watching click, & it's a great flick, so don't get sick.

so, we were watching hannah montana. yes, we were, and that is not the important part. the important part is that on the show was young emily osment. at first, i could not place her. why? all that long hair. what's the prob with the long hair? it looks funny on haley joel's face! i am thinking emily & haley joel are the same person. what do you think? well?? have you ever seen them together? uh-huh -- i didn't think so.

what do you think about bridal decor netting being used as mosquito netting? think that'll work? yeah - me, too! i am glad that we are on the same page about that. now, really - do you know where the bungie cords have got to?

just peeking around aol.com, and they have some great tips for looking slim. i'll just pass them along to you, free of charge. boiled down to the basics: stand up straight & wear some clothes that are a wee bit loose to cover the bad spots. there, aren't you glad you tuned in today for these fabulous tips?

current barometric pressure: 30.05 inches.

is that some sort of speech impediment, or is he on crack?

current barometric pressure is 29.89 inches. it appears, from all our observations of the pressure, that the changes are quite subtle. based on what we've seen these past several days, 29.89 is definitely on the low side. whatever that means.

plans for the week include:
- mail the house payment that was previously mailed as an envelope containing only the receipt without the check. doh!
- scan the photos for the photo project. someone promised to scan 50 each night. who was that? hmm....
- test the mosquito net solution b/c if it doesn't work, another solution will have to come into play.

why do plans for the week include mosquito netting, you ask? b/c the mosquito netting will be used on the visit to brigadoon. brig-a-doooon! brig-a-doooon!

4 5 6 -7 -6 65
Brigadoon. Brigadoon,
6 -5 5 4 4 -4 5
blooming under sable skies.
4 5 6 8 -8 75
Brigadoon. Brigadoon,
6 -6 -7 6 -7 -6 6
there my heart forever lies.
-4 5 -5 -4 6 5 -5 -4
Let the world grow cold around us.
-5 -6 -8 7 -7 7 -8
Let the heavens cry above.
4 5 6 -7 -6 64
Brigadoon. Brigadoon,
7 -8 8 7 8 -8 7
in thy valley there'll be love.

a story

there was a girl that had some stuff that she kept in boxes. it was a fairly good system - she knew where everything was & could usually find what she was looking for. there was this, and there was that. she did not fully understand every thing that was in every box, but she did know that all the things were her responsibility, so she did not throw anything away.

one day the flood came, and all the boxes got wet, and all the sides of all the boxes bowed and collapsed, and all her stuff fell out. it was a jumble and a mess, and the people who shared her life said they would help her pick up her stuff and put it back into boxes. they all began the work together, but then, those people were repelled & disgusted by some of her stuff. they said it was hideous, and they refused to touch it, and they went away & left her with her stuff. she took a look at the stuff, and it all looked the same to her, but she thought that the people who had shared her life were wise & good, so she accepted their judgments, and she took those things they said were hideous and put those things in plastic bins. the bins were sturdier than the boxes, and the bins would protect those hideous things from flooding and keep those things hidden from sight. so, she took her boxes & her bins & her stuff that was her responsibility, and found some new people to share her life.

then, the earthquake came. all the cardboard boxes broke & spilled, and all the tops flew off all the plastic bins, and all her stuff from all her containers fell out. it was a jumble and a mess, and the people who shared her life said they would help her pick up her stuff and put it back into boxes. they all began the work together, but then, those people were repelled & disgusted by some of her stuff. they said it was hideous, and they refused to touch it, and they went away & left her with her stuff. so, she took a look at the stuff, and it all still looked the same to her, but she thought that the people who had shared her life were wise & good, so she accepted their judgments, and she took those things they said were hideous and put those things in steel cases and put those cases in a vault. then, she took the stuff that was acceptable, and put it in the plastic bins she still had because all the cardboard cases kept getting destroyed, and she didn't feel like messing with them anymore.

so, she took her vault & her bins & her stuff that was her responsibility, and found some new people to share her life. these new people could not see the stuff in the vault, but they took great interest in her stuff that she kept in the bins. they liked to take her stuff out & pass it around & comment on it. she interpreted this as acceptance and found it to be comforting. but, she began to notice that when they commented, they laughed. she was not sure that her stuff was funny. then, she began to notice that when they took her stuff out of the bins, sometimes they did not put it back or if they put it back, they would return it incorrectly, and sometimes they would break her stuff or misplace her stuff, so that she began to have to spend a great deal of time finding her stuff and repairing it. her stuff was constantly in a jumble & a mess, and she did all the cleaning up on her own. finally, she noticed that this group always used her stuff - that they never got out any of their own stuff.

