I have got to find their website. It would be a shame to disrupt Bush's publicity stops while he's in London. Really. No sarcasm at all in that statement.

RIP - A very sad item that has been largely overlooked by the news:

Jonathan Brandis - Actor who began appearing in films and TV at the age of 5, and as a child appeared in films like "Fatal Attraction", "Lady Bugs" and "Stephen King's 'It'", who is probably best known as star of the TV series "SeaQuest DSV", which propelled him to cover boy status in numerous teen magazines, and who recently starred in the 2002 film "The Year That Trembled", was found dead on Nov. 12 in his Los Angeles apartment of undetermined causes (no signs of violence). He was 27 years old. Here's where I got the obit.

A really neat story, even if it seems doubtful. A good sci-fi movie could come of this.

Save Wilbur the Turkey!!!!!

Well, soon we may all be able to sleep easy with this puzzle solved.

Interesting Stonehenge story.

So, what's been happening around here. It's been raining again. Flooding again. I didn't get flooded in or out of my home so it was a really neat weather event for me, since I got to enjoy seeing all the flood waters as I drove to work and back. Tomorrow is our Thanksgiving Dinner at work. I'm bringing a variation on my Triple Chocolate Dessert of Death. This one is only Double Chocolate. I've replaced white chocolate with peanut butter chips. I've never made this before, so I will probably have to taste test it before subjecting my co-workers to it. But I'm sure it will be good. I have read three of my four Alias books so far. Next up is the one about Sydney's dad. He's my favorite character on the show. The cold I had last week is still lingering. It's getting really annoying. I forget who I picked for the designer for this week's Changing Rooms contest on BBCA's website but I don't think it was Gordon and he was the designer. Oh well. I thought it was funny that one home-owner had his freezer stuffed with pizzas. Just pizzas. You gotta love that.

For my friend, Daniel, who hasn't heard much about Bush's visit to London, here are some links to some news articles. I hope you don't have to go anywhere for the next few days. It sounds like a nightmare.

Bush's Visit to London

Unprecedented Security...

"This Unelected (Chickenhawk) Fraud"

Hail to the Chief

Al-Qaeda eagerly await Bush's London visit

Second verse, same as the first.....

Hey, other people have a problem with Bush... Too bad it won't make a difference. Only those who agree with the Current Administration have a voice here now....

Now for my soapbox about the controversy over same sex marriages. The religious folks, like our President, claim that marriage is a sacred act sanctioned by religion and same sex couples should not be married. Well, my view is that if marriage is a religious act, then the government should not regulate or license it. Marriage should be completely controlled by religion alone and there should not be licenses and all the legal stuff that goes with it, like Social Security benefits for spouses and Joint tax returns for married couples, and right to inherit when one spouse dies. Separation of Church and State should come into play here. You can't legislate religion and it's time Republicans wake up and realize it. If people want someone to benefit from their social security, if they want to file joint tax returns, if they want to select a person to inherit their stuff when they die, then the government should allow everyone to designate one person to act in that role, be it a mother, a son, a friend, or the religiously sanctioned "spouse". Now for the link to the story that inspired this little speech.

I don't know why they were so mad at this guy. He just said what many other people are thinking.

I heard on Nation Public Radio this morning that the President and First Lady will be staying at The Palace while in London???? And I heard that their security people will be making the Queen wear an ID badge. That I believe. I mean, President Bush probably couldn't identify England on a map, let alone recognize the world's most recognizable woman next to Mother Teresa. And besides, it's so obvious by her appearance that she's some kind of terrorist - NOT! How insulting can you get, making the poor woman wear an id badge in her own home.

I think this guy is just a bit mad. Pardon the pun. But the raid on the bar is a serious incident, despite how this guy writes the article. Why don't they just tax alcohol like they do tobacco? It might cut down on excessive drinking.

The stupid idea has been resurrected. Idiots. Average citizens have lost their freedoms due to the Patriot Act, but this can continue.

I can't wait to see the documentary about this one

Interesting archaeology article.


Another Monday. Another yucky day at work. Nothing much happened. George told me he's going to be a daddy again by next July. He has one child already, a daughter, Haley, who is a couple of months older than my niece. Thursday is our Thanksgiving dinner at work. It's a potluck affair. So, naturally, I'm counting down the days until then. I'm reading one of my Alias books I got last week. It's really good. I plan to finish it tonight and start the next one tomorrow.

Thanks to Daniel's and Chris's blog, I have found this funny site.

I have to spotlight this.

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, no, it's another comet passing close to Earth.

Jesse Ventura once again expounded on the evil of a two party political system tonight on his show. One of his more amusing comments - he said he had remarked to someone that America was only one step better than Communist Russia - Russia gave you one choice in an election and America, being ever so much more advanced, gives you TWO choices. He also interviewed college basketball coach Bobby Knight, newsmaker for his temper. Jesse also spotlighted the Senate non-vote on the $87 Billion aid package for Iraq. He thought it was dispicable that 94 out of 100 Senators didn't vote on that bill. We pay them to do their job and they don't even vote. But Senator Byrd voted. He's got guts when 94 other weasels don't. Jesse's hero this week is Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine, for buying the Jessica Lynch pictures and vowing not to publish them.

Tonight was Laurence's episode of Trading Spaces: British Invasion. He did a great bedroom with a red mural of trees and a pillar. And he was under budget too. He met the challenge and emerged victorious.

I saw Kid Rock on the Johnny Cash Tribute concert on CMT. He sang a song I'd never heard before, but it apparently was a Cash song. Kid should give up that rap stuff and come on over to country.

Mom screwed up my tape tonight. I was taping an episode of Kim Possible to add to my video collection and she turned the channel to the Johnny Cash Tribute. Then she got all bent out of shape when I complained, saying she would have to buy her own tv and stuff. Well, the tribute show was on the tv in the Family room. There's no reason she couldn't sit in there with dad to watch it. And I did buy the satellite dish receiver box on the tv I was using for my taping. And I did pay half on the tv. And it wasn't like she would have gotten to watch much of it in here anyway since at 9pm I was going to watch Trading Spaces. I had to give up the whole day of tv for my niece and suffer with Jo Jo's Circus and Rollie Pollie Ollie, and Recess, and the Wiggles, and Stanley, and the Proud Family. Of course, my niece didn't watch but maybe three minutes of tv every hour or so, but that didn't mean I could turn the channel. And I couldn't watch anything in here because the second I come in this room, my niece is all over the computer wanting to see the Catz program. Oh yeah, I forgot Lilo and Stitch. Can't forget that show. And Sister, Sister, and Even Stevens.

But I'm told that I will have the house all to myself for part of the day tomorrow, with both mom and dad out working. Yay!!!!!!!!!!

Another study proves chocolate is good for you. Don't know about all those marshmallows though.

Another bill proves Republicans are on the take from special interests. The last line of the article says it all. I would suggest that you write your representatives in Washington, but if they are Republican, they won't listen unless you're a lobbyist and if they're Democrats, then apparently they can't even get into the committees to actually do their jobs.

Some may laugh at this, but I wouldn't be surprised if he actually intended to do it.

Another article on the Bush Administration's efforts to mislead the American people and the International Community.

Finally, someone speaking out against the Bush Administration and the "Patriot Act" aka "Only the Bush Administration is entitle to freedom and civil liberties in this country"

Too bad the Bush Administration and the Republicans in Congress have already sold their meager souls to the Oil Industry.

How did this one slip by the Bush Administration? Someone actually has a civil liberty despite the Patriot Act.

I was asked the other day if there was a way to search for blogs. And while I don't know of a search function, there is this website that lists thousands of updated blogs.

I'd like to hear Dr. Phil's reaction to this story....

So, I'm watching a show on the TLC channel about finding Noah's Ark. They were talking about some expedition in Iraq years and years ago and how Iraq had all those artifacts in its museum. And I was thinking, well if the U. S. can't find the weapons of mass destruction, maybe it can find Noah's Ark. Or did Saddam have it in some 'mobile lab' too? Maybe Saddam is refurbishing the Ark and planning to use it as an escape vehicle. Personally, I think after the flood receded, Noah looked around and said, "Hey, I need a house to live in," so he dismantled the ark and built houses and barns for his family and animals.

And Pete Rose can't get into the Hall of Fame!!! What a rip-off!!!


Tonight it's going to be 27 degrees. I will be sleeping on my flannel Piggy sheets. I can't wait to try them out. They are so cute!

Nice place for books sold at a discount.

Well, I guess he figures that he can't hurt California if he isn't there?? Maybe Bush set a bad example by taking all the vacations he does...

