ChillyMama

Gay love

2011-06-28T17:37:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the residents of New York! Now if only we could bring the rest of the world into the 21st century.

Found some pictures, wanna share 'em

2011-06-11T15:39:00.001-07:00

I would love to know what Sophia is thinking...

(That's just wrong.)

THE LAST BREAKFAST

Ah, the good old days...

RIP Miss Elizabeth

2011-03-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

A great activist, a marvelous actor, a beautiful and vibrant human being. You will be missed.

THE DREAD PIRATE J-LO IS HERE FOR YOUR SOULS!

2011-01-03T16:13:00.000-08:00

Election bullshit

2010-11-02T09:38:00.000-07:00

All right, all you self-righteous asshats out there, listen up. By not voting I am not "spitting on the souls" of those who fought for my PRIVILEGE (not RIGHT) to vote. I am not giving the election to THEM, nor am I going to bitch about whoever you fucking idiots elect.

It is MY CHOICE to not vote. I have the option as a freely born American citizen!! Cramming your bullshit forcibly down my throat just makes me choke it up and spew it on you all the faster.

You people need to realize that most people vote knee-jerk, along party lines, due to name recognition, or for some other stupid reason than BEING INFORMED. There should be a comprehension test at the door of the polling place to determine if you really know what you're talking about before you get to vote. But no, just any old registered jerkoff can vote, and then everyone whines when it's not their candidate who wins.

Life isn't about US and THEM. We're all in this together. And until I perceive that we are acting as an all-inclusive society, I choose to show my disdain for the process by not voting. GET OVER IT!

FIN

2010-08-06T14:08:00.001-07:00

The death knell has sounded. Blogger won't let me embed in posts today. I'm thinking it's an omen. Haven't posted to the blog since the end of May, finding myself lost for ideas every time I hit the blog.

I'll keep it up and running - but we're definitely on sabbatical. See ya soon!

2010-05-28T08:29:00.001-07:00

Click to enlarge. Via Wondermark

Short vacay

2010-05-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

So we're moving again. This time it's a short one, from ghodforsakenville to the Big City. But it's taking all the energy and mental cycles I can generate...

Don't know how to quit you, blog. I should but I can't. The allure of the Facebook thing is strong. It's the best way to keep tabs on my various children and friends. But you have been a faithful companion for many years now.

I'll be back. xoxo

Kittehs

2010-05-12T17:04:00.001-07:00

Went to an MMA match and a fight broke out!

2010-04-18T09:54:00.000-07:00

The UFC boys staged a fight, and then a real fight broke out... and they're embarrassed?!?

Let's see: Excess of testosterone - check. Boys who train all day to fight other boys - check. Perfect venue for showing off your fighting 'skills' - check.

And y'all are somehow surprised that the boys were - ahem - fighting?

Here's your sign, boys.

Ugly brawl mars Jake Shields' win, embarrasses MMA

The answer to the ultimate question?

2010-04-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

Alas, no. But it is the answer to the question of how do we honor the anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier of major league baseball some 62 years ago today! He scored a run and the Dodgers won the game that fateful day.

It's a pleasure to see MLB players wearing the number today - and for me to be able to honor the man every time I wear my own (Rockies - natch!!) jersey with Mr. Robinson's number on it.

Go Number 42!

Wear white any time you want

2010-04-09T19:02:00.000-07:00

I love Stacy and Clinton. No two therapists do more good than those two!

Kitteh time

2010-04-03T16:32:00.001-07:00

Yay kittehs!

What the effing eff?!?

2010-03-29T19:58:00.001-07:00

This girl is a mess.

Facebook thing

2010-03-26T09:03:00.000-07:00

So I joined MySpace because my kids joined and it was a good way to keep up with their likes & dislikes, the latest music and activities. Then they didn't really use it. I found out they had migrated to Facebook (lovingly referred to in my world as "the Facebook thing").

So now I'm on the Facebook thing and I learn all kinds of weird and interesting stuff about my children and their friends, and far-flung friends of my own. I've learned about romantic break-ups, get-back-togethers, pregnancies, vacations, moves... all kinds of things I probably never would have known if it weren't for Facebook.

Fortunately no one I know seems to be too into Twitter - because I would definitely be left behind, and not in the biblical Revelations sense of the phrase. Anyone who knows me knows I will never be the possessor of a cell phone again. Unless forced. Under threat of death.

Point is that I hardly ever post to the blog anymore. Oh, sometimes there's something I want to rant about but figure I'll catch too much shit from folks on the FB thing for posting it there so I put it up here instead. But blog usage has gone waaaaaay down. I feel badly about that. Sometimes I wonder if I should shut it down altogether. But you know what? Hardly anyone reads this silly blog anyway, and those who do either love me a lot (thanks, you know who you are) or like to read the ramblings of a crazy old woman (thanks, you know who you are too).

Guess I've convinced myself to keep posting here, even if it's just the occasional silly cat pics or something that pisses me off. You're a hard habit to break, blog. But I still need the therapy. I'm really grateful for that, truly I am.

WTF? SERIOUSLY.

2010-03-21T13:10:00.000-07:00

Japanese Egg Log as seen on WTF Japan, Seriously!?

Everyone's a wiseass

2010-03-20T22:27:00.000-07:00

Importance of being nursed

2010-03-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

Another PostSecret Sunday

2010-03-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

Good for you! Both of you!!

Via PostSecret

That $*@#!&% time again

2010-03-13T10:10:00.000-08:00

Oh ghod, Daylight Saving Time. That dastardly part of the year where everybody whines about how their internal clocks are all messed up and they didn't get enough sleep and now they're all confused and discombobulated - then use the time change as an excuse to be a slack-ass weasel at work for at least a month.

But worst of all? The misuse of the term. Once again, Chilly is here to school y'all.

It is Daylight Saving Time, no "S".

Savings is an account you open at the bank in which you continually deposit money for future use. We are *not* banking time. You cannot save an hour of daylight for later use. The term means we're pushing back the darkness for an hour each day because we think some farmer or schoolchild needs it. (Even thought they don't. Not really.)

So go get some extra rest. 'Cuz I don't friggin' wanna listen to you bitch about it come Monday morning.

'Tis true!

2010-03-09T12:29:00.000-08:00

Shamelessly lifted from FYE. LOL!

Homeschool in the news

2010-03-07T09:24:00.000-08:00

Once again the religious zealots try to make the general public think that they are in control. As a former homeschooler, I am here to tell you that most of the people I knew at the time were not schooling for religious reasons.

Top home-school texts dismiss Darwin, evolution

Here are some REAL resources for successful home education:

Rocky Mountain Education Connection

The Homeschool Mom

Google "eclectic homeschooling" and see what you come up with. Don't think of home education as strictly the purview of Christians. Homeschoolers come in all shapes, colors, sizes and faiths. It is an undertaking born out of true love for one's children. Any other reason is superficial and inconsequential.

2010-03-06T09:32:00.001-08:00

Let's try this again

2010-02-27T09:56:00.000-08:00

Still struggling with unemployment and bad-to-worse jobs here in the old home town - formerly known as ghodforsakenville - and it's gotten to the point where every day is a reminder of failure and heartache. Last week was a tough one. Job interviews by phone, lots of 'we'll let you know' and trips to other, more vibrant towns, which only serve to remind us that this place is sucking the life from us slowly but surely.

So the 'For Sale' sign went up in front of the house last week. The realtor lady assures me that the influx of Swift Company executive-type persons from Texas to our new chicken plant will provide plenty of people willing to pay just exactly the price point of the property. We will totally take a bath on the original purchase price of the house (fully ten thousand dollars less than I paid in 2003) but considering we have been sitting at the rock bottom of the national market since the crash first began back in 2006, it's better than living underwater like a lot of home owners.

