October 01, 2006
Feeling better, thanks
A good night's sleep and adding this to the regimen did the trick. It's funny how fast the right medicine can make you feel better!
Among today's activities, we did some laundry, including changing the sheets on our bed. Somedays, I really wonder why we bother:
October 03, 2006
Happy Birthday!
Happy 3-0 to fabulous blogger and Cotillion sister RightGirl!
Even if she is one of those damn Canadians!
Highly Amusing
In class this week, Hubby had his students watch a movie and answer some questions based on the film. It was immediately apparent that most of them had been too busy goofing off, working on other stuff, or chatting to pay attention to the video. In fact, less than 1/3 of them turned in the answers at the end of class.
So hubby had a pop quiz today. The first four questions came directly from the movie questions. Question number 5 was: "Why do you think we are having a pop quiz today?"
One kid raises he hand and asks "Are we taking this because everyone was talking and you warned us we'd have a quiz?"
Hubby answered in the affirmative.
Then another kid asked "so what is question 5 about?" and then his friend says "Didn't you just hear [first dude] answer that already?"
October 06, 2006
Friday Funny!
Interpreting A Woman's Words (by Neal Boortz)
FINE
this is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.
FIVE MINUTES
If she is getting dressed, this is half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given 5 more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.
NOTHING
This is the calm be fore the storm. This means "something," and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with 'Nothing' usually end in "Fine"
GO AHEAD
This is a dare, not permission. Don't do it.
LOUD SIGH
This is not actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A "Loud Sigh" means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you over "Nothing"
THAT'S OKAY
This is one of the most dangerous statements that a woman can make to a man. "That's Okay" means that she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.
THANKS
A woman is thanking you. Do not question it or faint. Just say you're welcome.
"WHATEVER"
...it's a woman's way of saying *!#@ YOU!
No seriously. It's all true. So why am I telling YOU?
h/t Jenna
October 09, 2006
Glowing Electric Sex....
The house where the most Awesome Christmas Movie Ever (tm) was filmed is being turned into a museum. Like the Bedheaded One, I too hope this will be available in the gift shop, although you can get it online, anyway....
October 19, 2006
I'm baaaaack
Didja miss me?
I've written this post in my head 200 times (at least) since Sunday.... Which of course makes it harder to write.
Where to begin?
So Friday I was supposed to get up at 3am to be at LAX in time for a 6am flight. But DH turned off the alarm in his sleep and we woke up at 5. YEEOUCH!
Flew to the airport, only to be told that I had missed the bag check cutoff by 10 minutes.... So I called using the little phone and changed to a flight laving at 7am. And they only charged me a $25 same-day confirmation fee, rather than like $100 for changing my ticket. Thank God for Travelocity travel insurance. I usually never get it, but I did this time because I was making other stops (more about that later). Good thing.
So I left at 7am, and arrived in Atlanta about 2:30. I got a taxi to the hotel and transferred a few things to a smaller bag.
At 4 pm the Mulleted one arrived and whisked me away. Well, whisked is probably a strong term considering that it took us two hours to get out of Atlanta. Damn Friday rush hour traffic. And we only had to turn around twice! :-)
He even took me to Chick Fil A! What a nice guy.
So eventually we get to the hotel in Tennessee, and finally on to our destination, the Straight White House. I walked into the house, and instantly got swallowed up in a sea of bloggers and blog buddies: Sissy, Bou, Bou's sister Morrigan, Jimbo and his bodyguard Kenny, Denny, T1G, Redneck, Johnny-Oh, RSM, Yabu, Recondo32 and Georgia, Eric's buddy J, and of course the SWG and the SW Missus.
I felt comfortable immediately, and let me tell you, this is a good bunch of folks. Fun AND funny. And it was awesome to put faces with names and to get to give my Adopted Blog Mom and Sis hugs!
On Saturday morning we all went to breakfast. I didn't realize it was still possible to get more food than you can eat for $4! As we pulled up to the cafe, Teresa arrived, too.
While I'm on the subject of breakfast, Boudicca can really put away the food. She may be little, but there's a lumberjack in that little body!
After breakfast we returned to Eric's, with only a few people getting lost, and soon there were more folks to meet: Ellison and SWMBO arrived right after breakfast, and then Velociman, Dax Montana, and Big Stupid Tommy joined the party.
Did I miss anyone?
Saturday's highlights included breaking shot glasses (hot glass + cold Vodka = crack!), a rocket attack, and Dax et al ACTUALLY sleeping out by the fire. No. Really. When they actually slept.
Saturday also featured a yummy dinner of barbecued ribs, beans, and biscuits, followed by birthday cake. It seems that SWG, Ellison, Zonker, Jimbo, and Denny all have birthdays in the last 10 days. So we had two cakes, and a singalong. Seems the Debonair One is also quite the songwriter, and he wrote a great song commemorating the event and the Straight White Birthday.
