you see him.

guten morgen

very nice run this morning -- the group was pleasant, the weather was cool, the trail not too muddy, the pace not too intense. still not in the shape i'd like to be in... that's gonna take some time. we did 2 separate loops - a 4.5 mile loop and a 2.5 mile loop. mini-me would like the 2.5, so i might just have to take her out there sometime.

printed out a hal higdon marathon training plan. having never followed a plan, i am intrigued. i wonder how my actual running will measure up to the plan. fairly certain that i have not been doing enough weekly mileage to support the long runs on the weekends. it's difficult to fit in an 8 mile run midweek, though, so the plan may not pan out.

it's quiet around here... everyone else who lives here is either asleep or not here. seems like a good time for a nap, eh?

bedtime

see, this is what happens some days -- it is bedtime before you know it. tempus fugit & all that. running in the mud in the morning, unless speedy puts the kibosh on it. beauty sleep & a mud bath -- pulchritude abounds!

some music must be played loudly for the full effect

currently listening to sgt pepper's lonely hearts club band on mini-me's new turntable. that's right -- turntable. we went from records to 8-tracks to cassettes to cds to mp3s to itunes, and we have reverted to vinyl around here, and that reversion has translated to my old man's vinyl b/c all my vinyl has apparently gone missing.

[i am not including a pic of the sgt pepper's album, so don't let this throw you off as to the illustrations which are so generously provided by me.]

for some reason, the one i miss the most is supertramp's breakfast in america. take the long way home.... [your opinion about my musical tastes does not count.] everything dan fogelberg, james taylor, billy joel ever recorded -- all of it i had. also, the complete works of barry manilow and some air supply. [again, do not care what you think about my musical tastes.] also, there were some really good john denver albums. jackson browne's hold out is still in the stack, and reo speedwagon's high infidelity is there. but, the eagles desperado is not. that's the album with doolin dalton on it. ah, that was some good stuff. [this is me, not caring what you say.]

the first album i owned was a monkees album. [did i mention that i do not care for your opinion?] i played that thing to shreds. i did not actually have a stereo -- it was basically a record player with stereophonic sound. i scrimped & saved and got daddy to pick it up for me at zayre. i am betting you do not remember zayre either.


zayre had these pay fone banks in the lobby -- of course, there used to be pay fones everyfreakinwhere. anyways, we'd always check these phones for spare change, and one day, one of them was loaded up with like quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies. that's right, pennies. someone had obviously loaded it up for someone to find b/c pay fones do not operate on pennies. score! yeah, that was a good day.

in the perfect human form, arm span = height

which explains why the paddle held in both hands should come to your nose, if you are perfect.


are you perfect?

lights out last night at 22:22.22. had to wait from 22:20.37 to hit it right, but it seemed worth it b/c good dreams are priceless, eh?

headline from the local news financial expert this morning: retailers are cutting prices to boost sales numbers. on the first hand, duh-honkus. they always cut prices after xmas, and if you are not yet trained like a drooling pooch to respond to pre-xmas prices by waiting for post-xmas prices, then there's just no helping you at this point. on the second hand, if they cut prices, how does that boost sales? i have never really understood this sales philosophy. if you cut your prices in 1/2, then you have to sell 2x as much to break even, and if you are already having trouble selling, how does having to sell 2x as much help? i realize with lower prices, you will sell more, but will you sell 2x as much? i doubt it. i am fairly certain it is all a scam of some sort.

loot list!

all that talk about the meaning of christmas... criminy! what did you get??

at the top of the list of cool meaningful gifts, mini-me gave me & my old man some... chicks! that's right, baby chickens. okay, she did not actually give them to us. she purchased them through heifer international, in our name, and gave them to struggling people someplace so they can have fresh eggs. elvis & priscilla gave us a cool meaningful gift, too -- kiva. have you heard of kiva.org? look it up. krt sent seeds to some other struggling people someplace, in our name. cool meaningful gifts, eh?

by the by... had a truly stellar time with ol' elvis on the day. he's at it again, you see. busy bringing me roses b/c he let me down the last time, and he knows it. cripes. and, i can't help myself. he wants in again, and i let him in. shameless.

but, we are speaking of gifts, and don't you worry your pretty little head about me. i got my yoyo, shoes, leather jacket, running shirt, galaga game, latin dictionary, starbucks card, chanel #5, books, lip gloss, and so on & so forth. oh, i got my loot. what did you get, eh?

