Today We Are Two

Happy Birthday, Little Blog



Who would have guessed 2 years ago that I'd still be yammering on here now? Or that I'd have met folks from all over the place, some of whom have become friends (at least in MY mind!) and read my insane ramblings?

When I first started typing here on this date in 2005, I really had no idea what direction this blog would move. In many ways it has been a journey of learning about what interests me - not just for those who read it, but for the one typing as well. Every so often I have to go back and find my own "roots" - the parts of me that keep running away and hiding while I am busy trying to be "grown up" and "responsible" and crap like that.

My sincere apologies for the exceptionally PISS POOR edit on the cake picture. There was some goofy kid in tennis shoes who simply HAD to be removed - and why exactly is it that one can find TONS of pictures of cakes with 1 candle, or 3 candles, or 127 candles - but NONE with just TWO candles? So I had to get rid of a candle. So the cake looks kind of saggy. Sorry guys.

Hopefully it's not soggy - and everybody gets a slice.

612 days

Television

The "Simpsons" is going into its 18th season this year, and challenging "Gunsmoke's" record as longest-running program. Rather amazing, really. A cartoon.

According to Nielsen, Americans are now watching less TV. Or watching it different ways than previously - by recording programs and watching later, or by streaming them on "pods" or other ways. The networks seem convinced that they are still being watched, just differently.

Newsflash to the networks: This mouse stopped watching television except for a RARE sports event or news program. Oh, and I will watch the "Nutcracker" on PBS every Xmas time.

Quite simply - I have no use for a monitor without a keyboard. If I can't really "interact" with it, I really can't drum up any enthusiasm for it anymore. I love video games, I like computer games, I enjoy watching movies (I knit or quilt at the same time), but I have no patience any more for the predigested crap that passes for "Entertainment" on television, and the "news" on TV is abysmally lacking. I don't get cable TV because I can't see the point of paying 50+ bucks a month for something I'd never watch. Same reason for not getting newspaper delivery - why pay for the privilege of recycling something? It's not like I have a birdcage that needs lining or anything.

Yes, the Big Bad Evil Internet has eaten my TV's space in my heart. All my TV time are belong to the Internet. *chuckle*

614 days

The Big Fat Bigot is Dead

Praise the Lord!

Falwell Highlights:


Regarding 9/11/01:
“I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.’”

"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve."


Miscellaneous Bigotry:

"If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being."

"AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals."

"I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!"

"The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country." (Thomas Jefferson was the Devil?)

"I had a student ask me, "Could the savior you believe in save Osama bin Laden?" Of course...and then he must be executed."


I haven't felt this good since my ex-mother-in-law died!!

Eat... sleep

I think this may be a side-effect of the diabetes, but I'm getting to where if I want to do ANYTHING at home at night, I better do it before dinner, because afterward I turn into jello and fall asleep like a rock. It's quite annoying, really.

From the "Good things" list - the bank statement at work balanced to the penny in less than 24 hours. I love it when that happens. Unlike 99% of the rest of the world, I actually ENJOY balancing the bank statement. It's like a puzzle or a cryptogram. Just keep chipping away at it until every number matches. The hard ones are frustrating, but still fun. THe easy ones do make me smile, however. It means I've done everything right for a whole month. That's rather amazing, no?

I need to remember to pick up beer on the way home - I bought some bratwurst and need to do the boiling bit before I can broil them. Beer-soaked bratwurst is one of the very FEW things from Wisconsin that are good things. (I am not a big fan of cheddarheadland)

Tonight I am planning on being a bit of a housework slug. I have 3 chores to do, and that's all I'm gonna do. Then I'll spend the rest of the time playing with fabric to finish cutting BBC's quilt out and to get another "square" done on the fish quilt so the frame will be ready and free when I need it.

615 days

Mothers Day After

I remember the night I knew you were on the way, Amanda. I cussed out your Dad for predicting you'd be born on his birthday - I wasn't ready yet, and I was hoping for St. Paddy's Day instead. The bedroom wasn't painted yet.

I remember watching the sunrise over downtown Denver in the birthing room during the short pauses between contractions, and I remember how my heart swelled up and filled with love when they told me "It's a girl" - and all I could say was "Amanda!!" I was so unbelieveably glad you were there, that you were a girl, that you were alive and healthy.

I remember the first night that you were home - how the bedroom smelled so very bad from the fresh paint, and so I slept on the sofa next to your bassinette - and you cried until I picked you up, and you fell asleep on my chest.

According to you I've been a shit Mom, and so I'll accept that. Nobody but you can make that call, since nobody else has me for a Mom. All I can say is that I did the best that *I* can do. I'm sorry it wasn't enough, or it wasn't right. Life sucks that way sometimes, however, and even when we do our best, sometimes it isn't enough.