Maybe the fact that I'm not even nervous about it this time around is a good sign. Spring is on its way in, the sun stays out later in the evenings, the snow pack is plentiful this season, and life is always good with my Sweetie by my side.

Now I had better go clean the bathroom. :)

...and a Happy Valentine's to you too

2010-02-13T13:58:00.000-08:00

Don't forget to kiss yer sweetie! I believe me 'n mine will get started right now!

2010-02-13T13:46:00.000-08:00

V Day

Super Bowl suckage

2010-02-07T17:05:00.000-08:00

One more half filled with these gawd-awful sexist 'I AM A MAN!' commercials. (sigh)

And boy, does The Who SUCK these days, or what?? Janet Jackson ruined it for everybody, now we have to listen to old guy rock-n-roll. Bleah.

LOL kittehs say no PostSecret Sunday!

2010-02-07T11:48:00.001-08:00

Stewart skullf*#ks blogosphere!

2010-02-05T12:28:00.000-08:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

The Blogs Must Be Crazy

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Crisis

Moon lunacy

2010-01-30T09:20:00.000-08:00

Last night - actually it was really early this morning - the moon was the largest full moon of 2010. I only know that because I ran across this cool article about the names of full moons yesterday. (While I was "working"... Yeah, that's the ticket...)

The names are pretty interesting, although one made Sweetie laugh like a schoolboy. (Try to pick out which one it is.) As an added lunar bonus, the December full moon will include a total eclipse, which will be visible in North America.

Jan. 30, 1:18 a.m. EST -- Full Wolf Moon.
Feb. 28, 11:38 a.m. EST -- Full Snow Moon.
Mar. 29, 10:25 p.m. EDT -- Full Worm Moon.
Apr. 28, 8:18 a.m. EDT -- Full Pink Moon.
May 27, 7:07 p.m. EDT -- Full Flower Moon.
June 26, 7:30 a.m. EDT -- Full Strawberry Moon.
July 25, 9:37 p.m. EDT -- Full Buck Moon.
Aug. 24, 1:05 p.m. EDT -- Full Sturgeon Moon.
Sep. 23, 5:17 a.m. EDT -- Full Harvest Moon.
Oct. 22, 9:36 p.m. EDT -- Full Hunters' Moon.
Nov. 21, 12:27 p.m. EST -- Full Beaver Moon.
Dec. 21, 3:13 a.m. EST -- Full Cold Moon.

Keep these dates on your calendar so you can party under maximum full moon weirdness!

Skin art obsession

2010-01-24T10:31:00.000-08:00

Another amazing piece as featured on ModBlog.

Further adventures in marketing

2010-01-23T21:42:00.000-08:00

My Sweetie has an artist's eye which he has applied to his photography. I've been threatening for years to figure out a way to market them - at last I have found a place to realize the dream!

Et voila... Announcing CNW Photos! Go check them out!!

There are no words

2010-01-20T20:26:00.000-08:00

There are times when I really love US American culture.

Mayo La Fuerza esté con usted.

2010-01-16T12:07:00.000-08:00

(Via ModBlog)

5 year olds can share, why can't the Catholics?

2010-01-16T09:15:00.000-08:00

The Catholic church is at it again. Their dogma is so narrow, so strict! Their ideas are so antiquated as to be wholly unrealistic in the modern age, and yet there are so many people who adhere to it that it's hard for me to wrap my mind around the sheer mass of numbers.

The latest silliness comes from this article about the new movie Avatar. The church declares that, while it is a visually pleasing film, it is simplistic, sappy, "bland" and "rather harmless." Their main beef with the movie is that it might be seen as promoting worship of nature - instead of their version of "God."

Well well well. We can't have that, can we? We might be tempted to look into the history of the religious beliefs of humanity, and then we might actually learn something about theological idealism.

The first thought to enter my mind upon reading the article was that the very first glimmer of religion as we currently know it was indeed the worship of nature. The first inkling of forces beyond ourselves came from the physical environment around us - wind, water, fire, the moon and stars. It has been referred to as "paganism," and as All About Spirituality describes it:

History records that worship of many gods, goddesses, and deities was viewed by people as important in worship. It was thought that everything had a spirit and was polytheistic, so people had gods and goddesses of the forest, sea, and all aspects of nature.

When the civilizations began to change and develop, the gods grew and changed with the people as they began to acquire gods of their occupations, or gods relevant to their village life. The old gods remained, but were changed or conformed to the changing lives of the people. Gods played an important role in every aspect of society influencing everything from laws and customs to general workings of the community. Reincarnation (rebirth of the body into another bodily form) was believed by the people, but they did not believe in the existence of heaven and hell.

Today, Paganism (neo-paganism) celebrates the Earth, living creatures, nature, and so on. Most modern-day pagans believe in more than one god, while others are atheistic.

So the Catholics want you to forget worship of our mother planet. While she is to be treated reverently, she is not to be given reverence. The only true god is the big white bearded grandfather in the sky, the one we can't see, not the big blue and green mother directly under our feet. Never mind that the love of nature is the absolute origin of the Catholic (and Jewish and Muslim and Buddhist) belief systems... The only true religion is the one that worships what we cannot see.

I have yet to see Avatar and, frankly, am not likely to at all. (I'm not a huge James Cameron fan - as a matter of fact, my sister had to drag me to see Titanic at the dollar theater before it was gone from the big screens altogether - and I have very little interest in animated actors based on real actors. Either give me a movie filled with cartoons or real people, not both. One exception might be Roger Rabbit... but that's about it.) I read another article about people wanting to commit suicide over the despair that they feel when they leave the theater after seeing the movie and realize how fucked up the planet really is. In my mind, once you experience this type of deep malaise, that is the time to begin worshipping Mother Earth!

"I suggest you listen to as many blues albums as you can." -- Elwood Blues

(PS: Dig it! Even some pagans have no sense of humor!)

I'm tellin' ya

2010-01-10T09:23:00.000-08:00

Sexiest man on earth. Yummy!

In Which a Rat Has Many Hobbies

2010-01-10T09:20:00.000-08:00

Ahhh, Wondermark.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2010-01-01T10:50:00.000-08:00

I love this 2009 fugly celeb wrap-up!

The year in Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Here's to a great 2010. Cheers!!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

In the pantheon of stupid ideas, this one is pretty damn dumb

2009-12-20T09:49:00.000-08:00

Started this new job at the beginning of the month and so far it's going pretty well, but since I don't know what I'm doing about half of the time *and* since my boss is semi-retired so does not actually come in to the office on a consistent schedule, I find myself with a lot of spare time and absolutely nothing to do. We're not supposed to do personal stuff while on the clock - but when you've asked every single person if you can help them with their work and been turned down, there are few alternatives.

So one day last week I was trying desperately to stay awake by surreptitiously reading news items on the web. I get The Smoking Gun updates in email; they always run a story or two that makes me want to rush to the blog to write about it. This particular item just about burst off the screen and smacked me upside the head (you should pardon the pun). You know, you think you've heard just about every new and weird trend, scheme or idea out there, but there's always a supply of even weirder stuff just waiting for you to discover...

Lingerie League Gets Litigious

SAY WHAT? Lingerie league FOOTBALL??? Yes. Women, grown adult women playing football with shoulder pads and fancy underwear. And they're not even allowed to wear real underwear underneath the fancy stuff. This is officially the god-damnedest thing I've learned about this month.

