Things.

Nope. Not dead yet. Just had nothin' to say.

Was looking at some magazine photos at the checkout at the grocery the other day and noticed how many of the celebs/models smiles show both up and down teeth. Perhaps this is a "beauty" feature that isn't mentioned often? Dunno.

I do know that I can't smile with both up and down teeth showing unless I wrinkle up my nose, which then makes it look like I've got rabies and am about to bite your throat out. So being fat and round-faced isn't enough, I don't have a suitable smile either. This works. I hope the guy in the parking lot who saw me grimacing at my rear-view mirror didn't think I was going to bite him.


Got a cup of coffee from Burger King this morning. It has a graphic on it that says "Happily Serving Seattle's Best Coffee". Not wearing my glasses. It looked like it said "Happily Starving".

Seriously.

My letter to the airlines:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing this letter to thank you all for the many flights I have enjoyed with your Airline company over the last 40 years. It has been for the most part a pleasure to fly with you all, and the service has been exceptional.

I regret to inform you that I will never be using your services again. Due to the intrusive, and to my mind illegal, searches being performed by the “TSA” on passengers, I will never board another airplane.

It saddens me to know that I will never again be able to whisk from O’Hare or Midway to destinations in the US or abroad, but I will not subject myself to the indignity of an unwarranted, intrusive, and constitutionally illegal search which demands that I either allow an unknown person to view my naked body, or submit to fondling in intimate places by an unknown individual.

(Amendment 4: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.)

I don't think walking into an airport, or wanting to fly down to see my Dad constitutes "probable cause" that I am a "Terrahist".

It also appears from recent news stories, that even showing up at the airport and then attempting to leave without boarding the flight when refusing to submit to these indignities is being met with outrageous threats of tens of thousands of dollars in “fines” and threats of legal actions. This is patently unacceptable.

I will endure the discomfort and tedium of driving to my destinations here forward as a result. No “safety” can be assured by these authoritarian, police-state methods, and as an American Citizen, I refuse to submit to this.

Unfortunately, I cannot wish you well. I hope with all my heart that these TSA atrocities cause you to lose sufficient revenues that you and your fellow airlines team together to address the issue with airports and the government to remove the scanners and cease the intrusive “pat-down” methods.

Until then – fly safely – and please, please lose a lot of money.

Vote vote vote vote

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stop reading. go vote.

Vote early

Vote often.

Go. now. vote.

vote vote vote vote

CHI CHI CHI LE LE LE

oh my.

I don't usually stay up too late - and I don't have a functional TV, so it is really rather unusual that I stayed up late last night to watch as the first 2 of the Chilean miners were rescued. The joy on their families faces was so heartwrenching.

Congratulations to all who helped, all who waited, and all who survive. I know there are still about 1/3 of the guys to bring up-and then the brave souls who went DOWN to help them also, but truly, this is a happy, happy thing.

A LIFE - I haz one!

sorta.

This weekend I had what other people might call a "normal day", but it was chock-full of happening things for me.

First off, I was awakened at 7 am by the phone - SPTLM calling to tell me that Dad collapsed at church and was being taken by the paramedics to the hospital. Ok. I'm awake.

Picked up a little, ran a few small errands, then came back and got ready for my treat of the fiscal quarter - Lunch at the Dysfunctional Dennys with my kids - yes, Manda and Brad were in town and we had lunch at the DD. We laughed at their menu, we talked and talked, and Manda told me about "Origami Boulder" - which you really should check out on the web because it is funny.

Then I got back home - not enough time to vacuum - and Co-Worker "R" and his lovely wife came over and helped get my window back into the track! I will not have snowballs in the livingroom this winter!!!!

Then I made a small steak and some lovely veggies and yorkshire puddings for dinner. Yes, I know yorkies are supposed to be for going with a roast, but I didn't have a roast, and besides of which a roast is too much for just big fat old me, so phlllhhhbbhhhttt - I like yorkshire puddings.

It's like.... a life! I must do this again.

PS: Dad didn't have a heart attack or a stroke, according to the tests. They're keeping him for a few days to see if they can figure out what happened. SPTLM has a good physician, and he's having that guy look at Dad. For now, I'm going with "no news is good news", although I don't entirely discount that SPTLM could call at any minute with dire news presented dramatically.

I'm Not Christine O'Donnell

I'm not Christine O'Donnell

I'm a bitch.

But that's really the only thing we have in common.

I don't want to go to Washington and do what she would do.

I'd rather stay home and masturbate.

I'm sure we can all see all around us all the things that have been broken by Washington over the last 10 years - and if you elect me, I'll fall down on my ass laughing because I know just exactly how unelectable I am!

I'm not Christine O'Donnell

I'm Sewmouse And I approve of this message.

The Teabaggers Dream

So the "tea party patriots" want no government, just a military - and no regulations, and no taxes.

Ok.

This means no FCC. Anyone and everyone can transmit anything they want on the airwaves on any frequency they desire. Kiss your radio programs goodbye - every frequency will be like bad CB radio - breaker breaker, any takers, good buddy? Forget about free TV - either you pony up for cable or you will get just a mish-mash of bleuch.