teamwork

you may call it by this name,
or call it by that:
teamwork or coöperation.
together we stand,
by ourselves we fall flat.
together, my friend,
we're the nation.
whatever we do,
or whatever we plan,
we can't stand alone,
not the best of us.
blah blah blah blah,
blah blah blah blah -
we're only a part
of the rest of us.

this poem is quite obviously not emblazoned on my memory as i had expected. fascinating.

when toys have lost the magic

there is a general sentiment in the air that christmas has lost some meaning or significance. the implicit agreement is that christmas is for children and that the greatest joy is watching the little ones open the gifts, seeing their eyes light up. yes, that is a joy. the light in their eyes provides a spark of happiness for us all. but, that is not the meaning, and relying on that light for the spark will leave you coming up short when the kids are grown.

it is when we are grown and when toys are no longer suitable substitutes for real connection... that is when we've got to dig deeper to generate the spark of light. but, the digging is work.

toys are easy. connection is difficult.

what do jewish people do on christmas?

wonder what it's like to be living in a separate culture side-by-side with such an omnipresent and potentially oppressive culture as chritianity in the usa. seems there would be no way to avoid knowing about the beliefs of the dominant culture, while the dominant culture has no incentive to learn anything about the minority. judaism, buddism, islam, jehovah's witness, and so on & so forth. there are so many who do not celebrate christmas. what are they doing today?

christmas eve eve

it's the night before the night before christmas,
and all through the grocery store
folks were shoving & pushing
like never before.

every aisle overcrowded,
the displays overrun
with crowds of tired shoppers --
imagine the fun!


reach for bananas,
stretch for the chips,
manuever the buggy
'tween velour-covered hips.

it will test all your patience
and your goodwill towards men;
you will swear never to go
to the grocery again.

but, remember how lucky
we are in this place,
and when purchasing food,
do so with grace.

because there are kids starving, you know, somewhere. i mean, there are always starving children, right? and, what makes you think christmas more than the images of starving children. when i think about christmas, i know i think about starving children, you know, right off the bat. first thing. it goes like this -- christmasstarvingchildren. is it that way for you, too? totally, right? yes, totally. ergo - be nice at the grocery store because children are starving somewhere.

mmmm.... smells like fresh aces

wii want it all

there was a quote in the paper today from a woman shopping for a wii. she said she didn't want any game consoles in her house, but the kids had asked santa to bring a wii. what can you do? -- she said. um... gee lady. don't get your kids everything they ask for?

when we were kids, we'd go through the sears wishbook & cut out pictures & paste them on letters to santa. we never got everything we asked for, but we got plenty. one year -- i must have been about 8 -- i asked for & received a lite brite. it was total confirmation of santa's reality for one more year.

maybe that lady shopping for the wii is trying to prolong her kids' belief in santa, but i am fairly certain any kid old enough to play wii games already knows too much.

Lite-Brite started off as two thick plastic panels with an identical series of holes in each. Meyer sandwiched black paper in between the panels to block out the light, which was generated from a household light bulb. When translucent-colored pegs were plugged into the holes, they perforated the paper blocking the light and appeared to magically “turn on.”

that describes the lite brite i had. is it different now?

grianstad shona dhíbh go léir!

happy soltice to you all! the title is gaelic -- the language still spoken in gaeltacht which is a part of ireland. written spellings of irish words are very inconsistent b/c it's a predominantly oral language.

today is the day of the winter soltice. it is the longest night of the year in our hemisphere. the night when the sun is furthest from us, way away on the other side of the world. there is one precise moment in time that is the actual solstice - the exact moment that the sun is furthest from us. because we cannot celebrate in an instant, we celebrate the solstice for a night & a day.

tomorrow... after this long night...
the sun is reborn & the light grows again.

