to clip or not to clip

See this very furry cat?

Summer sucks for him. Hairball after hairball. He looks like a kid who woke up on the wrong side of the bed, all the time. This cat is almost all hair, and no cat.

He is fluffy, times INFINITY.

And the main source of cat hair that floats around and sticks to stuff.

Now, I've started thinking. He's a pretty mello cat, lets me do things I need to do, without too much hassle.

I'm thinking to get some clippers, and to clip off some of that long, luxurious hair.

Just for the summer, while its so hot, and he's so full of fur...

He might actually like it....

Monday Morning Mush

This weekend was my parents wedding anniversary. I've lost count of how many years, um.... 46 or 47 I think. We did our usual thing, bbq on their back deck, and watching the fireworks from there that are launched at a nearby lake.

100 degree weather sucks. But I am eternally grateful that the humidity here is lower than it is in the midwest.

Fish have very small brains, and I don't think they USE them. We've got the fish tank all figured out, but they regularly swim too close to the ONE thing in there that could possibly off them, a small vent. So far we've pulled 4 fish off it, I think. Now we have to figure out a way to keep them away from it, without blocking it off.

I go back to work tonight after 6 days off. I'm ready to not work nights anymore.

The floor in the bathroom by the toilet is "cupping". This means the evil floor guy is coming back.

I am also not looking forward to that.....

Friday Mieography

I had someone different all lined up, but, I can go with the flow....

Ferrah Leni Fawcett was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, the youngest of two daughters. She was of French, English, and Choctaw Native American ancestry. Her name, Ferrah, was made up by her Mother to go with their last name. The "e" was later changed to "a".

The family was Roman Catholic, and her early education was at the parish school of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, in Corpus Christi. She graduated from school, and high school, then attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a sister in the Delta Delta Delta Sorority. She ended up in a photo of the "Ten Most Beautiful Coeds", where a Hollywood publicist saw her, called her, and lured her to Los Angeles.

She started in commercials, like Noxema shaving cream, Ultra Brite toothpaste, Wella Balsam Shampoo, and, of course, the Mercury Cougar. Her first TV appearance was on I Dream of Jeannie. She quickly moved on, and ended up on The Six Million Dollar Man, and, even, The Dating Game. During this time, she was in a photo shoot, with the resulting Red swimsuit photo, which sold somewhere around 8 million posters.

In 1976, a movie of the week entitled "Charlie's Angels" aired. She was married to Lee Majors, whom she'd met on the set of The Six Million Dollar Man at the time. The movie was so popular that it aired a second time, and then, got the green light to be a series. She was a quick fan favorite, and won a People's Choice Award for the show. She actually earned more money in royalties from the sale of her poster than for the television series. Her hairstyle became an international trend (The Farrah).

She left Charlie's Angels after just one season (which is STILL a controversial subject). There was a lawsuit over over her early departure, but she did end up returning for 6 guest appearances over seasons three and four.

After Angels, she had a series of flops. Then, she won acclaim for a role she played on Broadway, the play was called "Extremities". She was a would have been rape victim who turned the tables on her attacker. During this show, and its difficult, both physically and emotional challenge, a stalker came out of the audience and disrupted her. I cannot even imagine.

The year after, she got her roll in "The Burning Bed", which earned her an Emmy nomination. It was the highest rated TV movie of the season. She went on and did a movie of the play Extremities, and many other dramatic movies.

During her youth, she continuously refused offers to pose in the nude. However, in 1995, she changed her mind, posed for Playboy, and her issue became the best selling issue of the 1990's. She did another shoot for them when she was fifty. Also, a sculptor by the name of Keith Edmier did a sculpture of her that was at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

She continued on to many other roles, television, broadway, movies. As far as her love life, she had been involved with Ryan O' Neal since 1982. In 1985, they had a child, Redmond.

She was diagnosed with caner in 2006, and immediately sprung into action. She had both chemotherapy, and surgery. For a short time she was cancer free. In May 2007, a cancerous, malignant polyp was found. Instead of choosing to have surgery, she went to Europe, and pursued some alternative treatments. She did have surgery, both in Europe, and eventually, in the US. The tumors kept coming back, and spreading. A two hour documentary, "Farrah's Story" was filmed by herself, and her best friend, Alana Stewart, aired this last May. 9 million people watched it. It's been re-aired, and I am sure it will be again. The cancer finally took her life yesterday, about 9:30 am.

Her family says she would want to be remembered smiling. So there she is. Smiling. In her red swimsuit.

Thursday 13

Attention, class! :)

This week, I found 13 vocabulary words that I thought would test our brains. Learn a word a day, and all that rot...

So, how many of these do you know?

Check in later, and I will post the definitions...

For more participants, as usual, click here

1. Cadge to beg, to get by begging

2 truculence aggressiveness, ferocity

3. garrulity talkativeness

4. arrant in every way, being completely such

5.anachronism something out of place for its time

6 .sycophant flatterer, parasite, a suck up

7 nascent coming into existance, emerging

8.sedulous diligent, assiduous, devoted to a task

9.piquant agreeably pungent, stimulating

10.insouciant unconcerned, carefree

11 .mellifluous sweetly flowing

12. torpor lethargy

13. misanthrope one who hates mankind

My fonts are doing very strange, unasked for things today, so I have no clue how this post is now going to look. I hope it's not wonky, or blinding...

Wordless Wednesday

strange things happen where you least expect them

Recently, on Facebook, there has been a large amount of my old friends surfacing. What pleases me about this, is that some of my really good friends have come up. Friends I actually want to see again.

Saturday morning afforded MM and I the opportunity to see one of my closest high school friends again. He was a year behind me in school, so we didn't meet until my sophomore year, but we became good friends, fast. He played the tri-toms in our band, so we can call him Tom, for short.

Tom was so much fun as a boy, always laughing and smiling, usually getting into some sort of trouble. Tom, the man, is the same, minus the trouble, though. He is married now, with 2 daughters who do very busy, active things (volley ball and BMX bike racing) so they keep him out of trouble.

His oldest daughter was in a volley ball tournament, in our area, so, we met them for breakfast. As we were sitting down at the breakfast table, his wife, a very nice woman (I'd met her before, years ago) looked at MM and said "I know you from somewhere, your face looks so familiar." MM tells her where he went to high school. Turns out they went to the same school, graduated with each other. MM even took one of her sister's out on a date. So it was a 'reunion' for them, as well.

"Its a small world, after all"....

(you hate me for getting that stuck in your head now, huh...)

Lance Armstrong, take your people home!

That sounds terrible, doesn't it?

I don't have anything against Lance Armstrong, I really don't. He is a great athlete.

Its just, well....

We live in a small town. In a small area. We have, every Father's Day, a small bike ride.

Its only 1.1 miles. Hardly worth noticing, right?

Yeah, they do say it is one of the more challenging courses to ride, for all its mere 1.1 miles. But Lance has ridden in multiple Tour de France's! How much more challenging can one get?

But, yet, it appears that Lance wanted to come visit.

It all started with Twitter, too. He twittered that he was going to come here.

And then, my problem with Lance started.

Our tiny town with its tiny, quaint shops, small, but good restaurants, and narrow streets was not made to hold THAT many people, with large, larger than them, camera's, their large egos, their large voices. Their bad driving. It was Father's Day, for pity's sake. Lance should have stayed home with his new son! Instead, he, and 2 of his team mates, and 30,000 extra people showed up.

But its all over now. Lance won (obviously), the big camera people have left (for the most part), leaving us our tiny town, and, its usual amount of summer tourists. But its tourist season, right?

Where do I get my permit....

drama.....

is going on right now, along with lots of work and other things. So I am not ignoring you, have a great mieography lined up

but am going to run away from home this weekend so the black cloud that has found me will blow away to someone better.

Have a nice weekend, see you all monday

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Sunday, our self chosen day to be lazy, (common refrain in our house? You don't have to think, it's Sunday) we hauled ourselves out of bed before noon, and met some friends to head to the semi-local "farmers market and auction".

What was it really? 

I have two words for you

SWAP MEET.

A HUGE one.

     Its been many many years since I've attended a swap meet. My Dad, who also likes an occasional garage sale, and will, as my mother puts it, "take a bucket of s*it if it were free" was a swap meet fan. We'd frequent them as a kid, but I don't ever remember being in such a large one as we were, Sunday.

There were millions of pairs of sunglasses, tons of shoes, blankets as far as the eye could see. Dollies hanging in plastic bags, old electronics, tools, saws, CD's, VHS tapes, and, well, tons of other people's crap.

We bought a mortar and pestle (the better to grind my mojito mint with...) and, after a few hours, finally found the "farmers market" end. I was hoping for more veggies, but you take what you can get. We came out with a bunch of limes, some cherries, apricots, grapes, a pineapple, a watermelon, and, a huge, fragrant Ginger root. Not to shabby.

I don't think I'll be in a hurry to go back, though.

Satellight Radio

I got a year subscription to Satellight radio with my Jeep. I was offered, a year later, a great rate for three more years, which I took, because, frankly, it's nice to have.

You can find ANYTHING on that thing! The channels of availiability will make any music listener happy. What I listen to depends on my mood. We listen to a comedy station, a lot. It's nice to laugh while your driving, instead of wave an angry fist at everyone around.

What I do not like, however, are the advertisements. More often than not, when they have one, there is a woman whispering, supposedly seductively to men that they need to ad girth. And their product will help with that, AND send them a free measuring tool. Either that, or another whispering woman comes on and tells them to order some porn for their ladies. 

YECH!

Many times, when I have the radio on, Mustang Girl is in the car with me, and she hates this as much as I do. She either turns it off, or turns it away from whatever we were listening to. The only way to avoid these advertisements is to listen to the kids music channel. Which isn't happening...

Thursday 13

Recently, my Mom asked me for a picture of MM, MG and I together. She is going on vacation, and there is nothing she likes better than to take pictures of the family to torture our extended family with.... but they enjoy it, too, I guess.

Anyhow. She didn't say what kind of picture she wanted. So, here are 13 idea's of what we could do.

1. Chalk outlines of ourselves. We did this one, and even chalked the dogs, and one of the cats

2. Bags over our heads. Check. Did this one, too, that picture is over there, to your right.

3. Goth people. We didn't do this one, because MM wasn't too keen on having to look like Robert Smith for a bit.

4. American Gothic. With a snow shovel. We were going to put Mustang Girl in a wheelbarrow in front of us. We almost did this, but the wheelbarrow was filled with rain water.

5. Sculpey us. We did this one, too.

6. Mechanic's delight. 2 of us climbed under the mustang, one of us leaned under the hood. All you see are legs, and rear end. This one was fun!

7. Behind the tree. We hid behind a tree, with one leg, one arm, and a hat sticking out.

8. Behind the animals. One person behind a fish tank, one behind a dog, and one behind my 23 pound cat.

9. Behind the flag that hangs on our house. This one turned out pretty good, too

10. Behind the couch- didn't do this one...

11. Murder scene. Would have been interesting, but too violent. Didn't do this one

12. Me, MM and a completely different kid. "Remeber when you thought I was in Rhode Island? well"....

13. Footprints. But this is too much like the chalk outline....

as usual, for more, go here

Wordless Wednesday

time

I'm having a hard time believing it's June. It just doesn't feel like June to me. The recent weather has added to that sensation, I am sure. But still, this year is just flowing past me, and I cannot seem to catch up with it, no matter how hard I try.

June is usually a busy month. Graduations, my parents anniversary, and their usual  family bbq the weekend before the 4th of July. MG traditionally spends a good part of the summer with her Mom, she left yesterday.

