Ever wonder what 2,000 looks like?

Crank the volume and watch this....

Holiday Spirit...

The people across the street from us have gone overboard with crass commericialism Holiday Spirit. I understand a few decorations - I mean the tradition of decorating with candles (now electric lights) and decorating evergreens began because winter was the dead and dark season and the people wanted to celebrate the return of the light and life (Dec 21st the Winter Solstice). Symbols of the season: evergreens, snowmen, santa, candycanes, drummerboys, even a tasteful nativity are fine with me if that's your bag.

		But do you REALLY need a 5 foot light up plastic SNOW GLOBE (complete with "white christmas" flurries) on your lawn?
		And when did Mickey and Minnie Mouse become symbols of the holidays? Oh, right... when it became more about consumption than it did celebration, I remember now.

Now, on to the whole Nativity thing. I understand that "tasteful" is a relative word. But those people that put up the giant plastic nativity with the glowing baby Jesus are just tacky. I've always wanted to steal the baby Jesus from one and leave a ransom-style note saying "will return at Easter" but I never had the guts.


According to a recent article I posted:

AMERICANS SPEND $8 billion on Christmas decorations, almost 4 times what they give to protect animals and the environment.

How about taking some of that $8 billion and giving it to your local food pantry or homeless shelter. Or even put it in the bank and save it for when the economy finally tanks. Actually, I don't care if you spend $2,000 on tacky decorations - just put them inside and make your own family, not your neighbors, suffer your bad taste.

If this is what the "Christmas Spirit" has become, I'll pass and take an extra helping of New Year's instead.

PS. I don't know what's up with the huge space between the first picture and the introductory paragraph. It's my first foray into using tables to help correctly align the photos. Any pointers?

Something to think about during your month of gluttony....

I nabbed this from this blog. Dbackdad made some great comments about the article. So you should read those too. But read the original article as well.

How much fucking evidence do we need before Americans wake up?

From CNN.com

"Human rights abuses in Iraq are as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein if not worse, former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has said.

The remarks also follow the discovery of an Iraqi government facility holding 170 prisoners, including some showing signs of torture."

So this is what we fought for?

To topple an oppressive dictator that tortured and killed his own people so that we could install a government that could do the same?

To free those Iraqis so that American soldiers can trade graphic pictures of dead civilians and soldiers for pornography? Is this how we set the moral standard for the world?

To create a positive force for change in the Middle East while allowing our soldiers torture detainees?

We created government that will be forever linked to America in the minds of the Iraqi people and many other Middle Eastern people. A government that now seems to be picking up where Sadaam left off. Is this the image we wanted of America as the "liberator" of the world? Somehow I don't see this promoting a positive image of America to the Muslim world.

Come on... nothing about this Iraq war is anywhere close to what Americans were told it would be. Wake up.

BTW: Last weekend (before Thanksgiving) we saw Walk The Line (the Johnny Cash movie). Highly recommended. I don't have the time or energy to do a full review. All I can say is it's damn well worth the money. Go see it.

Exhausted...

The past two days have been emotionally and physically exhausting for both me and John. John moreso I think because he's the one supporting the brunt of Annie's weight in the sling.


I found this picture on the camera. A before shot of all the girls laying on the bed in the front room/office.

So we got the go-ahead to pick up Annie on Thursday morning. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see her in her little bandages. She's got heavy duty drugs and anti-biotics and they went through the discharge procedures with us. She gets her second bandage off tomorrow (more about that later). She also has a Fentanyl patch - which is a narcotic absorbed through the skin to give a constant dose of pain medication. We got instructions on how to dispose of it since it's a controlled substance. I could probably take it to Uptown and get some cash for it... just kidding. We take that off on monday. I was so tempted to stick it to my skin... but that is just asking for trouble.




She's such a doll in the car. She just sat quietly, happy to see us.








So we get her home, get her settled on her pillows on the floor. Try to get her to drink & eat a little. Then she starts whining - constantly. We ask her "gotta go potty?" she whines louder (yes). So we have to figure out how to get her to understand how to use the sling while squatting and not pee on her bandages. She got so scared being on the sling the first few hours that she actually tried to run away from it while John was holding her up. It was so heartbreaking, I cried. She finally figured out how to let us help her and got her to go pee.



Here she is with her two little bandaged legs. Poor, poor puppy.

