Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Free Food!

Well, sort of. How happy was I to see that we have finally stopped taxing food? Not all food, of course, but the essentials.

I remember way back when I was really poor and for a span of time, my grocery budget was $25 a week. For three. Two adults and one child. I would make up my list, go to the store with my list, a pen and a calculator. I would write in the price of each item, adding it up as I went.

When I got close to the limit, I would have to stop and figure out what the tax was going to be. And it always made me sad/mad because that extra dollar or two could bought me another gallon of milk for my child, or several cans of beans to substitute for meat.

Most consumer taxes are voluntary. You don't have to smoke or drink alcohol. You don't have to eat in restaurants. You don't have to buy new clothes and shoes every week.

But you do have to eat.

Loki sez: But what about cat food? Is there tax on cat food? Can you upgrade us to human grade tuna, perhaps?

I Can Has Cheezburger update: Still on the Vote page, page number 15, sixth picture down, 409 votes so far! Yippee! They just might make it to the front page!

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The Boys Are on I Can Has Cheezburger!

My boys are soon to be famous!

Check it out.

Right now they are on page 2 in the "Vote" section, but that will change as more pictures are added for voting.

So if you love Thor and Loki....and Mick Jagger the Guinea Pig....go vote!

How to Waste Half a Day

Begin preparations a week in advance with stressful working conditions and poor sleep. Add in one I-had-an-accident-on-I-95 phone call. Add 40 mile round trip to vet for nothing.

Simmer, over three days, copious amounts of Loki DRAMA.

Mix in usual duties of housekeeping/cooking/laundry/errands on top of special Halloween preparations.

The day before, incorporate a spontaneous Loki recovery. (I am seriously beginning to suspect a multiple personality disorder - Loki, not me!)

Blend various options of optimizing new found harmony.

Prepare to sleep with cats allowed free roam of house. Including bedroom.

Fall into a blissful sleep.

Awaken with something touching your forehead. Realize it is Thor's ass. Refrain from screaming, "eeewwww!" Calmly and quietly ask Thor WTF he is doing. Lift blankets so Thor can go under, curl up for approximately 0.00010/second, then emerge.

Forget to put hand back under covers.

Awaken to find Loki claws embedded in the flesh of your palm while he licks your thumb. Put hand under blankets.

Awaken to Thor walking across your stomach.

Awaken to Loki trying to fit on the three inch space between you and the edge of the mattress. Extra bonus of 15 pound cat sitting directly on your stomach as he contemplates the physics of fitting his fat body into such a small space.

Awaken to realize that someone has appropriated 75% of the available blankets and at least 20% of the remaining blankets are pinned down beneath two stretched out length-wise cats.

Sleep facing one way until your backside is frozen.

Turn and sleep the opposite way until your frontside is frozen.

Give up, find socks in dark, freezing cold room. Try and fail to find marshmallow robe in closet. Stagger to living room, collapse on sofzilla, shiver uncontrollably under cold blanket on cold couch for ten minutes.

Fall asleep.

Awaken to something touching your forehead. Realize it is Thor's ass. Again. This time say, "eeewww!" Turn over, fall asleep.

Awaken to sound of prison break alarm clock sound. Fall asleep. Awaken seven minutes later to alarm. Fall asleep. Awaken seven minutes later to alarm.

Tell Jason no, you do not care for any coffee and you are going to bed.

Awaken at 10:30 a.m.

Say bad words.

Thor sez: I deny any and all allegations made in the preceding post.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Monday Mish-Mosh

The kittens are feuding again. Rather, Loki was offended by some scent that Thor brought home from the vet. We were making much progress this morning. They were playing together in the hall, mellowed out with a liberal amount of Cosmic Cat Nip. Then they moved to the front room to watch Cat TV and all was well for about 15 minutes, then Loki decided he hated Thor again and began hissing and spitting. So he is back in the "hissy fit room".

An announcement to the entire population of the Lowcountry: I stop at red lights. Okay? Deal with it. It's sort of the LAW, you know. I even stop at yellow lights if I am safely able. Once again, that pesky little law. You should try it. Might save you from KILLING an innocent person some day.

Also, to the jerk driving the gigantic pick up truck turning off Bee's Ferry Road into the Hidden Walmart, Crouching Gas Station: pulling up an inch off my rear bumper and blaring your horn at me will not make the oncoming traffic disappear so that I may make a safe left turn.