No FDA - no such thing as a "prescription" drug, because they will all be available over-the-counter, with dosages and potency all dubious, because there will be no labelling laws, and no warnings, no oversight into business practices. That insulin you just injected may well be tainted with digitalis - but no worries!

No FAA. Anyone can drive any airplane anywhere anytime. No air-traffic-controllers, no NTSB to oversee safety - why bother with maintenance, it is only costly! If ya lose a plane full of folks because the wings fell off - oh well.

None of these things are mentioned in the Constitution (never mind that radio, tv and the airplane had not been invented yet when the constitution was written...), so according to the Baggers, we should not be spending Your Tax Dollars® on such "entitlement" fripperies!

Idiots.

Kili gets a physical

Nothing quite like having a lumpy cat.

They were small lumps, and at first it was just one or two on her neck. Now it appears to have spread all over her body. Small hard lumps that don't move if I scratch (gently) at them. I was concerned.

Then a bout of 4 day fecal unpleasantness.

Vet appointment made and kept.

Cash outlaid for "senior panel" blood and urine tests.

Results today.

Apparently the Illegal Alien Kitteh brought a few not-so-nice friends with it. Flea medicine prescribed. Will pick up tonite. 18 years as an indoor cat and never a hint of fleas on either one of them. Damn outside intruder destroys my screens and then infests my cat. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Serious housecleaning and disinfecting and vacuuming and steam-cleaning and maybe even a bug bomb or 2.

Everything else - WAY normal, especially for an old lady like Kili. WOOT.
Except. Thyroid is in the "grey" area. Hyperthyroidism is apparently an old-cat possibility. Can be treated - hopefully cheaply. We will keep an eye on her so she doesn't lose any more weight and hopefully she'll be ok.

Since some kind of feline skin-cancer (untreatable, fast-killing) was a possibility, I am greatly relieved.

Tea Parties and Mad Hatters

Sleeping in a teapot sounds patently uncomfortable.


For the last couple of years, I've been thinking about "Socialism" and the fear and loathing the term brings out in people around my age or older.


I belong to the tail-end of the "Baby Boom" - those of us born in the decade following the termination of hostilities in WWII. We grew up with the spectre of BIG RED hovering over us, sending spies to kill our Kennedys, driving submarines loaded with dreaded nuclear weapons right up the Delaware Bay. FLASH! BANG! DUCK AND COVER!


Yes, I actually was shown that movie in grade school. As ludicrous as it seems now, we were taught to look for fallout shelter signs, taught to duck under our desks and cover our heads with our hands. (As opposed to the more useful sticking your head between your legs and kissing your ass goodbye...)


We were taught to FEAR the great Red Menace - the evil Bear of the Soviet Union - the Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics. The USSR.





We were shown photos of sad-eyed, cold looking children, standing in long lines to get food. We were innundated by the Reader's Digest stories of Russian women who would "wait in any line, not knowing what it was for, just to get something to eat, or maybe to trade". Forced to work in slave-like sweatshop conditions, not given the opportunity to learn or choose their own career paths. Large families living in 2 room apartments, starving in the cold and turning to vodka as the only way to dim the pain of their miserable lives. Living daily in mortal fear of being swept up as a "Dissident" for even looking sideways at a government official or building and carried away mysteriously in the night to frozen hell in Siberia for eternity.



Reading Russian novels didn't make it any less frightening. Believe me. I've read a few. I cannot believe the grim, angst-ridden, hopelessness portrayed.


I've been thinking about this - especially when I see older folks on the news following after the Baggers with signs saying "Keep your Government Hands Off My Social Security/Medicare"


Socialism - Communism - Red Threat - Godless Commies


It all kind of makes sense, if your world-view is stagnated in the Cold War Era and all. Thank you, Tom Clancy.


And I'll be honest here. I don't think there is any way that we can fix that. And Karl Rove knows it. He knows the word "Socialism" hearkens back to those fear-filled news reports with the hidden missle silos and the mushroom clouds and Tom Brokaw and Walter Kronkite intoning gloom and doom and fear.


And now that we don't have the godless Russkies to pick on anymore, the Corporate Powers have decided to pick a new Boogie-man - Muslims. Unfortunately, the folks in the middle east don't play the game the way the Russkies did. It isn't all about fear and assured mutual destruction. The government in Iran is not Moscow - Ahmedinajfuckicantspellit is no Gorbachev. These guys don't just pound the podium with their shoes - they throw them!


And the hell of it all is - I have no answers. I don't know that there ARE any answers. I suppose I should read the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. Maybe I can start writing the Rise and Fall of the American Dream....


*sigh*

CLOSE CALL!

So there I am, driving down the street, minding my own business. It is very dark, as it is after 9 pm. I usually don't go out late on a work night, but there it is, I needed a burrito. No, not wanted. Needed. So I schlepped out to Taco Hell Bell.

Driving up Barrington Road, suddenly 2 shiney eyes in the road in front of me! Low to the ground, I see a black mass in the road. I yank the wheel to the right, then hold my breath...

I did not hit the skunk.

Thank the Goddess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!