We're Baaaa-aack!

Lovely vacation. Absolutely gorgeous B&B. (With a welcoming Obama sign on the front porch.) Gracious and fascinating hostess (kept thinking "she needs to be a Skirt! woman!"). Perfect weather. Challenging hiking. Good autumn color.

Here's a tidbit:

No vacation kittens this time:

That's Xena, the pit bull and Lucy, the terrier mix. I think Lucy and Thor have the same personality.

Oh, where were we?

Pennsylvania. Eastern. In the Pocono Mountains.

More when I have had coffee with real creamer.

Thor sez: I am not a dog!

Get Your Fix While the Gettin's Good

We'll be big old jet airliner-ing our way to some autumn color and landscapes slightly above sea level.

The boys will be tenderly cared for by their grandmother-hairless-monkey-servant. So if they log on and claim abuse, it is a lie.

Back next week!

Loki sez: Ack! She's killing me! Call SPCA Kay!
(I was actually removing it.)

Thor sez: Look at my crazy eyes! Stop putting angel wings on me!

Loki sez: Oh my Ceiling Cat! This is worse than the hat!

Thor sez: Give her the crazy eyes!

Show us your hands!

Kick over rocks....

and look what slimes its way out.

And how about this little snippet from the same article:
"That suggestion came from Lehman's money management subsidiary, Neuberger Berman. Waxman quoted George H. Walker, President Bush's cousin and a Lehman executive who oversaw some Neuberger Berman employees, as responding with a dismissive tone to the idea of going without bonuses.
"Sorry team," he wrote to the executive committee, according to Waxman. "I'm not sure what's in the water at 605 Third Avenue today.... I'm embarrassed and I apologize.""

Yeah, I'm sure a Bush family member can't comprehend going without a bonus for shoddy work.

Why Am I Awake?

I was supposed to sleep in this morning because I have to work tonight. Oh well, won't be the first 28 hour stretch I've done.

It's been a strange morning. Thor, who even for a cat, has supernatural hearing abilities, began meowling the moment my feet hit the bedroom floor. Meowling: verb, a combination of meow and howl, the resultant sound resembling a chain smoking, whiskey drinking truck stop waitress screaming at a poor tipper.

Loki tossed his cookies, well actually his breakfast, shreds, gravy and all on the floor and acted offended when I cleaned it up.

And then like some demonic Chatty-Cathy doll, I see from a headline that someone drug Ann Coulter out of whatever closet the Repubs store her in, dry cleaned her little black dress, gave her a B-12 shot and a liter of LR and pulled the string on her back.

And I'd give her some grudging respect for the courage she has to speak her mind, if she meant all those evil things she says, but she doesn't. She just says them because she knows they appeal to the lowest, vilest instincts of humans (to make someone, anyone, less than so you can feel superior), and she knows she can make money off the need to hate. She's like some left-over relic from another age now, I hope.

But to answer my own question, I suppose I'm awake so I can finish up all the errands I was going to do last Saturday before I got distracted. See, here is my very own dirty little secret, my guilty pleasure, if you will: I am addicted to cheesy disaster movies. The cheesier, the better. I supposed it goes back to Earthquake and The Towering Inferno being huge hits during my formative years.

I love the orderliness of disaster movies. No matter how stupid the plot, how bad the acting, how ridiculous the special effects, they are all the same. Hero scientist who knows "the truth" and is estranged from some family member is treated as an idiot, Evil scientist is a power-grubbing know-nothing (variant: Evil military person), Anguished President who yells a lot and bemoans the humanity, Rescue Dude Hero, who usually is a total screw-up but redeems himself by dying so that another might live. And of course, the Disaster itself. And in the end, Hero scientist is proven right, reunited with his loved one, humanity is saved and Evil scientist is either dead or humiliated.

And I've noticed that way back in the 50's when most disaster movies began to be made, the CAUSE was almost always some sort of nuclear/radiation accident. In a few recent disaster movies, a nuclear device was what SAVES the planet.

Makes you go, "hmmm".

Thor sez: I'm a natural disaster of epic cuteness!

Loki Sunday

New toy.




Loki sez: Wasn't doing nothing.

Blatant Product Endorsement

Yesterday, I went to Super Petz to get some bird feed and cat food. I was standing by the windows where they have kittens (and bunnies!) for adoption, talking through the little air holes to the sweetest black and white kitten when one of the employees approached me. I had to tell him, that no, I couldn't adopt a kitten because I have the two meanest, most spoiled kittens in the world. He then asked if I wanted to hold the kitten and love on it a little bit. And I had to confess that I wasn't allowed to do that either. Last time I petted a kitten, Thor hissed at me for almost an hour.