And I must jump on Mike's Ladles bandwagon. The place is awesome, the owners are super nice and the food is great! Try it out. I'm so excited to get a great place for a quick and healthy lunch or dinner up Highway 61. The South of Philly Pizza place is also super Yumm-O, but it is nice to have a choice.

And I know that my favorite links column changed when Jason put the new header on the blog for me. I will update it again (when I can figure it out). I didn't remove anyone! It was an accident!

Loki sez: I'm sensitive, okay?

Sunday, October 28, 2007

All Kitten Sunday

Halloween approaches. And the kittens get into the mood.

Zombie Thor!


Pirate Thor!


Sleeping Vampire Loki!

Okay, so Thor is in the Halloween mood. Loki is in leave me alone mood.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Thor!

Cats are like cars. You take your car to the mechanic for that funny noise and it stops making it. I drive Thor 20 miles, one way, to the vet and his eye is perfectly fine.

Sunday, his right eye started watering. And he sneezed and sneezed and sneezed. Really, he would sneeze like ten times in a row, then rub his eye and it would water. But I never could find anything in it or a scratch on it. He never acted like it hurt.

It really was starting to get better by Wednesday. And I cancelled my Thursday afternoon appointment because I was too tired to drive up there after not sleeping well the last few days.

And this morning there were no symptoms. Chad, my most awesome vet, probed and prodded and could find nothing wrong with anything. He gave me some antibiotic ointment just so I could have it on hand if I ever needed it. Sort of like a consolation prize for driving all that way for essentially nothing.

And Loki is still under the bed. He ran for it when he heard me get the carrier out. Now, Thor got shoved in the cage, driven up Highway 61, sat in a room full of dogs, got poked and prodded, shoved back in the cage and driven home. He has been sitting on my lap and purring. Loki is still hiding. Mr. Sensitive.


Thor sez: They adore me at the vet's office!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Phone Calls in the Middle of the Day

Two thirty p.m. Yesterday. I am in deep sleep. The bedroom door opens. It's Jason. "Sorry to wake you, but I have a Danny update." (My son who is on leave and driving in from Norfolk, VA).

"He just called. He was in an accident on I-95, but he's okay."

Great. I'm awake now.

"I just thought you'd want to know right away."

Good idea. So much for sleep. I get up, dial the man-child's cell phone and get no answer. The logical part of me is thinking he is talking to the cops or the tow truck driver. The mother/psychotic part of me is thinking he'd actually fractured his neck and getting up just severed the spinal cord and he's so much toast laying on the side of the Interstate with cars whizzing by at 100mph.

Fifteen agonizing minutes later, he calls back. All is well. He has a bruise on his leg. His truck has a broken head light and he is back on the road again.

After telling him he could not drive one mile above any posted speed limit and he was not allowed to change his CD or answer his cell phone while driving, I gave up on sleep and brewed up a pot of coffee.

Off to work I went at 7pm. At 9pm, he called to let me know he'd made it home in one piece. We celebrated at work by Googling up George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic and dancing. Which led to some reminiscing about the good old days of high school and disco and the original KGG club and dancing with the fellows who treated us like little sisters.

But by 4a.m., my tune had changed to "I'm to sleepy for my job, too sleepy for my job, too sleepy."

And now that I am home and the man-child is home safe, I'm going to wake him up and beat him. Because I'm allowed.


Thor sez: There's something strange going on here.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Harmony



Yesterday, I gave Loki a dose of tough love and while Jason was at work, I slept part of the day in the living room with Thor, leaving Loki all alone and toyless in the bedroom. Later, when the sun woke me up, I went to the bedroom but Loki was not allowed to lick my thumb. I told him goodnight and put my hands under the covers.

By the time I got up and fixed their supper, Loki was lonely enough (and hungry enough) to come to the kitchen door for his plate. They ate with the door partially open between them.

Then, the final blow: I took Thor to the living room and began a loud game of "chase stick". Which is exactly what it is. They have a long stick and I drag it around in figure 8's and they chase it. We hadn't been doing than more than five minutes when I heard Loki meowing and scratching at the door so he could play.

And that was that. Best buds again.

