Friday, January 31, 2003

It snowed again. I love when it snows because it's just so beautiful. I think that a woodpecker may have moved into the old tree in the back. The chickadees wanted it for a home and I saw them there today too, but it seems that every time they take up residence, some other type of bird comes along and kicks them out. I wish that the squirrel would move the heck out, he's so damned annoying. I normally don't mind squirrels, but lately, I don't like that fact that they steal all the food and they seem to bring ticks closer to the house. I like feeding the squirrels out front, but sometimes I feel like I'm just setting them up for the cat from across the street. I've really come to despise outside cats. Why does somebody think that it's a good idea to have cats roaming neighborhoods, digging up other people's yards and annoying people in general? Why bother to have a cat? For the record, I have cats, inside cats, cats that just annoy us, their faithful servants

Saturday, January 25, 2003

Is this thing on???

just checking........

Wednesday, January 22, 2003

So now we get annoyed with people just because they're stating the truth?


Rumsfeld Apologizes for Remarks on Draftees



Donald Rumsfeld had to apologize for the following:
"In his remarks, Rumsfeld said he opposed the proposal, adding that draftees added "no value, no advantage, really, to the United States armed services over any sustained period of time."
This was a response to "a question about legislation calling for reinstituting the draft"
He never said that the men who were drafted were useless, what the poor man is saying is that he doesn't see any value to the draft. This has been my arguement all along, why draft people who don't want to be there when there are so many fine men and women who have enlisted and chosen the armed services as a way of life. These are people who understand and appreciate all that the armed services has to offer them. Like so many other careers though, it isn't for everyone. Not every man can live the celibate life, those that choose the Catholic priesthood feel that they can, or women who join the Catholic convent. No, I'm not trying to compare the priesthood to laying one's life on the line, but for many who did sign up with the armed forces, the risk was there, it's always there, but they may have signed up during a period of time when they felt that they might never be put in any danger. Would they have signed up now? Who knows, only they can answer that. I don't know how many times I've heard what a "racket" the Guard was. Weekend off, usually close to home, extra pay. For haow many years have people served in the Guard/Reserves and received training and traveled, yet never had to put themselves at risk until recent years?

The beautiful thing about the US is free will, I don't want to see it taken away with a draft and *I* think what Mr Rumsfeld was trying to say was that we have fine men and women in our armed forces, people who choose to be there. And again, no offenses to the vets, you all did a fine job, but if you were drafted, you were forced, you didn't choose, had it been a choice you would have made, then I'm guessing you would have been enlisted already and there wouldn't have been any reason to draft you. Does the fact that you were forced to join make you any better than the people who enlisted? No, I don't think so. I personally respect those that made it a choice and feel a great deal of sorrow for those that were forced. And I thank all of you and feel sorry for all of you and your families for the pain that was suffered.

Ok.....but did he bring enough for everyone?
"JOHN EDWARDS GUM-CHEWING ON NATIONAL-TV IGNITES COMMENT"

A purely random thought or probably rant - about people who are just so frellin' full of themselves and other that cheer them on. These people are damn near certifiable looney tunes that need some serious help, yet because of eh James Dean hangup that some women have, they just melt at their feet. Ladies, the man is psychotic! It isn't manly or romantic to have to tiptoe around ones hubby/partner because he thinks he's Dirty Harry and he's so damned intense (a legend in his own mind) that he might jump up and choke you to death because he thinks that the house has suddenly been invaded by the enemy and "Oops, sorry honey!" as you lay on the floor gasping for air. No, this is not romantic, this man needs help.

Speaking of men who need help......it's very sad to watch the evolution of the evil that is Lex Luthor on Smallville. Damn, what a great job they're doing with the characterization.

And one more small note - when your boyfriend and your best friend get together and start seeing each other behind your back, it's just as much his fault as it is hers. If you're going to forgive him, you may as well forgive her, after all, you might need her when you wake up and smell the bed sheets and realize that you need to get the heck outta there. She didn't handcuff him to the bed, well, maybe she did, but she didn't force him to go out with her. She didn't strong arm her way into *your* house to play with *your* baby. No, he opened the door and invited her in, into your home with him. Traitor that she is, I just can't see how you can forgive him for he's far worse.

There's this article on cloning animals. The article centers around cc, the cat that was cloned last December and how cc isn't anything like it's "original". They don't look, or act the same at all. Yet, the article goes on to say -
However, he said cloning could reproduce what a pet owner considers to be exceptional genes, particularly from an animal with unknown parentage or one that has been spayed or neutered.

"A small percentage of the population know exactly what they want and they want to stick with it -- another animal as similar as possible," Carlson said. "That's the motive we've encountered among our clients."