books 2007

night work - laurie r. king
glass castle - jeannette walls
cross - james patterson
the kite runner - khaled hosseini
with child - laurie r. king
the bookseller of kabul - åsne seierstad
bridget jones's diary - helen fielding
bridget jones: the edge of reason - helen fielding
how to be good - nick hornby
about a boy - nick hornby
olivia joules & the overactive imagination - helen fielding
a series of unfortunate events vol. 1-12 - lemony snicket
high fidelity - nick hornby
a long way down - nick hornby
the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime - mark haddon
the nightspinners - lucretia walsh grindle
the last days of dogtown - anita diamant
the end - lemony snicket
special topics in calamity physics - marisha pessl
hp6 - jk rowling
hp7 - jk rowling
the senator & the priest - andrew greeley
the art of detection - laurie r. king
life as we knew it - susan beth pfeffer
remainder - tom mccarthy
artemis fowl - eoin colfer
irish linen - andrew greeley
after the baby boomers - robert wuthnow
déjà dead - kathy reichs
the alienist - caleb carr
becoming me - melody carlson
it's my life - melody carlson
king dork - frank portman
currently: firegirl - tony abbott

bits & pieces

tom tancredo dropped out of the presidential race today. ever heard of ol' tom? yeah... me neither. i am guessing that's probably the main issue in his failed campaign. tancredo's from colorado... where there are a lot of cowboys... and horses. oh, please. do i have to draw you a picture?

let me just take a moment to make a point to all the people who get their coffee from the common coffee pot at work: after you have gotten your coffee, move along, little dogies! do not stand around blocking the coffee pot while conversing. do not look at me like i am invading your personal space when you are blocking the coffee pot. do not sigh and roll your eyes when i ask you to please excuse me so that i can reach the coffee pot. if you continue to behave this way, i will be forced to pour coffee directly from the pot onto your head.

did you know that 8/100 first-year pill takers [yes, that pill] get pregnant? they are likely not using it quite correctly. possibly this is what happened to the young miss spears. perhaps "zoey" didn't get the "101" on birth control. perhaps these 8 pill takers are confusing the pills & the pieces. not interchangeable, i feel must point out.
[see pic of pieces, above]

today, the new girl at work dressed in a virtual mimickry of moi. that is right - she knows who to imitate. uh-huh. oh, yeah. that's right. imitate the best, young lady, and maybe one day you can be stupendacular like moi.

for the record, mitt romney's father did not march with martin luther king in the 60s. that was him being figurative, not literal. uh-huh. right, mitt. again, i will reiterate that a piece of softball equipment is not qualified to be president of the usa.

[no, this is not a picture of softball equipment. it goes with the over all theme of this post. try to keep up. thanks.]

lying in the dark, listening to my heart beat

did you ever try to explain something to someone, but in order to explain the one thing, you have to provide all this background, and then you lose them somewhere in the background before you even get around to the actual one thing you wanted to explain, so by the time you get to that thing that you wanted to explain, they are looking at you like you're some kind of alien life form or else they have glazed over on the outside & journeyed somewhere else on the inside, and you realize they are never going to understand the one thing that you wanted to explain, so you stop talking in mid-background, and they hear that you have stopped talking, and they take the opportunity to change the subject?

shrimp & grits - quick lunch version

this is a quick version of shrimp & grits that you can fix at the office. you would need a fridge to keep the shrimp cool - or at least an insulated lunchbag. okay, here goes:

1 pkg instant cheese grits
1/4 cup roasted red pepper hummus
1/2 lb 14-50ct shrimp, cooked & all

pour grits in bowl. add 3/4 cup water. heat in microwave on high for 1 min 20 secs. stir in hummus. then, add shrimp - push the shrimp into the grits. heat on high for another 45 secs.

voilà!

if you have some tony's, that is good to sprinkle right on there, too. you can eat this at your desk. goes good with pretzels or saltines.

enjoy!

monday, monday... can't trust that day.

we all have routines that we follow, more or less, and enjoy, more or less. a rut is simply a routine gone bad. when does a routine become a rut? is it something you feel on the inside, or something other people see, from the outside? probably could be either. maybe you like & enjoy your routines, but you don't see how they are adding up to a rut that you do not enjoy. you might like a lot of the small things about your life, but not like your overall life, and then someone from the outside looking in might have to tell you that you are in a rut. but, if you are happy & fulfilled, and your life is complete, then your routines are simply routines.

i mean, we cannot all go through life every single day reinventing the wheel. when you get up in the morning, you do not want to decide to eat, shower, dress, etc. you do not want to make & remake the plethora of decisions that comprise your day. simply living would be an overwhelming hassle with no routines at all.