Next up: Thor takes a trip to the vet. He's been sneezing a lot and one eye has been watering since Sunday. I don't see anything in it, and it doesn't seem painful. I just don't know what it is, so my darling wonderful vet gets to tell me it is something stupid like allergies.

But now, bedtime.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Am I a Genius? Psychic? Cynical?

On October 4, I said this.

Today, Georgie says this.

Please note the information contained within the entire first sentence: "The Bush administration on Monday requested an additional $42.3 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the 2008 request for total war funding to $189.3 billion."

And slap my knee funny, I should have added this to my prediction because it is so freaking predictable: The ghost of Osama is raised just in time for Georgie's demand for money.

Just like every other freaking time they want to do something to further endanger the American economy and add more money to the pockets of their wealthy friends.

Boo! The boogey man is coming! He's gonna getcha! Give me money and I'll make him go away! Yes, I know you can't afford to take your children to the doctor because your employer fired you and hired you back as part time so you can't get benefits so he could give your job to some dude in India for three dollars an hour, but still, give me more money. That 10 trillion dollar national debt won't really impact you at all. It's just all made up government money.

Ten TRILLION DOLLARS! That is our national debt! Financial conservatism? And Republicans still dare to point fingers at Democrats as money spending fools?

At least the Democrats want to spend money on AMERICANS.

Bah.

Here We Go Again

Loki is so.....so.....so....sensitive.

Yesterday, my brother stopped by, so of course, Loki had to run and hide under the bed because obviously, anyone other than Jason or myself clearly intends to murder him.

Hours later, I went back to the bedroom and drug him out and carried him to the kitchen where he ate supper. Later, he sat on the couch with us.

When bedtime came around, he was back under the bed and hissed at me when I tried to get him out. So I left him there, thinking he'd get over himself in a few minutes and hop up on the bed and I could get him out of the room at that time.

No, a few minutes later, Thor comes slinking in and Loki starts (from under the bed) hissing and growling and spitting. I have no idea why. There was no altercation between them - they were both in the living room with us the whole evening.

So, we initiated overnight separation protocol. Which drives Thor absolutely insane because he is left alone and hates it. It got so bad that I went to sleep in the living room with him. He was so happy, he curled up next to me and purred all night - something he rarely does.

This morning, Loki ventured down the hall, saw his brother and ran for his life back under the bed. So I told him that he was NOT going to be living the high life in my room with his food and water and litter box. So I moved everything to the spare room. But in the process of moving Loki, Thor escaped from the bathroom I'd shut him up in and ran to his brother.

And Loki went into severe threat mode, crouching down, fur standing up, hissing and growling and spitting. Luckily, Thor didn't react aggressively, he just sat there looking at Loki. But Thor was under a piece of furniture and I couldn't easily get to him to get him out and since they were less than a foot apart, I didn't really want to reach down into this volatile situation and grab either one of them. I had just gotten a blanket and was going to toss it over Loki and drag him out when Thor went under the bed and Loki ran back to our bedroom.

Where he still is. He is not staying there. He will get his overreacting sensitive ass thrown in the spare room sometime today. In the meantime, I'm stuck with an upset, over affectionate Thor who wants nothing more on the planet than to see his brother.

It is quite possible I may strangle one of them pretty soon.


Loki sez: But they really are out to get me!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Say What?


Loki sez: Dumbledore was gay?

I like that JK Rowling didn't make his sexual orientation any more relevant to the story than the orientation of any other character.

I mean, she didn't go around pointing out anyone else's (other than the hormonal teens) sexual orientation, why should she have had to with Dumbledore?

He was just an ordinary person (in his world), doing his job, paying his taxes, doing good deeds for his community, just like our gay friends and neighbors in this world.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Kitten Time

Back to work for me means all kittens all the time for you.


The Battle of Thor and Loki

Asgard trembles as the gods grapple in warfare.

Who shall prevail?



Naptime prevails!

Friday, October 19, 2007

My Home State

I don't find it odd, and many people do as I do. When asked by a stranger where I am from, I don't say South Carolina. I say Charleston. I will add, in South Carolina, if needed.

But I don't consider myself a South Carolinian. I consider myself a Charlestonian. I think the two are incompatible.

Yesterday I was reading a story on MSNBC about John McCain's 2000 campaign in our state. About the dirty tricks. About the phone calls to voters asking their "opinion" John McCain's "illegitimate black daughter". Who was in fact, John McCain's adopted daughter.