So then this morning, we noticed more ooze on her right leg. Now, neither of us knows how much is too much, but it didn't look right. So we called our normal vet and made an appointment (thankfully we still had the car). Sure enough, some of her sutchers came loose. As we were waiting in the waiting room, we noticed the incision was opening up near the top. Our regular vet re-stapled the wound and decided to remove the bandage. It was supposed to come off tomorrow anyway and she wanted to look at the rest of the stitches. The rest were fine. So we have her home and her right leg looks like frankenweenie. She seems much more comfortable already though, now that she can bend her leg. The other bandage comes off tomorrow, and her stitches are removed on Dec 10th.

My puppy is broken

So this past Monday, I was out with Annie on her morning walk and her LEFT leg started to look shaky and she didn't want to put weight on it. This started with her right leg, but since the left was taking all the weight for the past 2 weeks it started to give out as well. We go to the surgical consult and he looks at her x-rays and says there's a little bit of swelling in both knees, and that probably this has been waiting to happen for a while. Her knees, apparently, have a sharper angle than normal that makes this problem more likely.

We knew we were opting for surgery as that was the best long-term solution for her. There were two surgery options. One is older, where they support the joint with nylon bands that take the burden off the broken ligament. The other (TPLO) is where they fix the angle of her knee and brace it with a plate and pin. The latter is more reliable and a better long-term option given that she's only 3 years old and an active dog. The chance of re-injury is much lower if they fix the problem with her knee that made it unstable to begin with.

Then we're hit with the bomb - she's gonna need it on BOTH legs. So our choice was to have both done today, or span out the surgeries a few weeks apart. Well, given that the place is so far out of the way and we have no car, and she doesn't board well and has separation anxiety, we figured that in the long run it's better to put her through it only once rather than twice. It will be a more difficult recovery, and we'll have to lead her around in a butt-sling to help support her weight.

So we left her there. We may be able to pick her up tomorrow, we may not - depending on how recovery goes. It felt awful leaving her there. I knew it was for a good reason, and I knew I was coming back for her - but SHE doesn't understand anything. She only understands that she's in pain and that we left her in a strange place.

Even if we can't pick her up tomorrow, we're still staying home. We already bought a turkey and stuff for dinner and have no place to store a frozen turkey.

She'll be the $5,000 robo-puppy after everything is said and done.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I may or may not be posting before Thanksgiving - we have a busy couple of days and my brain doesn't feel like cooperating. So I offer you a Thanksgiving Prayer:

In this time of war against Osama bin Laden* and the oppressive Taliban* regime, we are thankful that OUR leader isn't the spoiled son of a powerful politician from a wealthy oil family who is supported by religious fundamentalists, operates through clandestine organizations, has no respect for the democratic electoral process, bombs innocents, and uses war to deny people their civil liberties.
Amen.

--Huey Freeman, American Hero (November 2001)

*This was written in Nov. 2001, but we can easilly insert the war on terror, Iraqi insurgency, and/or Sadaam Hussein...

I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way.
I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house,
we had an enormous feast,
and then I killed them and took their land.
-- Jon Stewart

(This quote was stolen from dbackdad, but I loved it so much)

Strange Argument

So John and I went to lunch the other day, and he told me this story about this obnoxious woman that was at Pequods (a restaurant we used to frequent). She was drunk apparently. So I made an offhanded and joking comment that he shoulda smacked her - you know, equal opportunity.

Then I asked a question - why is it that it's taboo for a man to hit a woman? Of course the initial response everyone has is "the woman is weaker". Ok, but it's not taboo for a man to hit a man weaker than himself. Plus, the woman could be a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and could mop the floor with the guy's ass - you can't tell weakness just by looking at a person.

It's the fact that she's a woman that makes it taboo. To which I asked the question - why? John's answer was "Just because it is". That's not satisfactory for me. Not that I have the answer. I mean, I know it's the persistent image of the weak woman and that men's charge is to protect women. But it's still interesting to me to ask.

So I put it to you - why is it commonly perceived more wrong for a man to hit a woman than for a man to hit another man, even if that other man is weaker? Not that I'm advocating that it's ever ok to hit another person except in self-defense.

Just curious?

You must read this

My friend SecretRudy has something to tell you all...

Gasping for air

I can finally come up for air for a few minutes...