The women are complaining about injuries and poor wages. To which the mealy-mouthed league founder has replied: "Let me give you a little advice and this goes for any other player creating unnecessary drama. Simply SHUT UP and play football."

Naturally I had to go out and learn more about this idiotic idea. Guess what? Denver has a team. Can you imagine having to play in the bitterly cold temps we had a couple of weeks ago? How can that not be against some types of labor laws?? How fucking brain dead do you have to be to play football in lace panties & bra, period... much less in below zero temps?!

Get a load of this fluffy little piece of lunacy on their website: "IF THERE WAS EVER A DOUBT ABOUT THE INTENSITY OR TOUGHNESS OF LFL FOOTBALL AND IT'S ATHLETES, IT WAS CERTAINLY ANSWERED FRIDAY NIGHT WHEN THE SEATTLE MIST AND DENVER DREAM BATTLED AMONGST SNOW FLURRIES AND FREEZING CONDITIONS AT DICK'S SPORTING GOODS PARK IN COMMERCE CITY, COLORADO. FROM THE OPENING KICKOFF IT WAS EVIDENT THAT THESE LADIES COULD CARE LESS ABOUT THE CONDITIONS AND JUST WANTED TO PLAY FOOTBALL. JIM McCOLLINS A DENVER RESIDENT WHO WAS PART OF THE THOUSANDS WHO ALSO BRAVED THE CONDITIONS TO SUPPORT LFL FOOTBALL REMARKED, "THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE, TO WATCH THESE LADIES COMPETE IN ONLY LINGERIE IN THIS WEATHER, WE AS FANS ARE BLOWN AWAY.'"

OMG. Stupid is as stupid does, ladies. In this case, the stupidity actually does hurt - but it doesn't stop them. (sigh)

A variety of certain truths

2009-12-13T09:25:00.000-08:00

Some sights are worth spending any amount of money to see.

One of the most wonderful things about the Obamas is the fact that it is plainly obvious they are deeply in love with each other.

This Post Secret is so true. There's nothing quite like a nice ass. :)

'Tis the season to wish you all a Happy Christma-Solstice-Kwanzaa-kah!

(Photos courtesy of ICanHasCheezeburger, PostSecret, and your hostess, Chillymama.)

Drugs are bad, mmm-kay?

2009-12-13T08:34:00.000-08:00

"Family Ties" star Brian Bonsall arrested again in Boulder

Somehow I get the feeling that if he'd started on pot instead of booze, he might not be so angry... :)

Rest in peace, Barrel Man

2009-12-05T14:17:00.000-08:00

The Denver Post is reporting today that Tim "Barrel Man" McKernan has died after a long illness. He was a local icon for many years, showing up wearing his cowboy hat & boots and that famous barrel to home games in all types of weather. He became so well-known to Bronco fans that the team honored him in 2007. He even had a bobble head toy!

Not a bad bit of notoriety for a guy who just wanted to win a bet with his brother that he could get on national television.

The tale of Hans Solo and Luke the Farmer

2009-12-01T16:49:00.000-08:00

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

The silliness continues...

2009-11-28T09:26:00.000-08:00

Nail houses

2009-11-27T09:28:00.000-08:00

Now that we don't have children around full-time any more, Sweetie & I need an excuse to see kids' movies without looking silly. Unless it's playing at the local art theater, of course. But how often does that happen? So I was at the grocery store buying food for the holiday and I saw a display with copies of UP for sale. We hadn't seen it and I really wanted to ... so I bought it. The gal at the checkstand said she thought it was sad. I thought maybe I'd made a mistake, but upon viewing the film I think my choice was redeemed. It's a little sad but mostly funny and hopeful. I love that the house ends up landing right where she wanted it to be, and that in the end the curmudgeon finds happiness.

One of the most interesting things about the film is Carl's house, standing there all alone and defiant in the middle of that empty lot... Sweetie told me there was a name for that kind of home. He's right - it is called a "nail house." A nail house is one that is owned by a person who will not bend to the will of the corporates / developers just because all their neighbors have. And there are TONS of examples all over the world - particularly, it seems, in China.

Google "nail house" and you'll find all sorts of great examples and articles about them. One blog entry I found has photos and descriptions, plus the comments site all kinds of other examples. This article is about a "spite house" built in 1830 to keep people and carts out of the alleyway; the home is still occupied today. I read another story about a "spite fence" that was built by a man named Crocker in San Francisco because his neighbor would not sell the property to him. In the end Mr. Crocker and his family ended up losing the war.

But the stories I enjoyed reading most were about nail houses that exist all over the world, properties belonging to defiant homeowners who have no intention of giving up their homes no matter what. There's a property on the M62 near Yorkshire in England which is situated between the two sides of the highway. The builders built the homeowner a couple of tunnels under the highway so he can get off his property without having to use the motorway. Here's a story about a family named Spiegelhalter who ran a jewelry business back in 1927 and refused to sell their shop to the Wickham's Department Store when they came in to build. The architect designed the Wickham's property to be able to build around the old shop once the owners gave it up, but the downturn in department store shopping in the 1960s drove Wickham's out of business. The Spiegelhalters outlasted the big corporate!

Another homeowner featured in the first blog post I read was a Mrs. Edith Macefield of Seattle. She refused to sell her home to the big developers (and in fact, never did - she died in her house) and became such a heroine to the locals that a tattoo artist named Curtis formed what was to become "Edith Macefield's Army." Their symbol is Edith's little house, which you can have inked permanently on your body for a fee.

And then there are the not-so-successful stories, like the one about Mel's Lounge in Santa Barbara, which held out against the mall developers until the landlord doubled the rent and drove the bar - which had been in business there since 1963 - out of business last year.

There are a million more stories like these out there, stories about defiant homeowners living in their nail houses, holding out against the big-money developers and corporates, protecting what is theirs, what's been in their families for generations. Typically the money eventually wins out - but it's heartening to read about the people who stand up for what they believe in, because they are the ones who always win in the end.

Wouldn't it be great, though, if instead of fighting we could just choose to go UP?

Shameless plug! Pick me! Yeah!

2009-11-24T11:40:00.000-08:00

Anyone who has read this ridiculous little blog for any length of time knows that I'm a fan of David Malki! and his Wondermark strip. (Check it out, I just added a search box thing on the sidebar that allows you to search this blog for that kind of stuff. Go ahead, I'll wait.) He cracks me up on a regular basis; I subscribe to the strip via email - it's always a highlight of my day - and to his YouTube channel. Just recently he wrote a new story about a cop who follows all the rules - it's really silly but funny. David's obsession with beards and facial hair is practically legendary. I even bought his movie, Expendable, and loved it! (The story is about a henchman hired on to an evil organization and the events of his first day at work. Genuinely hilarious.)

David is running a little contest for bloggers and libraries and all I have to do to enter is blog about Wondermark! How simple / cool is that? It just doesn't get any easier! So here ya go, David, my entry into your Turkey Day contest! Pick me, dude! I'm bonafide!! :D

Don't watch this video!

2009-11-23T14:03:00.000-08:00

Unless you don't mind another LOL song from Kelly.

NSFW!!!

Thoughts of Eireann

2009-11-21T17:04:00.000-08:00

If I wrote a travelogue about our entire two weeks in Ireland it would send you, dearest readers, into a catatonic state - and get me a lot closer to that case of carpal tunnel I've been working on all these years. So instead, how about some highlights and random observations?

Dislikes:
-- The public bathrooms in Ireland are ALL COLD. Every single one of them. I mean sit down and cry out, 'oh shit that's cold!' cold. (I asked one woman working at a gas station how she did it. "As little as possible," she replied.) However, they are for the most part amazingly clean.