I still love you just as much as I ever did that morning 25 years ago.
*************************************************************************************
Mommy

You left us a little over a year ago, and I miss you more every day you're gone. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to pick up the phone and tell you about something, only to have to stop and relive the pain for a few seconds again. You were the glue that held things together in many ways, and now that I see them flying apart it becomes ever more apparent.

You gave up your career for us, you gave up your independence for family. I love you dearly, Mom. I miss you very much.
*************************************************************************************
Gramma:

Some day I'll be with you forever. I still feel as if you were the only person in my life who has ever loved me "unconditionally" - without reservation. I never felt "adopted" around you, you were my gramma forever. I remember your kitchen and the apple coffeecakes, your basement with the secret toy stash, your garden with all the sweet allyssum, your diningroom with your (now my) silver tea set, your livingroom with the quilting frame set up in it, the front screen-porch with the boxes and boxes of homemade christmas cookies.

Gramma, I still cry when I think about you. I love you so much. I will never, ever, forget. Some day I'll be with you forever, and with the grampa I never knew.
*************************************************************************************

In honor of "Mother's Day", I planted out the rest of my flowers in the front, including the 6 pink and white geraniums. I can't plant sweet allyssum without getting maudlin and crying, so I don't. It was always for Mothers Day we would go to the garden shop and buy a flat of petunias or something for Mom to plant around the house. Garden flowers always feel like "Mothers Day" to me.

This morning they all looked happy and fairly healthy. There was an ant crawling around on the peony. (A good thing)

616 days

Sauce for the

It seems that a BBC reporter has ruffled the feathers of some of the Saudi women. I frequently read Nzingha's Soapbox because she gives a "frontline" view of living in Saudi that isn't tainted by the BS from American propaganda. She's there. She's living there, and she chose to be there. I'm not particularly thrilled with the name she and her "Mr. Man" chose for their son, but he's their kid...

What interests me about the article she posted about the swimming incident, isn't her sarcastic attitude, but one specific quote from one of the comments: "You should explain more about why segregation is valued and how women swim in Saudi under "safe" conditions islamically."

Think about this for a moment. These women WANT to have segregated (separate but equal?) swimming facilities. They WANT to not have the ability to swim whenever/wherever. They consider it PROTECTION.

This flys in the face of the mindset of We the Liberated Female People of the United States, and the whole concept of "They hate us because of our freedom." They don't WANT the freedoms we have.

I suspect this should have occurred to me earlier. What country, given the examples surrounding them on all sides, would stay in the 5th Century unless they WANTED to live in the 5th century? Given the opportunity to move forward, the examples all around to show them HOW to move forward, these folks have, not unlike the Amish, CHOSEN to renounce the benefits of freedom and choose to embrace their cultural and religious retardation with affection and determination.

And because of this, I wonder just how much we should feel "sorry" for any of their trials and tribulations. They've chosen to allow themselves to be forced into the black abaya in the equatorial heat. They've chosen to enslave themselves to their menfolk, chosen to take the "safe" road, rather than the more dangerous "free" road.

This is getting perilously close to a political statement about choosing safety over freedom...

621 days

Akon loses Verizon Wireless Sponsorship!

Linky

WOOOOOOTTTT

Thanks Jules - made my day! *dances around*

Sometimes companies do the correct thing. They've even taken all his ringtones off their website already!

Thin and Crappy

Pizzahut.com suxxors.

Last nite I did not want to cook, so I ordered a pizza online.

Build your own. So I did. Asked for "hand tossed" crust, which is a bit thicker and chewier.

Got "Thin and Crappy"

Like eating pizza off a matzo cracker. bleuch. If I wanted thin, I would have called Rosati's who make a nice thin-crust 'za with spicier cheese and you can also get CANNOLI!!!!!!!!!

Cannoli - a dessert, not some weird Denver Pizza-dumpling thing. Cannoli is sweet ricotta and bits of chocolate in a fried tube thingy. Second only to Tiramisu as my favorite Italian dessert.

I should have called Rosati's.

In gardening news, it looks like the peony that I thought had been stolen last year is going to make me 2 flowers this year. The buds are now fully 1/2 inch diameter and are starting to turn reddish, rather than just being little green knobbies. Woot!!

This week I plan to get every last one of the plantlets into the dirt so I can get moving on the other things that need doing around here. I plan to try and pick up a thistle-pricker-remover - a little tool thingy that lets you stab the ground and pull up a thistle by the roots without touching it - and then I'm going to try NOT to blow out my knee again getting the last 24 plantlets into the ground. So far everything else looks pretty good, so I'm crossing my fingers. I'm not real sure about the lime tree or the blueberry bush, but they're still probably going through transplant shock, so I'll give them another week or 2 to start showing some ambition and new growth.

It appears that the fur twins have decided to pretend they don't see the lime tree plant anymore. They've stopped yelling at me about it at least.