By the time I get used to June, it's going to be July. Then August. And mid August, school will start again. (We start early-ish here because of potential snow days). Summer is going to be faded away before I get into the swing of it. 

Shouldn't time slow down as we get older, so we can enjoy it more? We are wiser, (supposedly) now. It would be good if things slowed down. Just a little....

Angry Songs

I've been talking with Bubblewench today, about music for her up-coming road trip. I'd made a suggestion to her (Seether), but, in hindsight, was starting to wonder if they would hold any appeal to her.

So we started talking about music, likes, dislikes. I was telling her that one of the reasons I like Seether is that they've written one of (what I refer to as) my "angry songs".  I like my angry songs... 

Bubblewench, upon reflection, doesn't have any angry songs. 

Now, my angry songs don't make me mad, they, for me, are more of 'healthy outlet' songs, that remind me of some of the crap my ex's have tried to pull on me, in the past. The fact that someone else wrote the words doesn't bother me, at all.

My 2 angry songs that I can think of, right away, are (of course) You Oughta Know, by Alanis. I prefer the tighter, slower live version, though, she sounds more ominous in that one. And the aforementioned Seether has this song called "Fake It" (which also has a slower version, but that one isn't as strong). Fake It's chorus involves the phrase "You're such a fucking hypocrite". Boy have I known some of those...

MM has an angry song, "Crazy Bitch", by Buck Cherry. I would guess he's known a few of those...

so how about you? Got an angry song?

** after thinking more about this, I have remembered my very first angry song. I STILL love the message of that song. It's "You Don't Own Me" by Lesley Gore.

Friday Mieography

Meet Lillian Moller Gilbreth. SHe is the first working female engineer holding a PhD.

Born in Oakland, California, she had the usual childhood, and was admitted to, and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with both her BA and her MA. Her Ph.D came from Brown University, and was the first degree granted in Industrial Psychology. During her lifespan, she ended up also getting 22 honorary degrees from many schools, such as Princeton, Brown, and U. of Michigan, just to name a few.

She married Frank Gilbreth, and proceeded to have 12 children with him. As a matter of fact, the books (and subsequent movie) Cheaper By the Dozen (and also Belles on Their Toes) are the story of their family life.

So if that wasn't enough, Lillian continued her work as an engineer. She was the first American Engineer to combine a synthesis of psychology, and scientific management. (With that many kids she'd have to, right?). She also, in her "spare" time, helped to design a desk for display at the Chicago World's Fair. Yes, she developed the first ergonomic desk....

Her work focused on inefficiency, and waste, and she studied this in both time and motion, and also the waste of potential human satisfaction and fulfillment that could be derived from work. (Work is supposed to fulfill us). She believed that poorly planned jobs made work tiresome, and destroyed the enjoyment of the task. (boy is she right on that one). She fostered the theory that each employee deserved basic human dignity, and that managers and owners needed to structure their authority in the workplace.

     She did marketing reasearch for Johnson and Johnson, and assisted both them, and Macy's with their management departments. She also wrote numerous books and essays, and did a doctoral dissertation, and a Fatigue Study. She and Frank wrote books together while their children were asleep. She even wrote a Motion Study for the Handicapped. She and her husband formed a management consulting firm, Gilbreth, Inc. which performed the time and motion studies, with their children working with them, as a team. She died in 1972 in Phoenix, Arizona. She is called the First Lady of Engineering, and was the first woman elected into the National Academy of Engineering. She also held Professorships at Purdue and Wisconsin-Madison Universities, and the Newark Collage of Engineering. In 1984 she was made into a Postage Stamp.