-- The tertiary roads, the small ones like those that run through small neighborhoods in the States? Are barely one car width across. Boy, does that make for a scary drive, especially when you're already driving on the wrong side of the road and there's someone coming at you from the other way and you're blocked on the passenger side by a stone wall. (I spent half the time cringing.)

-- The way people give directions is the same as the way people in the South give directions. 'Go down the road past the old pub and it's practically on your left, near the church. If you've reached the bakery you've gone too far.' And everyone is overly concerned about the weather.

Other than that, not much to complain about.

The people are a little stand-offish at first but warm up very quickly, and are full of advice and suggestions. Travelodge hotels in Ireland are as basic as you can possibly get - not even so much as a complimentary packet of shampoo - but are also cheap. We had a lot of luck with hotels in the city centers, they had good prices -- but don't buy the breakfast with the room. Find your own meals instead.

In Dublin we took the hop-on/hop-off buses in order to see all the touristy spots. I really wanted to see something of the Viking influence on Ireland so we went to Dublinia and Christchurch Cathedral. It's amazing to think that there is surviving physical evidence that the people of Ireland were defending their lands from invaders over 1200 years ago. We walked the quays, ate some fantastic meals, explored the small town of Swords in the north of Dublin. I became happily reacquainted with Oscar Wilde.

Drove up north through the country to Letterkenny (Sweetie had a business meeting) and managed not to get lost until we tried to drive to Malin Head. As the navigator, I'm here to tell you that those small roads are tricky to follow on a map! We ended up driving over a small mountain called Slieve Snaght instead of around it, so we had to take another shot at finding Malin the next day. Malin Head is the northernmost point of Ireland - and man, was it ever cold! The north Atlantic wind was blustering and pushing a chill rain around. Brrr!

We drove through a town claiming to be the "smallest cathedral city in Europe" (Raphoe), saw the harbor where Lord Mountbatten's ship was bombed (Mullaghmore), saw W.B. Yeats' grave (Drumcliffe), spent the night in Donegal, spent several in Galway. We drove through The Burren, a national park containing some of the oldest structures in Ireland including a megalithic tomb that is 1000 years older than the pyramids of Giza. Risked life & limb driving down one of those tertiary roads to The Burren Perfumery but I thought it was worth it; I learned a lot about the flora of western Ireland. We got threatened by small dogs protecting their home (hilarious) and saw sheep in just about every meadow we drove past.

Eddie Izzard is right, you can drive down any road in Europe and run into a fuckin' castle. There are castles and round towers and stone circles and old churches and stone forts and ancient cathedrals just about everywhere you go. In the middle of open fields and in the middle of cities. It is so very cool!

The weather was just what I had expected: cold at times, sunny at others, rained some but not too much. Irish television is an interesting combination of UK, Irish and Irish-Gaelic channels. We saw a show about road bowling that was fun and interesting; that's something we're going to try to see in person when we go back. They have a lot of antiques/collectibles and auction shows and tons of soap operas. Reality TV is so big there that the programs actually get regular coverage on the news!

Random observations made while out and about:
Irish horse butts (in a trailer) .. spotty cows and shaggy cows .. a 3-legged dog running down the street .. Broncos sheep (go orange and blue!) and counting sheep (they had numbers on 'em!) .. nuzzling cows .. an honest-ta-gawd jig-dancing old Irishman in a pub! Boys wear trousers that fit so one does not have to look at their underpants! I love that.

Oh, you betcha we're going back. There's still so much more to see!

(Click to enlarge photos)

UPDATE: Try this link for photos.

Irish holiday

2009-11-19T08:57:00.000-08:00

Oh my, oh my... I am SO TIRED. We really took advantage of our two weeks in Ireland. Walked practically everywhere (seriously, we must've walked more than 30 miles) and saw people and places I'd only heard of from others. The food was fantastic - for the most part, I wouldn't recommend the hotel breakfasts - and the people were generally stand-offish but warmed up very quickly. The roads were absolutely the most terrifying I've ever been on in my life! And everywhere we went there was just so much history and storytelling that it's overwhelming to relate in any coherent fashion right now.

I'll try to do a little travelogue thing later on, post some pix, maybe a gallery or slideshow somewhere. Today, sleep and catching up. Tomorrow, job interview (oh boy!). Gonna have to owe you a rain check, dear blog...

BOO!!!

2009-10-31T14:42:00.000-07:00

Permission to speak freely, sir?

2009-10-29T17:42:00.000-07:00

It has become apparent lately that I make the people around me uncomfortable when I speak passionately or emotionally. More than one person has told me to calm down recently. (It is then extremely difficult for me to fight back the need to go ballistic on their ass.) What the hell? Does passion now equal irrationality? I want to know when expressing oneself with fervor became too unpleasant for society to handle. Why is it that people say they value individual expression, but when you actually express a feeling or mood that is not upbeat you've become an hysteric in need of calming?

How can people claim to love a person when in reality they only want to see the parts that don't make them squirm? I am not happy all the time. I am not an automaton. I need occasionally to express anger, or grief, or displeasure, or sadness. This is a need, not a choice. I am an emotional human being, not a mannequin.

Every once in a while I'm going to be vociferous. Sometimes I'm going to need to yell. Or cry. Or speak forcefully. I believe I should be allowed to lament my regrets, if only for a moment or two, without judgment. Please stop trying to stifle me. It only makes me feel worse, less valued, and ultimately like an apologetic idiot (because I always end up fucking apologizing). If there's one thing I despise, it's having to apologize for being ME.

Well, that's that. Thanks again for listening, dear blog - at least you don't tell me when to shut up.

Weird & Creepy Ads

2009-10-28T12:09:00.001-07:00

VIA

Sunday not-so-funny

2009-10-25T09:22:00.000-07:00

I agree with the cartoonist. Roman Polanski is an admitted - and convicted - child rapist; there is no excuse for his behavior for the last 30 years. Actively fleeing the jurisdiction and getting away with it for 3 decades because he's a famous movie director does NOT exonerate him from the crime or the conviction!

Via Women's Enews & Mikhaela Reid

Rest in Peace, Soupy

2009-10-23T13:07:00.000-07:00

I remember as a child watching The Soupy Sales Show and wondering why Mom laughed so hard when he was on. The only thing I ever found amusing was the pie-in-the-face gag he would do on pretty much every show. As an adult type person, I have a much greater appreciation for his ad-libbing and studio antics. Go to YouTube and check out some of his 60s era stuff...

Soupy Sales, slapstick legend for generation, dies at 83

Ever look at The Smoking Gun mug shots?

2009-10-21T15:06:00.000-07:00

You should - they're hilarious. (VIA TSG)

Two weeks...

2009-10-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

...until we begin our Ireland adventure! I am so excited!!!

The falafel suit

2009-10-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

The Smoking Gun reminds us that this week marks the fifth anniversary of the sexual harassment lawsuit filed by former FOX producer Andrea Mackris against BlowReilly. Y'all should read the pleading, it's a masterful piece of lawyering filled with verbatim ravings by a sexually stifled lunatic - especially considering it drew a complete settlement a mere two weeks later.

O'Reilly Falafel Suit Turns Five

They can't help themselves

2009-10-13T08:44:00.000-07:00

Obama's High Bar
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Somebody explain this to me: The president of the United States wins the Nobel Peace Prize and Rush Limbaugh joins with the Taliban in bitterly denouncing the award? Glenn Beck has a conniption fit and demands that the president not accept what may be the world's most prestigious honor? The Republican National Committee issues a statement sarcastically mocking our nation's leader -- elected, you will recall, by a healthy majority -- as unworthy of such recognition?

Why, oh why, do conservatives hate America so?