Really.....hmmm....well, I have 2 beautiful four legged
companions
. Aeryn Sun, the female was found in a box in the freezing cold in January up by the ocean along with her 3 brothers. All tiny little puppies. All 4 going to nice homes, where we all sort of knew each other. 2 of the brothers, who were taken home by two of my co-workers, one female co-worker, one male co-worker, turned out to be vicious. The third had to be given to another member of that person's family because it was displaying aggressive tendencies towards the other dogs in the home. We aren't sure what became of him as the women who owned him moved out of state. All these dogs have the same genes, so, if you were to clone Aeryn, from what I'm getting out of this article, you could end up with whatever genes may have predisposed her brothers into being vicious, so where does this get you?

I wasn't feeling well yesterday, not sure if it's because I forgot to take my allergy pills or if I got a cold, whatever is, I was miserable. I hate being sick, but then doesn't everyone, so I won't bore you with the whine. I was lying there feeling sorry for myself and I suddenly missed Spike, our yellow lab that passed away almost 4 years ago. He was that one in a million. I love Aeryn and I love D'Artagnan and D'Artagnan was lovingly and often begrudgingly trained by Spike, but still, I missed Spike. He was the perfect dog. Odd too, because somewhere along the line he had either run away from or been discarded by his family. He'd sat in the pound for 3 weeks before he came home to live with us. As much as I would love to have him back, I know, that there will never be another Spike. So, I don't know what these people are hoping to accomplish.

Sunday, January 19, 2003

I was incredibly bored today. The house was already clean, spiffy clean, because we had a friend come over to look at the bathroom wall yesterday. The wall needs to be replaced and now the decision is tile...or....go with one of those shower in-laid thingies. I forget what their technical name is.They are the cheaper alternative. I tried to look them up on the Lowe's site, but couldn't find them.

It stopped snowing.

I *think* I just saw Al Leiter at Target. If it wasn't him, then it was a damned good looking man,very tall, in a leather jacket, with a family, who looked just like him. I like
Al Leiter
, he and his family donate tons of money to charities, such as Leiters Landing
The only thing I would want to say to him is "Thanks!" I think he is a great role model, he and his wife. their dedication to charitable causes is outstanding.

We have sliding glass doors in the TV room and that's where the computer is too. It just started snowing (again) and it looked like one of the scenes from a B movie where they couldn't afford the special effects and someone stands on the roof and dumps the snow out of a bags. And then it suddenly slowed and began to swirl, making the back yard look like a giant snow globe.

"The best use of military force is to create the impression of invincibility – and then avoid testing it. "
Orson Scott Card

Check out the rest of the article.

Saturday, January 18, 2003

Ithy and I are having what I think is an interesting discussion about women's right over on Dragon's Muse Come and join us, it's fun.

The above discussion brought about some memories for me about growing up. I wonder sometimes how foggy or even jaded our memories are of events past. Ever notice how the edge on a memory can either sharpen or blur with time? A feeling of hatred or love can gain or lose intensity to the point where it is nothing like it was?

Anyone watch American Dreams? I try to remember each week to tune in because it's like a window into the past. My son asked me recently about receiving the smallpox shot when I was younger. I don't know how old I was, but I have vague memories of a line and a table and doctor and nurse. I'm not even sure if these are real or not, I would have only been about 3-4. Probably my most dominate memory is of the scar that it left that we all shared during that time. And I remember discussions of polio. I saw in a commercial that they will be addressing that issue on American Dreams. On a recent episode that had the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. In a box somewhere around her I have a picture of the Beatles from that night, we took a picture of them on the TV set. Classic :) And about the same time the town held a parade for astronaut, Wally Schiarra. It was almost celeb status back then to be taught by the same kindergarten teacher as Mr Schiarra. Miss Lindstrom, a very nice woman.
The show brings back memories.

Wednesday, January 08, 2003

Well, Sebastian has been to the Vet and he didn't know what was wrong. I wasn't surprised, wasn't like anything jumped out at me last night either. Could be a scrape, could be an infection could lots. So, he's taking meds and we're hoping and prayin' for the best. He was thrilled though that he'd gained some weight and he looked so good. Wicked handsome cat that he is :) For those not in the "know" Sebastian is our diabetic poster cat. Max, who I made an appointment for, hasn't been responding to his meds and now needs an X-ray and further tests.

Rewatched what was the opening episode of Firefly, it wasn't really supposed to be the opening episode, Fox just wanted it that way. Showing the pilot would have been better. The episode we watched again tonight was The Train Job, it was good, much better than the first time we saw it, it made more sense.