A very unflattering picture of country singer, Wynonna. And she shouldn't drink and drive either.

Very cool news from Egypt

A top ten list of scientific hoaxes

Please, oh please, let this be the final death blow to that stupid email people still are gullible enough to fall for.

Another day of work. This week is the longest week I've had in a long time. And I've only worked two days. But tomorrow is team meeting day. I like team meetings, even though no one else does. It's nice to put faces to those voices I hear coming across those cubicle walls. I wonder if there will be food at this team meeting. No one's mentioned it. Better take a little extra $$ just in case. Little Miss Commissioner, the adjustment unit chick who's on my list, actually did one of my audits without changing anything. I was stunned. I thought for sure she would want to do a modification or convert the Dollars into Dinars or something. I read an article in an issue of Atlantic Monthly that John had in his office that said that high achievement in men occurs most often in unmarried men as opposed to married ones. That married men peak in achievement in their late 20's but unmarried men or divorced ones can achieve up into their 50's. I told John that now I knew why he wasn't married - he wanted to achieve great things. And he said, 'Yeah, like this job.' LOLOL - he's so funny. To get Tony and Julie back for saying that we were a couple, John and I should make up cutesy names for each other and spring them on everyone when they least expect it. Julie would catch on to the gag, but Tony wouldn't. He's a typical jock.

I think the kids should bring crosses to school. They are a secular symbol as well - in the South, they were burned as a protest to civil rights.

I wouldn't name Tony's dog Del Monte...

A wonderfully nice man, he sent me a personal reply to my fan email I sent him.


Today was an ok day at work. I'm still sick, so I'm not treadmilling tonight. Julie and Tony said that they thought it was suspicious that John and I always take the same days off, so we must be an "item". Well, except for the fact that he was off on Halloween day and I worked, their thought processes are just astounding. As if I'd let any man that close to my house money. I got trapped in the bathroom today at work. The lock is broken on one of the stalls and I couldn't get the handle to work to unlock the door. But, being the resourceful person I am, I pulled out my car keys and pried the door open.

I got my Alias books today from Amazon. I had ordered 4 of them and the last one on the list wasn't due to be released until this month, so I had a pretty long wait. I can't wait to start reading them.

Hey Scarlett, I told you wrong on how to do the permanent links, like my link to the guestbook. I'll copy that part of my program and get it to you tomorrow.

Finally!! I picked the right designer for tonight's Changing Rooms contest. It was Linda Barker. I'll have to play again for next week's episode.

Check out the Kid Rock Media Player .

US Government coverup of 9/11.

Last day of my little vacation. Bummer. I'm still sick. I just got a Kid Rock fan club email, some smart aleck signed me up for the email. Kid has recorded a remake of Bad Company's song "I Feel Like Makin' Love". I liked Bad Company's version better, but Kid's version is ok. Right now, I've got the tv on to MTV waiting for the premiere of the video. I bet it will be the last thing and I'll have to suffer through all the crappy music to get to it.

Not Guilty Verdict from TEXAS!! What's happening to the world???

Well, I believe him.

RIP

I just took this quiz on the Disney Channel, Kim Possible, website. It's supposed to tell you what kind of villain you are. Well, I'm a traditional glamour villain. It says true villainy is not in my blood but I shine when I help others achieve their villainous goals. The Kim Possible character who represents the glamour villain is Shego. I had a work related comment but as it's my day off, I'm not going to add it. Days off are sacred.

The Disney channel has been showing the movie, Hocus Pocus, every day for the past few weeks. I saw the movie when it first came out and it was ok. But lately, something about it has been bugging me. For some reason, the Sanderson Sisters, the witches of the movie, remind me of the Dixie Chicks. I have no idea why, but unfortunately, I think of them everytime I see the commercial for the movie. Hmm.... Hopefully, the Disney channel will stop showing this movie soon and start showing The Santa Clause or Toy Story or something.

I think I'm getting a cold. I do have a sore throat and I've been tired all day. But I did do a mile and a half on the treadmill. Fritz got a bath today. He didn't try to escape until the end so I managed to get some of the soap rinsed off of him. I spent today watching the Travel Channel and some cooking shows. I figured I should take the opportunity to watch something different since it was an extra day off and I usually watch BBCA.

If he can't take it like a man, then Bush shouldn't go there. So much for free speech and basic civil liberties. I guess instead of the Taliban and Hussein learning a lesson in democracy from the US, our wonderful President has learned a few lessons in dictatorship from them.

Okay, I just watched Alias. The creator of the show, JJ Abrams, swears that us viewers will like Vaughn's wife. I'd like to know when that's going to kick in, because tonight she not only turned Sydney in to her smarmy, evil boss, but she relieved Dixon of duty and had the nerve to tell her hubby that because she was his wife, he was supposed to disobey direct orders from his boss and tell her everything about his missions, even though she thinks it's perfectly acceptable to keep her secrets from her hubby (she's giving female logic a bad name). I don't see much to like about this woman. In fact, I'm liking Sloane more than I am her and Sloane killed Sydney's fiance in the series' first episode. Oh, and thanks ABC, now I have to wait two weeks to see the next episode.

Doughnuts are evil. Especially the jelly filled variety. I was doing great on my diet and exercise program - a whole week. And then Mom had to bring doughnuts home. So, tomorrow, the diet begins again. It's not like Mom didn't know I'd spent a whole week on that treadmill or anything.

This sounds like Microsoft learned nothing from the anti-trust lawsuit they've been fighting.

Space news.

More unfeeling brutes. Why hasn't the Today Show covered this story yet?! This poor woman should not be victimized by whining snobs!

I like these kinds of stories....

Bush is still inferior. Let's elect Quayle. He's still smarter than the Current Administration.


Did some Christmas shopping today with my sister. We ate too much at a buffet place. The dogs were very excited to see me when I got home. They don't like it when I disappear for the whole day.

Jesse Ventura's America was once again a veritable gem. Tonight's subjects were the $87 Billion we're spending in Iraq and the controversy over a Lt. Col of the military in Iraq who is being court martialed for scaring an Iraqi prisoner into disclosing details about an impending attack on the Colonel's unit. The Colonel didn't lay a hand on the prisoner and the military wants to court martial him. He just completed 20 years of service and his pension will disappear if he's court martialed. Obivously, America's Current Administration has lost all sense. If it ever had any to begin with. America is keeping hundreds of 'enemy combatants' in Cuba without representation and due process but scaring a prisoner in Iraq is somehow wrong. I urge everyone to write their Congresspeople, the White House, the Pentagon with messages of support for this Colonel. In fact, I believe Sen. Jay Rockefeller is on the Armed Services Committee in Congress. Here's a link for more on the story.


And, here's the link for the transcripts of Jesse Ventura's show. Tonight's episode isn't up yet, but it soon will be.

I'm watching Trading Spaces right now. No Handy Andy on this episode, and that nightmare designer, Hildie, has painted a whole room black. I don't think she's ever done a room I like. The chairs and dining room table in this room are being painted bright, bright yellow. A guy just said that it's going to be a giant bumble bee. Another example of how different this show is from Changing Rooms. The designers on Trading Spaces don't listen to the people as well as those on Changing Rooms. Uh-oh, the next episode of TS shows another room being painted black. Where do these people get these ideas?

I missed the lunar eclipse tonight. I was here instead. Oh well. I think it was cloudy out tonight anyway.

So, this is what the Current Administration wanted the $87Billion for. No wonder they refuse to provide budgets to Congress.

Now if only the troops can get from their camps to the airport without being shot down.


Today was a very long day. I have the next four days off, so naturally, I didn't want to do anything today at work. That weasel Tony snuck out without telling anyone around Noon today. He was our back up supervisor and the trainer for two of our workers, you'd think he would have an idea about the kind of responsibility and obligation his position in our office requires, but no. And he has the nerve to lecture the workers about how if he's going to be their trainer then they can't ask anyone else for help because he can't train 4 different ways to do the job, he will only train his way. Well, if he's going to be their trainer, I would think the first thing he needs to concern himself with would be actually showing up. If I have to hear that speech one more time, I will probably smack him. Right after I puke. His wife called twice for him after he'd left, hope he gets into some trouble for not being at work. His wife has the 'honey do' list all planned out for his days off so he must have thought that by sneaking out, he wouldn't have the honey do list to do today and he could just lay around. But what he doesn't realize is that women always get their share of everything, maybe not today, but someday, she will get these few hours back from him. I may have to think of some prank to play on him about this leaving early.