Okay, I know, it's just some conservatives who've been exhibiting what they, in a different context, surely would describe as "Hanoi Jane" behavior. Others who haven't taken leave of their political senses -- and are familiar with the concept of manners -- responded to President Obama's unexpected award with equanimity and even grace. Sen. John McCain, for example, offered his good-natured congratulations.

Some of Obama's most strident critics, however, just can't give it a rest. They use words like "farce" and "travesty," as if there were always universal agreement on the worthiness of the Nobel peace laureate. Does anyone remember the controversy over Henry Kissinger or Yasser Arafat or F.W. de Klerk?

The problem for the addlebrained Obama-rejectionists is that the president, as far as they are concerned, couldn't possibly do anything right, and thus is unworthy of any conceivable recognition. If Obama ended world hunger, they'd accuse him of promoting obesity. If he solved global warming, they'd complain it was getting chilly. If he got Mahmoud Abbas and Binyamin Netanyahu to join him around the campfire in a chorus of "Kumbaya," the rejectionists would claim that his singing was out of tune.

Let the rejectionists fulminate and sputter until they wear their vocal cords out. Politically, they're only bashing themselves. As Republican leaders -- except RNC Chairman Michael Steele -- are beginning to realize, "I'm With the Taliban Against America" is not likely to be a winning slogan.

More interesting, but no less goofy, is the recommendation -- by otherwise sane commentators -- that Obama should decline the award. This is ridiculous.

If the award just represented the political views of a handful of left-leaning, self-satisfied Norwegian Eurocrats, as some critics have charged, then it wouldn't matter whether Obama had won it or not. But of course it means much more. The Nobel Peace Prize, irrespective of the idiosyncratic process that selects its winner, is universally recognized as a stamp of the world's approval. For an American president to reject such a token of approval would be absurdly counterproductive.

Obama has shifted U.S. foreign policy away from George W. Bush's cowboy ethos toward a multilateral approach. He envisions, and has begun to implement, a different kind of U.S. leadership that I believe is more likely to succeed in an interconnected, multipolar world. That this shift is being noticed and recognized is to Obama's credit -- and to our country's.

The peace prize comes as Obama is reviewing war strategy in Afghanistan. Some advocates for sending additional troops are complaining -- and some advocates of a pullout are hoping -- that the award may somehow limit the president's options. But the prize is nothing more than an acknowledgement of what Obama has been saying and doing thus far. He hardly needs to be reminded of his philosophy of international relations -- or that he once called Afghanistan a "war of necessity." Threading that needle is not made any easier or harder by the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision.

What I really don't understand is the view that somehow there's a tremendous downside for Obama in the award. It raises expectations, these commentators say -- as if expectations of any American president, and especially this one, were not already sky-high. Obama has taken on the rescue of the U.S. financial system and the long-term restructuring of the economy. He has launched historic initiatives to revolutionize health care, energy policy and the way we educate our children. He said flatly during the campaign that he wants to be remembered as a transformational president.

The only reasonable response is McCain's: Congratulations. Nothing, not even the Nobel Peace Prize, can set the bar any higher for President Obama than he's already set it for himself.

Sunday wingnut funnies

2009-10-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

(Good stuff - I don't read FYE nearly as often as I should.)

The importance of being equal

2009-10-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

And don't forget National Coming Out Day on Sunday, October 11th.

Damn scientists, think they're so smart

2009-10-05T12:11:00.001-07:00

Italian scientist reproduces Shroud of Turin

Garlaschelli expects people to contest his findings.

"If they don't want to believe carbon dating done by some of the world's best laboratories they certainly won't believe me," he said.

A thousand words

2009-10-04T16:14:00.000-07:00

Amen. (ModBlog)

How did humanity survive before magazines?

2009-09-29T10:06:00.000-07:00

OMG, we're all gonna die.
==========================

5 Germy Habits You Should Probably Try to Break

Think you're getting an A+ in Germ Prevention 101? Maybe not if you're doing any of these things...

It might be time to stop doing these five things:

1. Not washing your hands after using the restroom. Have you ever heard the line that "urine is sterile" so there's no need to wash up. Um, sorry, you need to wash your hands. Sterile urine aside, there's still the business of wiping, flushing, and touching door handles--all of which could lead to cross contamination that can make you sick.

(Um, excuse me? To exit the room we have to touch the door handles *after* we wash our hands. Got any tips for how to avoid that?)

2. Eating food samples at grocery stores. For the same reason you wouldn't lick a stranger's hand, it's best not to dive into the freebie bowl of chips at the supermarket. Ask yourself: "Would I open up a bag of chips and share it, communally, with 50 people on the street right now?" Probably not.

(Once again, specious argument. Most demo people do not expect you to "dive into" communal anything. They keep samples in individual servings, they wear gloves, and they take the food directly from the manufacturer's packaging to comply with safety regulations.)

3. Coughing into your hand. Maybe it's just me, but everywhere I'm looking these days people are coughing into their hands--instead of the inside of their elbow. If you tend to do this, try to retrain yourself to cover your cough with your arm and not your hands--it's polite and it also helps protect others with weaker immune systems from catching any bug you've got.

(Hey, girlfriend: The inside of the elbow thing just came into the social lexicon. Expecting everyone to automatically know it is ridiculous. Be happy the person used their hand instead of broadcasting the cough out into your tiny universe.)

4. Rubbing your eyes--ever. After a fairly icky eye infection years ago, a doctor told me this: Think of your eyes as sacred and untouchable, and retrain yourself not to touch them with your fingers (no rubbing or messing with your eye makeup until you've washed them first). The second you touch a dirty hand to your eye, you're introducing all kinds of harmful bacteria and viruses, which can lead to annoying and even serious infections.

(I've been rubbing my eyes since I can remember. No eye infections, no drastic consequences. I'd bet more than half the population can say that. 'Never ever!' pronouncements are not helpful.)

5. Letting your dog lick your hands then not washing them. Guys, I'm a dog lover, but when my golden retriever licks my hands, I go wash them. Yes, it gets tedious to do this (because she's always giving me kisses), but it needs to be done. I will remind you that dogs and cats get into unsavory things (I'll just be blunt: mine likes cat poop).

(Oh gosh! Germies! Ewwww! For fuck's sake, how do you ever develop immunities if everything has to be sanitized the moment you *suspect* it's dirty? Geez.

Honestly, unless you are in the hospital - where the germs *are* going to kill you- you really shouldn't have to spend all your time worrying about a little dirt on your hands. Wash when you feel dirty, when you know your hands are dirty, and don't cough, spit or sneeze at other people, and I think we'll all live.

But that's just MY opinion, I could be wrong.)

I think I have to sneeze

2009-09-25T09:53:00.000-07:00

VIA

Empower women, get growth and stability

2009-09-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

This is a fantastic article about the Clinton Global Initiative and the role of women in our global economic future: Rebuilding the Global Economy: Will Women Lead the Way?

Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, agreed and noted that drawing women into the mainstream economy bears even better benefits. "We know that by giving the money to women, we get a better result ..." he said. "You have to draw them in ... If they're the primary farmers, but they don't have property rights, what's that going to do to their productivity?"

"Women are over 80 percent of the world's farmers and they own about 2 percent of land in the world," [Zainab Salbi, Founder and CEO of Women to Women International] said. "We cannot address environmental issues, sustainable farming issues, industrial agriculture issues, food crisis, if we are going to ignore that. How can you have a policy that ignores the people that are doing the work on a daily basis?"

I know you are but what am I?

2009-09-23T16:38:00.000-07:00

I LOVE PEEWEE.