So we have an appt for a surgery consult Wednesday at 10:30. If she needs surgery (which is most likely at this point), they will take her that day and we leave her overnight. We can pick her up Thursday (Thanksgiving). That means we had to cancel our plans to go to Indiana to see John's fam. It sucks, but we can't leave her alone all day the first day home. Not only will she be disoriented and in pain, but should anything go wrong, we need to be there.

So we're gonna get a couple of turkey breasts -a whole turkey is too much for us and neither of us likes the dark meat (heh heh, darkmeat). We'll roast that, a couple potatoes, I'll make some cranberry-orange relish, and that will be that.

On top of that, I have had a gruelling week at work. Major changes were requested for the enrollment projections model that have to be incorporated and approved before Dec 9th. So I've been working 8am to 6 pm pretty much every day this week, and will likely end up bringing work home with me over this weekend and the holiday weekend as well. We've got to produce 3 scenarios for each college - each scenario is based on two spreadsheets. 2 spreadsheets, plus a summary page for Univ totals and by college (18) for three scenarios = 54 spreadsheets that need to be updated, checked for errors, and formula updates.

And I have a paper due for class this Tuesday.

So needless to say, you won't be hearing much from me for the next week or so.

With a vengance

Winter set in with a vengance last night. Yesterday morning was cold, especially with the wind ripping through the canyons of skyscrapers in the Loop. But last night was brutal. I felt like I needed long underwear. I also need to get off my ass and get some good winter boots - especially since we've decided to go up to Northern (Ya Hey) Wisconsin for Christmas this year.

It actually snowed yesterday - not much, just enough to dust the ground, but enough to make it slippery.

16 degrees this morning, with a wind chill of 3 degrees.

I need to find my winter hat.

This is what we get when we're spoiled with such a nice Fall season...

Jimmy Buffett
Boat Drinks

Boat Drinks!
Boys in the band ordered boat drinks
Visitors scored on the home rink
Everything seems to be wrong

Lately, newspaper mentioned cheap air fare
I gotta to fly to Saint Somewhere
I'm close to bodily harm

Twenty degrees and the hockey game's on
Nobody cares they are way too far gone
Screamin' "boat drinks", something to keep 'em all warm

This mornin', I shot six holes in my freezer
I think I got cabin fever
Somebody sound the alarm

I'd like to go where the pace of life's slow
Could you beam me somewhere Mr. Scott?
Any ol' place here on Earth or in space
You pick the century and I'll pick the spot

Oh I know, (I know)
I should be leaving this climate
I got a verse but can't rhyme it
I gotta go where it's warm

Boat drinks
Waitress I need two more boat drinks
Then I'm headin' south 'fore my dream shrinks

I gotta go where it's warm (I gotta go where it's warm)
I gotta go where it's warm (I gotta go where it's warm)
I gotta go where it's WARM!

I gotta go where there ain't any snow
Where there ain't any blow
'Cause my fin sinks so low
I gotta go where it's warm

Pants on fire...

Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force

By Dana Milbank and Justin Blum
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 16, 2005; A01

A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress.

The document, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being debated.

In a joint hearing last week of the Senate Energy and Commerce committees, the chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips said their firms did not participate in the 2001 task force. The president of Shell Oil said his company did not participate "to my knowledge," and the chief of BP America Inc. said he did not know.

Chevron was not named in the White House document, but the Government Accountability Office has found that Chevron was one of several companies that "gave detailed energy policy recommendations" to the task force. In addition, Cheney had a separate meeting with John Browne, BP's chief executive, according to a person familiar with the task force's work; that meeting is not noted in the document.

The task force's activities attracted complaints from environmentalists, who said they were shut out of the task force discussions while corporate interests were present. The meetings were held in secret and the White House refused to release a list of participants. The task force was made up primarily of Cabinet-level officials. Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club unsuccessfully sued to obtain the records.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who posed the question about the task force, said he will ask the Justice Department today to investigate. "The White House went to great lengths to keep these meetings secret, and now oil executives may be lying to Congress about their role in the Cheney task force," Lautenberg said.

Lea Anne McBride, a spokeswoman for Cheney, declined to comment on the document. She said that the courts have upheld "the constitutional right of the president and vice president to obtain information in confidentiality."

