LOVING me some Illustrator.

Illustrator rocks!

Wishing I had Illustrator, though I may be allowed to play with it at work again pretty soon.

So, the kitty crazy train is rolling through our home right now. And, poor Mufasa has taken refuge inside the recliner. :rolleyes: We'll coax him out after dinner.

Anyway, the boy is well. After his examination, it was determined that he's actually 4 years old, and was previously neutered (I didn't really personally look before) according to his impound chart. So, he was a pet to someone fairly careless or something.

On the way home, I took him in his carrier to Petco to get a collar. I also bought a small harness and leash, and he let me put it on him in the car. So, anchored to the seatbelt, he got to ride with a little bit of freedom the rest of the way home. :) I plan on working on him with the harness over the next few weeks to see if he'll take to it, so he can join me on some walks.

Maleficent and Magick are totally cool with him, albeit cautious and curious. Emmy, on the other hand, makes a REALLY bad ambassador. Hence, why he's inside the recliner.

Pics will be forthcoming once everyone is settled and chilled. :)

I think he loves it here. :) He's now exploring, eating, and drinking. He also took some treats from me, and just spent some time in the window sill, purring. :D

Then again, we closed the others in the bedroom for a little while, at least so he can get his bearings.

Last night our cat Lillian passed away.

Even those of you who have been to our home several times might not have met Lily, but if you did you met one of the sweetest, gentlest souls you will ever find.

She is survived by her sister Dorothy, and two grieving parents.

I'm so sorry for your loss, H & T. It sucks to lose a pet. Big hugs from Heather and me.

:( I'm so sorry about Lillian. :(

Sorry for your loss....Hugs from the Wolfpack

I'm so sorry T&H. She had the best family imaginable.

Aww sh!t, LSPE & Tom.
Sorry to hear that.
Hang in there.
:(

More hugs and sympathy from here. At least you have the small comfort of knowing she was loved and had a wonderful life thanks to being a part of your family.

<<Hugs>>

Very sorry to hear about Lily.

Awww, sweet, beautiful Lillian. You will be missed by your family, friends and sister.

Pretty kitty :(

So sorry for your loss.

H & T I'm so sorry to hear of Lilly's passing. Thinking of you both.

:(

I'm sorry

Sorry to hear the sad news H & T :( :(

This has truly been a horrible year for our furbabies. I'm so sorry, H & T- I lost my kitty Haggis this year, and have another sick one that probably isn't going to make it as well. :(

I'm so sorry, WB. :(

Now that you mention it, you're right, it has been a tough year for the LoT pets. Our girl Pigeon (the tiny gray kitten we found in October of last year) escaped through an open window about 8 weeks ago. She squeezed herself between the screen and the window sill. I hadn't said anything because I felt so guilty about it. And we kept hoping she'd come back. We miss her terribly.

Aw hell.

Picked up our some-assembly-required crib and changing table/dresser today. I've nearly put the dresser together (very easy, took about an hour), but the 2nd to last piece seems to be cut wrong (either that, or every single other piece is cut wrong) so it will have to remain unfinished until we receive a replacement :(

Or just do what my father would have done... Get out the power tools and make a piece that fits!

It would actually be very simple to make the piece fit with one cut on another piece, but the piece in question not only doesn't fit but it's damaged. And I can't just make a piece from scratch as I can't match the stain. So replacement piece is the only real option.

That never would have stopped my father! ;)

So sorry about your kitty, H & T. :(

Sayyyyyyy....
What's the deal?
I just noticed 2 TV shows that totally ripoff The Soup.
One was on Comedy Central and another one was on the Style network, I think.
I cry foul! I call shenanigans! No one should mess with my Joel.
:D

Assuming that the one on Style was The Dish, that's an official spinoff of The Soup. Other official spinoffs are Sports Soup on Versus and Web Soup on G4. To the limited extent I've seen those I haven't cared for them.

Was the one on Comedy Central tosh.0? If so that's not an official spinoff but I've actually liked it more than any of the others (with The Soup still miles ahead).

I'm so sorry to hear about Lily, H&T. It has indeed been a tough year for LoT pets.

**hugs**

Cool. I had no idea The Soup had spinoffs. I still pledge my allegiance to Joel McHale. (And understand that I'm not really ticked, it's just a lighthearted observation peppered with fake outrage that preaches my undying love for the host of The Soup.)
I watched tosh.0 last night because the YouTube redemption segment. I thought that was a really interesting idea. You never hear what happens to a lot of these people. I've been curious. I think that is a good idea to follow up with them, get their reactions about their 'fame' and even get a chance to redeem themselves by doing the action that they f'ed up again successfully this time.

We've been getting some really good press on the store. The Long Beach Press Telegram ran an article today that was great and included a nice photo gallery that even has a decent picture of moi.

Here's the article.

And the photo gallery.

I hope you guys are successful enough to really branch out - I'd love to have a Pussy & Pooch in Central Florida.

So Lisa, when does "Buster" move in to Casa de Cone/Meinke?

Congratulations!

I wonder if ThinKrisps could be marketed as one-time-use-only dog frisbees?

Hmmm. Is cheese bad for dogs? If not, you could always come up with a smaller variety just for pets. ;)

From Pet Food Report:
BTW, The parmesans are very low in fat, 3 grams.

NA, what are your hours over the Thanksgiving weekend? J and I would love to go check it out at some point during our quick jaunt to Cali...

Great article, but does anyone still read the PT?

I want Buster.

In that case, if you could make smaller ones and market them for dogs too... people are really into homemade pet foods these days. :)

Hugs to Heidi and Tom. :( Another beautiful pet crossing over the rainbow bridge.

I love that pic too - I'm getting quite a Pussy & Pooch Pic collection !
there are surgeons that can oblige... :p

OOO I love the kitteh!!!!

NA looks so damn happy and radiant. Made my day.

I love, love, love those pictures!!!!!!!!!:)

Damnit, I KNEW I'd regret that afternoon cup of coffee. Hopefully when I get home I can burn the jitters off with some quality circular saw time.

Uh, that sounds... unsafe.
:D
Please be careful, Mr. Delight.

Lisa - I think that's the best photo of you ever. You look gorgeous.

We'll be closed on Turkey Day, but open 10-9 Friday and Saturday and 11-7 on Sunday. I'll be there Friday night and all day Saturday and Sunday.

Thanks, everyone! We're getting some great press.

Congratulations on the new addition, Disneyphile!

Sorry for your loss, Tom and LSPE.

How's business doing? You look spectacular!

Hopefully the turds around the corner will be having a going out of business sale, very soon.

Apparently, Mufasa was an indoor/outdoor kitty before... he's now got his energy and "routine" back in order, so he slept all day yesterday, only to stay up all last night, wanting to go outside. :rolleyes:

Of course, that's not going to happen. Although, his desire might help in leash training him, like I want to try.

But, he had to jump in every single window last night, jumping through anything in his way, and then continuously trying to slide them open, and when we got up to pick up whatever he threw to the ground, he'd run to the door and whine at us. :rolleyes:

I may drop by once we get in from the airport on Wednesday evening.

You know what is right by there? Crepes.

Just sayin... ;)

Oh my, DP! Mufasa has personality! At least he's not constantly clinging. :) I'm glad he's comfortable and getting his routine in order. I hope he gets the hint soon that he won't be going outside (without a leash) and does his nighttime wandering in silence. Sleeping during the day is one of the things kitties do best, isn't it? Sleeping kitty in the sun = so sweet!

Agreed.

Peet's is doing the "buy one for a friend, get one for yourself free" coupons on Facebook.

Hot tip: While it's not on the menu, you can get them to make you an eggnog Freddo by having them make a regular Freddo with eggnog instead of milk. Heavenly!

;)

Yes, the eggnog comes before the signs do.

You know, I should have J try their eggnog latte.

Eggnog is one of those things that I tried to like every year until I finally gave up.

Eggnog is disgusting.

Egg nog is an interesting thing.

I like it for about exactly 8 ounces per year. I love that first glass every holiday season. Then I don't want another glass for about year.

Pumpkin in all forms except seeds is disgusting too.

Gingerbread on the other hand... is amazing!

Egg nog is the liquid version of fruit cake.

So true. I buy at least a quart every holiday season, thinking surely someone will drop by who wants some. Riiight. You'd think I'd quit buying it.

On the other hand, I love eggnog and pumpkin pie. So I'll take yours.

Not a pumpkin nor a nog fan. Now Tom & Jerry or Hot Buttered Rum I can go for.

You can have it ALL! Take it somewhere far, far away.

Far Far away land would be ideal.

Buttered Rum sounds vile too.