(Would kill to see his new show... Hope he goes back to the original formula... Too bad there won't be any Cap'n Carl...)

In the 'Be careful what you pray for' category...

2009-09-23T08:12:00.000-07:00

Gov. to God - Send Rain!

Here's video to remind you of the prayer vigil.

Now let's skip forward several months... Blame prolonged rains - not big storms - for Atlanta floods

And just to thank Governor Purdue for his religious efforts, God answers. Maybe a bit too vehemently... Five dead in Georgia flooding; governor declares emergency

(One of the dead is a 2-year-old who was snatched from her daddy's arms in a rush of water, another is a mother of three whose children managed to survive. My mother-in-law said she saw a story on the news about beavers swimming down the middle of Atlanta's city streets.)

All this is in God's plan, of course. Isn't it?

My question is: D'ya think ol' Governor Sonny counted on THIS response when he held his prayer vigil? I mean, this is the answer to the combined prayers of all those people on the capitol steps all those months ago, right? After all, if it's true that God listens to ALL of our prayers - it just took a while for these prayers to get to the top of the queue - then this must be the answer. Right?

New fave site

2009-09-21T11:11:00.000-07:00

It just doesn't get any more U.S. American than this.

(VIA)

MM hits the nail on the head again

2009-09-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

Gay Pepsi? No! Gay Coke!

2009-09-17T09:25:00.000-07:00

I'm a Pepsi gal, myself.

Dan Savage points out in this week's column the continued hypocrisy of the religious right in decrying the "gay lifestyle" by making his readership aware of the latest idiotic move by a large-congregation church.

Bell Shoals Baptist Church - Baptists, heh, shoulda known - in Brandon, Florida has replaced its 10 Pepsi machines with Coca-Cola machines in the wake of Pepsi sponsorship of GLBT events and causes. Never mind that Coke also supports GLBT people...

Florida church boycotts Pepsi over sponsorship of LGBT events

Church says Pepsi promotes "homosexual lifestyle." Really? We thought it pushed sodas

Good quote: "The irony is that - in moving from Pepsi products to Coke products - they actually switched from one company that supports full-equality to another company that supports full-equality[.]"

What Dan mentions - and I cannot help but also notice - is that this freakin' church has TEN soda machines!! Even with 6000 or so members, don't you think these people can go an hour or two on the day of worship without a can of pop?? I can't even begin to imagine the church I grew up in providing vending machines to the congregation. Anybody ever notice if Baptists, in particular, are fat? They sure will be if they join the good ol' Bell Shoals Church!

So many causes that need to be championed, so many people in need of true Christian charity and love... and these anti-homosexual zealots choose to tilt at windmills. For shame.

Remind me.. Fuschia means what again?

2009-09-12T08:06:00.000-07:00

So I was reading the headlines this morning on Yahoo's main page and there was one from the Denver Post entitled, "Lafayette school bans bands due to sexual twist." I did a quick Emily Litella and wondered WTF? No more music education because the kids are doing something sexually inappropriate? What's this you say about violins on television?!?

Continued reading revealed that the "bands" they're talking about are those rubbery bracelets you get from whatever pet cause you might have these days. You know, the yellow "LiveStrong" and the white "One," et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum.

This particular school - a middle school (grades 6 through 8, I believe) - thinks their children are playing sex games with these bracelets. They don't want this happening so they've told parents no more jelly bracelets! I thought I'd heard something about this before so I did a bit of research. Urban Legends at Snopes.com says that the rumor's in the undetermined catagory because a few people have confirmed it to be true - but for the most part they think it's crap. Wikipedia quotes the Snopes entry on their gel bracelets page. I did, however, find a site that takes it seriously and even has an entire chart depicting what each color means:

Black - the wearer will have regular "missionary" sex
Blue - indicates oral sex performed on a guy
Clear - indicates a willingness to do anything the snapper wants
Green - indicates that oral sex can be performed on a girl
Glittery Blue - is willing to perform anal sex
Glittery Clear - wearer will let the snappee "feel up" or touch any body part
Glittery Green - the wearer is willing to "69"
Glittery Pink - willing to "flash" a body part
Glittery Purple - willing to French kiss
Glittery Yellow - indicates kissing and hugging is acceptable
Yellow - wearer is willing to hug
Pink - wearer is willing to give a hickey
Orange - wearer is willing to kiss
Purple - wearer is willing to kiss a partner of either sex
Red - wearer is willing to perform a lap dance
White - wearer will flash what they have

Somebody went to an awful lot of trouble to find out (concoct) these meanings, considering the majority of kids deny this game even exists. (Clear? I've never even seen a clear bracelet.)

Personally, I doubt - very seriously doubt - that a majority of 6th graders are all that sexually aware and/or interested in these activities. Between worrying about when the boobs are gonna sprout, and whether or not they can hide that latest zit, and how hard that math test is going to be, and if he's going to be able to avoid the bullies and not get beat up after school, and how to make practice and get to Buffy's party afterward... well, the meanings of colors of supposed "sex bracelets" seems a relatively ludicrous thing to worry about! Besides, you're supposed to get the sex favor after you break the bracelet off the girl's wrist. Have you ever tried to break one of those friggin' things?? I have -- It's damn near impossible!

Once again another oh-my-ghod-we're-all-gonna-die utterly ridiculous school rule gets created because the media doesn't know when to ignore the stupid shit and STFU, and public school officials don't have enough brain cells bumping together to do a little footwork. Welcome to your future, young people. Your elders are idiots.

Sleep is my favorite hobby

2009-09-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's nice to be validated by professionals.

Sweetie sent me a link to this story about how sharing a bed is bad for couples' health. You see, our friends and family seem to think we're a little bonkers for not sharing a room & bed - but let me tell you, sleeping apart keeps our relationship going. He had a hard time getting used to not sharing a bed when we were first together but has come to appreciate the comfort of not worrying about bothering your partner plus having all the space, blankets & pillows to yourself. While we were living in his parents' trailer last year in Vegas, we slept in the same bed for a month. The snoring kept me awake at least half the night. (To quote the article: "One study found that, on average, couples suffered 50% more sleep disturbances if they shared a bed.") I had to use ear plugs every night. It was just plain stressful - for both of us. Things work a whole lot better when you have your own bed.

I remember once watching that show "Malcolm in the Middle" with the kids, and the episode was about the mom buying a larger bed for herself. The dad was all upset about it, thinking she was going to divorce him or something and refused to sleep in the bed, until she was finally forced to explain that she simply needed more space in bed because when she began to relax at night she needed to fart. I laughed so hard at that because it is true for so many women but we are too embarrassed to admit it aloud.

"Before the Victorian era it was not uncommon for married couples to sleep apart. In ancient Rome, the marital bed was a place for sexual congress but not for sleeping." Oh yeah, I can definitely dig it.

Got what he deserved

2009-09-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

Gun vendor shoots self at gun show

Picture day cop-out

2009-09-04T22:25:00.000-07:00

Too tired after my first week at the new weird job to do much but post a few silly pix. Sorry.

Honey, you know I gave up cigarettes for my New Year's resolution...

2009-08-29T16:28:00.000-07:00

...but I didn't give up smokin'.

Smoking in the military: An old habit dies hard

Interesting article. Too many of these kids are from North Carolina.. and I'm unhappy to read about the physical effects smoking has on these young people post-deployment. I think a smoke-free military might be an endeavour worth pursuing. Wish someone had at least mentioned that the Powers That Be in the military should be trying to come up with a stress-reducing *substitute* for tobacco...