she realized, this is how to keep your stuff from getting broken or misplaced or put back incorrectly or not put back at all: if you store it securely and never get it out, it will be safe. she thought the people who shared her life were wise & good, so she followed their example, took all her stuff, put it in steel cases, and put the cases in a vault. the vault became big & heavy & unweildy, so she could not carry it around, but her stuff was a part of her, and it was her responsibility, and she could not leave it. so, she put her blanket on the cold, hard, steel floor of the vault, and she closed the big, heavy, steel door, and she sat on her blanket. now, she can take out all of her stuff & looks at it & passes it around to herself & back around to herself, and nobody says it is hideous, and nobody puts it back incorrectly or not at all, and nobody comments on it, and nobody breaks it. nobody touches her stuff but her, as she sits on her blanket in the security of her vault.

finished poetry

if i asked you to wait on the shore
while i swam far out in the sea
would you wait for an hour or more
just to be there for me?

if i asked you to wait in the woods
while i hiked away over the hill
would you wait thru rain & floods
to be there for me still?

if i asked you to wait by the road
while i drove away in a car
would you wait for me there even though
i might drive away very far?

i cannot ask you to wait.
my leaving is not yours to choose.
roll the dice. flip the coin. it is fate.
one will stay. one will go. one will lose.

current barometric pressure: 29.99 inches.

okay, so here is something annoying -- you email someone to ask them how to do a particular process, and they reply with a couple suggestions, and then you have more questions, and then they say - here, let me just do it for you. okay, that's not the annoying part. that's the so-far-so-good part. the annoying part comes when they cannot actually do the thing without turning around and asking more questions of their own, and then they are like making this huge dealio out of the whole thingamadoojie, and it's really not that big of a deal, and so you come back at them with - hey, no worries, i will just handle it myself. ergo, you return to square one - you are doing it yourself, you still don't know how to do it, you have to now figure out another person to ask for help b/c the helper you contacted was worthless, oh - and let's not forget: it's now hours later than when you originally began, and all that time is now lost.

one thing that happened really good today was i found the piece of paper with the password written on it. um... right. yeah, just the pw. no idea what is the login name associated w/ the pw, or... hey, here's a thought: the website that the freakin' pw goes to. right... um... okay, filing that one under "t" for "garbage".

then, the help desk sent out a mass email announcing training & requesting that everyone send their top 2 choices for training times to mr xyz. okay, his name is not mr xyz, but in the interest of anonymity... just bear with me. so, send your top 2 choices for training times to mr xyz. the original email was sent to everyone in the company. can you guess what happened? yeah, cue the reply-all eejits, and wah-lah, you now know the top 2 training choices of 50 of your closest compadres.

popper street

my new office mate -- whom i thought to be very nearly truly perfect in every way -- has revealed herself as a gum popper. i go on the record as stating i am not responsible for my actions from this point forward.

there is a train track that i walk over every day, and the sign on the control tower says kayne avenue tower. there is no kayne avenue anywhere on the road map. here is a pic of the very place. does the rr track have a street name?

first game of the new indoor season tonight. crappy green team 6, stupid stuck up team that thinks they are so great that they made up the name crappy green team to mock us, 3. HA! mini-me scored one goal for sure and could possibly have scored another, but we are such dweebuses we cannot even remember. dur.

current barometric pressure: 29.99 inches.

eh? redux.

thought it was ambrosia -- it was only ginger ale.
thought i'd get a letter -- only junk was in the mail.
set my sights on hollywood -- only got to omaha,
when i had to slow this car & find this booth & make this call.

cause you're the only one who ever loved me,
and you're the the only one i'll ever love.
my witness is the starry sky above me,
the feelings in my heart are proof enough.

thought it was a diamond -- it was only so much glass.
thought i'd get an offer -- only got another pass.
set my sights on abilene -- only got to witchita,
when i had to slow this car & find this booth & make this call.

cause you're the only one who ever loved me,
and you're the the only one i'll ever love.
my witness is the starry sky above me,
the feelings in my heart are proof enough.

thought i had a blueprint for how i'd live my life.
thought i'd find a rich man, and be a rich man's wife.
but turns out riches aren't weighed in frankinsense & myrhh -
and it's when you aren't watching that miracles occur.