Gives a more accurate definition to the term "pussy whipped", huh?

I also bought, after what I'm sure looked like some sort of apoplectic fit to the other customers, a FURminator. The fit was due to the fact that it was priced at $35.00.

"For a stupid cat brush to toss on to the pile of freaking cat brushes you already have?!" is what the money manager side of my brain was screaming at me.

"But I've heard such wonderful things about it! And both cats have puked up hairballs this week! You are a bad kitten mommy!" is what the money foolish side of my brain was screaming back.

And you all know, dear readers, that I ended up buying it because I am incapable of denying my fur babies anything.

I have one thing to say:

Worth every penny!

I worried at first that they wouldn't like it because I've never used a comb on them before. And this is how brushing usually goes around here:

But other than Thor's refusal to stand still, leading to his getting knocked in the face a few times, they enjoyed it.

And if you clicked on the link above, the picture of the dog with the clouds of fur around him? Exactly what my rug looked like. And it worked on both of them. They have very different fur types. Thor's undercoat is very thin and his fur is very fine. Loki has what we call rabbit fur. It is very thick and luxurious.

Loki fur after two passes (and a full brushing yesterday):

The FURminator worked great on both of them. Plus, it works so quickly, that I'm actually able to do a good job on areas like under their chins or their bellies, where they usually wouldn't put up with me brushing for too long with another type of brush.

Go buy one. Today!

It's October!

For some that means beer festivals.

For others, the turning of the leaves.

For me, the torturing of the felines:

My Mind, A Cluttered and Random Place

I think I should just publicly thank Jason for putting up with me.

I'm not an easy person to live with. I rant. I rave. I'm spectacularly lazy. I whine about my poor left arm which is currently throbbing in agonizing pain due to the flu shot that I got yesterday. I occasionally just walk up to him and update my funeral plans so he'll know what to do if I get hit by a bus. (Most recent change: Jackson Browne's Rock Me on the Water replacing Van Morrison's Into the Mystic as the soundtrack for the illegal sprinkling of my ashes along the shores of Folly Beach.)

I just worry that someone will plan some crazy Southern Baptist funeral and some rent-a-pastor will be praying over me. Because if he says that I'm in heaven, I'll have to rise up out of the coffin (neat trick as I'll be cremated) and smack the snot out of him.

My mother wants no preaching at her funeral. All she wants is a black gospel group to sing. How awesome is that?

I got all excited when Google announced a contest in which the person who came up with the best idea to improve the world would get ten million dollars to make that idea come true.

I started thinking about an idea I have that touches on some of the things I care about: children, women and poverty.

But I guess helping poor women and their children isn't really a "product" that can be developed to be sold for profit, so it wouldn't qualify.

I was outlining it to Jason and he pointed at me like a pod person from Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 Donald Sutherland version) and (fake) yelled: "Liberal!".

Exactly.

The boyz say: We are not POD KITTENS!

We Interrupt This Thor's Day

For this WTFHH moment.

Can some-one please explain to me why the Senate version of the bailout plan has a giant chunk o' money going to automobile race tracks, oh excuse me, so sorry, motorsports racetrack properties?
Double WTF?

Our economy is circling the drain. Part of the problem is sky-rocketing GASOLINE and DESIEL costs.

And the Senate thinks this is a good time to tack on a couple million (NBC this morning had a graphic of 125 million, but I can't find it on-line) for some idiots to clear cut land, pour concrete over it and have people come to watch stupid cars drive around in circles at high speeds, burning through thousands and thousands of gallons of fuel while spewing noxious pollutants into the air.

For entertainment.

Think about that NASCAR junkies next time you bitch at the pump. That your favorite driver blows more in one race that you probably use all year.

Auto racing is as stupid and as pointless as boxing.

The End.

Thor's Day!

Thor sez: About time, crazy human.

The new toy.

Thor vs. Loki

Loki: Have you lost your human mind?

Thor: Tooth brushie time!

Loki: I love my blue fluffy toy.

Thor: Your toy offering is an insult.

Other Collapses

Anyone else having a total collapse of their allergy medication? I might as well be taking placebos for all the good my various remedies are doing me.

I've been working so I haven't been able to keep up with all the shenanigans, hissy fits and nanny-nanny-boo-booing going on with our esteemed leaders in Washington.

It seems that with every story I read, I flip flop worse than a professional politician. No bailout. Yes, bailout. No bailout.

I don't know. I say let them take their lumps. They got greedy. They thought the gravy train was gonna keep on rolling.

People took out loans for houses they couldn't afford. They had to have a new SUV. They had to live in Super Snooty Plantation Estates. I know people with children, families, who make only slightly more than I do who are living in $300K houses.