The baby is here this evening. Apparently, it is illegal for a grandpa to tell a baby 'no'. Because rather than tell Jasmine no when she started pushing all the buttons on our very expensive lexmark printer, my dad just decided to try to pull every cable attached to the printer out of its jack. It's a wonder he didn't break it. I eventually had to unplug it from the outlet.

Tracy - if you're reading this, scroll down and take the How Sexy Are You quiz. We think it's rigged because everyone we know has scored in the 0 to 10 point range. And if anyone can score higher, it has to be you, because you rock :)

Write your Congressperson! Write the President! Write Donald Rumsfeld! This is an egregious crime against family values!! Don't let the Current Administration destroy a family!

Okay, I found this on Daniel's and Chris's blog. It's a How sexy are you quiz. Here's how I scored:

You are:
Shy & Sexy (0-10 points)

You scored 2 points – According to this test you are shy & sexy
You are not the type the opposite sex is immediately attracted to. It takes some time for the opposite sex to realize how attractive you really are. You are quite shy by nature and hate being the centre of attention. But although you are quiet, people who get to know you a little better respect your quiet nature and lovely character. Shyness also has ‘sex appeal’; it is considered a sign of sincerity and comes across as ‘cute’ and disarming. Keep being yourself and do not rush into things, just take the time you need and everything will be fine!

A measly 2 points :( It's no wonder I'm doing this blog.

I can't wait to see one. I'm one of those people who's collecting all the State quarters.

You're only allowed four fish?


Today was pretty good at work. Except for Little Miss Commissioner. That's a new nickname for an obnoxious state office employee. She thinks she runs the whole Bureau. But I followed Julie's philosophy - I asked myself if this one thing was going to matter to me 5 years from now, and of course I said no. So, I didn't get all hostile about it. Yesterday, Tony was getting teasing emails from the Help desk people because of his little page down problem. They said something about his irresistible animal magnetism and I said, "What animal - an armadillo?" Tony shook his head and said, "Thanks for keeping me humble." So, today, after he left for the other office, I made a sign that gave him the title "Supreme Grand Poobah" of the Sublime Mystical Order of the Armadillo. At the bottom of the sign was the slogan, "Animal Magnetism to Spare". Everyone thought it was hilarious. Don't know what Tony thought. I left work before he got back to the office. I do have a copy of the sign though. It might come in handy again someday.

Monthly statistics came out today and Darlena, Julie and Tracy's caseload increased in all the good things. I sent an email to the bosses to point it out. We don't get enough recognition in our jobs for the good things that happen.

Went shopping tonight at the grocery store. This Kroger Strike is really annoying. I got into the other grocery store and saw only one shopping cart. That meant that every other shopping cart was being used by another customer. Tons of people were in that store and it really sucked. But the line did move pretty quickly.

I should buy this! It's got my favorite wrestler, Barry Windham, in it. Oh yeah, and the Nature Boy.

It may be your first amendment right, but it can also get you killed if you believe that story about it being a gang initiation tactic.

And I work with some of them...


Today was pretty good at work. A little boring, but we had fun joking with each other. It took Tony an hour to find out he had to page down to the next page to find the option he was looking for in our computer system. I teased him quite a bit over that. I think Fritz tore up some of the carpet in my parents' room a little while ago, I heard something ripping. Brenda, who works with Polly in wood co, officially asked me to return to wood co. It took me a while to find a polite way of saying, "Are you nuts? I'm not working with those insane sweatshop managers." I didn't want to offend my friends who still have to work for them. I told Tony I got an invitation to return and he said, "Do you really think we'll let you leave?". It's nice being liked. And Tracy found out her test scores from her second level training class. So, I made her a certificate and we all signed it to commemorate her achievement in the class.

Wrong again! It isn't Linda Barker, it's Graham! They've been doing the show for so many years, their styles are mixing. And Oliver is painting a wall pink! They've all gone nuts on this show this week.

Another reason NOT to vote for Bush. Worst Jobs rate since When??

Well, this explains it all. Not.

Update on Ming the Tiger.

A good pet story!

I heard about this on National Public Radio this morning.

Not much happened at work today. Julie says she's doing well on her diet. But it's only been a day and a half, so I'm reserving judgment. Tracy said she bought a young horse at the stockyards this weekend for $15.00. The horse was skin and bones and almost completely blind and it was going to be sold for slaughter or something so she thought she would do a good deed and buy him. Then she found him a home with a neighbor who is going to have a veterinarian check out the horse's eyes.

Tonight there is another new Changing Rooms episode on BBCA. Well, new for America. I entered the "Guess the Designer" contest again at the BBCA website. This time I picked Linda Barker. It's got to be her. Who else uses that lime green color in a room?

This was on the local news too. My thinking on adult book stores is this: As long as they are legal, there's no point in protesting and doing these website things. If you have a problem with them, get the law changed. I love how Americans think they can trample all over the civil rights of other Americans simply because they don't agree with them. The "I'm better than you so you have to conform to my will" approach is failing miserably in Iraq. You'd think people would buy a clue and figure this out.

Another Monday workday has come and gone. I sent Polly an email this morning with a link to a job posting open in her office, but she never opened it. Either she was off today, or her bosses gave her even more job duties and she was so buried under the mounds of work that she couldn't reach her pc. Julie has quit her second job. She was just saying last week that she was going to keep it until next year so she could pay off her credit card bills. But she had to work 9 hours Friday night after working 8 hours Friday day and she just decided that was enough. Julie has also given up Hershey bars and Pepsi. We are all a bit worried that by Thursday, she will be a terror to work with. The boss is going to be in training tomorrow for Microsoft Word and then I think she's going to be off the rest of the week. It's nice when the boss isn't there. Things are more relaxed.

Alias was good last night. I didn't read the whole episode summary like I have been and it made for a better episode. I'm becoming a Sark fan. Sark is a villain on the show. He's more human this season than he was in the others. And Sloane was great. But I do have to say that Sydney's white go-go dress made her look fat. You'd think the costumer would test these things first.

From the "You've got to be Kidding me" files....

A vote for Bush is a vote for more deaths of U.S. soldiers. I know that's harsh, but these mindless Republicans have to wake up sometime and see that the Current Administration's 'strategy' is nothing more than the President's Napoleon Complex run amuck.

Tonight's episode of Jesse Ventura's America was really good. Jesse took on the spokesperson for the Republican National Committee. It was great. The transcript isn't posted yet on the MSNBC website, but I urge everyone to keep checking in to read the transcript when it is posted. Tonight was also the first night of the British Invasion on Trading Spaces. Handy Andy was in this episode. He's so cute. I think that Paige Davis has a crush on him too. She seemed to have a bit of a sparkle in her eye this week. And she wore a very non-dyi flowing white skirt and blue top - hard to paint and rip up carpet in it, so it's obvious she had something else in mind. Not that I blame her :)

The newest reality tv show on NBC is called Average Joe. It stars a beautiful woman who has to find her true love among a group of average guys. If it was a 'beautiful' guy and average women, the media would be all over this as insulting and degrading to the average (geeky and pudgy) women. But as long as it's geeky and pudgy men, it must be ok. Can you tell I really don't like these reality shows?

Tonight I found out that the guy who plays the boss on the BBC show The Office is going to play a villain on Alias! I can't wait. I haven't had a chance to watch The Office yet, but the commercials are good and this guy should be a really cool villain.

Tips for getting a live operator


So, today was the retirement party for Barbara N. in the Roane co. office. There was turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, squash casserole, sweet potato casserole, corn, beans, peas, three kinds of pasta salad, lasagna, rolls, salad, and other assorted side dishes. They also had cake, brownies, and a coconut cake. We ate 'til we were stuffed. Then they gave Barbara her gifts. She got a quilt rack, a jewelry armoire, some jewelry and the big gift - her family got together and bought her a brand new minivan. It was the first time and probably the last time I will ever see someone get a car as a gift. Unless it's a hotwheels or matchbox car. Unfortunately, we had to come back to our office and 'work' after the party. Tony left after the party because he didn't feel like working. Darlena worked a little bit. I only worked when Darlena asked me a question. Julie attended a baby shower that another unit in the office was holding for one of their employees. Tracy is back from training. She's a riot. It's about time our office had someone young and energetic.

I did a bit of Christmas shopping tonight. I didn't plan on it, but there I was and I saw something on the Christmas list and had to get it. It's a gift for Mom. I checked WalMart tonight for Kim Possible (the Disney channel cartoon) books but didn't see any. Although I did see Kim Possible toys. Everyone was in town tonight. Not only does most of the local population get paid today, but it's the big football game against our cross town rivals, the Ravenswood Red Devils. Those fans were in town and then for some reason, kids from Wayne county were in town. I actually got trapped in a corner of WalMart by two very rude families with tons of kids looking at toys. There should be a law about kids in stores.