yeah, you're the only one who ever loved me,
and you're the the only one i'll ever love.
my witness is the starry sky above me,
the feelings in my heart are proof enough.

dollar tree

tonight we went to dollar tree!! dollar tree!! dollar dollar dollar tree!! tomorrow, i shall have tootsie roll pops all-day-long! was looking for some cheap sunglasses to wear while running b/c my current pair are rusting. that's right, sweaty-face, rusting out the screws. did not find any suitable. the search continues.

current barometric pressure 30.18 inches. the weather prediction for tomorrow calls for clear skies, and the next day's weather prediction is also for clear skies. the day after that, maybe not so clear, maybe some storms a'brewing. we shall keep a close eye on the barometric pressure and see if we can detect any patterns to tie the pressure to the weather.

pacman no longer wishes to be called pacman. he wishes to be called adam. which is his name. up until... like... this week, he insisted on being called pacman and was insulted by people who called him adam. now, it's the opposite. i am not sure if i'm more exasperated by his eejityness or by my apparent concern over what he wishes to be called. why?do?i?care? sheezle.

did you hear about jevon kearse? just got back in nashville from philly where he went after his first stint in nashville, and what does he do? goes out & gets a d.u.i. here's the question that's the heart of the issue -- why do these jokers drive themselves around at all, much less when they are drunk? if you want to drive yourself, fine, you can do that when you are sober. take a couple of those big bucks you're hauling in and hire yourself a driver. eejits.

i need a mosquito net. do you have one i can use?

did you drink the silly juice?

copying things off the ftp to the usb-key takes a long time.

don't you hate when sometimes the person who is in control of the remote control stops on a show that you don't want to watch?

for the record, the dog was wearing a cap & gown.

ginger ale & ginger snaps make a spicy snack.

d-em-c-g... d-em-c-g... d-em-c-g... d-em-c-g...

it's a stake out at the steak house -- that's rare.

listen to my story of a man named jed - poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed. then one day he was shooting at some food, up through the ground came a bubbling crude. oil, that is. black gold. texas tea. first thing you know, old jed's a millionare. the kinfolk said, jed move away from there. they said, californie is the place you ought to be. so, he loaded up the truck & moved to beverly. hills, that is. swimming pools. movie stars.

current barometric pressure: 30.08 inches.

books 2008

currently:
irish tiger
[andrew greeley]

completed:
the bishop at the lake
[andrew greeley]
break no bones
[kathy reichs]
cross bones
[kathy reichs]
fatal voyage
[kathy reichs]
monday mourning
[kathy reichs]
bare bones
[kathy reichs]
grave secrets
[kathy reichs]
cause celeb
[helen fielding]
death du jour
[kathy reichs]
déjà dead
[kathy reichs]
playing for pizza
[john grisham]
the big over easy
[jasper fford]
the life all around me by ellen foster
[kaye gibbons]
the name of the wind
[patrick rothfuss]
eat, pray, love
[elizabeth gilbert]

eh?

thought it was ambrosia -- it was only ginger ale.
thought i'd get a letter -- only junk was in the mail.
set my sights on hollywood -- barely got to omaha,
when i had to slow this car & find this booth & make this call.

cause you're the only one who ever loved me,
and you're the the only one i'll ever love.
the truth of it is right out there before me -
witnessed by the starry skies above.

ees dee baybay kryink?

did you hear about those girls in massachusettes who made a pregnancy pact? a group of perhaps 17 high school girls agreed to all get pregnant. not sure how they all accomplished it precisely. i mean... duh - i know how babies are made. what i am saying is i don't know the details here of the partners & all that. i did hear that at least one of the girls was impregnated by a local homeless man. interesting choice, that. the stated motive for the pregnancies was to bring someone into the world who would love them unconditionally. er... right. okay, here's the problem with that -- you can choose to love someone unconditionally, but someone else will make those choices on his/her own, and just b/c you're someone's mom, it does not necessarily follow that that someone loves you unconditionally. wondering especially if all those girls love their moms unconditionally. hmmm...?

still tracking barometric pressure... no closer to understanding it.

after tiger's knee injury got him on the topic -- the local dj was taking calls from folks with artificial joints & limbs. woman w/ artificial knee calls in & says there is no way you can run w/ an artificial knee. yet, we have all seen those amazing runners who have prosthetic legs. so, if you've had knee replacement, you have to give up running, but if you have had an entire leg replaced, not merely the knee, you can run. sounds like if you want to run, and have a serious knee problem, you should say - let's just forget the artificial knee, whack off the entire leg & give me one of those fancyschmancy ones that will allow me to run.