And then Ellison and Jimbo made up a song about getting older and slamming your dick in the door.
Yep. You read that right. Zonker has the video.
Sunday featured breakfast cooked by the Ellisons and Yabu ducking out of doing the dishes. Velociman left early because he had a long drive. Except that he forgot his laptop, and had to return for it. But the sneaky bastard thought he could grab it and go. He didn't reckon on the alarm, though. The rest of us were in the kitchen when he sneaked in, and I heard the alarm and saw him sneaking out the door. The only words I could get out were "There he goes!" and the rest of the crew took off out the door and made him pay for trying to pull a fast one.
Then we left and drove down the back roads back to Atlanta, where I got back into the swing of things at the meeting I actually came to town for.
But that's another post entirely.
More on everyone and pictures and more stories later. It's just too much to remember. Check everyone else's stories, especially Ellison's latest.
While I'm posting videos
I love the SportsCenter commercials from ESPN. Love them.
Here's my favorite of the new batch:
While we're at it, here's DH's favorite:
More Classic SportsCenter videos here.
October 20, 2006
Divorce, Cosmology Style
Renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking is getting a divorce....
Really, it's no surprise to me, as there have been rumors of difficulties between Professor Hawking and his wife for almost a decade, nearly as long as they have been married. Nevertheless, I feel sorry for both of them. Prof. Hawking is a genuine and funny person, even if the ALS has stolen his comedic timing.
Friday Funnies
South Park AND Dog the Bounty Hunter. That's hard to beat.
Here's Cartman the Hall Monitor:
And Cartman the Hall Monitor with his Crew:
BTW this is a classic episode, "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy", pointing out the double standard whereby male teachers who molest students spend their lives in jail while a female teacher practically gets away with it because banging the teacher is every guy's fantasy.
And while I'm on the subject, some gratuitous Van Halen video love:
Sammy Hagar is a tool. David Lee Roth kicks ass.
October 21, 2006
This guy shoulda gone to Caltech
We don't have rules about messing with your door. And skillz like his come in handy on Ditch Day.
When's Ditch Day, you ask? It's tomorrow, Froshies. Go to bed early!
Seattle goes Queer Eye Style
Seattle has a new tourism slogan: Metronatural
When Washington state announced its new tourism slogan last spring, Pike Place Market vendor Kenny Telesco was willing to give it a chance. He practiced saying it with "jazz hands" and asked tourists to "SayWA" as they posed for photos. But he's not sure he can stomach Seattle's new tourism slogan, unveiled Friday in 18-foot-tall letters atop the Space Needle: "metronatural."
"How do you use that in a sentence?" Telesco asked. "'Welcome to Metronatural.' ... It's an airport where you can buy organic bananas."
Others suggested "metronatural" evoked an urban nudist camp and speculated about whether it would last longer than "SayWA," which the state dropped recently because it failed to catch on.
Let's hope it lasts a shorter time than the metrosexual fad, mm'kay?
October 23, 2006
Gorram Snotnose...
...Me.
I have the cold from hell, which may even be the flu. It's no joke when I tell people that traveling makes me ill. Because of the RA and the mild immunosuppression from the drugs, I get whatever's going around, the first AND the second time. So instead of sitting on my office working on grant applications, dealing with my students, etc. I am sitting on my couch drifting in and out of consciousness in front of SportCenter, occasionally being able to smell the pot roast I have in the crockpot for tonight.
I suppose I should share the recipe. It being the easiest pot roast ever. Goes together in 5 minutes in the AM and cooks all day while you're out.
Easy CrockPot PotRoast ala TJ
Crockpot
Roast of your choice, suitable for pot roast. I have no idea what cut of meat is in there today
4-6 small to medium potatoes
2 handfuls baby carrots (about 1.5 cups chopped carrot eq.)
1 "potbelly" (large can) of Trader Joe's Rich Onion Soup
large dash Worcestershire sauce
Garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste
(you can also add about 1/2 cup red wine to the liquid, if you like)
Place the roast in the crockpot. If it has a predominate "fat side", place the fat side up. Pour the can of soup over the roast. Add up to 1 cup water to the can to wash out any remaining onions, and add to the crockpot. Add worcestershire sauce (and wine if desired), garlic powder and salt and pepper. Give the liquid a bit of a stir to mix elements.
Wash potatoes thoroughly, and remove any eyes. Cut in half and drop potatoes around roast so all are covered with liquid. Add carrots.
Cover and set crockpot to low. Let cook 8 hours.
October 25, 2006
Since she posted it.....
Super Duper congratulations to the lovely Carmen of I'll do what I wanna do....
It's been a hell of week for her. First she got married. Then she got some really good news and some even better news! Drop by her blog for the big news!
Congrats also to soon-to-be-Great Aunt Tammi!
The Big 6-0
Denny of Grouchy Old Cripple hits the sextagenarian mark today.
Happy Birthday! and many more, at least as many as there are bottles left to drink!