Just FYI, here's why I think I have the nerve to dictate to others about tobacco habits:

My Stats:

Your Quit Date is: 1/2/2006
Time Smoke-Free: 1335 days
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 26706
Lifetime saved: 6 months, 24 days
Money saved: $8,677.50

Yay me!

2009-08-27T22:11:00.000-07:00

Another case for us neo-Luddites

2009-08-24T14:32:00.000-07:00

Hello Oven? It's Phone. Now Let's Get Cooking!

My favorite part of the story? “It goes right to the high setting on the broiler,” he said. “It prefers high.”

(Lud-dite [n]:

Any of a group of British workers who between 1811 and 1816 rioted and destroyed laborsaving textile machinery in the belief that such machinery would diminish employment.
One who opposes technical or technological change.

[After Ned Ludd, an English laborer who was supposed to have destroyed weaving machinery around 1779.])

Damn you, basic cable!

2009-08-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

Drat! I don't have HBO!!

Ah, Wondermark...

2009-08-21T08:07:00.001-07:00

Click to embiggen! (VIA)

"In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes."

2009-08-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

Andy was so right.

I have always admired people who could take their particular talent and spin it into their personal life so that the two become so entwined one cannot extract one from the other. People like Truman Capote, whose writing was so compelling but whose personal/social life became so entangled with his authorship that one still cannot think of one without the other. And Andy Warhol, whose talent as an artist cannot be separated from the man as social gadfly.

Imagine my excitement to read today that the people who are archiving Andy's "junk" - apparently over 600 boxes and various containers full of it! - have discovered such eclectic items as a piece of Caroline Kennedy's wedding cake, oozing cans of Campbell's soup, an amazing variety of newspaper articles, and a naked picture of Jackie O signed by the great lady herself. (How fucking cool and mind-blowingly unique is that??) The archiving began back in the early 90s and continues to be an incredible project. (One I would give a major body part to be involved in!) There's a promise of a blog in September featuring some of the more unusual objects. You can bet I'll be subscribing to that!

Next time I'm in Pittsburgh I'll be visiting Andy's museum. Talk about the epitome of cool.

The Chairman

2009-08-17T12:19:00.001-07:00

If you know me, you know I love me some Food Network. One of the best shows on the channel is Iron Chef America, starring my favorite and yours, Alton Brown, and Mark Dacascos as The Chairman. Apparently the Chairman is expanding his horizons by appearing on Dancing With the Stars this coming season. I won't be watching it but I do hope he does well. He certainly is limber enough... Ooooooooooo! Smokin' hot!

Mark Dacascos Action Reel from Mark Dacascos on Vimeo.

Friday funnies

2009-08-14T13:53:00.001-07:00

Ramblin'

2009-08-12T09:57:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog,

Sorry I've been absent lately. Apparently Google has a problem with one of its many DNS servers not recognizing the IP address that my provider sends out, so I have been unable to get to you, dearest blog, for several days. At last, after entirely too much of my whining and bitching, darling Sweetie found a way around the problem. Mind you, it is not fixed. The troubleshooter guy at Blogger doesn't seem to think it really is a problem because he can't see it. But we've managed to circumvent the difficulty for the time being. (Stupid computers... hmph.)

Anyhoo!! Lots of things going on. Decided that going back to school is going to be too expensive - $4K for re-certification in a skill set I already possess is excessively pricey, IMO - so now I have to look for work in the Big City. Which means yet another move. The real estate lady came over yesterday to look at the old homestead and give us her expert advice. The good news is that the market has bounced back some and I can at least get enough from the sale of the place to pay off the mortgages and maybe have a few bucks left in my pocket. The bad news is that the property is never going to return my initial investment, much less make a profit beyond that, so there are no retirement funds - you remember, The American Dream? You invest in real estate and it pays you back with a profit and you live happily ever after? NOT ANY MORE. Welcome to the United States of the new millenium. Stimulus my ass.

So there's that. Might have to move to the Big City, not that that is such a bad thing. At least they have culture and activities and nice big parks. Sweetie & I are diligently looking for new jobs in the most failing economic climate since the frigging Depression... BUT! It could be worse. At least I still have the most wonderful man ever, breathing life into my soul every day. What more could any girl ask for?

Went to see Julie & Julia last week and LOVED IT. Meryl Streep was fantastic, as always. She really inhabited the character. So of course I had to rush out and buy Julia's book, My Life in France. So far it's been just a wonderful read, she had such a fabulous sense of humor and joy for life, love for her husband and an adoration for France that's terribly contagious. She fairly jumps off the page. Not as enamored of Julie Powell's little saga but if her story introduces more people to the wonder that was Julia Child, then she was worth being included.

And we still have our trip to Ireland to look forward to. We're consolidating debt in order to save a few bucks from month to month, and dreaming large about living in exotic places while bumming on a beach and happily working subsistence jobs in bike shops or coffee houses. Hey, if The American Dream ain't gonna pan out, we gotta make our own wherever we can, right?

Darling Son is cruising the ocean blue, partying it up on the Mexican Riviera, soon to return to a new life in his own home. Darling Daughter is stressing out about paying for college because her damn parents are no help at all. (Welcome to adulthood! Sucks a lot sometimes, baby. But this too shall pass. Get that degree, it'll make all the difference!) My mother's husband is very ill, end-of-life kind of ill, so she's stressing out too. I hate being so far away from her and not being able to help, but she does have a small support system of loving family and friends. I know she has the strength to get through this tribulation because she is one of the strongest women I have ever known. (And a damn fine example to her children.)

Okay, I'm going to go read the blogs I've been missing out on and then go vegetate in front of the boob tube. Because the day is shot anyway and I need a Valium / alcohol substitute. Thanks for being there again, dear blog. I'm pretty sure you're never going to make me bags full of money like some blogs have for other people, but you sure do wonders for my sanity. I'm so glad we're back together again... Until next time!

Love, Chilly

Postal experimentations

2009-08-07T10:19:00.000-07:00

Dave Malki ! over at Wondermark is doing a postal experiment that should prove to be quite enlightening and amusing when completed. After having announced this interesting endeavour, he was reminded of a similar experiment that had grand results.

"...[T]he delivery involved the collusion of sequences of postal workers, not simply lone operatives. The USPS appears to have some collective sense of humor, and might in fact here be displaying the rudiments of organic bureaucratic intelligence."

After all my disparagement of the USPS, and there has been a great deal of disparagement, I must say these experiments do make me think twice about the quality of the service and the character of its employees.

I dated a murderer!

2009-08-07T09:26:00.000-07:00

Oh man. Life is just one big soap opera sometimes.

Got an email from Sis this morning saying that a guy I once dated briefly in high school had an obit in today's paper. Not knowing the circumstances, she presumed it was a car accident because his daughter was eulogized as well. Further investigation revealed that it wasn't anything nearly as mundane as that... He killed his 7-year-old child and them himself in their home while the little girl's mother was away visiting family. Obviously there was some sort of faulty thinking going on, a deep despondence he couldn't get past or a short-circuit in his brain that prevented him from using clear-headed problem solving. He was always kind of weird back in the day but I figured that was because we smoked so freaking much weed that we were all pretty whacked in the head all the time. Some people just don't get past that stage, I guess.

Wow... Who needs soaps when real life provides this much drama!

The body as canvas

2009-08-05T22:33:00.000-07:00

Beautiful work! (VIA)

Good news

2009-08-04T17:23:00.000-07:00

Clinton departs North Korea with journalists

By ANNE GEARAN, AP National Security Writer Anne Gearan, Ap National Security Writer – 23 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Bill Clinton's spokesman says the former president has left North Korea with two American journalists who had been held hostage.

Matt McKenna said late Tuesday that Clinton has "safely left North Korea with Laura Ling and Euna Lee." He said they're flying to Los Angeles, where the journalists will be reunited with their families.

The White House is not commenting on the trip.

Food Network, I LOVE YOU

2009-08-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

Was watching the final Next Food Network Star just a few minutes ago -- Melissa won, no surprise there -- when there before me was the most exquisite moment, an advertisement so sublime that it has made the rest of my day, perhaps even my entire week! A new show, premiering August 23rd, starring that gold medal winning Olympian / hero to small cartoon boys and fag hags everywhere... What Would Brian Boitano Make?

Wha..wha..WHAT?!?

Immediately dialled Darling Daughter to announce this miracle to her; her reaction was filled with as much appreciation and amusement as my own. We have a solid date for the first episode!

For anyone not aware of their surroundings.. I mean, who hasn't got a clue what the significance of Brian Boitano's new show name is, I present to you, without further ado, "What Would Brian Boitano Do?":

Sarah the Quitter

2009-07-31T10:05:00.001-07:00

(VIA)

Fangirl says, "OH YEAH!"

2009-07-31T09:34:00.001-07:00

Like many of my contemporaries, I was absolutely hooked on "Dark Shadows" back in the day. I would race up the driveway as soon as I got off the bus and turn on the TV the minute I got inside to get my daily fix! The first two or three seasons were really the best - it kind of started to go stale after that - but Barnabas Collins was always my absolute *favorite* character!

Got totally twitterpated when I read about Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins! Directed by Tim Burton?!? I AM SO THERE.

" Before Lestat, Angel, and Edward Cullen, there was Barnabas Collins, a 175-year-old vampire who stalked the town of Collinsport, Maine pining for his lost love. Originally, the character of Barnabas, played by Jonathan Frid, was only intended for a 13-week story arc on "Dark Shadows," but he caused such a sensation with viewers he became the lead character for the next four years. The show spawned two movies in the early '70s, a revived series in 1991, and a pilot that was not picked up for series in 2004.

Depp would play Barnabas, a role he told Collider.com has been "a lifelong dream for me."

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" But when I asked him about “Dark Shadows”, I could see the enthusiasm in his eyes as he said, “‘Dark Shadows’ is happening. Tim is working on ‘Alice in Wonderland’ which is obviously quite a large piece of work there. So when Tim is done with ‘Alice’ and we get the script, which is very, very close, in order we’ll probably attack it next year. It’s exciting, very exciting. It’s like a lifelong dream for me. I loved the show when I was a kid. I was obsessed with Barnabas Collins. I have photographs of me holding Barnabas Collins posters when I was five or six. I'm very excited to do it."

I’ve heard this is happening next year, and after seeing Johnny light up when talking about it, I believe it. "

Oh my. YAY!!

Nostalgia and Prejudice

2009-07-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

Oftentimes Sweetie and me, we get into weird conversations that take strange tangents. Oftentimes we are the only ones who understand what the eff we are talking about! Today was no different. Sweetie asked me if there was a Bob's Big Boy in town. I immediately thought of and mentioned Carl's Jr., and while he laughed his head off at me I asked if he remembered the Little Black Sambo restaurants. It should not have surprised me - and yet it did! - that he knew waaaaay more about the subject than I expected!

The chain was called "Sambo's," the original (built in 1957) and last remaining restaurant survives to this day in Santa Barbara, CA. The Sambo's I remember eating at, back East where I grew up, had the whole story displayed all over the restaurant in the form of massive murals. It is a cute little story about a fairly resourceful little boy who manages to trick a group of theiving tigers into giving him back his stolen belongings and then turning themselves into butter for his dinner. Unfortunately, the title and character names are very antiquated (keep in mind that the story was originally published in 1899, written by a Scotswoman who lived for 30 years in southern India) and therefore the story is now reviled by most people who know it. I recall that the food was good - but even then my 7-year-old brain somehow understood that the characterization was awfully racist.

Sweetie looked up the restaurant for me and found a visualization of the original storybook. Wow, talk about taking a person back to childhood. We talked about how it's kind of sad that this story gets repressed due to modern perceptions, when people really should look at this story in the proper perspective of 'it is what it is.'

Speaking of racism, been following with interest the stories of Mr. Henry Louis Gates, the cop and the Prez (Obama spoke too soon, IMO!) and Miss Jessica Simpson and her "Indian giver" statement. Sheesh.

The King of Pop was a friend of mine. Sir, you are no King of Pop!

2009-07-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

Man, I HATE this guy.

Huffington Post

2009-07-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

I should read HuffPo more often.

Double standards

2009-07-27T08:54:00.000-07:00

Once again the Repugnicans can't seem to focus on real issues when there's a woman to bash.

If you ask me, it seems this woman is eminently qualified for the position of Surgeon General. As Rich Galen put it in this Mullings blog post:

I am willing to accept the notion that the Surgeon General can be the poster-woman for a national effort to lose weight. That would be swell. But, if we accept that theory, then Obama should appoint:

- a junkie as Drug Czar,
- a person whose license has been suspended as Secretary of Transportation,
- a deserter as Secretary of Defense,
- a slum lord heading HUD and,
- Bernie Madoff as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Right on.

Funnies!!!

2009-07-25T22:35:00.001-07:00

Life is so short

2009-07-22T14:32:00.000-07:00

Years ago, when Darling Daughter was a mere slip of a girl, I took her and her best friend Alex on a 13th birthday celebration trip to Chicago. We stayed downtown, near the Miracle Mile, in a quaint hotel right off the El. The main objective was to see the American Girl Store because we had all bonded over their books and activities - Molly was DD's favorite of the bunch - but we discovered that all the other stuff we did was a lot more fun. We froze while walking Michigan Avenue, we shopped our butts off, saw Oprah's studio, visited the planetarium & natural history museum, walked at the lake, cruised the Navy Pier. We went to a restaurant that the guidebook said had good seafood, only to discover that we were woefully underdressed, and it was just by the grace of the ghods that I had enough cash in my pocket to pay for our meal. We laughed about that for a long time afterward; DD & I still laugh about Nick's Fishmarket. All in all it was a wonderful little vacation with two precious little girls.

Alex was a good friend; a sweet, beautiful, charming little girl with wonderful parents who were of the same mindset as myself. Unfortunately they moved a long way away when Alex's grandfather became ill and her family purchased a home they could all live in together. DD & Alex stayed in touch, with that contact becoming more and more sparse due to distance. The girls grew up and Alex got a lot more goth, surprising even me by getting a chestpiece tattoo with skulls and everything. Their lives diverged and contact became almost non-existent.

Alex called DD today. Her dad, Bill - chef, restauranteur, father, husband, son and all-around nice guy - died in a motorcycle accident last week. DD is going to his funeral tomorrow.

I don't know why but the news has hit me hard; I am floored. I hardly knew the man but we did have occasion to hang out when our girls got together, especially when we took that Chicago trip. I guess what has me thrown is (1) how many friends & acquaintances I have lost to motorcycle accidents; and (2) how quickly we can be gone from our family's lives. Bill was fairly young, maybe 45 years old. He had tons of years left in him, a wife and 3 gorgeous children, a good business and a fierce work ethic. I can only imagine the pain his family is suffering from at this moment. Wow.

Rest in peace, Bill.

And be careful on your motorcycles, people!! Damn things are freaking dangerous. Damn those things!

Extreme sheepherding

2009-07-21T09:11:00.000-07:00

Clever!

Good night, Uncle Walter

2009-07-17T19:38:00.000-07:00

Walter Cronkite 1916 - 2009

Hooray for Sunday funnies

2009-07-12T08:40:00.001-07:00