thoughts?

gratuitous shakespeare quote - and sleep, that sometimes shuts up the sorrow's eye, steal me awhile from mine own company. can you name the play? character? act? scene? discuss the fascinating concept of being stolen away from one's own company.

today is the first day of summer - the longest day of the year in this hemisphere. the hippy dippy weatherman was giving us the weather, man, and he listed different times the sun will set in different cities in different time zones on this, the longest day of the year. he mentioned that in barrow, alaska, the sun will set august 2. that's right - it will be day for days in barrow.


this picture demonstrates the soltices & equinoxes. too bad it is too small to read, eh?

current barometric pressure: 30.00 inches.

good impressionists don't need makeup

myriad folks can do impressions with full make up & costume. that's called acting. it takes real talent to do impressions that are distinct without make up & costume - with only voice & expression. of course, those impressions can only be done of people who have distinctive vocal qualities & expressions - exaggerated accents & facial tics. of course, it takes talent to act. duh. but, it takes a different & rarer talent to do impressions.

dana carvey. talent. period.

[current barometric pressure: 29.96 inches]

kitten & kaboodling

so, i was looking over my list of books i've read this year and noticed one was missing. i added it, but it made me wonder how many times i've done this in the past. maybe never... but chances are, i have missed one here or there. the moral of this story is that everyone makes mistakes; therefore, you can relax b/c i am only human.

current barometric pressure: 29.92 inches.

here's a big surprise for you - canada's government is not set up like that of the usa. canada has a governor general named michaelle jean and a prime minister named stephen harper. there they are, right there north of us, traipsing around with a totally different government setup and what would appear to be a woman in charge of the whole kit & kaboodle. who knew?

the cia publishes a complete list of the leaders of the recognized governments of the world - including presidents, kings, prime ministers, and also heads of state, cabinet ministers, the guy in charge of each national bank, and the ambassador to the u.n. they keep this list updated, which is convenient for those of us who are not privvy to the type of info the cia collects. very convenient. and, here's another tidbit - denmark is ruled by a queen and belgium by a king. the details of how much power these royals have is not detailed. the u.k. has a queen, too, and she's at the top of the list in the cia's info for the u.k., and she doesn't really do anything much in the way of ruling, so maybe those in denmark & belgium don't do much, either... shall we go to these lands & investigate?

curing boredom at the office

some ideas for pumping up the volume on your typical workday:

- tour des restrooms. peeing becomes an adventure when you pee in a new place. visit all the restrooms in the building. make a list & check them off. better yet, make a spreadsheet and log how many times you visit each facility. create a chart, print it in color, & post it on your wall.

- set up an email template & use it to reply to bothersome coworkers: this looks like an out-of-office notice, but indeed - i am in the office today. oh, that's right, i am here -- but i am not answering your doofus email.

- when someone compliments your outfit -- you look nice. special occassion? -- tell them -- no. i just couldn't get the blood stains off my other clothes. turns a gentle compliment into a show stopper. especially useful to deflect the compliements when the reason you're dressed up is that your're going for an interview at the competition.

[current barometric pressure: 29.97 inches]

current barometric pressure

30.01 inches

also, on a totally unrelated note, there is such a thing as "too much" peanut butter on the morning's toast. ugh.

each grain is its own tiny rock

patrick warburton is a funny man. i started watching rules of engagement b/c of david spade - who i think is high-larry-oos - but now i think i like ol' patrick better, in this show. this is patrick's picture. remember him from seinfeld? elaine dated his character -- puddy or putty. not sure exactly what his name was....

who do you think is funny? david spade. patrick warburton. dana carvey. mike myers. some folks are only funny in an ensemble. julia louis-dreyfus is super in new christine & seinfeld, but i can't imagine her doing standup. does she even do standup? some folks were funny, but then they skidded off the funny track and landed in the ditch of stupid. roseanne would be an excellent example of that.

in my book, nothing beats good standup comedy for solid entertainment. can you imagine how difficult standup would be? imagine getting out there on a stage with the technology of microphone & lights, and... geeyah... nobody laffing? man, oh, man... that would be torture. it's tough enough if you make a joke at the dinner table & nobody laffs. but, in front of a crowd of people? gee willikers. and, it's one thing to stumble into a joke - to comment on a funny situation when you see it - but to purposely put together the material and bravely go out there and present it - man, that is a whole nother ball of wax. it would be a replay of the nightmarish 5th grade oral book report every.single.night.