The executives were not under oath when they testified, so they are not vulnerable to charges of perjury; committee Democrats had protested the decision by Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) not to swear in the executives. But a person can be fined or imprisoned for up to five years for making "any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation" to Congress.

Alan Huffman, who was a Conoco manager until the 2002 merger with Phillips, confirmed meeting with the task force staff. "We met in the Executive Office Building, if I remember correctly," he said.

A spokesman for ConocoPhillips said the chief executive, James J. Mulva, had been unaware that Conoco officials met with task force staff when he testified at the hearing. The spokesman said that Mulva was chief executive of Phillips in 2001 before the merger and that nobody from Phillips met with the task force.

Exxon spokesman Russ Roberts said the company stood by chief executive Lee R. Raymond's statement in the hearing. In a brief phone interview, former Exxon vice president James Rouse, the official named in the White House document, denied the meeting took place. "That must be inaccurate and I don't have any comment beyond that," said Rouse, now retired.

Ronnie Chappell, a spokesman for BP, declined to comment on the task force meetings. Darci Sinclair, a spokeswoman for Shell, said she did not know whether Shell officials met with the task force, but they often meet members of the administration. Chevron said its executives did not meet with the task force but confirmed that it sent President Bush recommendations in a letter.

The person familiar with the task force's work, who requested anonymity out of concern about retribution, said the document was based on records kept by the Secret Service of people admitted to the White House complex. This person said most meetings were with Andrew Lundquist, the task force's executive director, and Cheney aide Karen Y. Knutson.

According to the White House document, Rouse met with task force staff members on Feb. 14, 2001. On March 21, they met with Archie Dunham, who was chairman of Conoco. On April 12, according to the document, task force staff members met with Conoco official Huffman and two officials from the U.S. Oil and Gas Association, Wayne Gibbens and Alby Modiano.

On April 17, task force staff members met with Royal Dutch/Shell Group's chairman, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, Shell Oil chairman Steven Miller and two others. On March 22, staff members met with BP regional president Bob Malone, chief economist Peter Davies and company employees Graham Barr and Deb Beaubien.

Toward the end of the hearing, Lautenberg asked the five executives: "Did your company or any representatives of your companies participate in Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001?" When there was no response, Lautenberg added: "The meeting . . . "

"No," said Raymond.

"No," said Chevron Chairman David J. O'Reilly.

"We did not, no," Mulva said.

"To be honest, I don't know," said BP America chief executive Ross Pillari, who came to the job in August 2001. "I wasn't here then."

"But your company was here," Lautenberg replied.

"Yes," Pillari said.

Shell Oil president John Hofmeister, who has held his job since earlier this year, answered last. "Not to my knowledge," he said.

Research editor Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

Annie Update

So we thought she was getting better this weekend. She was chipper, she wanted to chase squirrels, she was able to get up and down stairs with minimal assistance...

Then we ran out of the painkillers the vet gave us and she instantly reverted to helpless whimpering puppy. Those must be some strong super-energy pills.

John took her back to the vet this afternoon for the x-ray, which turned up nothing skeletal - exactly what we did NOT want to see.

It's definitely a torn ligament or tendon in her knee. They gave us two places for referral (our vet doesn't do orthopedic surgery). Neither of which are in the city. One is in Northbrook, and the other in Buffalo Grove.

Northbrook is closest to us, but only by about 10 miles.

Meanwhile, she's pumped up on more puppy vicodin, and seems to be ok for now.

Toady Episode 1: Attack of the Wooden Desk

A former collegue of mine suggested that I do a post or two about a former coworker of ours. I'm sure he'll never see this, and if he does, I'll be carted off to Gitmo as he now works for Homeland Security (as a pencil-pusher I'm sure - he didn't seem able to handle real work). We'll call him Toady (he was a total toady yes-man).

Since we speak in Simpsons terms a lot, let me describe Toady as Chief Wiggum - heavyset, always in search of food (no matter how horrible it was), a little slow on the uptake, and he took himself way, way too seriously. There were several times we thought he'd pop a vein in his forehead.

There were lots of little things that made us chuckle to ourselves. When he got excited, he'd bob his head up and down or from side to side, like a bobblehead doll. I had this BigBoy bobblehead on my desk (as a repellent for my boss since he didn't like it) and I'd smack it on the head whenever Toady did something dumb. He's also the only man under the age of 50, besides Tucker Carlson, that I've seen wear a bowtie and think it looked good. My favorite outfit was a sweater vest that he wore with this bowtie - picture the Big Boy, but in a sweater vest and bowtie. All he needed was a little hat with a propellor on it.