622 days

Oh hell, it's Monday

Actually, not that bad of a day. I really turned into pistachio pudding this weekend and had all the best of intentions and no energy to comply. This morning was gruesome, but I did manage to do ALL my morning chores, including a certain amount of mutilation of fabric into triangles for Bill's quilt, so all is good. Having to get up to go to work was enough impetus to force me to move instead of veg. Vegging all weekend was Not Good©.

I'd wanted to get all the seedlings/plants into the ground this weekend, but that just didn't happen. I'm still kind of tentative about putting any stress on that right knee, and since I don't have a "kneeling pad" like Mom and Gramma used to use when gardening, I'd have to kneel on concrete or hunker down and over-compress my kneecap which is what blew it out last Wednesday.

I did, however, get the tomato seedlings into big pots with their wire cages, and then put the big pots into the garden over spots that would ordinarily just grow weeds, so that should help keep the weeding to a minimum *cross fingers*

The seeds are still not sprouted out yet, but I think it will take a week or 2 or so for that, so I'm not worried. The cucumber plants look awesome, and even those little primrose that I thought had bitten the dirt have actually come back and look like they might survive. We shall see. I do need to get the butterfly plants, daylilies and the lavendar in out front very soon, however. The geraniums can probably wait a few more days. Gosh, I love geraniums - especially pink and white. I just hope my knee can put up with my digging holes for 24 more baby plants...

I tried to have lunch on Sunday at the Dysfunctional Dennys, but it was even more Dysfunctional than usual - stood there for 15 minutes being ignored while the manager refused to seat anyone and hovered over the cash register as if someone was going to steal it. I finally walked out, and on my way back to my car there was a family walking toward the door - I told them what just happened and told them if they were hungry, they might want to try another restaurant. They turned around and got in their car. I can't be positive, but I think another couple may have decided against "dining" there as well. So Dennys? Ya lost TWO (possibly 3)sets of revenue that way. Just sayin'.

623 days

Obsession in the Blogosphere

The plants are all fine, I'm ignoring them until the weekend because I kind of blew out my right knee with all the lifting and hauling and bending and hunkering down to put in the stuff on Wed. nite. So I'm babying it a bit and letting Mom Nature do a bit of the work for a while.

Need to buy a watering can with the dribble-rain spout on it anyhow. Back to topic:

I've lately seen a rather disturbing thing happening on blogs that I've visited. Seems that there are a lot of people who are incensed that other people have beliefs/ideas that are counter to their own. Now, I don't mind watching a good flame war from time to time, and I've even been known to engage in some myself, but when it gets to the point where some unknown bitch starts sending me e-mails to try and discredit someone I consider a friend, then there's a serious problem.

The problem seems to be that an awful lot of women have gotten into blogging and like to make controversial posts - but don't want to have to deal with any controversy. And I don't mean the way I deal with it - which is just to delete comments that offend me - but they want to PUNISH the commenters! They want to harass their friends, flood those friends' e-mail with "reports" from their little clique about how horrible the commenters are!

What is amusing in this (to the extent that I find such pathetic action amusing) is that they will go to such great lengths to "rid themselves" of unwanted commenters. They put their blogs on "Comment Moderation". They post repeatedly about the problem commenter. They make poorly-executed caricature cartoons. They go into spasms...

Grow a pair, you pathetic wimpy bitches. Grow a pair and learn to deal with it. Get over yourself and realize that this is a GAME for many people. If you don't like someone "playing" in your sandbox, then delete their comments. After a while it becomes pretty boring to keep typing things that nobody will get to read, that disappear after a few minutes or hours. Every time you respond to the "Troll", you just show how much power the troll has over you - you dance to his/her tune... and you look stupid.

They're words. Just words. If you're stupid enough to put your real name and address et al out there, then you're stupid women and deserve whatever you get. Smart women don't give out that much personal information online until they know someone VERY well... and then they cover themselves by not giving the info out publicly, but in a private e-mail.

Some of us even are smart enough to have a PO Box or an alternate address and not let our home information be known. That's called living smart - but the stupid women dont' get that.

A while back on one of many incarnations of a friend's blog, she posted about a female (lawyer or law student, I believe) who had been harassed online. Granted, the harassment went a bit further than just a comment or 2 in a blogspot box - but... SHE GAVE OUT HER REAL IDENTITY... DUH!!! Then she got all frazzled when people knew who she was and started in with some nasty sophmoric antics in comments and posts on other sites. Waaaahhhh!!! Now she won't do lectures because she's AFRAID. She's cowering in her house.

Grow a pair. Get a tough enough skin to handle the idiots. Read their comments if you must, fume a while, then delete them. Better still, just delete them unread. Really, it's a LOT easier to just delete one or two comments from a percieved troll than it is to have to "moderate" everyone's comments so no trolls are able to comment.

They really should figure out some way to keep the rich-bitch stay-home-mommies off the internet. (Not you, Jules)

This concludes todays segment of "As the Mouse Rants". Tune in another day for gardening updates.

626 days