Thursday 13

One should never blog hungry. Or shop that way, for that matter. This is my hungry Thursday 13.... as usual, for more views on the thirteen world, go here

1. I LOVE a good Grilled Cheese sandwich.

2. Gyro's. Food of the gods. I cried when our Greek restaurant (the only greek restaurant) went under...

3. I love artichokes. And their hearts

 I love a good baked potato

5. Creme Brulee. I drool even thinking about it

6. Right out of the garden is the best...

7. Roasted Chicken. I make a mean roasted chicken, if I had more time, I'd start one.

8. Garlic bread. Because it has 2 of my favorite things. Garlic. And bread.

9. Grilled corn. I love grilled corn

10. A nice, grilled, juicy steak

11. Mac and Cheese. Yeah, I have a carb problem. What about it?

12. Taco's. It's what's for dinner. SOON.

13. Stuffed Shells. mmmmmm tasty.

Wordless Wednesday

Ahh, its the end of the year

School is ending in very soon, a few, mere days, as a matter of fact. Leaving us with an active, and probably soon to be bored teenager. It seems like yesterday she was just starting her freshman year, and now its over? Already? Time flies....

I remember, oh so long ago, the end of my freshman year. It was a year wrought with change. Everything seemed different. I had a whole different set of friends, ones that lived further away from me in my big county. I tried alcohol for the first time. I was kissed for the first time. I had "boyfriends". (yeah, plural). I actually FAILED a class for the first time. (Algebra still pains me). The vice principal targeted me because of my sisters behavior, and I served so much after school detention for being tardy for freshman orientation that I got used to getting home in the dark. (I had PE at the opposite end of the school right before that. Stupid.)

So if I can remember all the stuff about MY freshman year, how is it possible that I am now LIVING with a freshman, and I am one of the ADULTS in the house? 

Time, it does more than fly. It went sonic on me....

Monday Morning Mush

Its been an interesting weekend.

MM and  MG and I went to see The Lion King, (broadway, not movie) in it's traveling show. I'd seen a performance of it in NYC and thought it was amazing, and since MG was in drama this school year, I thought it might be a cool thing for her to see. The show was indeed, fantastic. We had a great time, but got home at 12:15 am. Unfortunately, this was THURSDAY, and they had to go to work and school Friday. Needless to say we were dragging a little ass Saturday, but not slow enough that MM didn't go fetch his new to him Mustang. Yes. We have another family member. I don't call him Mustang Man for nothing. There are now three ponies in the corral. Technically, one belongs to the nephew in AZ, but it is here with us, for now. MG woke up long enough to go have fun at a friend's birthday party, and MM and I had a leisurely meal out after his guitar lesson, where I got to preview the song he wrote with his music teacher. (It's a ballad, called "Body Bag", romantic, no?).

Sunday, we didn't really do a whole lot. We got the fish tank working, and if all goes well we will consider the purchase of fish possibly later today. I want to be sure that things are good, and we don't drop some fish in just to have them die. On an interesting, yet slightly squeamish note, we were in one of the local pet stores, looking at some fish. I found these 2 puffer fish, cool looking little dudes, they had the coloration of frogs, kind of. They had little flippy fins and were swimming happily around, and, well, I liked them. They were cute. I should have realized they were in their own tank for a reason..... But my mind kept going back to that funny little puffer fish in Finding Nemo, and how funny he looked when he puffed up and got pissy.

MM goes and asks the fish people if the puffer fish require a special diet, and, well. Yeah. They do. One of the employees came by, threw an innocent looking little orange fish into the tank, and WHAM! right in front of my eyes, those sweet looking puffer fish turned into Hannibal Lector. Those fish completely attacked the "feeder fish" like a pride of lions on a gazelle. They went right for the spine, then proceeded to shred the thing. I walked away, MM watched a second longer. NO, we will not be getting any puffer fish for the tank. Though MM had the idea of getting a shark, and those, and seeing which one was the Ultimate Warrior. I think NOT. 

After that we went and saw the new Pixar film, UP.

If you get a chance, go see it. I got oddly choked up at the beginning of the movie, and shed a few tears. I'm not even PMS'ing. Yet I cried at a cartoon. Damn it, I'm getting soft in my old age. I blame those damn puffer fish for disembowling the gold fish in front of me.....