And there was Charlie Condon, golly-geeing and shucksing his way around the vast moral wrongness of it all with a "that's how we do it down here." See, that's how the family values party did it in 2000. Lied about an adopted child.

And it almost made me angry as well as sick to my stomach.

But then, I thought, why did it make a difference?

Did the Republicans supporting Bush who came up with this ploy just think the state was full of intolerant bigots? Or is our state, indeed, filled with intolerant bigots. If there had not been fertile soil for the seeds of hatred, the behaviour would not have been tolerated. Those responsible would have been and should have been shamed by the decent, God fearing citizens of this state.

But they weren't.

I wonder what levels of hatred and intolerance and just plain morally wrong decisions will be found this time around.

Or are the decent, God fearing good citizens of this state going to say, "No. That is not us. That is not how we do things. We will not tolerated lies based on bigotry."

I can dream.


Loki sez: Aren't you tired of being led around by your prejudices yet?

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Cloud Stuff

We have returned, mostly intact, from a quickie jaunt to the mountains. I think we should have taken one more night, but we saw what we went to see, plus more.

Tellico Plains, TN. It's an adorable little town. I'm usually pretty lucky when picking hotel/motels on the internet, but this was the first time I'd rented a cabin. The Cherohala Skyway is fairly remote, running between Tellico Plains, TN and Robbinsville, NC so there wasn't a lot to choose from in the way of name brand hotels. Then I got to thinking about how popular the Skyway is with motorcyclists, and nothing against them, but people who sit on loud machines all day tend to forget that there is a such thing as an indoor voice. But I was very happy with our cabin. Very clean, very beautifully decorated, very remote, very quiet. Not the greatest view I've ever seen, but nice enough.




We tooled around the Skyway. Drove through a cloud or two at the top elevations. I just think that's the coolest thing ever. Jump out of the truck and dance around saying, "Ewwww, I've got cloud on me!" Okay, I'm easily amused, I thought that was already understood.

Photo by Jason Zwiker

We also went to see The Lost Sea. It was an hour long cave tour, complete with a pontoon boat ride on the largest underground lake in America. Only marred by condescending home schooling mom (not all home schooling moms, you understand, just this one particular one) who was trying so hard to make this educational for her children who were so starved for contact with a human who wasn't their mother that they practically sucked the air and blood from our darling tour guide. Condescending home school mom annoyed me personally when we were getting on the pontoon boat and she told, TOLD, did not ask, suggest or imply, Jason that he HAD to sit on the other side from me so the boat wouldn't tip over. The words STFU, B were still forming on my tongue when Jason just did what she said. Then she really pissed me off by ever so snottily asking our sweet 17 year old guide who had the most adorable accent I've heard in forever, "This is billed at the Lost Sea, but you keep referring to it as a lake, why is that?"

Snottily. Condescension dripping from every word. At that point I soooooooooo wanted to point out that she was WRONG earlier when asking her daughter which were the "stalagtites"and which were the "stalagmites". It's stalactites and stalagmites, you idiot, I wanted to say. Just don't want little Miss Sunshine there getting it wrong on her SAT's someday.

But I digress. That was only one hour of disenchantment. The rest of the trip was pure fun. The leaf color was pretty spotty down low, but on the higher elevations, it was just getting good. A word of caution, the locals say that the drought has been very bad this year and they don't expect a spectacular season, that there may be a lot of early leaf drop. So if you are planning to go look at the color, I'd check in with the locals where you are heading.

Coming home, we did something that I love to do: took the backroads. Added a couple hours driving time and we were both pretty danged happy to finally see I-85, but it was fun to wind through mountains and small towns and see the farms and homes and moo-cows and town squares and all the little unique things you never get to see from the interstate.

More pictures will follow, but Blogger or my computer is being extra slow in uploading them and I'm starving half to death. So to tide you over until I can get back to the computer:


Thor sez: We wanted to see the cave.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Please try again later

We will be out of town for the next few days. Thor and Loki will be under the tender care of their Granny.

I know I owe people recipes and will send them out when we get back. kthnx.

I was going to leave you with a sweet kitten picture but Blogger isn't cooperating and I'm out of time.

Sorry!