Not without a fight you won't.

pass me some fruit cake as well. Yummy.

I hereby surrender all my fruitcake to anyone who will take it.
I like eggnog, but I prefer to dilute it 1:1 with milk because it's a bit too rich.
Pumpkin pie is okay, but it must have a good crust and be topped with a fluffy white substance or the deal is off.

I don't like the pumpkin pie they serve on Disney cruise ships. But otherwise it competes for my favorite pie.

In no way did that abomination deserve to be called "pumpkin pie".

I can't stand pumpkin pie, except from my mom's recipe which is a bit different from the usual lightly spiced squishy squashy crap. And no, I won't share that recipe - I'd like to keep it as a family tradition. :)

I do love fresh roasted pumpkin seeds in various flavors though and various sweeter items made/flavored with pumpkin. But, pumpkin soup and the like.... blech!

Fixed it for you.

Well sure, if you want to watch me do a spit-take.

We wants the rum!

Where did all the rum go?

To explain that little inside joke to anybody who cares:

Birthday food was the bane of our cruise a couple weeks ago. Early in the week it was the birthday of one member of our party, and even though the request was made in the same timely manner as in the past, they were unable to fulfill a request for a key lime pie (though the next night they were overly proud of delivering some left-over key lime cheesecake squares from the late night snack trays).

So with that in mind several days ahead of Lani's birthday night I asked if it would be possible to get a pumpkin pie at the last dinner of the cruise. Lead waiter said he'd inquire. Next night said it wasn't a problem. Night after that again confirmed it.

Dinner night rolls around and they give us our dessert menus and I'm starting to think they just forgot about it when out comes our waiter with some kind of cake. "Pumpkin" cake. I use quotes because this was a three layer cake with something vaguely pumpkin flavored in the frosting.

It was not good.

I love a pumpkin bread recipe from Sunset magazine I make with freshly-roasted pumpkin. My mom has a great pumpkin pie recipe from James Beard. The key ingredient is cognac.

I like eggnog AND pumpkin. Pumpkin soup gets a yes from me, as does pumpkin pie (with the crust cut off), pumpkin bread, pumpkin spice lattes, putting pumpkin pie spice in my hot chocolate and... well, you get the picture! But I do agree that eggnog alone can get to be too much very quickly. The light eggnogs help with this problem, interestingly enough.

Levi
 

SFW

Just sayin...
Kinda hot...
Could be just me...
Maybe...
Maybe not...
:)

"Hi...like my armpit?"

Yours or his, Alex?

:D

His. I know I like mine, I keep them presentable.

Seriously, he looks like he's about to kiss his armpit, like Hulk Hogan kissing his biceps.

OMFG. Mufasa has busted out the bathroom window screen and taken off. We didn't even hear him. I went to close the window, saw the hole, and he's gone. OMFG. I am so freaking out right now. We're trying to find him and he's just not anywhere nearby.

Holy crap!
Come back, Mufasa!
:(

I drove the neighborhood a bit, and we put some food out on the patio. He's just nowhere. And, he doesn't even know his name yet. :(

I've never lost a pet before. EVER.

And, our bathroom window is really high up. He's definitely gone through it though, because the blinds were also bent up.

I am panicking something fierce, because he's only been with us for 5 days, and I don't think that's long enough for him to know where home is.

I've already put an alert out on his microchip, but still... that doesn't help if a car hits him or someone decides to keep him.

****.

Stay positive. He'll turn up.
Fingers crossed.

GC, that's some kind of juju in your fingers - Ken just walked in with him.

He was in a neighbor's garage, under their car.

I'm still crying.

And, now I have a nice intoxicating apple martini. It's a damn fine hour for booze, that's for sure. At least now, I'll be able to sleep tonight.

I have images of Clint Eastwood breaking out of your bathroom window....

The hole in the screen certainly looks like he did. ;)

While I've been nursing this martini and hugging Mufasa almost non-stop, Ken's doweled all the windows so they'll only open to 3 inches, still allowing for airflow, but preventing any more escapes from Mufasa/Static/Houdini. I just wonder what other name he's going to earn next. :rolleyes:

How about "Cat"? Don't all pets try to do this?

I'm so glad Ken found Mufasa! I wish we'd found our Pigeon. She escaped through a screen sorta like Mufasa, only she pushed the screen out just enough to squish herself between it and the window sill. I miss my girl.

Yay, Mufasa is back. :)

Deebs ~ When did Pigeon go missing? Recently? Oy. :(

Poor Pigeon. :(

What is it with wanderlust in some kitties? :(

Tiger used to get out somehow and just wander the back yard.

Tigger used to escape and hide under the lemon tree in my parents back yard.

Springer once knocked out a screen and was "missing" for a few hours before I noticed. By "missing" I mean my parents had no clue he had gotten out and I heard him meowing outside.

Boo was an either abandoned or an outside cat who adopted me and hasn't wanted to set foot out there since.

Before we built the SunPorch, Linus and occasionally Watson would sometimes try to zip out the front door when it was open. Now they spend all their time out on the porch--screened in, roofed over, but still "outside"--and seem pretty happy.

Disneyphile, I'm really glad Mufasa came back! Deebs, I'm sorry Pigeon hasn't.

I think my post about her escape kinda got lost in between the loss of Lilly, Haggis, and other kitty talk.

Thanks, you guys. I should have known not to leave the window open. But I kind of thought she was satisfied just sitting on that window sill, breathing the fresh air. I had no idea she was plotting to flatten herself for her escape. She must have been scared, she had never been an outdoor girl. I like to believe someone kept her, though they would have had to lure her with food because she is shy with new people. But she was very affectionate and cuddly with us.

1310 new posts.

Florida was great - got to visit my grandpa, do quite poorly at MouseAdventure, have an amazing dinner at Victoria and Albert's, and walk walk walk until I could walk no more. Oh- also had my first ever visit to a water park. Surprise: Didn't hate it! Bigger surprise: Loved the enclosed slide the best!

Tons of photos and video to wade through. And those 1310 new posts.

And big hugs to those with kitty-related sadness.

And you didn't introduce yourself to me? I didn't even realize you'd be there.

If you did introduce yourself and I've forgotten, I abjectly apologize. As crazy as the event was for players, it was ten times that for staff.

And that's why I didn't want to bug you - didn't want to crowd you during the frenzy.

But, team Heffalump and Woozle are planning to be at Reindeer Games, so if it's not an enormous bother we'll say hey howdy hey at some point.

We're glad we DID say Howdy to Andrew when we did MA - he's cute !! ;)

...and we got to chat briefly with Stan4rdSteph (sp?) too !

I'm glad Mufasa came back! I go and work 12 hours and miss all of the drama! I'm sorry about Pigeon. It is horrible when one loses a pet and you don't know where they've gone or what become of them.

Jack got out the other night at 3 am. Thurston woke up and had to pee and, as we were coming inside, Jack ran out. I was lucky I even saw the bad man! It was pitch black outside and I went running through the spider webs and overgrown vines to grab his big orange butt. He used to be an outside cat, but he also used to chase cars. Bad, bad kitties!

Just watched a piece on Persian cuisine my friend posted. Great, now I'm hungry for Persian food. Did you know it was possible to crave something you haven't tasted in 18 years? And of course, foodnetwork.com doesn't have a recipe for kebab koobideh or instructions on how to make that lovely rice the way they do (not sticky like Chinese rice).

Just a side note, Morri- today is my niece Persia's 4th birthday. :)

Maybe there's a secret feline convention going on? Geesh!!

Last night, we had the joy of discovering that Mufasa is really smart - smart enough to turn doorknobs and open doors. (And had no problem reaching them either.) Thankfully, the deadbolt is too far out of his reach. And, this was still after we put him on the leash just an hour prior, let him step onto the porch with us and he almost immediately pawed at the front door, wanting back in. I think we're taking longer to adjust than he is. :rolleyes:

We had a situation in our neighborhood last night. Our next door neighbor is a single mother with an 11 year old daughter. The mother was out at a meeting last evening; the daughter was home by herself. About 7:00, a man came to their door. The daughter opened the inner door (they have one of those heavy security screen doors). The man asked her if her parents were home. She said “no”. He then asked her to open the security door because he couldn’t see her very well. She told him “no”, and shut the door.

Shortly afterwards, the mother came home and saw a man standing in their front yard. As soon as he saw her, he took off running. A little later, she happened to look out a window that overlooked our driveway (which is between our house and hers) and saw someone standing there in the shadows.

She called the police and asked a friend to come over. The friend came to our house later to fill us in on what happened. We talked to some of the other neighbors to let them know to be on the look out.