well, it would be nightmarish unless you were good at it. there are not really that many truly good comedians. there are some funny guys with a funny schtick who can come out & do an act & make you laff. but, comedians - they're funny night after night with solid, original material. they don't replay the same material over & over... unless it's something so totally classic that it never gets old. so, i guess i'd have to admit that your best comedians have a mix of new & classic.

take ol' ron white & his tater salad story. that is a classic. he doesn't always tell it the same, though, and i think that's cause his prop bourbon is generally actual bourbon. you have to get the tater salad story early in the evening, or it's simply a prolonged tale of banality.

speaking of the classics - remember john heffron from way back on one of the early years of last comic standing? i think he was the winner on year 1 or 2. man, that guy is the real deal. totally a laffing-to-tears riot. christmas paper wrapping paper tube... yeah, now there is an all-time classic!

what makes stuff funny? the truth in it. something we've all done or all seen or all said. a tough spot we've all been in. it's funny b/c we can relate to it, b/c somebody is holding up that mirror and showing us what's funny about ourselves, and we go - oh, yeah! i've done that! that's funny when that happens! christmas paper wrapping paper tube... oh, yeah....

books 2008

currently:
the bishop at the lake
andrew greeley

completed:
break no bones
[kathy reichs]
cross bones
[kathy reichs]
fatal voyage
[kathy reichs]
monday mourning
[kathy reichs]
bare bones
[kathy reichs]
grave secrets
[kathy reichs]
cause celeb
[helen fielding]
death du jour
[kathy reichs]
déjà dead
[kathy reichs]
playing for pizza
[john grisham]
the big over easy
[jasper fford]
the life all around me by ellen foster
[kaye gibbons]
the name of the wind
[patrick rothfuss]
eat, pray, love
[elizabeth gilbert]

happy father's day to all you pops out there!

have you seen the new viagra commershal featuring a middle-aged couple on a harley? yeah... sort of wondering, what's the deal with that. i'm thinking harley's more establishment than rebel these days, what do you think?

goals for this weekend included running a distance further than 6 miles and getting the harley out of the garage. managed both - ran 8 miles yesterday and got the harley out today. had a slight failure of confidence & ended up riding with my old man instead of solo. yeah, no worries. i'll be back out there soon.

tonight's schedule contains supper w/ speedy. seems an appropriate celebration of father's day, eh? hur hur hur.... junior & mini-me should be taking their pops out to eat - if they have any sense at all. remains to be seen if they have any sense at all.

what about my own personal father, you ask? i seem to perennially overlook father's day. i think that's due to my having been at brigadoon for all my formative years. yes, i credit my brigadoon upbringing. fathers rate nary a mention in that idyllic land of eternal summertime. it's either that brigadoon upbringing, or i am lazy & worthless. thoughts? opinions?

today

today i runned eight miles. now i be so sweeeepy!

if we make it to the dollar store, we'll be golden.

sign spotted at the local car lot: stop by our giant used tent sale!. why does the car lot have giant used tents? hmm... okay, see it's a tent sale, not a sale of tents. like, the cars are placed under a giant tent, and those are the cars designated as on sale. but, the sign makes it appear that they are selling giant, used tents. although there's not a comma on the sign -- it says giant used tent sale - not giant, used tent sale. so, in that regard, it doesn't appear to indicate anything about a sale of tents at all, does it now? no, no it doesn't, and i really cannot fathom why you ever brought it up in the first place. sheezle.

if it's friday, it must be senior volleyball.

current barometric pressure: 30.07 inches. this is not that different from yesterday or the day before, but within probably 50 miles of us is a giant storm. would the air pressure not be changing, specifically: lowering, when there's a storm a'brewin'? isn't that the point - storms are low pressure systems? maybe the pressure doesn't change until the storm actually gets here. maybe i have no idea what i am talking about.

appleby trying to save par at 14. fascinating. from what does par need saving? is par going to drown in the nearby pacific ocean? here's ol' stewie now, why don't we ask him what's up the par?

if it's thursday, it's almost friday, then it's saturday, next comes sunday, then there's monday, and it all starts over again.

two little girls -- ages 13 & 11 -- were walking home from a sleepover in oklahoma, and somebody shot them both & left them dead in a ditch. incredible how awful people are to each other. what in the world would have been a motive for this? did the girls stumble onto a drug deal? were they kidnapped? did someone simply shoot them for no reason at all? it's so bizarre - just makes you shake your head, shake your head... unbelievable. the grandparents of one of the girls were on television, and in another demonstration of the bizarre, the grandmother calmly described all these gunshot wounds on her granddaughter - at great length & in complete detail. w.t.f.?? what is the grandma doing calmly describing a gunshot wound to her little 11-yr-old granddaughter's head? it's freakish - simply freakish.

in a totally different news story, it's being reported that exxon is getting out of the retail gas sales business. wow. guess that retail gas sales biz is not where the money is, eh? wonder why? oh, yeah -- it's because we are all out of money. sheezle.

you will doubtless be glad to know that alkaline trio has a new album coming out 7.1.08 -- agony & irony. i totally adore the album crimson and like a few songs on good mourning. i don't have any of the other albums - might not even like the other albums. but, i bet i will like this new album. i mean, i don't want to listen to all their early experimental blather where their vocab is too small & they curse too much. nah... give me the well-developed intelligence & complexity of the later works.

current barometric pressure: 30.07 inches.

it's dangerous being a pretty girl in this town.

the boss is on vacation. the new girl left for a new job at a p.r. firm. one editor works only part time, and one editor hasn't officially joined the company yet. the business mgr & assistant biz mgr haven't been hired. the freelance designer has been out all week with family issues. there you have it - yours truly is holding down the fort. got my musket loaded & tamped, got my eye to the peephole - you better announce yourself as you approach, or you may end up sucking musket dust!


in addition to holding down the fort, i am the queen of ubuntu. what? you need an example? okay, fine. here:

sudo mount /dev/hda1 /home/ubuntu/Desktop/NewFile -t ntfs -o iocharset=utf8,umask=000

wahlah. hours of research pans out into one command line. easy peasy lemon squeezy? right.

and, lest we forget - current barometric pressure: 30.00 inches.

books 2008

currently:
break no bones
[kathy reichs]

completed:
cross bones
[kathy reichs]
fatal voyage
[kathy reichs]
monday mourning
[kathy reichs]
bare bones
[kathy reichs]
grave secrets
[kathy reichs]
cause celeb
[helen fielding]
deadly décisions
[kathy reichs]
déjà dead
[kathy reichs]
playing for pizza
[john grisham]
the big over easy
[jasper fford]
the life all around me by ellen foster
[kaye gibbons]
the name of the wind
[patrick rothfuss]
eat, pray, love
[elizabeth gilbert]

don't ya just hate it when...

...you accidentally click on a shortcut you didn't mean to launch, and it's a shortcut to something that takes a long time to load, and you have to wait for it to load just so you can close it, and it takes forever to load, and you know it's going to still be in memory even after you close it, and you're going to have to reboot? don't you hate that?

...someone reads off their powerpoint slides like we all can't read for ourselves - which is of course what we're doing: reading along. and the slides are all crowded with too much text b/c the entire presentation is on the slides b/c the presenter wanted to read off them, so what happens is that we're all reading together off these übercrowded slides, leaving the audience bored out of their collective gourd, falling asleep, falling off their chairs, learning nothing, rendering the entire experience a waste of everyone's time. don't you hate that?

...getting stuck behind someone at the mall or on the sidewalk or where ever - someone that is moving too slowly, and maybe you're in a serious hurry, or maybe not - maybe you're just wanting to move faster than these people, but they are like 5 across, and you cannot get around the group, and you try to politely get around, and then you try to rudely get around, and you cannot get around, and you just have to wait it out until they get where they are going. don't you hate that?

...having someone running all up on your tail when you're trying to stroll the mall & relax, and you will get where you're going when you get there, and they can just wait b/c what is their big ol' hurry anyways? don't you hate that?


current barometric pressure: 29.98 inches.

gravity is a cruel mistress. and, gravy's not too nice, either.

people on sitcoms are always doing the most useless things in their gorgeous, state-of-the-art kitchens. they don't deserve these kitchens. these kitchens should be given to people who know how to use them. like me. i really know how to use a kitchen. bring home the take-out, open the bag, put the food onto plates. wah-lah.

beavis came to visit today. brought elvis & priscilla with him, of course, but it's beavis we all wanted to see, isn't it now? yeah. tempus fugited, and it was time to go too soon. well, too soon for me. beavis was ready to go eat, and he didn't want a sammich. if you know what i mean..., and if you don't know what i mean, uh... might i remind you that beavis is a 3-1/2 month old baby.

and, what is the deal with band hats? marching bands, that is. why do marching bands always wear those doofus hats with the bird ol' big bird feathers on 'em? maybe they originated with something like this old school uni, eh?

current barometric pressure: 29.93 inches.

green like guacamole

so, the soccer league has an odd number of teams, meaning the two bottom teams have to play into the end-of-season tournament. like the play-in to the ncaa basketball tourney. the crappy green team has had such a stellar season, we were in the play-in game. the good news is we won - the bad news is that meant we had to play another game immediately. against the #1 team. with only 10 players. in 98º weather. no, we did not pull off the amazing win of the century, but hey - we are not the last place team. so there!

after the game, we went to the mexicali grill to get some salty chips & wet water. what happened was that i ate too, too, too many chips. did not actually realize there could be a too many when it came to chips, but surprise - there is. it's like... 4 baskets. yeah, 4 is too many.

got home & my old man's hungry b/c he's been waiting on us to get home. eat again, to be social? ah, it can probably be done. that's the price of love.

06-07-08

the kid waiting on us tonight was wearing some low hanging pants. these pants were hanging so low they almost fell off when he was putting the pizza on the next table. seriously - almost fell off. i was actually hoping they would fall off, for the humor factor, but that probably would have delayed his bringing our pizza.

so, i am reading the books of kathy reichs, a forensic anthropologist who writes about a character named temperance brennan, who is a forensic anthropologist. ms reichs bases this character loosely on her own life. there is a television show called bones based on the actual life of kathy reichs. the main character in this television show is a forensic anthropologist named temperance brennan. the character brennan is both a forensic anthropologist & a writer. she writes a series of books in which the protagonist's name is... wait for it... kathy reichs.

did you hear about the belmont stakes? big brown didn't win, and thereby win the triple crown. not only did he "not win"... he lost. came in very last place. so much for that triple crown bid, eh?

the beavis is coming! the beavis is coming!

elvis & priscilla are bringing beavis to town. w00t! picked up a cute little giftie for him today at the goodwill store. that place is slam-jam packed with... uh... well, with junk mostly. but, there's some cute stuff if you look for it.

everyone's had peanut butter & jelly sammiches, but did you ever have a peanut butter & banana sammich? what about pb & mayo? pb & marshmallow cream? pb & honey? i used to have pb & marshmallow creams all the time - fluffernutters, as they are called. i could go for the nanners or the honey, but the mayo? seriously - people eat that. peanut butter & mayonnaise. i'm not picky - i'll eat just about anything. but peanut?butter?and?mayo??? uh-uh... no way.



i just now googled for fluffernutter to get you a picture, and lookie what i found - a fluffernutter cake. woah, nelly! i even got the recipe so's you can make me one. yeah!

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 large egg whites
3/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla paste

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Combine egg whites, milk and vanilla extract. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture then add half the milk mixture. Continue to alternate, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Pour the batter into two greased amd floured 9 inch round cake pans and smooth top with spatula. Bake cakes about 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean.

Cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and let cool completely.

For the filling, I simply used a few heaping tablespoons of marshmallow fluff and sprinkled it with 1/3 cup of peanut butter chips. If I were to make this cake again, I would add powdered sugar to the marshmallow to increase it's viscosity. Without the additon of sugar, the marshmallow will leak out from between the cake layers and from the peanut butter frosting (The first picture of this post illustrates this phenomenon). At A Full Plate, we all agreed it looked cool, but ultimately I was disappointed because most of the marshmallow was too thin to hold it's place.

For the frosting on the outside of the cake, I used the Peanut Butter Frosting developed during The Elvis Cake.

2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1 cup of smooth peanut butter.
4 cups of powdered sugar
Up to 2 Tbs milk

In an electric mixer cream together the butter and peanut butter until smooth and fully incorporated. Add the powdered sugar a cup at a time and use milk to adjust the consistency to your liking. Frost the cake liberally and sprinkle the top with additonal peanut butter chips.

current barometric pressure: 30.09 inches.

what ever happened to...