some decisions might be up for grabs, but every single thing every single day cannot be. perhaps a routine becomes a rut when we sacrifice the will to decide in favor of the ease of making it through life. perhaps we need to force ourselves sometimes to choose something new, in order to avoid the ruts.

speaking of ruts, it's time to go to work.

more wishes

my wishlist, in no particular order, & subject to change:

• yo-yo
• night vision goggles
• light sabre
• mess kit
• label maker
• guitar
• subscription to popular mechanics
• highgear adventure plus
• galaga for nintendo ds
• vandy hoodie
• running shoes
• pink dazzle shorts
• digital camera
• treehouse

a controversial topic

for reasons i do not understand, the concept of illegal aliens in our country is controversial. what is controversial about people breaking laws? it is straightforward.

** there are laws against entering the country the way millions of people enter: by sneaking over the borders.
** there are laws against hiring these people.
** there are laws against providing social services to them.
** there are laws against providing in-state college tuition to them.

that's a quick, short list of 4 types of laws that are being broken. if these laws were consistently enforced, the number of illegal aliens would decrease b/c being here illegally would no longer be lucrative. we do not need to pile them into buses & ship them back from whence they came. we do not need to incarcerate them. we need to enforce the existing laws, and attrition will naturally occur.

why do we need to do this? b/c services that are owed to tax-paying citizens of this country are being provided to non-tax-paying, non-citizens -- subsidized by the tax-paying citizens without our consent. this is a breach of the agreement we make with our government: to collect & pool our money and use it to provide services we could not individually affort to supply for ourselves.

see this. read this. do this.

go see i am legend. it is truly an amazing movie. all you have to buy into is the original premise, and then it plays like a documentary - so true to life. you are not asked to buy into multiple fictions - there is just the one premise from which the story is derived. it is really quite simple & believable, making the action that much more moving, more frightening, more heart-wrenching. will smith gives a stunning performance. the visuals are simultaneously realistic & breath-taking. the dialog is spot on, and the supporting cast is small yet tremendous.

go read king dork. it is truly an amazing book. it speaks with the authentic, first-hand voice of a disenfranchised adolescent male. the narrator is self-aware, oddly self-assured, yet hilariously self-deprecating. he sees and reveals depth in his family and his one friend. he paints the cliques at his high school predictably flat, while simultaneously giving dimension to selected individuals within them. the plot is so believable as to approach the mundane. it is the voice of the narrator -- his pithy & witty descriptions, his ability to wind out a story -- that breathes life into the book.

go do grocery shopping. it is a truly amazing experience. purchase foodstuffs to consumalize in your own home. there is really no better expression of our freedom, no better endorsement of capitalism, and no better exercise in survival. aisles packed with necessities and frivolous treats. peanut butter. bacon. bread. coffee. poptarts. almonds. kool-aid. shrimp. each one portioned, packaged, & labeled. take - eat. enjoy.

just got back from this movie. it is a-maze-ing.

friday

today, there was hummus for lunchus.

david cutcliff, offensive coordinator at utk, is leaving to be head coach at duke. often, when i mean to type coach, i will type couch, and have to go back & retype. i generally do not incorrectly type duke.

when you talk to small children, do you use a different voice? you might think that you do not, but you might be surprised to watch, say... a dvd of mini-me's 3rd birthday party. you might find out that you are an eejit talker when you talk to the little ones.

where, o where, have my comix gone?

the section of newspaper that has the comix in it was missing from our newspaper this morning. there are several comix of which i have the followingness & the wishing to see every day.

ode to the missing comix
like a puzzle with too many pieces -
like a marriage with too many wives -
the incompleteness fills me:
i may break out in hives.

vandy goes to 10-0 on the season.

the midwest was slammed by an ice storm this week. this [ice, not snow] is the predominate type of weather we get here when we get so-called winter weather, and we carry on as best we can while being widely ridiculed by the rest of the country for closing schools. will we get more respect now that others have experienced a similar storm? doubtful.

the mobile phone company we are with sent us an invitation to bundle our services [mobile & dsl] and receive $100. we already bundle, so we are not eligible for the $100. they know so little about us, their customers for over a dozen years now, that they tease us with an offer of which we cannot partake. this is not amazing customer service.

in the small world department, a friend signed up for eharmony and got as a match the person with whom i went to the homecoming dance my freshman year in high school. rather odd.

today, it rained.

currently reading king dork by frank portman. it's what is classified as a "ya" or "young adult" novel. this category covers a lot of ground, as it is age-based, not theme-based, but the coming-of-age genre is immensely popular within the ya category, and king dork is one of these. c-o-a's can be banal & pendantic, as are melody carlson's attempts. king dork is not. it is both witty & wise. it is self-deprecating & bitingly funny & spot on. it is a good book. i'll give you a taste:

famous recording engineers and producers spend millions of dollars experimenting with effects and overloading pre-amps and poking holes in speakers with pencils and even pouring foreign substances over circuitry to achieve the sort of thing sam hellerman could accomplish just by being too cheap to buy an amp. we are geniuses. [p.118]

no one does antimaterialism better than multigazillionaire rock stars. [p.84]

i don't "dress punk", or mod or metal or goth or garage or rockabilly or anything. i don't wake up every morning and put on a music-genre-oriented youth-culture halloween costume. [p.83]

okay, out of context, i am not sure these quotes carry the same panache. at any rate, let me summarize by saying that this book is much better than melody carlson's drivel. or, perhaps i relate more to an angsty outcast random teenage boy protagonist than i do to a popular goody-goody choreographed teenage girl protagonist.

matrons in training

wafting through the coffeeshop:
vapid conversation
coupled with
incessant falsetto laughter;
banal stories
stumbling over
elementary rules of grammar.
the new generation of stay-at-homes
would do us all a favor
by staying at home.

books 2007

night work - laurie r. king
glass castle - jeannette walls
cross - james patterson
the kite runner - khaled hosseini
with child - laurie r. king
the bookseller of kabul - åsne seierstad
bridget jones's diary - helen fielding
bridget jones: the edge of reason - helen fielding
how to be good - nick hornby
about a boy - nick hornby
olivia joules & the overactive imagination - helen fielding
a series of unfortunate events vol. 1-12 - lemony snicket
high fidelity - nick hornby
a long way down - nick hornby
the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime - mark haddon
the nightspinners - lucretia walsh grindle
the last days of dogtown - anita diamant
the end - lemony snicket
special topics in calamity physics - marisha pessl
hp6 - jk rowling
hp7 - jk rowling
the senator & the priest - andrew greeley
the art of detection - laurie r. king
life as we knew it - susan beth pfeffer
remainder - tom mccarthy
artemis fowl - eoin colfer
irish linen - andrew greeley
after the baby boomers - robert wuthnow
déjà dead - kathy reichs
the alienist - caleb carr
becoming me - melody carlson
it's my life - melody carlson
currently: king dork - frank portman

aces in the oddest places

"special needs" student population

the term "special needs" is used in 2 equally disingenuous & manipulative ways.

for the first, it is a category where children with minor learning disabilities such as dyslexia or mild adhd are lumped in with children who have major issues such as autism or cerebral palsy. the minorly disabled and the majorly disabled are both underserved in this model.

for the second, it is a euphemism for children who cannot walk, cannot feed themselves, cannot communicate... some can merely lie in the floor wearing diapers. these children simply cannot be mainstreamed, should not be in public schools, are a distraction from the education of the children who can be educated in the public school setting, are a misuse of education funds. these children should be provided for in another setting.

the special needs population is not what is wrong with our schools -- but the existence of the special needs population speaks to the misuse of our schools as a catch-all for all children, a misguided notion that all children "deserve" equal treatment & opportunity.

favorite line so far this season

from an ebay commercial:

give a gift that says: i got you.
not... i got you a gift.

busy bee

what ever happened about the bees, anyway? you remember -- earlier this year, there was a big scare that honey bee colonies were collapsing, and without bees, we will all die b/c they pollonate the plants that become our food & food for the animals we eat. so?? what ever happened about the freakin' bees??

today i have - balanced the checkbook & paid the bills, signed & addressed the holiday cards, watched the titans lose a game they should have won, clipped the coupons, run 2 miles, and gone to the grocery. who is the busy bee now, eh?

it is snowing in colorado...

and raining here. the local meteorologist just said the high temp today could be anything from 45º to 65º. seriously... she stood there, threw up her arms, and said i don't know. odd.

moving from weather news to financial news, the bills need to be paid & the checkbook balanced. instead of doing that work, let's talk heisman hopefuls, shall we?