I was watching tv last night and saw a commercial for Yahoo. The song that was playing on the commercial was a Barry Manilow song (Yippee!!!). But they had rocked it up some. Well, gotta go. The baby wants the catz program and I gotta feed the dogs and take them out. Someone else can play the catz for the baby.

Heard about this on NPR today

Really good quotes from Albert Einstein

Work was more of the same today. We have a retirement party tomorrow and weeks ago, we were asked to tell the planners what we were bringing. Well, we told them and we only found out today that they didn't want what we were bringing. So, we all decided we would chip in a couple dollars each on a medium sized vegetable tray. I hope it's crap. I told Angie I was going to make what I was bringing next week and bring it in for us in the Jackson co. office to enjoy. The Roane co. office always treats Jackson co. like third class citizens. When Marlene's mom died, Angie called over to the Roane co. office to see about coordinating food donations to the family, as is customary in the Bible Belt. Well, they told Angie that they had already done what they were going to do and we could just do something on our own. If we are going to get the Cinderella treatment (Roane co. being the evil step-sisters), then, by golly, I want my prince!

Fritz is having a hard time, and it's only going to get worse. He is afraid of gun shots. I had him outside and he heard one and had to come inside. Then I got him out again, and it happened again. With hunting season coming up, I don't know how I'm going to get Fritz outside. At least he's puppy-pad trained, but he really does need some exercise too and can't spend all his time indoors.

George, my Boone co. co-worker, is really pushing his luck. He had his wife turn in his doctor's excuse for the two weeks off and now his supervisor is asking him how he knows he'll be getting a headache in the future to be able to request this time off work. His doctor's excuse is from a neurologist who sees George for migrains. So, George and his wife emailed the bosses to complain. His wife works in the same office with him; a good reason to not hire related folks. I nearly forwarded the email to Tony so he could see what George is up to (I keep Tony up to date on George), but I didn't. I figured the one time I'd get caught sending an email I wasn't supposed to would be that one and I didn't want to get George in trouble. Not that he isn't in any right now anyway.

Good news, good news, as Roscoe P. Coltrane from the tv show The Dukes of Hazzard used to say: Neighborcat the 2nd is alive! Dad must have seen another cat dead because Neighborcat the 2nd was downstairs fighting with Neighborcat the 1st tonight.

Interesting list....

Well, I wore my tiara to work today for Halloween. Not many people noticed it. So, I guess I don't need my tiara because I'm regal enough. LOL! Poor John got humiliated about three times today. Carol Anne dressed up in one of those inflatable suits that looked like a ballerina. She would track John down and dance for him, with him and even attempted a really ugly lap dance. I mean she actually got on the man's lap, at work. I was disgusted for John. Now I tease Tony quite a bit, but I never invade his personal space to that degree. And I don't tease John much at all. They also had a pot luck lunch at work today, everyone brought some food to share. I didn't participate, but when I saw those rolls, I wished I had. But since I'm having to make something for Barb N's retirement lunch on Friday, I decided I wouldn't bring anything for today's lunch. I made a lei out of paper for Tony to wear and threw it on him this morning. He wore it for a while, but it started bothering him. He didn't tear it up though; I told him Tracy wanted to see it when she gets back from training. And I told him how much work it took to make it.

Today is the last day for the cat's eye ointment. I think the vet said to give it to her for 5 days. I can't wait for it to be over. She can't either. She growls at us every time we pick her up now. I was going to stop at the Post Office tonight on the way home from work to get a money order for a Christmas present I had won on ebay, but I got out of work late and couldn't do it. It's a good thing, to quote Martha Stewart, since tonight when I checked my email, I found I had gotten a response from the other ebay seller I'd won other things from. Now I can send off payments for all the auctions tomorrow and just have the one trip to make to the Post Office. That will be much better.

I should have gone with my first instinct. I had originally chosen Anna Ryder Richardson for the "Guess the Designer" contest on the BBCA Changing Rooms website, but changed my mind because I didn't think she would do such a white room. But she is the chosen one for this week's contest. Bummer. Oh well. At least Laurence is on this episode and he did another mural painting. He has some exceptional talent. This Saturday begins the British Invasion of Trading Spaces. I think Andy will be on the first episode. That will be fun to watch.

Today was an ok day at work. George, a guy from Boone county, has apparently lost all his good sense. He has taken an adversarial tone with his supervisors. Granted, they may be a little too demanding, but you don't get hostile with the boss. It almost never works out for you. So, they are demanding that George catch up his backlog of work by the 12th. Well, he has a backlog because he's covering another office, not because he's a lazy worker. But the bosses never think of that. They just see what hasn't been done and want to punish you for it. And they have never done his job so they don't know what's possible to be done in a day's time. George has a doctor's excuse for two weeks off to get him out of doing his backlog. He drives me nuts.

Dad says the replacement neighbor cat was run over the other day on the road. I saw the black and white, but I wasn't sure if it was a cat or not. I called him the replacement neighbor cat because it was the second black and white cat to appear at our house to eat our cats' food. The first black and white cat, we call him Neighborcat because we believe he belongs to the neighbors, still lives part time at our house. Which is good considering we spent $140.00 to get his tail taken off because some wild animal had gotten hold of him. The poor cat was going to die if nothing was done. At least Neighborcat the First has stopped much of his fighting with our other cats. They still don't get along, but I haven't seen any new scratches on the cats.

Oh sure, now they are blaming the internet for the deficit. That Bush will say anything but admit that he sucks....

Today was an ok day at work. I put my alien driver's license in my id badge cover today. I got the alien license at a Dollar store months ago but thought it might be cute to wear it on the other side of my real work ID. Everyone got a kick out of it. I particularly like the part that says my weight is 'weightless'. Heeheehee. My supervisors told me today that they will submit me for the Tech 3 position I applied for and interviewed for last week. So, it looks like I will finally be getting what I deserve and a 5% raise too. My friend, Brenda, told me today that she had been selected for a case worker position in her office. I hope she is happy doing it. I don't think I could be. I had to help give the cat her eye medicine tonight. Actually, I help do it three times a day. I get to hold her. It's a wonder I don't leak when I drink something as many times as she's stabbed me with her claws. But her eye is looking a lot better. I won an Ebay auction for a Christmas present for my mom. It was really three auctions, but from the same seller. Looks like he'll combine shipping too. Had to email him to request his address and name though. You'd think people would just put that information on their pages. Now I have to wait another day or two before mailing out the payment. Alias was pretty good last night. Unfortunately, reading the complete episode summary before the show aired took some of the joy out of it. I didn't seem too interested in watching it. So, despite my addiction to spoilers, I think I will refrain from reading the summaries in the future. TV Guide has an article in its latest edition about the handymen of tv home improvement shows like Trading Spaces. But they did not feature Handy Andy from Changing Rooms or Phil and JJ from House Invaders. I was greatly disappointed. It's obvious that TV Guide is snubbing these guys in a blatant American Pride kind of display. I may have to fire off a letter to TV Guide informing them of the many, many fans BBC America has. This is not the first time they have ignored the contributions of BBCA. While they always feature shows from the HGTV channel, they have not featured a BBCA show on their home and garden page. It's deplorable. I should just cancel my subscription.

Halloween is only a few days away, so I thought I would post some links to some Halloween websites.

Halloween Central

Halloween Magazine

Halloween on the Net

Halloween on the Web

The History and Customs of Halloween

Halloween was never a big deal in my house. We never went trick-or-treating and only dressed up for school parties. I actually hated to dress up. But for some reason, this year, I'm in the mood. I'm sure the cable networks will be showing some old Dracula movies. They will be fun to watch. I'm not a fan of really scary or bloody movies, but the old movies, with cheesy special effects, are in a different class.
My dad is trying to spend my money again. He likes to spend my money. He got me an extended warranty for my car, on which I had to pay 10% interest, he switched my car insurance to a different company and increased my coverage, and now he says I should pay part of the vet bill for my sister's cat. I think changing the cats' litterbox and buying an occasional bag of catfood is a significant contribution, especially since I can't get mom or dad to change the litterbox. And I can't forget the pound of turkey I was buying each week for my sister's cat Shade. And it isn't as if I don't have other pet related expenses. I just spent $38.00 for worm pills for the dogs. And I buy the dogs their treats and the cats some canned cat food and the litter for the litterbox. And I have bought the house cats flea drops over the summer. I think Dad should get coal for Christmas this year. After he spends the rest of my money for other stuff, that's all I'll be able to afford anyway.