...hubcaps?

today, as i was standing on the corner waiting on the vanpool, i was observing the cars driving by. okay, i always observe the cars driving by while i am standing there, but today, instead of simply randomly & passively watching the cars, i decided to have a goal. this goal would help me focus on the car watching. okay, so... the goal was - observe wheels, compare & contrast different styles.


most cars these days have wheels with no hubcaps. did hubcaps go out of style? like, are they no longer fashionable? or, is it more a mechanical thing -- does the car operate better without hubcaps? i am fairly certain it's the former, b/c i cannot imagine what difference hubcaps would make to the operation of the vehicle. it is probably easier to change a tire, except that without the hubcap, there's no place to stash the lug nuts.

the logical conclusion is that hubcaps are out of style. will they come back in style? why did they go out of style? who decides these things?

today, i saw a buick with hubcaps that had lots of spokes on them. all glittery & shiney. they looked sort of like bicycle wheels. so, those hubcaps were designed to look like wheels. ironic, eh?

also saw a toyota camry with hubcaps imprinted with the word "taurus". it is possible that they came off a ford taurus & had been transplanted to the camry, but it's much more likely the guy driving the car is named taurus, and he had the hubcaps personalized. don't you agree?

observing the wheels, which appeared in much greater numbers [duh - already said that] than the hubcaps, i noticed that most wheels have 5 spokes. of course, they are much wider spokes than those on bicycle tires, but still - spokes. some wheels have fancyish double spokes, so they have 10. a smaller number had 6 or 7 spokes. none had fewer than 5 or more than 7. they all seemed to have 5 lug nuts, even if they had more than 5 spokes

in conclusion, the current barometric pressure is 29.97 inches.

current barometric pressure 29.80

so big brown won the first two legs of the triple crown - the kentucky derby & the preakness stakes. this saturday's the final leg - the belmont stakes. this weekend's race is the longest - the derby's a wee bit over two miles, and the preakness is a wee bit under that. the belmont is close to 2.4 miles. wanna bet on the race? i bet more people watch this horserace on teevee than watched all horse races on teevee last year, combined. that's what i bet.

john smoltz, pitcher for the atlanta braves, is headed for season-ending shoulder surgery. we used to watch a lot of baseball, a few years back, when mini-me was minier. smoltz played then, and he's still playing. they're saying this season-ending surgery may be career-ending surgery, and i wouldn't be surprised. he is 40 yrs old after all, and that's - like - ancient.

this is the politically incorrect braves logo. you know how native americans want all native american related mascots gone? here's what i wonder about that: the teams that have these mascots are using them because they represent strength, bravery, determination, stamina... lots of good characteristics. being chosen as a mascot should be thought of as an honor. i don't see what the problem is.

here's another picture issue i wonder about - every picture that accompanies the current proliferation of stories about gay marriage shows two guys. you know that women are marrying other women, just like men are marrying other men. why don't they show pictures of 2 women in a loving embrace or 2 women kissing? seems unfair.

hilary clinton's pulling out of the race. tatum o'neal's in rehab. apple's going to start selling the iphone in japan. the space station crew has repaired the toilet. lots of news. lots & lots of news.

what's news with yous?

let's start paying attention

what the hula is barometric pressure & how does it relate to the weather as i experience the weather? the current bp is 29.75 inches. right.... inches of what? i do know that if it's falling - heading to lower pressure - that translates to a risk of storms. rising = higher pressure = fair weather. when the pressure is high, other air systems cannot move into the area. when the pressure is low, systems roar in to fill the space - bringing rough air, lightning, etc.

when the pressure is "low" the ceiling is "high", and vicie versie. that confuses me b/c each sort of makes an opposite picture in my mind. you know - "low" & "high" being opposites and all. this nice meter here would help, eh?

so, let's start paying attention. barometric pressure. it's 29.75 inches & fair outside. duly noted.

'tis the second of june

the trend is away from the walmart style -- too big, too impersonal, too cheap -- and back towards the publix model of customer service. this, from an email newsletter: ...the national mood has changed. People are struggling to take back control of their lives and their communities. The big store on the highway doesn't do it anymore. What people want is good advice from people they trust. They want a local sustainable economy. And they are rediscovering what's important in their lives: local stores.

seems we're on at a turning point where folks are becoming more interested in staying local. the price of gas is rising, making people not want to travel. the high monetary & non-monetary prices of commercial farming are being revealed, making people not want to buy the products of the big aggregate farms. the focus is shifting from global to local community, from consumerism to being "green" ...to paying it forward ...to getting to know the neighbors ...to developing simple & sustainable lifestyles.

sounds a wee bit like brigadoon, wouldn't ye say?

so many faces in & out of our lives, some will stay - some will just be now & then

speedy & junior are separating. speedy says it's a trial separation, and they don't know which way it will go. my old man says he doubts they'll get back together. junior called speedy tonite while i was with her, and he told her that it's lonely at the house without her. she'd just gone to dinner... wonder what he'll think when she moves out?