I openly admit that I'm mean. Believe me - there were times I felt sorry for him, and that I felt bad for the way I felt about this guy, but he brought it all on himself. He's such a bitch for authority that he could never bring himself to say "no," even when we explained to him that our boss had no clue what he was talking about half the time and often asked people to do extremely pointless things. He'd do them anyway, then come complain to us about it. He also talked really loud, without regards to those around him - even when he was talking schmoopy to his wife on the phone (I wuv you sweetie...).

But there are four main stories that really describe Toady.

1. The Splinter
2. The Alley
3. Buffalo Tro
4. He's a little "shocky"

On to the Splinter Story (attack of the wooden desk).

He inherited this big ass wooden desk from his predecessor, and one day it bit him. He got a splinter under his fingernail - which yes, I admit can hurt like a bitch. First he had to tell everyone in the office what happened, and then he tried to find a medical clinic in the Loop. He asked me, and I asked him if he could just go to Walgreen's and get some tweezers and we can help him get it out. Well, he was afraid of infection... isn't that what antibiotics are for? Ok, fine. Go find a clinic.

He couldn't find a clinic. Then he decided he had to go to the Emergency Room. No, I'm not kidding. Not only did he go to the emergency room, he made his 8-months pregnant wife MEET him there! Remember, this is a splinter.

He told Joe he was going to the hospital and taking the rest of the day off without docking vacation time in leiu of workman's comp! And no, he wasn't kidding. Because when Joe asked if he was kidding he got all defensive and pouty. He truly belongs working for the government....

Toady came in the next day, with this HUGE bandage on his finger. I'm convinced the doctors in the ER wrapped it so conspicuously as revenge for him coming to the ER for a fucking splinter. I can just picture them {bandaging finger while cursing under their breat} "I'll teach you to waste my time for a fuckin splinter you pussy"...

After we moved offices, he ordered a new desk - in retribution to the one that bit him. And it was the BIGGEST desk on the face of the planet. He never heard of a tape measure I guess.

Another little survey

I got this via email, but since I really don't like sending out bulk emails (and a lot of people I know HATE getting them), I'll post it here. Tag whoever wants to complete it.

1. What color are your kitchen plates? Offwhite/Bone

2. What book(s) are you reading now? The Street (Ann Petry), Hidden Face of Eve (Nawal El Sadaawi).

3. What or who is on your mouse pad? Nothing but a wristrest

4. What's your favorite board game? Scrabble, Monopoly

5. Favorite magazine? The Nation, Bon Appetite

6.. Baked Goods? Pecan Pie, Lemon squares, brownies

7. Least favorite smell? Dog farts

8. What's the first thing you think of in the morning? Gotta take the dog out

9. Favorite color?(s) Purple, Black

10. Least favorite color? Orange/Yellow/Pastels

11. How many rings before you answer the phone? Depends on who's calling

12. Future children's names? N/A

14. What is your sign and birthday? Libra, Oct 20

15. Do you eat the stems of broccoli? yes

16. If you could have any job what would it be? Writing silly survey questions or maybe a Mad scientist

17. If you could have any color hair what would it be? Red

18. Is the glass half full or half empty? half empty

19. Favorite movie? There's far too many to choose. Office Space, Seven, The Thing, American Beauty to name a few

20. Do you type with the right fingers on the keys? Yes, except for special characters & numbers

21. What's under your bed? dust bunnies (ghost turds), boxes

22. What is your favorite number? 13

23. What is your single biggest fear? The effects of willful ignorance, Gingerkids

24. Person(s) most likely to respond? Sadie Lou

25. Who is least likely to respond? John

26. Favorite CD? Too many to list. Pink Floyd's Meddle, the new Depeche Mode, OK Computer, Amadeus Sountrack.

27. Favorite TV show? Mythbusters, Family Guy, South Park, Scrubs

28. Ketchup or mustard? YUCK, can't stand the smell of either

29. Hamburgers or Hot dogs? Hamburger

30. Favorite soft drink? Root beer

31. The best place you have ever been? Kaua'i

32. The most amazing sight? The full moon over Maui

33. What screen saver is on your computer right now? Windows Login

34. FAVORITE BURGER: Cheddar or PepperJack

35. Favorite pet? I love all my critters.

Social Explorer

This is a really cool site my MA advisor showed me. He uses it for his undergraduate Quantitative literacy students. You can create maps and data reports on the fly using census data for various areas of the country.