Scary.

Yikes. Rule #1 in my house when home alone was to not answer the door. Period. And DEFINITELY not say my parents weren't home.

Was there a Jellicle moon out that night?

Neat, just watched a bunch of today's space walk live.

And....it's just about time to head to the airport again for a brief visit to the NW to get my teeth cleaned.

Next thing you know, he'll be ordering cat toys off the internet - better check your passwords...

Yikes !! I'd be a little creeped out by that. Can they buy one of those flood-lights with a motion detector built in? We had one of those at my parents place when I was smaller. Lit up the whole front walk when anyone came even halfway up the yard.

Posting from 35,000 feet in the air! Whee!!!!!

Why yes, I am easily amused.

I'm right there with you!

Snore!

:D

I'm playing with new glass today! WHEEE!!

I just ate a Hostess Ding Dong for the first time in a zillion years. The cake was dry, the chocolate outside like wax, the creamy filling like Crisco. After the first bite I hated it but finished the whole thing anyway. Just to confirm that I hated it, you understand. Why did I ever like those things when I was a kid? It was vile!

It would probably taste better if you batter-dipped and deep fried it.

That is awesome.

But now I am craving Tim Hortons. Dammit!

Now I'm craving In-n-Out.

Me Too. I got a longer way to go to get one. :(

... I need to look up one of those "Make-a-like" recipes.

There is one very close to my parent's house. They've infiltrated Western NY.

Are you high? Is it after 2 am? Naugles used to be the answer. I miss Naugles.

Naugles....the memories!

At least you can get In-n-Out. I have to settle for Tim Horton's coffee that I have in my freezer. I really want one of their donuts or Nanimo bars.

Sadly, another source buying into the overhype that is In-n-Out (as always based entirely on truly horrible french fries since that is all they serve that is within my dietary range).

Hate the fries, love the burgers.

The fries are inedible to me without loading them with salt, pepper and ketchup, which I really don't need to be doing. So I just don't eat them. But every now and then I eat a burger from there.

And now for something completely different:

inudge

That's fun, but not quite as addicting as Bloom. I love my iPhone.

I remember my first Naugles experience. I was 16 years old (there were no Naugles on the East Coast), and a couple of my friends brought me to their "favorite" fast food place. We ordered burritos and grabbed lots of hot sauce - the sauce came in containers similar the McDonald's McNugget sauce. We dumped all the hot sauce into our burritos, save one, which we opened and left on the table. Before we dug in, my friend dropped the dirtiest penny he had into the last sauce container. When we were done eating, he pulled out the penny, and it was absolutely shiny and clean.

"Imagine what that sht's doing to your stomach right now," he said.

Ah, youth.

Ha! I remember the hot sauce being in those containers. Eating in one time, with my friends, I flipped one over by flicking it on its edge. Repeatedly. Seeing how many times it would land right side up. One flip too many and it actually opened, splattering hot sauce in my eye. Ah, youth indeed. And thinking about what you just said, it's a wonder I still have my vision.

I miss Naugles too. And, I LOVE In-n-Out fries! They're better than McDonalds IMO.

You can also use ketchup and/or hot sauce to polish copper... it's the tomato content that does it. ;)

But, I like your youthful story much better. :)

I thought it was the vinegar in the ketchup that did it. My mother always polished her copper and brass by soaking it in white vinegar. Works great!

Any of these work on Sterling Silver?

I would definitely not use anything acidic on silver.

Au revoir, my lovelies. Off to visit my brother and his adorable bambinos in Milan for Thanksgiving. We're also heading over to Paris for a quick DLP trip, and I'm excited because we've never been. Wishing you all warm and happy Thanksgivings.

Have a wonderful trip! Happy Thanksgiving to you & T!

Have fun! I HIGHLY recommend the California Grill in the Disneyland Hotel for a meal (or 2). It's barely more expensive than what you'll pay for food in park..and it's actually food, unlike what you'll find in the park.

Oh how awesome! You'll just LOVE DLP!

I did not love DLP but even if you don't it's great to cross it off the list. Have a great trip!

Though from our trip I can tell you that if you do a face plant in one of the restaurants they'll be very polite about it all.

I like Paris, Naugles, and In-n-out - I used to not like their fries at all, until I learned you could order them well done, now I love them.

Do they serve the fries under cooked???

I thought so, but I like my fries dark and crispy

One thing about In N Out french fries: they are not made consistently from store-to-store. Some locations make them better than others.

Here's the thing about fries, if you cut the potato and fry it immediately in very hot oil, you get In-n-Out style fries. Sort of a papery skin, a little dry, so salt doesn't adhere. If the oil is less hot, you get a stickier fried potato, not at all a french fry consistency. If you cut your potatoes and let them soak in water overnight, starch leaches out of them, creating a coating that gives you that super-crisp consistency you find at McDonald's. If you cheat, i.e. Carl's Jr. waffle fries, you can "bread" your fries, and get the same crispy outsides, but the insides are usually a little mushy.

There are very few fries I don't like. I hate cold or reheated fries, and Steak fries and Suzie-q's are too thick to get crisp enough for me.

When I order fries, rarely, because of the carbs and all, I'll usually ask for them extra crispy, with a side of mayo for dipping.

There are about three stories that I'm working on right now. One of them is a horror story. I started that project up again after a couple of months of nada and started writing up a storm tonight. Can I just say that I kinda freaked myself out tonight by what I wrote? lol! Creepy sh!t!
:D

Having another Hypo - Frozen Banana slices with peanut butter are Da Bomb !! :D

I had a weird dream last night about a horror movie with Rob Lowe as a cult leader who created zombies.

My night was worse. I woke up this morning (at 4:30am which, sadly, has become standard even on weekends) and Deepak Chopra was on the radio. Surely a bad omen for the day to come.

For some reason when I first woke up this morning I was thinking it was Easter Sunday. Weird.

Can't wait to read!

So that's where Rob Zombie came from!

I'm late with this maybe, but...

watching Leno the other night they had a guy from the Twilight series. Ross the intern was outside @ City Walk {I think} letting girls ask the guy from Twilight questions. The last question he saved for himself. He said

'In the movie {or a movie} you were attacked by a bear. Have you ever been attacked by a bear in real life?'

to which the actor said, pretty much without missing a beat

'No, there are always a lot of cougars to scare them away.' {or something like that}.

Now, I just barely learned what the heck that all meant and I almost fell over laughing. No one played up on his comment but Ross laughed as he knew what it meant.

And, I had to smile that I got it. :D

carry on...............

I know how you feel, we couldn't get enough snow when we were there, either !!!

You lucky girl !!! :D

We had snow mixed in with the rain this morning. It was way too cold for my taste!

I just discovered I was on an episode of HBO's Real Sex. It was episode 16 (from 1996). I was a DJ at a Lifestyles Convention in San Diego and you can clearly see me on stage in one shot.

Only took me 13 years to discover that.

You know, I liked Adam Lambert's performance on the AMA's this year. There's going to be a lot of controversy about it but I thought it was refreshing!
:)

I miss snow. And yes I've lived in it and endlessly shoveled it and crawled under the car to put on chains. But I still miss it.

Awesome!!! :snap: Can I have your autograph? ;)

were you wearing Latex or Leather?
rewrote?? Whatever do you mean?

Cargo shorts and a T-Shirt. I was working, not participating.

We were looking at (read: not buying) furniture this weekend at Buttercup on Venice and decided to go into "Father's Office" for a quick bite. It's called a "gastropub", which means that they have many alcohol options and a small but interesting food menu. They make it clear on the menu that their policy is to not make any changes whatsoever to the recipes of the offered dishes, and even though I'm not a fan of certain cheeses, they stuck by their policy, which I took to be pretty douchey. However, I can say without any reservation, that the "Office Burger," as it appears immutable on their menu, is one of the best hamburgers I have ever tasted.

I have Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" song in my head:

"Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah!
Roma-roma-mamaa!
Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!"

Totally love her.
:)

Got my H1N1 shot today. No ill effects so far.

Maddie's high risk because of her diabetes so I got her the nasal spray on Saturday. We spent 5 hours in line at her school. They keep running out here. The clinic was from 9-2 students only and if you got in line at 9 you didn't make the cut to get one.

How awful. I was in and out in about 20 minutes, but we had to schedule an appointment ahead of time.

Here - as far as I can tell. You can only get one if you go to the county health clinics. And they're hit/miss. The woman behind me in line was pregnant and had gone there but was turned away. Maddies's school district did clinics at 4 schools this weekend and each school only had 1000 doses. I'm not sure how many kids are in the district but it's more than 4000. They are supposed to do another round of clinics in a few weeks but it's dependent on getting enough of the vaccines.