for the heisman: colt brennan (hawai'i), tim tebow (florida), darren mcfadden (arkansas), and chase daniel (missouri). most experts agree that mr daniel does not belong in the nominations. two from the sec - that's impressive. but, the real question is: who is the best looking? i'd rank them thusly: brennan, mcfadden, daniel, tebow. i shall endeavor to include some pix here for your perusal. colt & mcfadden, both appear cute, relaxed, & charming. daniel resembles a sausage, and tebow... really tim... the eye paint? c'mon.





enough heisman. time to address the cards... balance the checkbook... pay the bills..... the house needs cleaning, too, but don't tell mini-me: i am leaving that until she gets home. nothing like cleaning the house to solidify that holiday bonding experience, eh?

is it still raining? perhaps i shall bag it all & go for a run amidst the mystery that is our local weather.

my office email inbox is totally empty. totally.

amazing, eh? got every single email answered & cleared out. i am fairly certain the last time the inbox was empty was when they installed the software.

speaking of mail... plans for the weekend include finishing up the holiday cards which are truly holiday cards and not specifically xmas cards, but chanuka will be over by the time i get them done & out the door, and i am fairly certain it would be - at best - annoying and - at worst - insulting to send them after the fact. which leaves me in a perplexiquandry as to whether to send them to jewish folk. your opinion?

speaking of mail... do you like mail? if so, provide an address, and i will send you a card.

the problem with free wireless at the coffee shop is that you get what you pay for.

the coffeeman says that their signal is available into the surrounding neighborhood, and that is why it keeps cutting out here. on the one hand, who am i to complain? but, on the other hand, i am paying for coffee & bagel - i want my free wireless!

speaking of wireless, you should see the cinnamon rolls here. they are huge and slathered with creamy frosting. mini-me would be drooling for sure.

and, here is an annoyance at the coffee shop: performance mobile phoning. take this lady here, stepping through a clearly choreographed routine in the middle of the café -- walking here, sitting there, arising, walking, turning -- all the while, giving career advice to the gerbil on the other end of the line. okay, it might not be a gerbil. maybe it is a hamster. or, is that hampster? at any rate, when having a mobile convo in public, i think you really just have to ask yourself - what would jesus do? - because as you can see right here in this photo, jesus would clearly step outside to take the phone call.

required reading: andrew henry's meadow

in our society, freedom connotes the opportunity to choose what to do & where to go & who to be with. we have been duped into believing we will be free when we can make all our own choices for our own selves. but, look around and tell me: what group of people seem the most free?

the more choice we have, the more we must choose. where to go. what to do. with whom to spend time. choice leads to obligation & duty. choice leads to unchoice & disappointment. we can only do so much; ergo, we leave so much undone.

children are free, and ironically, have the least say in the daily decisions of their lives. they are the most free on the most basic level: to behave as they wish. children can reach out a touch a stranger's fur coat. children can cut through neighborhood yards. children can tell their parents' bosses: you're fat!. children can skip through the parking lot, turn cartwheels in the town square, play on the junglegym. children can do things that are childish & silly, and no one will question their behaviour for the precise reason that they are children. children are free from restraint in a way that we all yearn to be.

is there a way to have both -- the freedom to make choices & the freedom of expression, the freedom to decide & the freedom to play?

i have decided...

to cover my walls with fatheads and my floors with rhinoliners.

obfuscate at will

i wore a dress to work today. that's all -- a dress. you would think i was juggling & riding a unicycle. criminy. if a simple dress is that big a deal... makes me wonder what i usually look like.

downloading windows updates and came upon a point of curiousity: why do i trust microsoft not to damage my beloved laptop with their rude & random update procedures?

perusing the literature included with ibuprophen and found this: "call your doctor immediately if you experience vomit resembling coffee grounds". good advice, i think.

of all the dog pound cd's, the one by 3 de copas totally makes the cut. steve reynolds is good, too, and a song or two here or there from some of the others. but 3 de copas... man, i could listen to them every single day.

no, trespassing.

when we were kids, we'd walk through neighborhood yards all the time. we'd cut through to get to a friend's house or to get to the 7-11 for icees or to get to the lake or to get to school. we were on foot or on bikes, looking for the shortest route. we never even gave it a second thought.

the past couple days, i've run a loop here in the neighborhood that puts me at "done" in terms of mileage before i'm back to the main drag. so, the easiest, quickest, simplest, plainest, most straightforward way to get home is to cut through the yards.

it's the same concept now as it was then, so why does it feel like trespassing?

time to wake up, little buddy!

5 minute vacation

stopping at the store to pick up some one thing, there is always 5 minutes to spare. say you are supposed to be picking up milk & bread - you can linger at the magazine rack or the card rack or the organic flower display or the dollar bin. you can linger for 5 minutes. whoever is waiting on you can wait 5 minutes. they will not even notice 5 minutes. even in the world of digital clocks, no one will notice 5 minutes here or there. that 5 minutes is all yours. escape to the 5 minute vacation - no luggage required!

it's monday, and the boss is back in town -- -- -- -- cowgirl up!

sports reports

currently watching the lady vols take it to the lady tarheels. something about having 17,000 people cheering for you gets you excited about playing. i should know, b/c the crappy green team generally has about that many fans at any given game.

in other basketball news: vandy men won saturday against ga tech. vandy women lost to california today. ut men won friday over louisiana lafayette.

in other sports news: titans pulled out a win today. they recently picked up chris barclay off the cincy brown's practice squad. in case you are unaware, the browns perennially perform poorly. so, someone on their practice squad is not likely to be stellar. not sure why the titans signed him. he was in today to return a punt and muffed it. there was a penalty on houston on the play, and they had to repunt. on the repunt and all subsequent punts, the return man was... [drum roll] cortland finnegan. yeah, he is the man.

the vols lost to lsu yesterday in the sec football championship. the disappointing thing was not necessarily the lost, per se, but more the fact that vol qb eric ainge threw two interceptions that lsu converted to points, and ut placekicker - daniel lincoln - missed 2 field goals. the total of converted turnover points & missed field goals would have won the game for the vols. at any rate, the vols are headed to the outback bowl in tampa bay.

bring me a sammich!

i am hungry and would appreciate if you would fix me a ham & cheese sammich. i have neither ham nor cheese, so you will have to procure that. my favorite kind of bread is roman meal, but we do not have that here b/c it has freakin' hfcs in it. ergo - you must needs procure the roman meal in addition to the ham & cheese.

please procure from the deli some thickish sliced brown-sugar ham & some thinnish slices of that type of swiss cheese with the wee tiny holes.





to make the sammich - put one slice roman meal, one slice wee-tiny-hole swiss cheese, one slice granny smith apple [which i do have. c'mon, do you think i am hopeless?], one thickish but not too thick slice brown-sugar ham, one slice granny smith, and one thinnish slice wee-tiny-hole swiss cheese. add salt. top with one slice roman meal.

no mustard. no mayo. no pickle.

pretzels on the side.

oh, and bring me one of those water beverages that tastes like berries & has bubbles in it.

super!

happy new month

i brought you an ace, to celebrate the new month.


earlier today, i completed a short, 2-mile run in less time that it would have taken me to walk 2 miles. comparative pace measurement is the key to my successes.

later today, we are going to jason's deli to celebrate baby einstein's birthday. jason's is not your usual birthday celebration destination. the local jason's is smackdab next to upchuck-e-cheese, a glorious celebration destination. but, baby einstein being who he is, he chose jason's -- upchuck's does not serve turkey on croissants. oh, baby einstein, you are an odd one.

perusing jason's menu in anticipation of the visit today, i notice they have a taco salad made with red beans & sausage instead of regular taco meat. did not know they offered such a delicacy. have you ever had this? is it any good? might try that. they also have a turkey rueben which has less fat than their veggie wrap. fascinating. i love me some sauerkraut. they also have a bagel on the menu. did not know that jason's had bagels. again, fascinating. maybe a bagel & a cup of soup. so many choices. i really need your input here. what should i get?

during the sidewalk & stitch incident a few weeks ago, i scraped my hand. it's healed up now, but like a zombie from the dead, there is that stupid tiny wart. still there. you would think if you take copious skin off your hand, the wart would be kind enough to go along for the ride. but, no-o-o-o-o.

speaking of the world of medicine, i will close with this, from science daily, which bills itself as your source for the latest research news. i believe the fascination of this news item will be obvious.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 26, 2007) — A compound found in cannabis may prove to be effective at helping stop the spread of breast cancer cells throughout the body.