Sunday, October 14, 2007

I Think Loki is Ceiling Cat

Seriously, do not click on this link if you are easily offended by what may or may not be considered blasphemous. Or if you are not fluent in LOLCat speak.

Really. I warned you.


Loki sez: Ceiling Cat is watching you.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Four Crazy People at a Marina

Actually, there were five of us, but only four were crazy. Last night, we picked up my mom and drove out to the Bohicket Marina to meet my Aunt D and Uncle J from Cally-for-nee. The idea was to have a glass of wine whilst watching the sun set over the marsh.

The no-see-ums had other plans for us. Poor Jason was trying to take pictures but the bugs distracted him. Then he tried to get a group shot, but he was dealing with four crazy people who'd just gulped down wine.



Please note that the giant wine stain on Aunt D's leg (first on left) was caused by my mother (second from left), not me (third from left). Also note the alarming lack of grey hair on my mother as compared to me. I find it amusing, but in a weird sort of way. Oh yeah, and the crazy dude is my Uncle J. (whispers) They have a mixed marriage - he's a red and she's a blue!

But the real fun of the evening was dinner, which we had at Cindy's just down the road from the marina (back towards Charleston). Fresh, fresh, fresh sea food. A very casual, rustic interior, with some of the best seafood I've had in a long while. The food was served on paper plates - oh, excuse me, I meant our food was on paper plates, but Jason, Mr. Special, got his on a real plate. Cindy explained that it was because he ordered the special, which was sea bass, and it was delicious. As was the tomato-cucumber salad. And the shrimp and the crab cakes and the cole slaw and the yummy bottle of Spanish wine we shared.

Definitely worth the drive! You can also buy fresh local produce. And to-go meals fresh made, like a shrimp and grits quiche. There was a seafood lasagna, crab quiche. All sorts of dips and sauces made daily. And yummy deserts. We had key lime pie that was to die for perfect - from that first zing of tartness to the super sweet whipped topping. Best I've tasted outside the Keys.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Knock, Knock.

Who's there?

America.

America who?

America who is getting sick of meanness and hatred, that's who.

Will someone please inform the Religious Right?

Attacking children. Allowing this thing airtime.

The Karl Rove Era of dividing Americans for personal gain (and yes, I meant personal not political) is over. You pushed it too far and the American people, we the little nobodies of the country, whether red, blue or purple now see through your evil tactics.

Only those who still believe in hatred and division support these types of attacks.

I once had a conversation with an acquaintance in which she sighed that things "would be better if everyone (in America) were Christian."

I asked her what she would do with people who did not want to give up their religion and convert.

She looked surprised and said she did not know.

And I pressed her on it. I asked her to tell me, if she thought everyone in America should be Christian, how she would attain this goal? Concentration camps? Deportation? Execution? Just how would she make everyone adopt Christianity?

She finally conceded that it wasn't a good idea, but still maintained that everything would be better if everyone were Christian.

So I asked her which denomination? Catholic? Protestant? (Because those two get along so well in Ireland, you know.) Baptist? Lutheran? What?

She got mad at me and refused to discuss it anymore.

Here is a fundamental truth about humans: Nothing will ever satisfy us. If everyone became Christian, we fight about which denomination. If everyone became Baptist, we'd fight about degrees of fundamentalism. If everyone became Fundamentalist Baptists, we'd fight over each Bible verse and its meaning.

We need to stop wasting energy on trying to make everything and everyone the same and start learning how to just accept differences and to understand that different is just different. Not right or wrong.

Thor sez: But I don't wanna hafta be a dog!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Milestones

When: 7:30 a.m. October 11, 2007

Where: Glenn McConnell Parkway and Goodwill Drive

What: 1,000 miles on the new car.

Why: Because that's how much I've driven it.


Loki sez: Oh, goody. Shall I type up the press release?

That's all folks. I am exhausted and plan to spend much of the next 20 hours sleeping!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Esmerelda, we hardly knew ye!



I don't know where she went, but this morning she was gone from the window. Probably got annoyed with the boys staring at her and pawing at the glass.

Or else she found a way inside.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Back on the Chain Gang

Last night I went downtown to play at our sister hospital. It's always fun to be the floater - we don't have to do anything important, just take care of babies.

So in honor of return to night shift after only one night off, I give you kitten pictures in lieu of witty insights into the world. Ah ha ha ha.