Try it, it's really cool. I think you need to use IE for it though. It doesn't seem to work in Firefox.

Click on Maps, then on Census Tracts and you can play with the map of the US.

I usually don't watch this stuff, but...

There's this show called Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy, and I watched one of them before. I saw a preview for this one and couldn't help but watch it because of the absolute shit-fit one woman had. I missed the first part (last week), but the lodown is this:

Marguerite is a rabid Christian- and I mean rabid - that's the only way I can describe her. She gets sent to this new age house. She participates in NOTHING outside her comfort zone (which is kinda the whole point of the show - why agree to do it if you're not ready for what they'll throw at you? It is FOX after all).

The husband, Chris had a radio show with his wife (Jeanne) about relationships, and Margaret took Jeanne's place that day. His guest on the show was a psychic. Marguerite threw a shit-fit on air, refused to even look at the man or talk to him and walked off calling him "dark-sided". She wouldn't let the family explain their beliefs (astrology, meditation, etc) to her and said it made her uncomfortable to talk about it, but then turned around and forced them to listen to her talk about Jesus and take them to church.

The point of the show is each family is awarded $50,000 that the other mother decides how is spent. So rather than accept money from a "dark sided witch," Margaret tore up the check and Jeanne's letter (she later reconsidered). She then lied to her family about how all the other family did was force astrology on her. She blamed them for letting Jeanne set foot in their house, and literally went bezerk and wouldn't even let her family explain that Jeanne was a nice person and had fun with them and didn't try to convert them.

When the two mothers meet to exchange letters, Marguerite complained to Jeanne about how her family pushed their beliefs on to her. Now I understand TV editing doesn't show everything that actually happened. But if you'd have seen the tantrums this woman had, you'd know that this wasn't sensationalized. They brought up astrology once, to try and explain themselves to her, and she shut them down immediately. Jeanne on the other hand, had a wonderful time, she didn't push her beliefs on Marguerite's family and just focused on spending time with the kids in ways she thought was meaningful to them.

Now, I understand that family is a personas thing and you don't want someone else messing with your program, but:

A) They agreed to go on a show that routinely pairs incompatible families
B) It's just for a week.

Anyone with some common sense and rationality would know that simply exposing yourself to a different lifestyle isn't going to hurt you (with rare exceptions). What that says to me about Marguerite is that she isn't comfortable and secure in her own beliefs. Anyone who is comfortable with their beliefs isn't afraid to discuss and debate. (Not to pick on Sadie - but she's the only self-identified Christian that reads my blog on a regular basis and we've debated many things. I see Sadie as someone secure in her beliefs, I don't picture her screaming at the top of her lungs at her family for letting an "ungodly" woman in her house.

This woman was just pathetic. There was no other way to describe it. It was really sad that she was so fearful to experience anything new, and derided anything she didn't agree with as "dark-sided". It was also sad that she equated anyone trying to explain their way of life as a threat to hers, rather than an opportunity to learn. But she felt it was her duty to spread the Lord's message. What a contradiction.

Though that gets us back to "truth"... If you believe your way is the ONLY true way, then of course what everyone else has to say isn't worth listening to and of course it's not the same when they try to explain something as opposed to when you do.

It was very upsetting to me.

Johnnyisms: Part 1

Actually, this series will be in no particular order, just stuff I think of at the time. John actually suggested I post about this, so don't feel sorry that I'm making fun of him - he asked for it.

Johnnyism #1: Grocery Shopping.

Shopping with John is always an ordeal, especially when we just intend to quickly go in, get a few things and leave. He'll always find something to play with, or take forever choosing a box of cereal, like if he chooses the wrong one it's like the false grail and will kill him.

Last Sunday (Nov 6th) we went to the store before he left for his trip to get a few things - mainly for me. We get a cart, I put our re-useable shopping bags in the cart (we walk to & from, they're easier to carry), and tell him I go get some asparagus. I find John by the deli getting chicken strips, I put the asparagus in the cart and tell him I'm going to get some Tilapia. He meets me by the fish counter with the cart. We finish our shopping and get to the check out lane. I tell the bagger we have shopping bags and reach for them, only to discover they're gone!