Part of me says, let it all collapse. When the small businesses start to fail (and, excuse me, is taking out a loan every month to cover payroll normal for small business??) take that 700 BILLION dollars and re-start a CCC program. Give unemployed people work rebuilding our roads and bridges and other infra-structure that is crumbling around our ears while we worry about keeping the fat cats fat and the middle class hooked on spending.

Part of me says screw the people losing money in the stock market. If they got extra cash for that, they are doing better than most of us.

But then I worry about the retired who will lose out on the pensions they've worked hard for. I worry for those nearing retirement who may have it all wiped out after a lifetime of doing the right thing.

And that still makes me madder than Loki being held against his will.


People who didn't do right. People who bought those houses way beyond their means and took out loans they didn't understand or just plain ignored what the consequences would be. They deserve to lose their homes. They deserve to have to file bankruptcy and ruin their credit.

They will be rewarded in some fashion for their poor choice. But my sensible mortgage that I can afford and have been paying faithfully on for years without a single late payment. I just get a larger tax bill to pay for all those others.

Now, I'm a flaming, tree-hugging liberal. I think social programs are important (I just think we do them WRONG here, crippling those we are supposed to be helping), but this isn't trying to give someone a hand out of poverty.

This is straight out rewarding the greed and shallow minded thinking of middle class Americans who should have known better.

Part of me says let it all collapse and let's take our lumps. And America will be better off in the long run when we get rid of the notion that middle class is a 500K home, SUV's and luxury cars for each member, shopping at designer stores, having the newest of every possible electronic device that comes out and Disney World two times a year.

Loki sez: Fine! I'll just live in a cardboard box then.

Don't You Wish You Were a Cat?

Economy crumbling. Our "leaders" bickering like children in the back seat of the car. And the boys?
"Hey, it's a sunbeam!"

Loki Sunday

Hanging out with sunbeams.

Summer's Last Sunbeam

Why I Didn't Watch the Debate (Oh, My Aching Brain)

It is human nature to seek patterns. Patterns are reassuring. So when some one says things that you already agree with, you perceive that person as being "right".

It doesn't really matter whether they are right or not. Your brain will be soothed by ideas that it is familiar with and irritated by ideas that it is not.

So why should I spend a couple of hours tormenting my poor brain. It has got its own problems.

Watching a debate when you've already made up your mind who you will vote for is pointless because it is very unlikely that your brain will suddenly do a 180 and head off (hahaha) in the opposite direction.

So the debates are really nothing more than an attempt to lure the undecided. These guys have been campaigning for 18 months now. Is there really anything they can say that we don't know they've already said?

And I've tried to keep my big fat mouth shut about Sarah Palin. I respect what she has accomplished. I don't agree with her on probably almost everything, but I respect her drive and ambition and how far she has come in this world.

But when she patted her heart and gushed like a mommy at a baby play date to the President of Afghanistan about his new baby, it astounded me. When she asked what the baby's name was instead of saying something, you, know, leader of the free nation like, like - I have a baby also, how can we work together to assure that they can grow and live in peace? - that confirmed that she doesn't have the instincts to be on the international stage. Women in Afghanistan are still struggling for basic rights. The President probably had a low opinion of her just because she was a woman and instead of commanding his respect by acting as an equal, she resorted to mommy talk.

Loki sez: Oh little Sarah, the world leaders are going to eat you up.

My New Theme Song

And the wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round.

That's how I feel about almost every thing. Is it because I'm getting older and am starting to see history repeating itself?

Really. For the last ten years or so, companies have switched their allegiance to the stockholders. And they weren't completely wrong. You do need to make a profit for them so they will continue to invest in your company.

But somewhere along the way, it seems they forgot that they needed to show allegiance to their employees who are doing the grunt work of making those profits.

And those at the top got greedy. And it became too easy to cut corners to make profits. Ship those jobs overseas. Down size. Right size. Stifle wages. Decrease benefits. Fire people just to strike fear into the hearts of others.

I've said before that I'm no financial genius. There is so much propaganda and pandering and posturing going on that I don't know if this bail out is a good thing that will save our economy or another way of saving the wealth of a few at the top of the money chain.

I'm very angry about some suggestions I've heard.

When I got pre-qualified for my mortgage, they approved me for a sum so outrageous that I actually laughed at the loan lady. "The payment on that would be my entire take home pay," I told her. She just shrugged.

So I did the right thing. I found a house that I could comfortably afford to pay principle, interest, PMI, insurance, flood insurance, etc.

I paid my mortgage on time. I kept an eye on interest rates and when they began to climb, I refinanced my ARM to a fixed at a good rate.

And I'M NOT GOOD AT THIS STUFF!

That was basic stuff I learned in Home Ec in high school and Economics 100 at Trident Technical College.