Loki loves his box.


Thor loves blue puff ball.

JanetLee loves her bed. Good night to all.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Ice Tea Perfection, Ghosts and Tourists

Jason took me on a date last night. We had dinner at Jestine's. If you don't already know, Jestine's is where you will find the most perfect sweet tea on the planet. Perfection in a glass. Then they brought me the meatloaf. It was quite simply the best meatloaf I'd ever eaten in my entire life, anywhere, period. See, they bake it, then grill it. And then, just to be so super bad and decadent, I ate a piece of fried chicken skin off Jason's plate. Real fried up in oil chicken with the skin still on it! I could feel my fat cells opening wide and quivering with joy!

Then we moseyed on down to the Charleston Ghosts and Legends Tour place on Church Street, across from Tommy Condon's. You know, the place with the pirate out front. We were there for a private showing (Jason's invite, not mine. He is so a kewl kid and I just get to tag along) of a new ghost show.

We were a little early, so we sat outside and waited. I was having fun counting how many people walking by said, "Arrrgghhh!" to the pirate, but I only got up to three before it was time to go inside. My favorite was a boy of about ten who said, "Arrrgggh, matey!" then faltered for a second, racking his brain before adding, "I'm, uh, really gonna kill you now!"

Anyway, the ghost show was a quick 30 minute theater show. I loved that the theater was behind a hidden door. The show itself featured seven local ghosts, telling their stories, with lots of scary special effects. Not too scary, only one really made me jump and try not to scream because it was a small crowd of kewl kids and I was the tag-along geek trying to act all kewl kiddish.

So, if you are looking for some tourist-in-your-own-town things to do this Halloween season, check it out. Trey, the owner, said they would have package deals available with a couple restaurants and/or bars near the walking ghost tour sites, so you could make an entire evening out of it.

And now, a mini-rant. I know that the horses of the carriage tours are working under all kinds of rules and regulations designed to provide for their safety. But the poor black horse I saw was laboring - yes, laboring! He had his head slung low and forward and you could see the slow pull of muscle in his front legs and chest as he put one foot forward, puuuuullllleeed, then the other and puuullllled, all the while white froth lined his mouth and the gaggle of fat ass tourists were oblivious to the suffering they were causing with their fat American lard asses. Couldn't they at least have a minimum of two horses on those larger carriages? There must have been fifteen people in that one and I saw four just on one side who were pushing 200 pounds.

End rant.

Thor sez: I've got a Halloween costume! Can I be in the ghost play?

Sunday, October 07, 2007

I know! I know!

Two full days without Thor and Loki is like a year without sunshine!






Heather's oldest ain't got nothing on these two faces!

Photos by JAZ

Pardon me, I'm off to have a coma now.

Friday, October 05, 2007

Encore!

Loki and the box.




He is insane. I know. I've turned the box around so he can work on the other side now.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

And the Wheels on the 10 Trillion Dollar Bus Go Round and Round

Congress: Mr. President, may we have $35 billion over the next five years to expand health care for children of working class parents? It will be paid for by taxing cigarettes - a totally voluntary tax. See, Mr. President, what is happening is that health insurance has become so expensive that many companies must keep raising the amount that the employee must pay and now it is becoming too expensive even for families bordering on middle class. Not to mention that nasty little secret of the business world: downsized to today, rehire as part-time tomorrow and do away with all those pesky benefits!

President Bush: No! Too expensive!


Sometime in the next few weeks.......

President Bush: Hey Congress, gimme another $195 billion for Iraq. Don't be poor mouthing me about the national debt. Freedom! Turrist! Liberty! I know it is almost $10 trillion. Family Values! Freedom! I'll just raise the debt limit again, you pussies. Gimme my money right now!


Loki sez: Maybe if we look at it upside down, it'll make sense.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Litter Bug

There is a litter bug loose in my neighborhood again. Not only is he/she littering, he/she is spreading pollution in the form of bleached paper that (as far as I can tell) is not made of recycled paper, killing how many trees to pollute each and every driveway in my neighborhood, but he/she is doing so from a gasoline burning automobile. And, this litter comes wrapped in a plastic sleeve, a hazard to the environment also.

All this is annoying. To have to tromp out to the end of my driveway each morning to remove the unasked for Post and Courier. To have to fill my recycling bin with unwanted, unasked for paper - this is why I read my news on-line, people!

But what is infuriating (and I've been through this several times before) is that I will continue to get an unwanted, unasked for paper - despite calling and telling them I don't want it - for up to two weeks. Then the phone calls will begin. Several times a day I will be called to ask if I'd like to sign up for home delivery year-round.

Now, get this: the phone calls? They come from Phoenix, Arizona!

So after all this local pollution, the Post and Courier doesn't even hire an out of work local to call and annoy me. They have outsourced this!

And I will tell the poor person in Arizona who just needed a job that no, I do not want home delivery of the paper. If I wanted the Post and Courier to bring me a paper each morning, I would have called them and asked.

I certainly don't want one when I can't even help a local citizen get a job.


Thor sez: Give a hoot! Don't pollute! (And hire local!)

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Random Stuff

I got my first flu shot since nursing school (a jillion years ago) yesterday. Because Jason sweet talked me into it - "You're of an age now. Last year, this many people were admitted to hospitals with complications of flu."

Makes you all shivery and lumpy-throated, don't it?

I got it free at work, and let me tell you the employee health nurse there, that was the best freaking shot I've ever gotten. She said, "Stick, burn, done" before I even realized she'd wiped my arm with alcohol.

But now my arm hurts. Like wake up every time I rolled over hurts. But I guess it's better than ending up in the hospital with my old self. Seeing how I'm bordering on decrepithoodness and all.

Being a crazy cat lady takes a certain amount of confidence in yourself. You can't be shy about it. How else would you stand in Bi-Lo in front of an Audubon Bird display, carefully evaluating the bird calls of every bird on display so you can best choose one for your felines?

I wanted a Chickadee, because Loki goes crazy whenever he sees/hears one at the bird feeder. But our Chickadees are Carolina Chickadees and the toy one was a Black-Capped Chickadee and the song was only a one note whistle.

So I got a Mr. Cardinal.


Thor sez: Turn the camera off, I'm going to eat him.

There is one "junk TV" show I watch with alarming devotion, America's Next Top Model. Now, in my defense, invite me over to your house and give me a huge box of photographs and I will sit down and go through them all. My entire life, I've loved to sift through photographs. So, my attraction to this show has roots in just wanting to see the photographs. Still, it is a reality show and I, in principle, hate reality shows because they encourage debasement of the self and meanness to other people. I mean, if the point was who could work together the best, would America watch it?

But that is another post. Point is, I was watching a True Hollywood Story about the show (because my arm hurt so bad I couldn't lift it to cook supper and was waiting for either the wine to kick in or Jason to come home and cook for me) when the "news" broke about Britney Spears. I wish I was the judge in that case because the best thing for those poor children is a complete severance of parental rights and adopt them out to some anonymous couple in Kansas where they can be raised as normal kids and not some objects for the press, the paparazzi and the parents to use.

Bah. Makes me sick what we do to children in this country, all the while claiming to love them so much. Let's at least be honest. We only love our individual children and the rest can rot in hell as long as our kids get what we think they need/deserve/want. Why else would people be against food stamps for poor working families, against health care for poor working families? Why do some schools get computers and science labs while other schools don't have enough desks or books?

Why indeed, if children are our future as we love to say.


Loki sez: Mmmmm, tastes like chicken!

Monday, October 01, 2007

A Visit to Spider Land

Well, really it was a Sunday Expedition to Caw Caw Interpretive Center, a county park up Highway 17 in Ravenel. It was quite a bargain, only a buck a piece, for a three mile stroll through woods and swamps



and along side old rice field canals.





Jason fed the mosquitoes while I managed to walk through every spider web along the path.



Luckily, these guys were smart enough to spin their webs high over head, else my screams probably would have heard on Mars.

While snapping the above photo (and I took them, as Jason has - quite sensibly - stopped taking his camera everywhere, and gives himself a day off occasionally), I spotted something in a tree top. After a bit of investigation, we discovered it was an owl. Too hidden and too far away to photograph, of course.

We also saw what I think was a bald eagle perched on the top limb of a skeleton of a tree. Next time, I'll bring my binoculars.

I think we are going to sign up for a kayak trip through the creeks and rice canals later in the fall. Won't that be fun?


Thor sez: You never take me to these fun places!