Just wanted to say that had I known the Cambridge Spies movie on BBCA had naked people in it, I wouldn't have started watching it. I wanted to see spies and espionage, not nudity for the sake of ratings. These guys were supposed to be the most notorious spy ring in history - you'd think they wouldn't need the extra sensationalism to get people to watch. And I'm betting the Nazis preferred them dressed too.

Tonight's Jesse Ventura's America was about two topics: 1) Everyone should have guns because guns don't kill people, people kill people, and 2) Lyndon Baines Johnson is accused by a Texas Lawyer of conspiring to kill John F. Kennedy. The Texas Lawyer, interestingly enough, is the father of the current White House Press Secretary. One of the arguments the gun lovers used was that having guns in their possession was a way to protect their families. Well, if an intruder breaks into their homes unarmed, he will easily be able to arm himself with their stockpile of weapons. So, I don't want to hear any whining when the intruder kills their families with their own weapons.
I tried to give the cat her eye medicine this afternoon. I was here by myself and it's usually a two person job, but I actually did manage to get some of the medicine in her eye.
Thanks to my niece's weekly visits to the house, the tv is always turned on to cartoons on Friday nights and Saturdays. So, believe it or not, I have started watching ...... Kim Possible. At least she's a crime fighter. I can see her as a live action movie someday. If it's someday soon, maybe an Olsen Twin could play her. I don't dare turn the tv to a different channel while the baby's here. I tried that once and Dad had to yell about it. He yells about everything though. It's not like the baby sits like a zombie in front of the tv the whole time she's here. She watches it a few minutes and then she's off to some other adventure. She spends more time watching this Catz program on the computer and the Pinball game on the other pc. And besides, Jasmine might like Laurence Llewelyn Bowen. I've been trying to get her to say "Toiles de Jouy'" and "MDF". But her favorite words are 'Candy' and 'More', not necessarily in that order.

Boy, if I had the money to spend.........

Very cool!

Boy am I glad it's Friday. I had to dress up today for work. I had a job interview for a job that I'm already doing. I think I have a good chance at getting it. There is only one other applicant and the supervisors had to send her application down to personnel to see if she actually qualified for the position. If she doesn't, then they won't have to interview her and I'll be the only one left. I was listening to my Elvis Presley 2nd to None cd at work today when it stopped right in the middle of Elvis telling me that he Wanted Me, Needed Me and Loved Me. I was so depressed :( So, I took my cd to Tony and he said we just couldn't have anything getting in the way of an Elvis song, so he wiped off my cd for me. I didn't see any dirt on my cd, but apparently Tony's got an eye for dirt. I offered to let Tony listen to the Hula song that's on the cd, but he said no. He never listens to my music.
My sister got me a tiara so I could show my true self next week for Halloween. My true self is, naturally, A Queen. They call me the Copier Queen because I can fix the paper jams, but I have also been dubbed the Numbers Queen. I think I will fashion a septor out of my ruler and a ball of aluminum foil.
We took my sister's cat to the vet. He said she had gotten a scratch in or on her eye, probably from another cat (That fiesty Shade, no doubt). So, we now have to put ointment in her eye three times a day. I had a heck of a time getting the cat into the pet carrier. Especially when the dogs thought I was doing it so they could have easy access to their favorite 'toy'. But once she got in the carrier, she didn't want to come out.
Last night on Larry King Live, Larry's topic was remembering Dean Martin. I remember Dean Martin best from the movie Rio Bravo. Someone last night said that Dean loved working with John Wayne and loved making movies. Larry's guests last night were Jerry Lewis, who was very gracious and gave a lot of credit to Dean for the success of their comedy team, Nancy Sinatra, Deana and Ricci Martin (Dean's kids), Dom Deluise, Phyllis Diller, and some guy who produced and or managed stuff for Dean Martin. It was a good hour of tv, and surprisingly, Larry wasn't half as disrespectful to the panel. He hardly interrupted any of them like he does guests of his other shows.
Well, my niece is up from her nap, so that means I have to get off the computer. If she sees me here, she will expect me to play the catz program for her.

Even though the economy sucks, our deficit is skyrocketing out of control due to costly wars and nation building, Congress still finds money for raises, for themselves....

I'd sign up for this one...

Support Your Local Sheriff was a good movie...

Rest in Peace, Stu Hart...

Sad news out of the world of pro wrestling. In tribute, here are a couple of catch phrases Hawk used in his career: "We snack on danger and dine on death." "Revenge is a dish best served cold, and we served the coldest in town." And finally, and probably most popular, "Aaahhhhh, what a rush!"

If I had enough patience, I'd click on some of the links and find out about the Christian urban legends....

What a good watch-cat!

I love puns

Another boring day today at work. We finally were sent the instructions for nominating a co-worker for the BEST award (one of those tqm-we're ok, you're ok awards that employers hand out to try to make you think your job doesn't suck). My boss says I have to nominate Tony again, but I don't know what to nominate him for. One of the categories is actually paying homage to your image. Seriously, you can get an award for demonstrating your confidence about your job through 'self assurance' - so, if you're conceited, you get an award. You don't have to be right, just conceited. I love Government logic. Tony skipped work today and tomorrow so he could attend the WVU - Virginia Tech football game. Apparently WVU fans take this opportunity every year to set fire to cars, couches, trash cans and anything else they can get their hands on. Luckily, this is the last year WVU will play Virginia Tech. VT is moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference and won't play WVU anymore. I know it sounds like I watch a lot of football, but that isn't true. It's just that this Atlantic Coast Conference is on the news at least once a week. Anyway, Tony is a big WVU fan, so naturally, for the latest prank, I made signs supporting Marshall University (WVU's in-state Rival) and hung them up in his cubicle. He comes back Friday.

I have a job interview Friday for a job in my local office. I already do the very same job, but this one is a paygrade higher than mine, so I applied to try to get a pay raise. I hear one of the customers we have also applied for the same job. I have a feeling though, that the interviewers will want someone who has some experience in our field. If this position was entry level, the customer would probably have a better chance.

Well, one of my sister's cats has a cold I think. Her right eye has been draining a bit. We were worried enough yesterday to decide to take her to the vet, but tonight, the eye looks better. So, dad thinks we should wait a day or two and see what happens.

Yep, I picked the wrong designer for the Changing Rooms contest. I'll have to enter the contest again for next week's episode.

Another pretty boring day. I read a book by one of my favorite authors - Violet Winspear. She wrote Harlequin romances back in the 1960's and 70's. I've got three more of her books lined up for this week. I'm waiting around for Changing Rooms to come on, it comes on at 9pm eastern. On the BBCA website, you can enter a contest in which you are shown a picture of a newly decorated room and you get to guess which CR designer designed the room. I entered the contest for this week, but I don't think I'm right. I'll find out in about a half an hour.

The Propaganda War the U. S. Government doesn't want you to know about.

So much for that Get Out to Vote campaign...

Cosmic Watergate???

Flammable Pop-Tarts! Those fiends!

Fascinating article about octopuses. I guess they don't call them octopi?


Not a very exciting day today at work. My supervisor finally got my evaluation and my expectations list written up. The way it's written, the only way a person can exceed expectations (thereby get a raise when there's money for it) is to do more than 60 audits a month. I don't know how they calculate it if the worker doesn't have 60 to do. Apparently on the rest of the criteria, customer service, knowledge of policy, and so on, they expect you to know it all, so there's no room for exceeding anything. That's government thinking for you. There's an interview with Scott Foley in the TV Guide this week. He is the former husband of Jennifer Garner, of Alias fame, and Foley himself is an accomplished actor in his own right, with the show Felicity, guest roles on shows like Scrubs, and now, he's getting ready for a role in a Broadway play. He said nice things about Jennifer, so I think he's a good guy. So many times the media tries to get people to say the meanest things just to sell commercial time, or papers. It's deplorable.

Speaking of Alias, last night's show was incredible. Would have been more than that if I hadn't found out how it was going to end ahead of time. Next week, the stepford wife (aka Lauren, the woman who married Sydney's boyfried while Sydney was dead but not dead) apparently threatens to have Sydney transferred just because Sydney saved her lousy husband's life. True, she had to stab him to do it, but it's better than getting shot in the head. Sloane was so evil last night in his attempted mind game with the stepford wife. I hope he does more of that. I don't think she knows just how evil Sloane is. It will be good for her to learn a lesson.

I just read the summary of tonight's Alias episode. It's going to be fantastic! I can't wait to see it.

Visit a tribute site of a very intriguing man and an ingenious inventor.

They just advertised a British Invasion coming to Trading Spaces on TLC! Anna Ryder Richardson, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen and Handy Andy Kane from Changing Rooms are going to be appearing on Trading Spaces in November. So, every Saturday in November at 9pm eastern, tune in to see how Doug and Paige and American Homeowners deal with the Brits! I can't wait to see Laurence's work! If I ever get a house of my own, he will have a standing invitation.

MSNBC has episode transcripts for many of their shows, including Jesse Ventura's America. The page says both transcripts are for the same week, but they aren't. They are the first and second episodes of the show.

Jesse Ventura's America was on again tonight. Tonight's episode focused on the accountability of the media and whether or not they report the truth or do they slant the reporting of the facts to make a profit, and on homeland security. I urge everyone to watch this show. Polly, get a satellite dish and watch. Either you'll agree with Jesse or you'll spend the whole hour arguing with him. A good way to spend an hour. I think I will nominate David Blaine for Dork of the Week on Jesse's show. This week's dork of the week was some reporter for the NY Post who wrote an editorial about the Yankees losing the American League Championship against the Redsox, when in fact, it was the Yankees who won. I think the real dork was the guy who didn't catch the blatant error before the paper went to press.

Not much going on right now. Here's a definition from the Spy Museum's Spy-Lingo website:

Legend: a spy's claimed background or biography, usually supported by documents and memorized details.

This is just plain stupid. As bad as Freedom Fries.

Well, here we are at another Friday. Yay! I've been half on vacation all week after having 4 whole days off from work. I shudder to think of how lazy I would be if I had taken a whole week off. My niece is here visiting us. She's been asleep ever since I got home at 5:30. She'll be up until the wee hours of the morning, I'm sure. Fritz, my half pomeranian, half miniature collie, ran out the door tonight to the outside without a human companion. Fritz never goes out without being on his leash. If he gets loose outside, it scares him to death, so we were really worried about Fritz. By the time I got my shoes on to go after him, he was standing on the porch waiting to get in. I let him in and he ran inside with his tail and his ears down, afraid he was going to get into trouble I guess. But, I think I have figured out why Fritz tries to bite us and why he barks at us when we leave the house. Since being outside scares him, he thinks it scares us and he is just trying to protect us. I wish he'd stop.

In Marketing 101 I learned about this. I can't believe they are still making these mistakes.

I haven't tried this game. But it looks like a nice way to spend a few minutes...

Today was Bosses Day and we at work didn't even know it. Well, Julie knew it because she sends Hallmark E-cards at work and saw the holiday listed on the website. And Marlene found out yesterday and rushed around getting cards and stuff. She couldn't find Bosses Day cards, so she got thank you cards instead for the bosses and we signed them this morning. Tracy had some trouble with a client today. The client couldn't understand the accounting so I met with him to explain it. Five explanations later, he still didn't understand. So, when the client said, "We came in to see where this check went." I thought "A-ha! A way to get rid of these folks." So, I told him where the specific check went. Made him happy and got him out of the office. Tracy was thrilled to find someone who knew less about our work than she does. I joked with her that she was only hired to make us feel smarter, and she said, and now I've got someone who makes me feel smarter, that client.
Today, my supervisor worked on writing up our initial evaluations. These evaluations are only to tell us what our responsibilities are for the next year. She said that mine was the hardest because she doesn't know what I do. My job as the Numbers Queen is a specialized position and unless you've had some kind of training in it, you really don't know all the specifics. And my supervisor hasn't had any experience with my position. But, that means she's in awe of me so that's kind of good.
Tony is still convinced that he isn't dressing as Hula-Boy for Halloween. But I have given this much thought and I think I could fashion a 'grass' skirt out of these plastic grocery store bags and make a lei out of paper flowers and present them to him on Halloween.
And the Regional supervisor found out today that she's going to be a Granny. I don't know how she feels about that. She's only 50. But I guess this means having to dole out more money on gifts in the near future.

Here's a website everyone should check out. It's about an annual event held in WV that I would love to participate in someday.

Arnold met with the Enron crooks! California deserves this for voting for the recall and voting for a celebrity who's had no experience at administrative management. At least Jesse Ventura had been mayor of a major city before becoming governor.

I found a new tv show on Tech TV - it's called Conspiracies. Tonight they are talking about the arms race and espionage and double agents.

It was a pretty good day at work. Julie's favorite thing is to talk about the reputation of state workers - "leaning on their shovels" - a way of saying the workers are lazy. Well, I bought a toy shovel last Friday when I went shopping and I gave it to her today. You would have thought she'd been given a diamond ring. She loved it! She hung it up in her cube and told everyone about it as they walked by. She said she was going to decorate it with some phrase like "official state worker shovel" or something like that. Last night, the tech geek for the office and the head honcho for the office went around to everyone's cubes and snooped for our secret passwords to our computers and for confidential information laying out in the open on our desks and in our drawers. I knew I should have written that love note to Bob Wise and tucked it under my desk calendar. This morning when I got to my desk, my calendar was upside down. You would think these snoops would have enough respect for the employees to put things back the way they are supposed to be. Any idiot could tell that my calendar was not to face the way they had positioned it. But then, our tech geek isn't just any idiot. She is our idiot. Unfortunately. And Tony claims he will not be dressing up as a hula girl for Halloween. We may have to do something about that. Have I told everyone about the Hula Girl story? Well, the short version is this: We play pranks on Tony often as he is the only guy in our little pool of cubes. The attorney is hardly ever in the office. So, Tony gets all the girlfriend jokes and such. One day, I found a picture of a man wearing a hideous plus sized hula girl costume, so I made a copy of the picture, then made a copy of Tony's ID Badge to get a picture of his face. Then I taped his face to the hula girl picture, made a good full page copy of it, and waited for Tony to head out of the office to the Mason Co. office for the day. Once he was gone, I taped the hula girl masterpiece up to his monitor and let everyone in the building see it before Tony returned. And as I leave for the day before he comes back to the office, I escaped any retribution. Heehee. A couple weeks went by and the Hula Girl picture surfaced again (I had made copies). I faxed it to the State Office so everyone there could have a good laugh and I showed it to the Regional Manager who thought it was so hilarious she took it around to show people. Tony is pretty good natured. And of course, he can't get all that mad at me, I did give him Shania Twain pictures to hang in his cube.

Just a quick comment about the controversy regarding the Cubs fan who tried to catch the foul ball. It's a foul ball people. He isn't responsible for the 8 runs that lost the game for the Cubs. That you can attribute to sucky players who can't get the job done.

I couldn't believe this. Wasn't the current administration just a few months ago blasting the Clinton Administration for its attempt at streamlining the military and saying that the reason the military is spread so thin in Iraq and Afghanistan was because of Clinton's underfunding??? Clinton's sure to get the blame for this and all he's doing now is writing his 1000 page autobiography.

Interesting story. Some feminists are saying, "It's going to take how long to get rid of them?"

Maybe one day they will find her.

Nothing much happened today. Went to work. Came home. Julie bought me a candybar for being such a wonderful person. My hair looks ok, I think I had too much tea and not enough cranberry juice. I will try again soon.

Today was Battlestar Galactica day on the Scifi channel. I watched most of it and was disappointed to see only two of the episodes had Sheba in them. She's my favorite. I did a search on Amazon and Ebay for the BG DVD (the complete series) that's being released in a week or two and it seems the best price on either one is about $83.00, with Amazon offering free shipping. I'm sure DeepDiscount probably has a better deal. It's a little expensive for me though. Maybe I'll be able to pick up a used copy in a few months. I tried to enter a sweepstakes on the SciFi channel website to win a copy of the dvd, but first I had to register, then I had to wait for a confirmation email that never came before I could enter the sweepstakes. I'd be interested to know if anyone actually wins it.

At home with Dad today due to a holiday. Dad was very grumpy. You'd think retirement would make a person happier, but for Dad it just gives him more time to find things to complain about.

It looks like our local grocery store will be closing at midnight due to a strike of the union workers. We have two other grocery stores in town so the strike won't really be helping the union folks any - customers in our town will just go to the other stores. It's only going to cost the company more money and that means less to offer in a contract.

I dyed my hair again this weekend. I guess I will see if there's a big difference tomorrow when I'm back in the florescent lights. If my towel was any indication, my hair should be very colored. Even after washing the towel, there were still tea stains.

Alias was great tonight. I love how Jack is still taking care of Sydney and watching out for her. And I think Syd should forget about Vaughn and start dating Weiss. He's perfect. Right now I'm watching a movie called Dracula, Prince of Darkness, starring Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley, and Andrew Keir. It is from 1966. I don't know how good it is yet. Right now, a woman is trying to convince her traveling companions that Dracula's castle is evil but no one believes her. The furniture is great in the movie though. Spectacular 4 poster beds.

The headline for this news story is, "Bush says Iraq returning to normal." Normal for Iraq is life under a dictatorship. I ask again, why would anyone have voted for that man?

I watched Jesse Ventura's show again tonight. It was really good. Jesse started the show with a discussion about the California recall and what Arnold has to do now regarding the deficit. Jesse said Arnold planned to ask the Fed. Government for assistance in solving the budget crisis and he seemed to think that if the government did bail out California that it could be seen by some as a way the current administration could potentially secure the California electoral votes in the next Presidential election. I think if the Democrats had any backbone, they would pounce on this from the outset and not let it get that far. Jesse also debated the Congressman from New York, a democrat, about his call to reinstitute the draft. Jesse is against it because back when he enlisted in the navy in the late 1960's, his view was that he would have rather served beside people who wanted to be there. And he pointed out that draftees may have served for a year or more in Vietnam and still weren't allowed by law to vote or drink when they returned (voting and drinking age in America until 1972 was 21 but you could be drafted at 18, drinking age is still 21) and Jesse didn't think that was right. I can understand the underlying feeling of the Congressman about the draft in this case - that if the decision of going to war would have such a widespread effect on the population that a draft would have, then the elected representatives may take more time to consider the decisions they would make regarding war. They wouldn't be so cavalier about it. But I don't think it would have helped with Iraq since the current administration seemed committed to this from the beginning and apparently went so far as to dust off years old intelligence to try to make the case for war. Jesse also had a discussion about illegal immigrants receiving welfare benefits. There were two guests from Arizona on the show, a woman who is opposed to illegal immigrants receiving welfare benefits and a woman who is for it. The woman who is for it said that it was owed to the illegal immigrants because they pay taxes. Well, if they are getting welfare, then their income, or lack of income, does not support that argument. They can't be paying enough in income taxes to convince anyone that they have contributed for their portion of the welfare. The whole point to welfare is that someone doesn't have enough income to make it without assistance. The guest seemed to think that these illegal immigrants paying sales tax was justification, but sales tax may be earmarked for other parts of the budget which don't fund welfare programs. I think in WV, sales tax started out as a way to fund a university medical school program or something like that. Also, there was mention that the welfare department in Arizona actually asks on the application for services what the immigrant's status is and says that the department won't report it to INS. The woman for the immigrants receiving welfare defended this by saying that state employees are not INS agents. Well, I know there can be added programming to their system that can do an automatic interface to the INS reporting the status of these immigrants and no additional duties would be given to the state employees working for the welfare department, since they are already asking for this documentation on the application. We have automatic interfaces with other department programs at my job. Bottom line is that illegal is illegal. It's about time people stop sending out the mixed message that it's ok for some but not all. The current administration in Washington wants to hold hundreds or thousands of detainees for years down at Camp X-ray without due process, but yet, 10,000 illegal immigrants a day slip into Arizona (according to the guest on the show who is in opposed to illegal immigrants receiving welfare) and any one of them could be a potential terrorist and nothing is done. And Jesse's hero of the week was a police detective from Canada who sent an email to Microsoft asking them to create a program to help stop internet child pornography and now Microsoft is working on a program free of charge. The dork of the week was the guy in New York who was keeping the tiger and alligator in his apartment and the other residents in that apartment building who 'apparently' didn't know about it. I think Jesse's doing a great job with the show. His communication style is exceptional! He was great as a pro wrestling comentator and now he's taking that 'no holds barred' approach to his show and really separating himself from all the other shows on the news networks. Much better than that annoying Chris Matthews. Click here to be sent to the MSNBC website for Jesse's show. Read his bio, sign up for his newsletter, send him an email.

Well, I shopped til I dropped today. I got pink Martha Stewart towels. Really pretty. I bought flanel sheets - with pictures of pigs on them. I couldn't believe it when I saw them. I just had to have them. And they were 50% off. I got another set of sheets half off as well. I only bought one Christmas present today, so I have a ways to go yet on that front. The whole day I was surrounded by smelly candles, and would you believe that I didn't start sneezing until I came home? I have been sneezing continuously since. I must be allergic to my dad.

And something has been bothering me about the tv show Alias. Sydney comes back from a disappearance and 'death' of two years and when they show her in her new apartment, she's unpacking boxes. What did she have to move into her new place? Her apartment burned down to cover up her disappearance. All her stuff should be gone. And if it's not, who's been paying the storage fee for the past two years? Her father was in the custody of the NSC for the last year, I don't think they'd let him continue to do business while behind bars. And speaking of her father, Syd gets him released from custody and he has access to fancy suits to wear when he comes back to the office? Where's he living? I'm betting the government siezed all his assets when they locked him away. I don't think the government would be so quick to give them back. The time span on the show was less than a week between his release and his return to the office. I really think the writers should have addressed this a little more.

I could not find carrot juice at the grocery store today. You'd think they would sell it, but they don't. So, I bought cranberry juice with which to dye my hair. I hope my hair doesn't turn purple. Right now I'm watching a show on the Discovery Channel called Sherlock Holmes: The True Story. It's pretty good. It's about the real life inspiration of the character, Dr. Joseph Bell. I haven't read any Sherlock Holmes stories. Mystery isn't my favorite genre, but I have read Nero Wolfe books, written by Rex Stout. Visit the site of the Wolfe Pack, the famous fan club for Nero Wolfe.

Today I started counting down to my big 4 day weekend. I now have 8 working hours to go. I can't wait. Tomorrow night, in my little town of Ripley, the local high school is having its "Homecoming" parade to get everyone psyched up for the big football game on Friday night. The theme for this homecoming is "Hollywood Homecoming" or something like that. It's better than our rival's homecoming theme. It was a superhero theme. There's nothing quite like a homecoming queen talking about which comic book superhero she likes. I'm surprised no one named Brittany Spears.

Siegfried of Siegfried and Roy is supposed to be Larry King's guest tonight on the Larry King Live show on CNN, 9pm eastern. I will probably watch it.

I heard today on the news that the husband of the woman who had an affair with WV's Governor Wise is running for Governor in the next election. I'm not sure why he's doing it. Gov. Wise is not running for re-election, so it can't be a move to defeat him and get even. Maybe the husband thinks that if he's governor, his wife will come back to him??? Weird. I think he just can't do without those 15 minutes of fame. He was the one to expose the relationship and call the media and drag it out with media statements about having instant messages from the two of them.

Yesterday on NPR, I heard a news reporter say that Turkey has finally decided to send troops into Iraq to help with the 'coalition's' efforts to restore Iraq to the Iraqis etc... The reporter said that this was a last ditch attempt to salvage the alliance Turkey and the U.S. have enjoyed for over 50 years. Why is it that no republicans see that the current administration has done nothing but destroy international relations since being appointed - uh, I mean elected. Israel is even attacking Syria now. And it seems that the U.S. catch phrase "war on terror" is becoming a convenient excuse to attack an opposing minority in some countries. I don't know how these representatives, elected by the masses, can continue to pay lip service to this reckless decision-making on the part of their political 'leader'. They must have no self respect. It's a shame that some people don't realize that you can't play schoolyard bully with enitre countries when there are millions of lives at stake.

A funny little exchange from work today: Tony, who continually tells us all how wonderful he is, said today, "I'm so good I amaze myself." I responded, "Well, when our expectations of you are as low as they are, it's easy to be amazed." Heehee. Tony thought he was the King of the trash-talking until he met me :)

Saw another store ad for my shopping trip on Friday. I worked on my lists for both grocery shopping and Christmas shopping today. I also got the Halloween door mat out of the trunk of my car and laid it out in my cube at work. I've only carried the mat around in my trunk for two years. It was a quiet day at work. I got caught up and finally did that big three case multiple that I've been putting off for about three weeks. I actually listened to some music today. I listened to Keith Urban's Golden Road cd. He's country. I loaned my Big Bad Voodoo Daddy cd to Tracy. This group is a bluesy and jazzy Big Band type of band. Today, my supervisor told me that my error rate is 0.70%. That's less than one percent! I told her I should make myself a certificate, because I'm always making certificates for other people. Well, she said that if she knew how to make them, she would make me one. So, I made one for myself, took it in to her office and handed it to her for her to sign. She laughed and signed it willingly.

Stopped at Walmart on the way home and got the new Elvis cd, 2nd to None. It has a previously unreleased song and another remix on it. I'm listening to it now and it's pretty good. A lot of flashbacks to the movies.

We are weaning calves here on the farm. Supposedly, if you wean them during this astrological time, then they don't cry as much, but they seem pretty vocal to me.

I think I'm backing away from my idea to dye my hair red with beet and carrot juice. Instead, I'm now thinking of adding just a little redness to the iced tea the next time I do this. I want a little red, but not Carrot Top red.

Just deleted a spam post from my guestbook. Let's all boo the nexium pharmacy folks. BOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alias was great last night! My favorite line: Sydney (female) has it out with Director Lindsay (male) in the men's room. Lindsay says, "This is the men's room." (Reminding Sydney that she doesn't belong there and has violated his privacy, blah, blah, blah). Syd responds, "Who let you in?" LOLOL!!! My personal speculation: I think Irina is part of the Covenant and she was the one who kidnapped Syd and had her kill Lazeray. No one else will suspect Syd's mom of doing it, so I will. The Covenant is a group of Russian Nationals - Syd's mom is Russian. They apparently had Syd kill Lazeray, Syd's mom worked with Lazeray's son, Sark, probably even knows the whole family well. They worked out a deal to free Sark, Syd's mom worked with Sark. Anyway, everyone thinks it's Sloane who Sydney has to stop to keep the Prophesy from happening, no one's focusing on the other Rambaldi Freak - Syd's Mom, Irina. Can't wait for next week!

I think the tea dye did work on my hair. I checked out my hair at work under the florescent lights and it looked different. And then at home tonight, it looked a little different.

I'm considering doing some shopping Friday. I have the day off and I think I might head north to the mall. I haven't decided if I will invite myself to lunch with my friends in the wood co. office. I might be able to get all my shopping done before lunch and then just head on home. I'm actually going to do some Christmas shopping. I usually wait until December to start, but I'm in the mood. And for some reason, I keep thinking it's going to snow a foot or two in December and I won't be able to shop then. Plus, Martha Stewart towels are on sale at KMart. I can't pass that up. Free Martha!!

Why aren't there any short, fat and frumpy models in these ads for J.C Penny's and KMart and such? How are the average people in America supposed to find clothes to fit them? Or would these modeling agencies and marketing directors like to see all the short, fat, and frumpy people walking around naked?

Israel beat the U.S. to it! I guess the current administration didn't get their 'evidence' in time.

So, today I read on the internet that you can dye your hair with black tea. Well, I don't have any black tea. I only have iced tea. So, I tried that. I think I might see a difference in my hair color, but I'm not sure. So, at least I didn't turn into some horrid orange haired person. At least, not yet. I don't think there's a time release factor. But I might try it again next weekend. Or try some other type of natural dye. I also read you can use coffee and beet juice and carrot juice. And if it goes horribly wrong, well, Halloween is coming up.

Jesse Ventura's America

That's the name of his tv show on MSNBC which airs Saturday nights at 7pm eastern. I watched part of it tonight and it was pretty good. I missed the California Recall talk, but watched part of the Zero Tolerance in schools segment He also had a segment called Heroes and Dorks. You can imagine. His hero for the week was a football player who after having his leg amputated below the knee fought his way back onto the field after several surgeries. I think as the show goes on, Jesse will get more comfortable with the format, he seemed a little stiff this week.

Fascinating archaeological discovery.

Americans are pretty sure they know what their elected representatives are doing in Washington. Unfortunately, if you believe this, then it is more than apparent that American citizens have been kept in the dark for decades. How far did these programs go? Where did these test subjects come from? Are these clandestine programs still in existence today? This story gives credibility to the speculations as to what happened to the character of Sydney Bristow on the tv show Alias the two years she had been missing. So, what viewers of a fictional tv show have speculated may in fact be the real deal.

I believe this is step #13 of How to Take Over the World. If only mainstream American news organizations would investigate these stories and broadcast them for US citizens to see. But apparently we know where some of that Billions that a certain candidate and political party are raising are being sent.

Something fun to pass the time. I think a certain President has been studying....

I think it's deplorable that major league baseball players are given multiple chances to remain with their teams when they are caught repeatedly with drugs or testing positive for drug use, but Pete Rose can't get into the hall of fame. What message are we sending to the young fans of the sport? I don't see how anyone can have respect for a game that allows this kind of double standard. Here's a story about how being soft on drug use in baseball only goes on to hurt the next generation.

Let's all pray for a speedy recovery for Roy, of Siegfried and Roy. And let's take this opportunity to remember that wild animals are inherently wild and should not be raised as pets. Siegfried and Roy have been taking care of their tigers for decades, probably two of the most knowledgeable people when it comes to these big cats, and this could still happen to one of them.

My Absolute Favorite!

Check him out!

My sister loved this show when we were kids. She used to do everything to our portable black and white tv with extendable antenna to get Dr. Who to come in on the PBS station that aired it. Her favorite Dr. was the either the third one or the fourth one. It was the guy with the curly brown hair. I didn't really watch the show, but I know a tardis when I see one. It's good to see that there's a celebration in the works for the show's 40th anniversary.

So, I went to the BBCA website to to see what it had about the comedy called My Hero. I've only seen this show twice and both times, the jokes just killed me. The delivery of the lines was a little different than I'm used to, but the jokes were hilarious.

Oh, this poor guy......

Right now on BBC America is the show Faking It. It's a show in which they take someone like a minister and in 4 weeks, he's trained to be a used car salesman and he has to fool a panel of judges into believing he's a real used car salesman. Well, tonight, the faker is a male ballet dancer who is being turned into a professional wrestler. I feel so bad for this guy. I've watched wrestling since I was a little girl and it's not all fake. Some of it does hurt. I hope he doesn't do anything that jeopardizes his ballet career.

Why does anyone believe anything Jr. says?

I can't believe anyone would trust anything Jr. says.

BBC America will be showing a movie about these men. It sounds like it could be good. Obviously, it goes with the spy theme inspiring my blog, but they were spies for the wrong people.

One Bovine Short of a Herd

Today, Dad took our bull to the slaughterh - uh, that's "the retired bovine farm". Sorry. So, we are now one bovine short. But I hear that we may be getting a new, younger, bull in the near future.

Work was average. We are planning to dress up for Halloween. I think I'm going to come to work as Julie. I can put my hair up in a clip and I'll be ready. I told Julie my plans and she said, "Just make sure the hair's wet." She always comes to work with wet hair. I don't have any bibbed overalls though. Hmm... Julie's coming as Maxine from Hallmark card fame. We've also suggested that we have a trick or treat time on the day we all dress up. I think water guns would be a great trick. But as I am one of the all time great masters of the prank, I think I could do better at coming up with a really good trick.

Now. On to some links.....
Satire is great. First the RIAA, now this...

Somehow, this show seems more fitting on FOX...

Good thing some people I work with don't have pets...

Don't you just love Conspiracy Theories?

The King's Alive!!

I always knew it. But, now here's proof!!


In honor of my new acquaintance from across the pond, here's a near quote I know of from a Bond movie: "The only diamonds I know about are the ones you wear. Say, on the third finger, on the left hand."
........... I like Moneypenny.

An answer from Tech Support

Here's what Blogger Tech Support sent me in answer to my question about the mysterious linking/referring trouble.....



There is a bug in Blog*Spot's serving system that occasionally causes the
wrong blog to be served from a given address. Though we haven't been able
to completely track it down, it is a very rare issue, and checks are in
place to catch and correct the it within 60 seconds of its occurrence. So
you should be able to reload your blog after waiting a minute or so, and
the problem will go away.

Thanks for your patience,
Kimmy


Original Message Follows:
------------------------
From: "Miranda Allen"
Subject: People who visit my blog are ending up at other people's??
Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2003 14:26:26 -0700

I have visited several blogs to see how other people have designed theirs.
Now I find out that people who come to my blog are ending up at those
blogs I've visited. The owners of those blogs are asking me how this can
happen if I haven't linked to their blog and I don't know how this can
happen. I haven't linked to the blogs of the two people who've brought
this to my attention and I think it's a shame that they have to waste
their time reading through my blog to find a link to their site which was
never there to begin with. I have fiddled with the template so I might
have accidentally changed something I shouldn't have. I would appreciate
any help you can offer. Thanks!!

Sorry to all the people who are being transported to other blogs after coming to mine and sorry to those people whose blogs are the ones getting the increased traffic. I submitted a question about this to the tech support folks, but they say that their first priority is to paying customers, so I don't know when I'll get an answer.

Today was a boring day at work. Not much happened. I knew, given enough time, I would run out of things to post about. So, I will leave you with this hair-raising news story.