Tuesday, January 07, 2003

I keep going over and staring at Sebastian....he doesn't like this very much...no surprise there.....

It's 2AM and I should be sleeping, although I took a long nap before. tap tap tap.....hmmmm.....I could go and work on my VT page some more, or I could read other people's blogs, or I could keep writing my own....decisions, decisions....

I don't read many political blogs, a few, they generally just end up pissing me off though. I ranted the other day on one of Ith's blogs. Just bothered me that there are so many people out there waving the flag and screaming for war without, IMHO, really thinking about the circumstances. Do these people remember Viet Nam? Did they lose anyone there? Are they willing to send their daughters off to war? Are they willing to have their daughters start registering with the gov't when they turn 18, or are they just willing to let the boys handle it? I have a lot of respect for people who join the armed forces, they are far, far braver than I. And I'm not saying that not going to war is the answer, I just want to be sure that we exercise our options. We're an intelligent nation, I think we have some of the greatest minds at work here, I just hope they are given the opportunity to explore all the options. Point is, I just get tired of those people who can't go off to fight yelling about how we should go off to fight.

When I was about 15 I had a really bad case of tonsilitis, I wasn't allowed to leave the yard. No one was home either and it was very boring. But, every afternoon these two young guys, who had their own ice cream truck, came down our street to sell ice cream, they got to know me and knew that I wasn't able to leave. Every afternoon they would stop and talk with me for an hour or so, they used to love to piss off the guy in the fancy Good Humor truck, anyway, one day they told me they'd been drafted and that they'd be leaving, going to Canada probably, because they couldn't fight in the war. Although it wasn't talked about very much in our house, I knew that my brothers had both had to register. When I was 10, I'd written a letter to a classmate's brother who was over in 'Nam, he wrot eme back the sweetest letter, I still have it. I never got to meet him though. I have gone to visit his name on the wall though. I would rather have met him. I don't know what happened to the 2 boys from the ice cream truck.

People have said that we are the front line now, in a way, yes, we are, but we are in familiar surroundings, sleeping in our own beds and with the people we love. It made be the front line so to speak, but it isn't anything like the boys in the service have it, all those miles away from there loved ones, babies being born that they haven't even seen yet, mothers, wives, girlfriends, longing to see them. Where did they spent their Christmas morning? I think they have it much tougher than we do.

Sebastian.....one side of his face is a tad swollen. Naturally, this happens *after* the Vet closes. I called the 24 hour vet. As much as I love our Vet, I'm beginning to think that in 'Bass' case that we might be better off going with the 24 hour Vet.
Max......I have him crated again and I'm only giving him canned food this time, let's see if that helps. Maybe he just can't have dry food at all.

We watched So Graham Norton tonight, his guest was Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter. They were hysterical!

One of Ithy's blog got linked over to another "major" blog, high traffic and now her site is receiving lots of hits! Nice! She runs some nice blogs and deserves the recognition.

Monday, January 06, 2003

Soooooooooo excited! Was telling the Girls about my Twisted Tatum doll that my son gave me for Christmas and the creator of the doll, Sean Beck, left me a comment! Now, if I could only reply, but the address didn't go through. But, he said that he has a line of dolls coming out and he's working on a comic series. So yes, I plan to "talk up" my doll quite a bit. I'm planning on taking her to work with me. I think the "dungeon" is a perfect place for her to visit.
So Sean, if you happen to see this, E-mail me please, thanks :)
And for those of you who would like your own Twisted Tatum, try
Hot Topic

Wednesday, January 01, 2003

Happy New Year!

Sebastian seems to be doing much better than he was a few weeks ago, certainly good enough to knock the Christmas tree over, in an odd way, this is a good thing.
Now, if we could only get poor Max straigtened out. he didn't respond to this medication either.

We watched the next episode of Farscape, I can't believe, no, actually I can believe it, because I don't have a lot of respect for the people at the Sci Fi Channel, that they are canceling Farscape.

I feel the same way about Fox and their lack of any kind of promotion for Firefly. Having seen the series original pilot, I can't imagine why they thought it would be better not to air it and air the episode that they did, beinging us all into the show in the middle? Made it very confusing and didn't do a very good job of endearing us to the characters. Yes, I know, there are far more important things in life to discuss, but there's nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy ones self once in a while too :) Firefly didn't do anything for me in the beginning, but I stuck it out and I hope that UPN sees fit to big this fine piece 'o prgramming up,

I've been working on my Virtual Tourist pages. I love that site. It's great looking at all teh wonderful pictures and reading about other people's travels and their home country. Gives me a mice place to put my pictures up too. I love to take pictures, I wish that I could figure out a way to put them on here, but, I haven't been able to do that.