Oh, did I happen to mention we're seeing her in March ? :evil: :D

How awesome is that?
:)
Lucky duck.

I'm following her on twitter - she's funny the way she refers to her fans as "monsters" :D

Apparently, her new song "Monster" is about a guy with a big d!ck. Like I said, I love her.
:D

I've had that stuck in my head all day too!! It's like disco baby-talk. Ridiculous, but catchy.

BJ got me tickets to see her Dec 21 at the Nokia theatre in LA. Yay!

I just signed up my Second Life avatar on Facebook. Hee!

Link please?

Okay, here ya go

Mod edit: (this should be self-evident...but then I forget we have Moonliner to deal with) Link NSFW

God dammit! *&%*$*%!!

When will I ever F'n learn. DO DOT CLICK ON KEVY LINKS from work.

Now where does Firefox keep the "flush browser history" tab..... :mad:

You deserved that one!




hehe

ROFLMAO!!!

Kevy, one of these days I'm going to put you over my knee and spank you.

Like he's not going to just love that?

Promises, promises

I swear - this 3-day week is longer than any 5-day week I've ever worked.

Indeed.

*blink *blink*

Huh. Yep. We'er all still here.

Cancel one more end of world scenario.

Looks like we can rest easy for the next 1,122 days....

Well, not quite yet. These collisions were not the extremely high energy ones that scare certain witless people.

Though if I were running LHC I think I'd schedule the first of those for 12/21 next year just to really **** with people's minds.

I couldn't sleep. At 4am I started making cookies.
The cookies are done, now I am starting the pies for tomorrow.

MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Mousey Girl Cookies = YUM !!!

fvck. I ordered 3 new HP notebook computers and 3 HP portable printers. Out of those, 1 of each arrived broken and HP will not rush me either one. 5-7 business days which - with the holiday - meant the end of next week or even beginning of week after.

They suck.

I used to love HP. Good products with great customer service and they stood behind what they made. Now they have crappy to mediocre customer service, crappy quality if 2 of 6 items arrive broken and really don't care what time frame their customers have.

I have 3 people on Monday coming for training and only 2 will have setups.

Thanks HP for making my life more complicated than necessary and for giving me an F.U. when you could have made it right. (by shipping me out new items that would arrive by Monday.)

I am not thrilled about this because I don't understand how it works/won't end the world. If someone wants to explain it I'll probably no longer be one of those witless people. :(

If the LHC succeeds in what the theory predicts, the collisions will produce energies that approach the energy of a blackhole. Except on a scale that's sub-atomic, and for a duration that's less than a blink of an eye. There is no danger of anything that small, of that little duration, doing any damage to anything.

How it won't end the world?

The most credible fears about the LHC expressed by doomsday worriers is that it will create extremely small black holes (which would that then grow out of control and destroy the planet and/or solar system). Another possibly is that it will create a new form of matter (that then "infects" all of the existing matter it touches destroying the planet).

The first reason not to worry is that those who fear these things are only paying attention to half of the theories. The same theories that predict these things could be created also predict that they will almost instanteously evaporate before they could possible do any damage. So it is cherry picking to believe the theories enough to worry but not enough to stop worrying.

The second reason to not worry is that the Large Hadron Collider is not doing anything new. The type of particle collisions they are looking to create don't happen on earth normally but that is only because they happen in the upper atmosphere instead. And on the surface of the moon. And on the surface of Mercury. And on the surface of various moons without atmospheres. And in the upper atmospheres of all the other planets. So, we're not creating anything new, we're just creating it where it is easier to observe. Observing particle collisions in the upper atmosphere (the closest place they happen) would be like trying to take detailed statistics on a single shooting star while standing in downtown Los Angeles and wearing sunglasses. So we do it down here where we know the exact location and time of the collission and can surround it with billions of dollars of detectors and computers. But it still isn't anything new. These collissions have been happening here in Earth's atmosphere for billions of years in a volume greater than anything the LHC will ever do and they haven't destroyed the planet yet.

To a degree it is like saying a leaf falling from an tree indoors could cause a concussion and so trees should never be allowed inside. Sure, I could make up a scenario where that happens but it is essentially fiction and the same thing happens (falling leaves) outside all of the time. Being indoors doesn't make it any riskier.

I know but if I waited until then it might actually happen and then I'd miss my opportunity to poke fun at the 2012'ers. Better safe than sorry I say.

It's dead here today. Is everybody out shopping?

I just got up! Now, since yesterday I ate elsewhere and didn't get to make my own complete feast, I am about to start on pie, then turkey. Plus stuffing and dressing, brussels sprouts w/bacon, cranberry relish, creamed onions, and whatever else I can rustle up.

I would have gone shopping this morning, but no $$. I like to just wander around stores (Target & Michaels) just to people watch. I have everything I need already planned out, but I still need some stocking stuffer type things.

We had considered going to IKEA for a bench/shoe storage unit but the "limited quantities" sold out almost immediately (we called before leaving). We might hit Trader Joe's but have no other shopping plans.

Yeah, not economically stimulating, that's me.

We hit Target this morning. There was nothing that we were all excited about but Madz and I go every year and it's fun watching everyone get crazy. We hit the mall after that but we were home back in bed by 6:30. For us it's more something that we do together than really buying anything.

I picked up a toy for my nephew (I was told the other day that he's into Bakugan, so I got him Bakugan, whatever the hell that is) for $10, a 4-gig chip for my camera for $10, Balderdash (bet you can't guess how much...), a travel version of Apples to Apples, and some fuzzy jammie bottoms for Alex for $5. Not for Christmas, just because the dog keeps making holes in his PJs. He's actually wearing them now, so I guess I did good ;)

An hour into the sale, Target still had the big TVs in stock, cameras, portable DVD players, etc.

They did a really good job preparing for today, at least my local one did. They spread out the doorbuster items around the store, rather than concentrating in their usual department (Electronics was mobbed anyway because of the smaller stuff like DVDs that were on sale). So like the TVs were actually over in Women's clothing, some of the toys were in Kids' clothing, etc. And they handed out a map to everyone in line (and a reusable shopping bag!) that showed you where those items were located. I think that did a lot to keep the shopping cart traffic to a low roar. When the doors opened, everyone walked in peacefully, no stampeding or arguing. For checkout, they had a remote queue set up that everyone got into, and a lady directing people from the queue to open registers, so the queue, though long, went very quickly. One more quick line to get out (receipt checking ala Costco).

Now, the Target I went to has the advantage of being rather hidden in my neighborhood (high on a hill off a non-freeway reaching street) and surrounded by 3 other locations within a 3-mile radius. So I don't know if they all had it that good or if I just made a good choice going with that one instead of one of the ones in a big shopping center.

I had an interesting day. This morning we went to WinCo near our new place and I'm once again surprised at the great prices. They had turkeys for $2.00! Wow! I bought 2. I'll roast one tomorrow and keep one frozen for later.

Got home and the hot water doesn't seem very hot. I'm thinking - oh great - the propane tank at this place didn't have much in it. They are coming to refill on Monday or Tuesday but I guess it didn't last. F! F! F! Call them to see if they can come sooner but no.

Took Amy to the mall in Hemet and it was tolerable. Picked up a few things.

Got home and the power was out. So - no hot water - no heat and now no power. Which also means no phone and internet. Hours later and still nothing. We drive down the hill to the local pay phone because, of course, this is the weekend I accidently leave my cell at work and even if I hadn't, I don't get a signal at home anyway.

Finally see some so cal edison trucks down the way a bit and an hour or so later we have electricity.

It's while I'm making dinner that I wonder if maybe the pilot light blew out. Sure enough - light it and we are on our way to hot water! Yay!

Went nowhere near any stores and will try to maintain that for at least another month.

Went to Virginia City instead. Never been before. It snowed. Much better than shopping.

Went to Disneyland to collect my gift card

Cooked! Turkey, scalloped potatoes, brussels sprouts, cranberry relish, sausage chestnut dressing, and a cranberry apple pie. Now: food coma.

I did my part for the economy and sold pet stuff to people. We had a decent day but it wasn't crazy. 2nd Street isn't like the malls, thank god.

"High on a hill stood a lonely Target,
lay-de oh de lay-de oh de lay-dee hoo"
:D

It was your birthday? Happy happy! Kept it off the calendar, I see.


My Black Friday involved sleeping late, then visiting furniture shops to look at rocking recliners for the nursery. Furniture stores are definitely off the BF beaten path (especially at 2pm, I'd assume). No purchases made.

My contribution to the economy was a $2.09 frozen yogurt. Today I'm going to the park.