So people who were foolish, people who made bad choices. They get interest reductions? They possibly get principle reductions?

And I get a bigger tax bill?

For being responsible?

I'd like a reduction. Just a bit. Maybe 50K or so?

A couple of pennies in comparison to what the CEO's who ran our economy into the ground make.

Loki sez: It's not fair!

Thor's Day!

People ask me, "JanetLee, how do you keep your kittens in such good shape?"

The answer: Thorobics!
Ready...and

lift and stretch

and feel the burn

and release.

Ready? Ten more!

Thank You, Captain Obvious

Nooooooooo! Clay Aiken is gay? I'm shocked.

I'd even be outraged if I had the energy.

Although I don't know why.

Thor sez: You call that news?

Quick! To The Bat Signal!

Oh Warren Buffet, where are you now? You are the only financial super-genius that I trust.

I am in no way shape or form good at the financial stuff. I have a little knowledge. I have my 401k through my employer (which I was FORCED to put into the stock market several years ago, a move that caused me great distress because the Germanic/Nordic genes in my system crave orderliness and a savings account is orderly, the stock market is not), I have my pathetic little personal savings account (which would be much larger if I could opt out of the social security system that I am funding without hope of ever seeing a penny back), I have the equity in my house (which the plan was to sell when I turned 50, roll the equity into a condo and a fifteen year mortgage which I would have paid off at 65, leaving me all the equity as a "savings account" of a sorts).

And now AIG is the parent company of my 401k plan's holder. I don't know what to do with that. I now have the opportunity to go with a fixed account, but when should I do that, now that my account has recently taken a beating in the stock market? Will I even be able to sell my house now with enough of a profit to knock down another loan enough to afford a 15 year mortgage? Will I still be able to get a low interest rate even with my excellent credit rating?

I've always known that with my income level, I'm sitting in the no man's land between "can't afford to save anything" and "can save enough for retirement". It's called "can barely afford to squeeze out an amount I know won't be enough, but I gotta do something" land.

I joke that my retirement plan is to work till I die. When I get too old, they can just prop me up in a rocking chair and bring me babies to feed.

I'm hoping that the joke isn't on me.

And I've been reading and reading and I just don't know. Is the bail out going to be better for us in the long run? Will not bailing them out be worse than doing it?

If we bail them out and they start making millions of dollars for their top executives again, will they send me a check for my part of the bail out?

Loki sez: You have enough to buy my favorite shredded cat food, right?

Monday Musing

Sometimes I really think my brain will just explode. Yesterday I watched Ben Bernake explain how Americans are a hard working, entrepreneurial people and that we will work through this financial crisis because working hard creates wealth for companies which creates jobs and trickles on down to the workers.

Oh, please. Where has he been for the last ten years or so? When hard working Americans were thanked by the CEO's and stockholders of the companies they made rich with some of the lowest wages since the 1970's, down sizing, right sizing and exporting of jobs to foreign countries.

The only people made wealthy by the sweat of the average American worker have been the few at the top. Ain't nothing but tax debt been trickling down to us.

Half a trillion dollars.

Bet the top honchos aren't going to turn in their million dollar bonuses.

I finally delved into the rat box I call my filing system and forced myself to thin it out. Really, do I need to keep every insurance policy I've ever had? I had homeowners policies dating to 2004. Car insurance policies dating to 2001. I had utility bills from two years ago. Have I ever had to go back and look at a utility bill once I'd paid it? No.

Saturday, I looked out the kitchen window to see Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird sitting on the defunct clothesline pole where their birdhouse had been. I'd put it away in the shed before the GREAT STORM HANNA ravaged our fair city. I went trotting out there to replace it. I'd cleaned out the old nest when I put it away, but there was still some in there, so I stuck my hand up in there and pulled the rest of the pine straw out. Second hand reach, a spider egg sack came out on a piece of straw. I looked and sure enough, there was Momma Spider at the top of the house. Being the strong willed Southern woman that I am, I started banging the birdhouse on the ground, trying to shake Momma Spider loose. And she did fall to the bottom of the house, only to roll over and show me her bright red hour glass tummy tatt. Then I behaved as a properly brought up Southern Belle and ran to the kitchen window, lifted up the garden hose to tap on it to get Jason's attention and jumped up and down screaming "Black Widow! Black Widow!"

Then I had to endure a lecture on how stupid it was to put my hand inside a wooden box that had been outside in a shed in the summer in the South.

Yeah, well....not much I could say about that.

The bluebird house is returned to its spot. Spider free. Hopefully the bluebirds will forgive the unfortunate fledgling incident and return to live with us.

Thor sez: This is what you'd have looked like if that spider bit you!