An even dozen... definitely not cheap!
Happy Anniversary to the most darling man in the world.
I love you.
Everything I said last year? Still true, and more than ever.
October 26, 2006
There's nothing like a coupon...
To send the fat chicks swarming.
Admittedly it was a good damn coupon. And before you get pissed, remember that I know of which I speak, being 1) a fat chick, and 2) Armenian (read: cheap)
The local Lane Bryant had a grand re-opening today, with 40% off EVERYTHING in the store. I needed a belt and so friend Kj and I were off to the mall this evening.
HOLY SHIT. I've never seen so many people in a store.
The new store is divided in half, with one half devoted to clothes and accessories, and the other half to lingerie and sleepwear. The entire lingerie half was so full you couldn't move. Not with people picking out bras and panties, but with the LINE FOR THE CASH REGISTER. It was like Disneyland without the ride payoff.
Needless to say we put back the things we were considering and went across to Torrid and spent our money there. And then I came home and ordered the belt I was looking at for about the same price online as in the store (20% off all online purchases plus another coupon!)
October 27, 2006
Camille Paglia Tells the Truth
And it's the real truth, not just "truthiness".
And what she has to say isn't easy for EITHER party to hear, but a much needed wake up call for Washington.
It's quite long, but well worth the read. Some tidbits:
"...I felt the Democrats were shooting themselves in the foot. I was especially repulsed by the manipulative use of a gay issue for political purposes by my own party. I think it was not only poor judgment but positively evil. Whatever short-term political gain there is, it can only have a negative impact on gay men. When a moralistic, buttoned-up Republican like Foley is revealed to have a secret, seamy gay life, it simply casts all gay men under a shadow and makes people distrust them. Why don't the Democratic strategists see this? These tactics are extremely foolish....."
"...[G]ay men been tarnished by the over-promotion of the Foley scandal, but they have actually been put into physical danger. It's already starting with news items about teenage boys using online sites to lure gay men on dates to attack and rob them. What in the world are the Democrats thinking? We saw the beginning of this in that grotesque moment in the last presidential debates when John Kerry came out with that clearly prefab line identifying Mary Cheney as a lesbian. Since when does the Democratic Party use any gay issue in this coldblooded way as a token on the chessboard? You'd expect this stuff from right-wing ideologues, not progressives."
...
"There was a time when feminists were arguing, in regard to sexual harassment in the workplace, that any gross disparity in power cannot possibly produce informed consent. All of a sudden, all of that was abandoned for partisan reasons in the Clinton case. I take the European view that any government official has the right to conduct as many sexual affairs as he wishes -- off government property. But Clinton, with all his power, somehow couldn't figure out a way to discreetly meet his chosen women at the mansions of his many friends. I can understand why hotels and motels might have been difficult to manage, with the telltale Secret Service presence. But to use the hallway off the Oval Office for those encounters -- to be serviced by a young woman to whom he gave no other dignity and whom he used like a washrag -- he turned that hallway into a sleazy mosh pit! The Democrats are being extremely imprudent to arouse all those sleeping tigers again -- particularly if their next presidential nomination is Hillary Clinton."
...
"A big problem is that in the minds of too many Americans, Iraqi culpability for the disaster of 9/11 is still pretty deeply rooted. It's because of the vagueness with which most Americans perceive the map and peoples of the Middle East. It shows how bad education has been in geography and international history at both the high school and college levels. It's highly alarming. The reflex mind-set after 9/11 was, "We've got to do something!" So there was this lashing out at whatever seemed Arab or Muslim."
...
" And we do face an international crisis of mammoth proportions. What should we do in the face of this ruthless and barbaric Islamic fundamentalism? Is there an answer to the problem of Israel? There was a time when the left's call for a transnational Israel made sense to me, but at this point does anyone really think that, if Israel stops calling itself a Jewish state and opens its borders to all Palestinians who wish to return, there would be instant peace? Because of the shocking upsurge in anti-Semitism in the last few years -- exacerbated by the American incursion into Iraq -- surely such a development would mean suicide for Jews who reside in Israel. Passions have become too inflamed among young Muslims all over the world. I think it will be a century before any of this is resolved."
An honorable tribute
Read John D's account of the tribute to Cpl. David Unger at Ft. Leavenworth today. I dare you not to cry.
October 30, 2006
Join the Army!
In raising funds for a good cause!
It's that time of year again, and we're raising funds for the Soldier's Angels Valour-IT project.
Valour-IT purchases laptops with voice-activated software to be distributed to wounded troops in military hospitals around the world, so that even without the use of hands and arms, these brave men and women can stay in touch with family and keep up with the rest of the world during their recuperation.
As we did last year, the 4 branches of service are having a competition to see who can raise the most cash. Army won last year in a squeaker over the waterboys, and let's see if we can do it again.
To join our team, click here. Or to join another team, click here. Because really, it doesn't matter which team you join, all the money goes to help our wounded troops.