Finally enjoying my morning cup of coffee after an unexpected vet trip - Sid broke his hip this morning and is now resting at the vets on pains meds in prep for surgery on Monday.

Poor Sid! :(

I'm finally sitting down and having a spot of pumpkin pie for lunch. I just finished washing every single piece of the vintage Franciscan Ware and played "Cupboard Tetris" so we can finally put it to use. It's perfect timing for our intimate Thanksgiving II tonight. I just love these dishes! :)

But, I still have to clean the entire kitchen, dust the dining room and prep the meal. No rest for the wicked!

Sid !!! :( Source of many cuddles for us. Get better soon !!!

Even with 9 other cats and 2 pugs in the house, it feels a bit empty without my large Orca of a cat. I just hope his surgery goes well. Beyond that, I hope we can manage 6 weeks of Sid in a crate.

Wait, I think I'm out of the loop. Who's Sid? Poor Sid... whoever you are...
:(



Good gracious.
Eric Bana was on Chelsea Lately... holy shamoley he's f*cking hot hot hot. He is finer than frog hair. Wow!
Love him love him.

I need to get me to Australia...
:)

Sid is the Ginormous black and white Maine Coon mix that we received with his whiskers shaved off. He arrived after the bottle baby kittens and before the skitzy girl, Petra.

Somehow I missed the addition of Sid. Handsome boy, get well soon buddy. :(

Well, it is pretty difficult to keep up with all of our (10) cats.

How on earth did he manage to do that????:eek:

Poor kitty boy- I hope he feels better very soon, and I hope his recuperation time isn't too stressful for all!

It wasn't until you said Orca that I figured out which feline is Sid. Did he fall out of the bathroom sink? Hope he's feeling better soon.

We don't know what happened exactly. I wasn't home and Chris was in the kitchen. There was playing and chasing going on. He probably was tearing through the house, slip on the floor and slammed himself into a wall (or something like that). Our vet said "big guys fall hard". I guess so!

My 20-pounder sends Sid all the best. (Tsunami is prone to some pretty reckless running and jumping as well. He's always been playful, but these days, a little miscalculation can result in some hard knocks.)

Tree is up and decorated. I snagged all the Shiny Brite ornaments. Looks really nice. And I found this amazing tree skirt that my grandmother had made that matchs my stocking.

Somehow I missed Alex and GD both explaining how the LHC will work and not end the world. I feel much, much better. Thank you!

[refrains from making jokes about stockings....]

New favorite expression of incompetence, courtesy This American Life: "He couldn't sell life insurance to the Kennedys."

Brilliant!

VGDM

I always liked the opposite of that:

"He could sell flight insurance to Clark Kent"

Wow. As of right now, the only thing my system can reach on the network is LoT. That includes other systems within our lab network. :D :D :D

Something must be wrong with our DNS or gateway server, but since I was just on the LoT, the route is cached on my local machine, so it can still get here. But nowhere else. Aw shucks.

Sid made it through surgery and is spending another night at the vet. He's doped up on pain meds, which is good 'cause he probably hurts like hell.

Yay! (The making it through, not the hurting like hell.)

Poor little man... He's in our thoughts. Are the others missing him?

Poor kitty. Yay drugs!

If you put him in the bathroom like you did Scoundrel he'll have lots of company on NYE.

Sid will be our cage dancer for not one, but TWO parties before he gets released. I guess he won't be stealing bacon this year.

Well I hope he gets some bacon all the same. Glad he's come through, now get well soon.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/corve...ole-light.html
Oy. I had a good view of this as I crossed over the Orange Crush on the way to work this morning. It was definitely a serious fire. Sad to see a Corvette go out that way, at least no one was badly hurt.

Glad ol' Sid came through.

So today I transformed a regular box of candy cane Joe Joe's into peppermint Joe Joe truffles. OMG they are sinfully good!

WANT !!!!

Is there a recipe?

I converted it into metric for you even!

Oreo Truffles

Ingredients
448 g OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, divided
224 g PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
454.4 g BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, melted

Directions
Crush 9 of the cookies to fine crumbs in food processor; reserve for later use. (Cookies can also be finely crushed in a resealable plastic bag using a rolling pin.) Crush remaining 36 cookies to fine crumbs; place in medium bowl. Add cream cheese; mix until well blended. Roll cookie mixture into 42 balls, about 1-inch in diameter.
Dip balls in chocolate; place on wax paper-covered baking sheet. (Any leftover chocolate can be stored at room temperature for another use.) Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs.
Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Store leftover truffles, covered, in refrigerator.
Footnotes
How to How to Easily Dip Truffles Place truffle ball in melted chocolate to coat; roll if necessary. Lift truffle from chocolate using 2 forks (this will allow excess chocolate to run off) before placing on wax paper.

One tip though, I refrigerate them after rolling onto balls. It makes it much easier to dunk in chocolate. The last batch I dunked in white candy bark, much easier to deal with and just as delicious!

Yum !!! I sense another treat for the Christmas Table. :cool:

Sid is still at the vet on an IV drip of pain meds. I wish I was him. :)

Maybe tomorrow he'll be home.

Glad you posted this. I saw the smoke and fire trucks on my way into work this morning.

It was kinda unnerving, seeing rather large flames, very close to very dry-looking trees, with our condo complex withing view. Fortunately I could also see the fire trucks already on scene.

So....in her first game since her knee surgery in June, my 15 year old had 12 pts on 5/8 shooting, including 2/3 from 3, 4 assists, 4 steals, 4 rebounds, and only 1 turnover in 24 minutes of play in a 40-32 victory.

Here's hoping she keeps that up!

I'm absolutely ignorant on sports, so I don't know what most of that means, but it sounds good, so:

Woo Hoo! Keep it up! Way To Go!

What I read:
Yay!

Where's SacTown???? He'd understand. :)

I understand. I wasn't always a hockey junkie. I used to play/follow Basketball.

Way to go!

Yeah, I'm with you on that.

But congrats to Junior Republican!

What's Leo babbling about now? Sounds like some more liberal bashing if you asked me. ;)

Good work MiniLeo.

So, I was just hand-feeding Mufasa a few treats, and Emmy came over. So, I held one out to her, and said, "If you want it, you have to take it out of my hand." So, she did. She smacked it out of my hand with her front paw, then picked it up off the floor. :rolleyes: That cat is a piece of work.

NSFBTD: 14 strange creatures

I've seen a lot of those, but that Coconut Crab gave me the SCREAMING Heebie Jeebies !!!!! I would crap my pants if I found THAT monstrosity clinging to my trashcan. OMG ! :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: and I like the description (emphasis mine):
Snopes has more info on them... if you dare.

sooo coooool

I kinda liked this one. (sorta cute, and not scary)

Now I want crab for lunch.

I heard one of the Survivor Samoa contestants on a podcast recently (Adam Carolla?) and he talked about how they really didn't go hungry much because fruit and coconut crabs were so plentiful (apparently most were more the size of a coconut than the huge ones you see in most photographs).

He said the hard part about the crabs was taking them sufficiently by surprise because if you were too slow and they managed to grab onto a tree or rock you could never get them to let go.

My vote for the most bizarre of the lot:

Looks like something that would be chasing Pacman.

Waiting for word....

Headliner survived the second round of cuts for the school Basketball team. We should find out later today if she made the team or not.

D'oh! I hate cuts. Worst part of athletics by far. Pulling for her.

What age and level are we talking about here?

8Th grade. Last year before High School. Assuming High School B-Ball is still on her list of goals then this would be an important step.

Me too.

I was at the Aquarium of the Pacific last weekend and they had a tank of lobsters. Yummy. Except they were Pacific (no claws) and I prefer Atlantic.

YETI KRABZ!

:(

:mad:

Bummer.

On the plus side, she'll have the benefit of anonymity when she eventually decides to cheat on her spouse and crash a car.

Wow, y'all need to check out CP's latest pics on her blog from like a week ago! So strange to see her with a belly like that. And her latest entry is all about boobies, which I hear some people are into. :D

Yeah, that one is the weirdest of them all.

But this one is downright CUTE! (And quite popular with the ladies.)

On the weird creatures thing, I would really love to get one on these (NSFBTD):
They are called Thorny Devils and are native to Australia. But alas, their diet is ants. Lots and lots of ants. I just don't want that in my house.

Interesting. Not much meat on it though.

Have you had kidney stones? Well, apparently, I do. I woke up on Wednesday with a pain in my gut that I thought was food poisoning. I got ready for work and even got as far as getting in the car and starting my commute, but the pain was too great, so I turned around and came home. I called in sick, and in a couple of hours the pain dissipated, so I chalked it up to some seriously bad indigestion. The next morning, the pain was back. This time, it was way worse. I paced around the house, not able to stand still. By the time I found myself dry heaving into the toilet from the pain, I realized that this might be something more serious than I initially thought. Heather was out of town, so I called 911, and wound up taking a short ambulance ride to a local hospital. It was quite an experience. In two short days, I got to experience my very first overnight hospital stay, catheter, and prostate exam. I was discharged last night, but the stone hasn't passed yet. I'm on some meds that will relax my muscles (and help the stone on its merry way out), but they make my legs ache like crazy. Isn't it fun to be a grown-up?

I've had them. Not fun. You have my sympathies.

Lucky you! Was he gentle? did you swap numbers? ;)



...seriously, I hope the darn thing passes quietly and without drama now you're on the relaxants. The funny thing about the stones is, they're so small when (if) you finally see them, but they feel like that big ball in the Indy ride when they're going though.

Oh man Mousepod, I am so sorry to hear about that. Yeah I've had a catheter in the hospital also and it makes me a little queasy just thinking about it. I hope you're feeling right as rain soon!

This might cheer you up:

Surprised Kitty!

Mousepod, jeez, get well soon and I hope the stone passes soon and as painlessly as possible. :-(

So, I just gt back from the WD Museum. As I was departing, there in the lobby area, all alone, Richard Sherman. I know this is nothing new for the lucky LA people. I walked up, introduced myself, shook his hand and thanked him for all that wonderful music. It was great and I got all teary eyed, too. I'm sorry, that was just awesome, to me. I've never met a Disney legend before.

I will leave it to Wolfy to report on their very lucky bit of providence. I'm so happy for them, it's very cool.

That story made my day. What a great way to celebrate Walt's birthday.

You made up for the dearth today, wow. I would not have known what to say, the magnitude of what he helped create might have rendered me speechless. You're awesome, D. And so lucky! :snap:

Walked into my regular library late this afternoon and saw someone I had never seen there before: libraryvixen! Was very happy and surprised as she doesn't work at "my" branch ordinarily. It was wonderful to see her again.

Oh Mousepod I'm so sorry. I just had a kidneystone myself. I also had no idea what was going on but it hurt like hell. And got knows what I caught from the endless trips for dry heaves in the ER bathroom. I feel for you. And apparently mine's still stuck and I have an enlarged kidney so I'm in for more upcoming fun.

Hope you're feeling better and I sincerely hope this is the only one you ever get.

I made Nemo wear a Santa Hat - poor pony.

Ouch! I have visited Fej in the hospital when he had a kidney stone and he was NOT a happy camper. I have never had one myself and I hope it stays that way. I hope it passes soon, MP.

So um... John Voight was interesting tonight. I wonder if anyone's going to say anything or if he's going to say the same stuff tomorrow.

What did he do, start babbling about how he often sees the image of Jesus in his morning vodka?

Lani knew it was serious when she said "Should we go to the hospital" and all I said was "yes." And my kidney stone was a relatively easy experience as such things go.

But it is like being pregnant. Once you tell people it has happened everyone gets to tell you all the ways theirs was horrible.

Only a few comments on MP about it yet but they're strongly positive reviews of his comments. Sounds like he did a bit of a War on Christmas speech before getting started.

I was afraid he'd found a way to go off on Obama again.

Leaving Frisco today after spending time with Snowflake at the Disney Family Museum yesterday. What a wonderful mini-vacation it's been! Heading down the 101 for a leisurely trip back home. Thinking of stopping at McKlintock's BBQ for lunch and a stop in Solvang since the Wolfette doesn't remember the town from a previous trip.

Enjoy the Turkey Nuts!

I first read that as "He's not a happy cramper" :eek:

Tell him I said hi, and that I warned him all those piercings would have a negitive effect on his health!

:D ;)

:cheers: Here's to a quick recovery, my friend! :cheers:

Trust me... It's still appropriate.

Recently, there was some minor chatter on LoT about fedoras - it may even have been here in good 'ol "Soooo ..."

Anyway, I was encouraged to obtain and wear a fedora, and I have done just that. Last night, I wore it as I serenaded my partying co-workers.



Here I am workin' a rendition of the Joe Jackson classic "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" I also sang, I kid you not, "Sodomy" from Hair. Hey, it was in the karaoke machine. I was as surprised as everyone else.

Anyway, I hope people like the fedora. For now, it's staying on my pointy little head.

Nice hat flippy :)

I think you look right hansom and dashing in that fedora

Love the tie from the McFlippy Clan too ! ;)

Flippyshark, you look great!




BTW, I like pancakes.

Is there some sort of pancake song that I am not hip enough to know the reference to?

It is snowing at my house. It doesn't stick, but the snowflakes look beautiful falling from the sky.

Very cool! Literally!

Sigh, it's raining.

Normally I love rain, but right now I have a lot of work to do at home that involves working in, and going back and forth from, the garage. And rain is just going to hinder that. On the plus side, I've finished the construction phase of the closet organizer cabinet for the nursery. Now I just have to clean up the garage from that so I can temporarily store all of the fabulous gifts we've received in there while I prep and pain the nursery. Then install the cabinet into the closet, paint the cabinet, and finally install the rest of the closet shelving. That's "all" I have left to do!

Tuesday late afternoon, we're expecting that rain you're having today. It's supposed to turn into a blizzard over the Plains.

Not a prob. Bring it.

I thought it was supposed to be stormy today but I guess it blew through overnight. For now, anyway, it is cold and sunny.

Some people are offering to help make content for my upcoming resource download site. Not sure if I want other people jumping on the bandwagon or not, because then it takes away from keeping things cheap, since I'll have to give them a percentage. Hmmm.

T,

I like the idea of other people helping with the content. It'll give your site a broader selection. Perhaps you could figure out a way to get people to contribute on the cheap. Credit, perhaps?

You have snoap?

So I come to LoT this morning and it asks me to sign in, ok after a few attempts I get it right. The strange thing though is after it said "Thank you for logging in cirquelover" it sent me right back to the place to log in! After doing that three times I just quickly hit the redirect link and was finally able to get here. I don't know if it's just me or LoT. It was wierd though.

Sounds like your cookie got corrupted. If it happens again, clear your cookies.


ETA: In Firefox, open tools->options. Go to the "Privacy" tab, then click "remove individual cookies". Search for "loungeoftomorrow" and delete all that come up.

For IE, use Windows explorer to open the directory: C:\Documents and Settings\[your computer user name]\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files. Find any files with "loungeoftomorrow" in the name and delete. You can also get to this directory by going to tools->internet options. In the general tab, under Browsing History, click "settings", then click "View Files".

Thanks GD, I'll try that if it keeps happening.

So some SOB decided that, in a parking lot that was 80% empty, it would be a good idea to A) park in the spot right next to me, and B) park so far over in said spot that I'm left with ~6" of space to squeeze into my driver side door in the pouring rain. Thanks, a-hole, I'm so happy you saved those 10 extra steps of walking from the next closest space that wouldn't have forced me to slide my body against my soaking wet car to get in.

I hate rain. I live in the desert for a reason. It's raining hard right now. :(

That is irritating, bordering on infuriating.

And vaguely pornographic...

Today for part of her final for a college theater class, my daughter dramatized a job interview I had 22 years ago. The job interview began with "Are you ready for a serious job?" and went downhill from there.

She and her actors got a standing ovation. I'm so proud. And so very vindicated all these years later. How often does that happen.

I would venture to guess that is is a reference to "I Like Pancakes ™" (:cakes:)

I'd tell you guys to let it go already, geez but I just won the Revenge Longevity award by my previous post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLcwg6hXUho :D (NSFW due to some cussing...)

And I would venture a guess that the author of the comic doesn't know WTF that means. And also LET IT THE **** GO ALREADY.

Bacon is delicious and goes very well with pancakes. What do you guys have against pancakes? Do they not leave enough room for bacon?

The pancakes thing is nothing more than a running joke. Just like NA's misspellings, Kevy Baby's unclickable links, Ghoulish Delight's "girthiness", Scaeagle's ham, SacTown's love for Scaeagle's ham, and especially bacon. Dear sweet bacon.

Those things bring laughs and make people smile. They are mere symbols of our connections and camaraderie with each other - not grudges at all.

Hear Hear !!

Our past makes us who we are. If you can't laugh at yourself then someone is going to laugh at you.

pancakes pancakes pancakes pancakes.

and baconnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

And for some, there is only sausage! Girthy, girthy sausage. And ham.

All of which go quite nicely with pancakes.

Damn. Now I'm hungry.

Mmmmmmmmm.....

MMM, that bacon is cooked just the way I like it, nice and crispy. Snappy. :snap:

Really, DP.

The real question - why the fixation with breakfast foods? There's something to contemplate over your morning coffee...

Because if people stay for breakfast, then it's more than just a one-night stand. ;)

Good morning, swanksters! I am imagining the LoT Diner. It's a chrome-clad deco original somewhere in LA, red-upholstered chrome stools at the counter. The smell of bacon is heavy in the air.

"Do you like pancakes?" the waitperson asks.

A woman of a certain age studies the waitperson over the rims of her cateye glasses. "Pour moi, le pain perdu," she says.

The waitperson rolls his eyes. "She always orders French toast," he says in a stage whisper to nobody and everybody. "In French."

"Et des lardons," the woman calls after him.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," he returns. "Bacon. French toast and bacon."

Massive storm here in Phoenix last night. In the 16 years I've been in my house, I cannot recall heavier winds. Looked like the freakin' Tunguska event when I went outside this morning.

Also have a roof leak. Sigh.

Dude, that blows.

Indeed. I suppose after last night I should be thankful I still have a roof at all.

Yup, blew well here in Garden Grove last night as well. But I secure my Christmas Decorations well enough to survive a class 3 huricane...

I only lost one giant lolypop, it fell over so it needs to be re-staked.

And there was a pretty good amount of frost on the cars this morning!

Haven't checked ours this morning, but I bet our train fell over as usual.

Pretty damn cold here today. Yay winter!

Way to try and trick us into thinking that Phoenix has trees.

Well, Saguaro cacti. They fall over, too.

Scraped ice off my car windows this morning.....38 degrees....yuck!

Why is it called "lost bread", I wonder.

(Oh... and lardon sounds like a type of hedon that you get from eating bacon.)

24 degrees in Dublin (if the car dealership sign can be trusted). That's pretty close to the coldest I've experienced in the Bay Area without being way up in the hills.

50' Waves off Maui today/tomorrow.

Hang 10 Cricket!

We woke up to 10 degrees this morning. Of course the heaters in the back half of the house are no longer working so we put an electric heater in the hall. It was 55 degrees in my house this morning! It's so cold in the house I feel like a popsicle.

To top it off the waterline going to the fridge froze and the smoke alarms started in again!

It's going to be a wonderful day, I can tell already!!

We're having similar calamities.

I thought I had taken enough precautions to deal with the crappy leaky door to our garage, but the rain was heavy enough yesterday to have made it through, flooding the garage and nearly ruining the cabinets I built! Fortunately I had yet to clean the 2 inch layer of sawdust off the floor, so that absorbed most of the water and very little actually ended up getting to the cabinets, I think they'll survive.

Meanwhile, the heater in my car seems to have given out. And a GFI socket in our kitchen has tripped (taking the next couple sockets down the line out with it) and won't reset, which has me concerned that there's a leak and water has gotten into the wall.

The fun never ends.

The joys of home ownership.

But you have inspired me to print your last post as a remider that not cleaning my garage could be saving me a lot of money.

So, I'm registered for only 12 credits next semester, and I'm looking forward to the lighter load. For now, I'm going to take a hiatus from dance and concentrate on the technology that I'll be learning. I'm not giving up dance or my fitness quest - will just be doing it at home for a few months. I thought I'd be upset with my decision, but I'm actually quite happy about it. I've just got way too much going on, and my work's been suffering this semester.

Whew! Glad to hear all that work on the cabinets is safe. Although I do have one question. How would you even notice that your cars heater was not working?

Blech, cirquelover. That's horrible when you can't get toasty warm. I hope you and your family get warmed up today.

I made a batch of copycat Starbucks cranberry bliss bars for a party tonight. They're sitting in my walk-in freezer, a.k.a. the porch.

?? Err, it's not blowing hot air.

ETA: Oh, was that supposed to be a "California doesn't get cold weather" thing? It was 40 when I left for work today.

It was 24 here in this part of California (at 5:30 am when walking to the train) and even I'll admit that is cold. Though obviously not as cold as other places.

But I do like being cold in my home. I don't want toasty warm. I want my fingers to ache a little bit and be slightly stiff. I want to have to wear socks (though it is never, ever so cold as to wear any kind of shoe or slipper indoors). I actually slept under a sheet last night instead of on top of all bedding. If Lani would let me I'd keep the bedroom window open so I might even upgrade to a blanket.

"Winter" will probably only last 4 days (at least I could see snow from my house yesterday which is nice considering I spent my first 22 years in daily sight of snow), but I loves it.

California does get right nippy, no question.

It was 34 at myhouse on Sat morning, and that's Phoenix.

The left one, too.

You might want to check the manual for your car. You might have one of these "heater" things of which GD speaks.

Bah humbug! Okay, let me back up the information dumptruck for the next sentence.

Meep meep meep (sound of dumptruck backing up). My hand is on the lever, people. Here goes:

The snow has cancelled the party for which I baked faux Starbucks cranberry thingies - the ones with the frosting, the craisins, and the white chocolate! You get what this means, right? Hubbo, one daughter, and I are snowbound with an entire pan of faux Starbucks cranberry thingies.

I'm feeling very negative today. And Christmas - bah humbug.

Actually - I'd love to be enjoying Christmas if I wasn't so worried about bills - let alone Christmas presents.

And what is it with family that doesn't understand? We do a gift exchange every year and way back in July I said - hey - this year we're broke (and that was before my husband was laid off)... and here we are doing the exchange anyway.

It may be about the feelings and not the gift - but it feels crappy to have someone buy you something very nice and then give them a $20 gift card somewhere because that's all you can really afford. (and since nothing they want is actually 20 or less - I figure a gift card at least gets them part of the way there.) Or I coudl just pick up something they don't want or need - like ahot chocolate gift set from Walmart.

Yea - I'm cranky today.

Can I go home now?

I assume that what makes them "faux" is that you copied a baked item from Starbucks but made it taste good? Just that little tweak to set it off from the original?

3894- I suggest you keep them out in the "walk in freezer", you know the old saying out of sight out of mind. I doubt it will work but it's worth a try!

How about you make some other goodies to go with them and hand out some holiday sweets trays to your friends and family? That's what I do every year.

That's the key to successful weight loss during the holidays - fatten up every else around you, then you're the skinny one! ;)

(I'm guilty of this from awhile back. :evil: )

The problem is you don't stay skinny because you have to test everything, don't want to give friends bad food, and if it really hits the spot you eat a few more. I found I had that trouble with the TJ's candy cane Jo Jo truffles I made. They were just too good to stop eating!

Our house cleaner read my mind and put the flannel sheets on the bed. I can't wait to go to bed tonight!

I wish we had flannel sheets! Seriously, this is too cold for me. I'm not able to deal with this any more!!! All I want now is soup.

Sometimes I love wikipedia.

!!!NSFW Perineum NSFW!!



Seriously. NSFW

No 'taint.

OMG!! I'm Blind!! I'm Blind!!!

It winked at me...

...you SHOULDN'T post links like that ........you're not kevy.



...having said that - her, ahem, home maintenance is exemplary.

Just for you, Lash (and some others I suppose). I hope I get this link right, I'm posting it with my eyes closed:

also, NSFW NSFW NSFW

Perineum

LOL! Thank you ! ;)

But the USPS is still working right? Sent them our way!

Or send the recipe.

You could try t-shirt sheets. They're warm but not quite as warm as flannel, so you can use them more of the year. And SUPER comfy! (Then again, so is flannel).

Dang... this is making me wanna break out the flannel sheets myself!

I had sooooo much fun in CA.
I'll post about it soon.
Tired now, tho.
Zzzzzzz!

There was so much snow last night that the governor closed all non-essential state services. The last time that happened was several decades ago, and we get snow all the time, of course. This was Big Snow.

This is what I used. SFW

I did put mine back in the walk-in freezer. They're definitely going to the neighbors across the street, an elderly woman and her grown son. Both of them have cancer and love to eat sweets on the days they're feeling okay.

And now to the other end of the digestive tract: the perineum. Yeah, sometimes that tears during childbirth. My births were c-sections so I wouldn't know but I hear stories. Everyone says you don't feel a thing because of the pressure of the baby's head in the birth canal.

29 on the sheltered patio.

It looks like rain for MA, which means The Boy & I may not be able to make it over the pass.

The view out the window three minutes ago.

Snow is so beautiful...but man, I have no idea how you live there. ;)

I do sometimes wish I had more occasion to wear cute scarves and hats and gloves and spring for a bitchen' peacoat...

It's the glamour.

and the close proximity to fine artisinal cheeses?

Ever since I read about the "silent duck", I've been a little more impressed/afraid of the information available on Wikipedia.

I feel a bit woozy having gone from a nasty anus close-up to a beautiful snow picture.

I LOVE your view 3894.

Because I do not live in a city with snow, nor did I really have to shovel enough of it in VA, I can still wax poetic about the joys of being snowbound. I can sympathize for you if it's going to be a LONG and DEEP winter of the fluffy white stuff.

Keep warm and make a nice peppermint hot chocolate (spiked with schanps, perhaps?)

The snow is beautiful. Having said that, it was 29 degrees yesterday when I left for work and 32 this morning. The defroster had to actually de-FROST the windows and not just defog them. I don't think living in the snow is for me. It's a nice place to visit from time to time but just the heating costs alone must cost a fortune!

During the three coldest months of the winter, our total gas and electric bill is between $350 and $400/month.

When you live in this kind of a climate, you just have to join winter (ice skating, Nordic skiing, skijoring which is a sport I hope to take up, beaucoup de hot chocolate) because you sure can't beat it.

If you don't know what skijoring is, you really need to google it. SFW Seriously, you will love. :)

Nice. I wonder how many chihuahuas it will take to pull Heather and me.

Motorized skjoring looks like it would be fun, and fast.

It was 7 degrees when I left for school Monday, and today it's 13 degrees. As cold as it is, it has yet to snow. I can't believe I'm saying this, but....I do wish it would snow. Even just a tiny bit. Man, I'm sick, aren't I? :eek:

Anyway, I was looking up this group called ''See What I'm Saying'' and they are so cool. They're all people that are deaf, and they're all making a movie together about their life as one.

That looks like a really cool documentary movie. We'll have to check it out if it ever comes our way.

I know what you're saying about the cold, it was 9 degrees this morning. That's not normal for the western part of Oregon. The news said it was -16 in Bend this morning. No snow for us either but we get freezing rain on Friday!

That's what Helen needs: a Peppermint Patty !!

We had them in the Awahnee in Yosemite, and they were mighty good - so good even Lisa had to try them :eek: (she was given the wrong glass by the server).

Now I want Snow. Boo Hoo. All we get is sun and beaches and surf and great weather.

At first glance, out of the corner of my eye, I thought lashbear had changed his avatar to that picture.

I've never seen one that looks at you....

That was fun. What a great place- they served mixed nuts with our drinks! (Hey, I was hungry.....)

As far as your weather down there......bite me. :p

*sigh*

I spent all last night dreaming I couldn't sleep.

Now I'm all messed up.

I hate that.

A snack to go with the company

That happened long before last night!

Yeah, it has been awhile since I met you.

I dreamed I was at some kind of dinner. Me and my family had been seated with a family of very huge donors to the Republican Party. Like that would ever happen in a million years.

The Republican woman, very stylish, kept trying to argue with us. I kept trying to change the subject to Montana because I knew they had a vacation place there.

You know what I think triggered this dream? This blog about stylish old people. I stumbled across it the other day.

It's all in the editing, but, brother Michael won Top Chef over Bryan (and poor Kevin Gillespie got robbed because he had a bad day)?

Yeah, I'm bummed. But then - Kevin swung and missed with a pork dish. That's supposed to be his signature, so while I still think he was the better overall chef during the season, I can understand where the judges were coming from on that. Can they really give Top Chef to someone who didn't deliver on what's supposed to be his best dish?

I wish Bryan had won over Michael. Sure, Michael had the better record during the season, but he's just such an arrogant prick, and so much of his food did seem gimmicky.

But whatever, I'm pretty sure Kevin is the one who will benefit the most from the season, title or not. He may not get the $150K, but he sure did get name recognition and a fan base out of the deal.

Apparently the brothers you are talking about are locals. It's been all over the press here. Minus the "Gillespie go robbed" bit of course..

GD, I am sure you are totally correct with Kevin. Hell, watching him cook over these last weeks made me want to travel to Atlanta.

Listening to the edited Judge's Table, I was all set to have Bryan win as he seemed to win the day (and I was okay with that) an then WTF?

Well, Moonie, I will bet it will be a tough reservation to get these days. :-)

I get the feeling that, unless both Kevin and Michael utterly failed at the final challenge, which neither did, Bryan didn't stand a chance. He'd been solid, but with no quickfire wins, it would be hard to justify over either of those two. By having a really excellent final, he earned the honor of being part of the nominal final 2, but it was really always between Michael and Kevin (admittedly a toss-up, despite my personal preference for Kevin), and since Michael beat Kevin that day, he won it.

I'm just going to blame Preeti.

Can anyone TIVO these Top Chef episodes and send them over here? I miss out on all the good stuff.

If they do a marathon, I will try to record them for you.

All of the episodes are currently up on u se n et, and available as b it t or rent, too... if you don't want to wait...

Maybe this should be in the vampire thread but since we're talking TV......We have every episode of True Blood Season 2 recorded EXCEPT the first one and they don't seem to be repeating it any time soon. Should I wait until I get #1 or just plow through and try to pick up what I missed. I mean, how much could 1 episode reveal?

I think you'll be okay. Just watch 2.1 when you can and enjoy the rest now.

The silver lining to the flu: weight loss!!!

I think that's the only benefit of the flu. I hope you feel better soon.

I'd guess it's a scam since you can fix LCD burn in.

It's been removed, so i think it was a scam....

Last night I went to Disneyland in the rain to see Stompy Jones. The band drives down from San Francisco so I figured it was the least I could do to show up and watch them play. But would anyone else be there?

They'd moved the chairs and tables to the back half of the dance floor (the dance floor and bandstand are the only covered areas) but the floor was wet. So the cast member in charge (I think her name is Margaret) brought out towels and had all the early arrivals shuffling around on towels to dry the floor. The floor stayed damp and slippery all evening and I kept expecting them to stop the band but Margaret told us she would let them play as long as possible.

An amazing (considering the ugly weather) number of people showed up and it turned into a really fun night. Usually there are two or three big groups of dancers who keep to their own sides of the dance floor but we were all squashed together and had to mix more and it was great. All other entertainment was cancelled due to the weather but Stompy was able to play all of the their usual four sets. I don't think that would have happened if it had been any other band.
:snap: :cool:

That's great to hear they let them continue - and that no-one slipped !

lindyhop, one of the highlights of my trip was seeing you cut a rug. So awesome.
:)

Aw, shucks...:blush:

Next time it is this cold, you have my permission to not go to school.

Mine, too. Silly kid loves school- can't get her to play hookie for nothing.

You must be ashamed. Where did you go wrong?

A news story out of Ashville, North Carolina has brought to my attention the following:


Apparently there are several more states that still have this language in their constitutions.


Now, I'm not really worried about anybody being barred because of these (existing case law pretty well establishes that the U.S. Constitution barring religious tests for office applies to state and local government as well).



I just find it interesting that they're still there and that any attempt to remove them quite possibly would fail and every once in a while someone is put through the hassle (and sometimes expense, one guy spent $100k on court costs in 1990 to become a notary public in South Carolina despite being an atheist).


That said, I would not be above using atheism as my way of avoiding jury duty in Arkansas.

And according to the town charter, Chief Wiggum gets a pig and two comely lasses of virtue true!

I imagine that if one looked into such nonsense, the rationale would be not so much that atheists are morally or mentally deranged but that in denying a Supreme Being, they lack the capacity to take the necessary oaths.

Well, at least if you really wanted to be a witness, you could say you DO believe in A God. You don't necessarily have to disclose that your God is Bacon... ;)

Sadly that wouldn't work for me either. I'm a bacon atheist as well.

I think the rationale is generally that if you don't believe a God is looking over your shoulder, waiting to punish you for lying despite the oath, then what reason does the court have to believe you're telling the truth.

Essentially a variation on how can you be a moral person without god?

Yo, Lashbear and Stoat!
 

I bought a package at the grocery store today.

Ooh, I wonder if they have any of the classic dark at my store. When I got them in NZ, I liked the dark chocolate varieties best.

I noticed them at my stores a few weeks ago. Will be buying some soon!

Well, I must seek them out to see how close to the original they are!



And whenever I see the name "Pepperidge Farms", I always remember the old guy with what I think was a bit of a Maine accent saying "Pepparidge Fahms remembuhs"

A store where my brother lives had them and I picked up a few boxes. Of course Gary took them to Portland with him and ate them all!

Really? What about the Easter Bunny? Or Columbus?

How about Cleveland or Cincinnati? WHAT ABOUT TOLEDO?!?