John: "Someone stole our shopping bags!"
Me: "What the... who would steal our bags?"
So we tell the bagger we need two shopping bags - they're cheap. Then it dawns on me -
Me: "Are you sure this is our cart?"
John: "Yeah, it's our cart"
Me: "So then where's my asparagus?"
John: "DOH"

He took someone's empty cart from the deli area, leaving our cart with our two shopping bags and my asparagus in it. So I went back, got my veggies, and checked out again.

So much for attention to detail. He can catch tiny bugs in his code, but doesn't notice that the cart he just stole is missing my asparagus and our shopping bags...

He keeps life interesting, that's for sure.

I been busy...

I haven't had much time for bloggin lately. Yesterday I was sick at home. I've been around so many sick people the past week or so, any one of you could be to blame - so damn you ALL!

Then, since John is in lovely San Diego, I'm stuck trying to aid a gimpy dog up and down all of our stairs. She doesn't seem to be getting any better. She still isn't putting any weight on her rear, right leg. I talked to the vet and she said that if Annie doesn't improve by the end of the week, she'll need an x-ray to rule out anything skeletal. A broken bone is very doubtful, since she said it presented like a typical torn ligament case. She's hoping though, that maybe we'll find a broken toe, because if it's not anything broken, and it's not improved, that means it's probably a ligament in her knee that will require surgery.

So I'll be updating ya'll on that one for sure.

In the meantime, she seems to have figured out how to get up and down stairs with minimal assistance. Hope for some recovery... Otherwise we're lookin at surgery. Poor puppy.

I'm baaaaack

Well, that was fun.

Actually, it wasn't a bad conference and our talk went well. It is interesting to see all the down-state people. Living in Chicago, you really forget that we are really the ONLY urban center in the whole state. Many of the down-staters are actually afraid to come to the city (rolls eyes). I wonder how many will show up to the national conference in May, now that it's in Chicago?

Not to be rude (well, sort of to be rude), but I forget how much down-state is totally stuck a couple decades behind the rest of us. Not only did every bar play 80's buttrock, but oh, my, god, the hair. I did see a few mullets. Mostly I just noticed the really, really bad hair on a lot of women. EEK. I'm not exactly high-fashion by any means, but damn.

Peoria is, as expected, very depressed. It's the HQ for Caterpillar, Inc., and the only jobs around are a few industrial jobs, those people lucky enough to still work for CAT, and service jobs. Problem is, in a depressed area, who are the service jobs going to serve when no one has any money?

We were in the high-fallutin part of town - just a block a away from the "world famous" Big-Al's strip club. They had a picture window in front that showcased their awards for best exotic dancers and also pictures of the dancers with Ray Liotta and James Gandolfini. (roll eyes again).

We went to the riverboat on night, just three of us. I lost $20, Joe won $50 and Lance won $120, the bastard.

The drive went really quick both ways.

While I was gone, Annie hurt her leg chasing a squirrel. John ran her to the vet (in a cab, which had to have been fun). It's probably a sprain, she's gimping around and can't get up and down the stairs by herself. We're going to try and find one of those support harnesses that will help me lift her up and down the stairs because she's about 60lbs and awkward to carry. She has pain pills and seems better than when she first hurt herself. What sucks is that now John is leaving for a conference in San Diego Sunday through Thursday. I'm not only going to have to catch up on my own stuff, but now figure a way to carry Annie around. I think I might just sleep upstairs while John's gone cuz those basement stairs are killer. I hope they have that harness, otherwise I might fall down the stairs and break both our necks.


So I'm back. I'll try to get caught up with all your goings on in the next few days.

Bon Voyage...

Well today I leave for lovely Peoria, IL for our state conference. So I'll be MIA till Friday.

Tonight we go over our presentation for tomorrow on our research on the multi-college dorm in the Loop. Tomorrow night, we hit the riverboat casino. ;-)

Most people hear "work conference" and groan. I would groan, but the people I tend to hang with at these are lots of fun (don't you feel special Joe?).

Seeya Friday.

In the meantime, check out the wicked-cool scarf Donna knitted me for my birthday: