Wordless Wednesday

Queen Meme Tuesday

The What Not Meme

People are always giving advice on what NOT to do in this situation and that situation. I’ve had it with the know-it-alls this week. I’m switching it up.
It’s your turn to be the expert. Answer what NOT to do in the following situations.
It’s your spin on potential societal blunders (and a few quirky scenarios you might find yourself in). You didn't think I'd leave my quirk home now did ya?
Have at it.

What NOT To Do when you’re…..

1. On a first date Bring the 1ow40 and your tawse, especially after you've asked your Date to take you to a place with a strip pole

2. Intoxicated DRIVE

3. In the shower make toast

4. At your ex’s wedding Object

5. In jail Drop your soap

6. being stalked let your guard down



7. Stuck to an igloo Start a fire

8. In sewing class Stab your seat mate with pinking shears

9. Asleep in a helium balloon Fart

10. At a birthday party for twins Blow out their candles

11. On a nude beach use your magnifying glass (or maybe you should. Hmmm)

12. At the opera Snore

13. you’re falling in love Reference your ex too much

14. Low on gasoline in a bad part of town Unlock your doors

15. Having a baby start questioning the paternity of the almost present child

16. On fire Grab an oxygen tank

17. Lost at the mall ask the kid at the Orange Julius stand for directions

18. At a single’s dance Show off your engagement ring

19. Riding a bike on the Jersey Turnpike look for Tony Soprano

20. Driving your significant other's car Explode the Engine

21. Being robbed at gunpoint Backtalk the man with the gun

22. Kissing Burp

23. Paying the hotel cashier Reference the (now empty) mini bar

24. Buying lingerie ask someone else to try it on for you

24. Commenting on a blog Insult the writer

25. In Queen Mimi's dungeon Uh, give Homer baklava?... oh, wait... um...

for more fun, go here

Friday Mieography

Instead of doing a Friday Mieography, I am going to send all of you few readers

HERE

Be warned, these "stories" are hard to read. But yet, somehow, I am mesmerized by the bravery of the women who post here. And awed at their capacity to share their inner most feelings and secrets. Very Empowering.

Hey Look!

I am actually writing something on a Thursday!

Sub-conciously, I guess, I've just been skipping Thursday here. Its usually a day/night that I've worked, and when I am tired, blogging isn't exactly the highest thing on my agenda. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense when I am tired, anyhow.

So why the Thursday post this week?

Well, I am on call, MM is out of town, and both of those things conspire against me when it comes to sleep. There is no one to snore in my ear, and I know the second I lay down to sleep, the phone is going to ring, and I will end up going into work. Therefore, it is midnight, as I type, I am awake, watching "Whose Line is It, Anyway", and I have no plans on trying to lay down for at least an hour. Maybe longer.

I just watched, out of morbid curiosity, a horrible, horrible reality television show. The kind I usually avoid like the plague, because they are nothing but garbage. This evenings trash was the "First Love Second Chance" thing.

Um

STUPID...

I am one of those firm believers in that if a couple has broken up, there is usually an excellent reason they did so, and at least one of them is going to be bitter. Why RE punish yourself? But, you know. Reality TV, a big chance to be on TV! No surprise, they both ended up being bitter with each other. They played for awhile like they could reunite, then, got more angry with each other and threw some more stones. Not even MILDLY entertaining. So why did I watch it for an hour?

Eh.

Background noise for the other chores I was doing. Whose Line is a vast improvement. If only it was the British version, though, I much prefer that one...

So, happy Thursday, everyone. Hope Spring is being kind to you. (Those of you that are getting a Spring, that is. We are supposed to have rain later tonight, and the possibility of SNOW later today. Please, no snow! My flowers are blooming!)

Wordless Wednesday

"If I stand like this, and turn my head that way, and really, really hope for it, I can get the treat out of the middle of this bone!"

-Potter, 2010

Queen Meme Tuesday

The Facebook Meme (aka The FaceTwit Meme)
It's a little longer than usual but I just couldn't stop in 140 words or less. Sorry.

1. Facebook has now surpassed Google in number of users and traffic.
How much time do you spend on Facebook? If not FB, do you use Twitter? I Facebook, and try to spend as little time as I can get away with on there, but, sometimes... I deleted my Twitter account a long time ago, though

2. What is Farmville? I do not understand why people are asking me for margarine. I REFUSE to get trapped into Farmville, so I am clueless


3. Do you war in the Mafia Wars? I do not understand why people are asking me for cows. Again, the answer to this is NO. I am not gonna play this game,either

4. What is Cafe World? I do not understand why people are asking me for bullets! Nope. Three strikes and I'm out!

5. Are you being bombarded with these "See Who Has Been Looking At your Profile - See Who Your Peeps Are?"application request lately?
I don't understand why people are asking me for my photograph and that of my dogs. I feel like I am failing this Meme, because I don't do this either...

6. Which FB or Twitter applications, tags or gifts irritate you the most and why?That is easily Farmville. I've been pestered with it for months, despite my repeated status updates stating that I will not, nor will I ever, have a farm...

7. Every morning I am faced with the question at the top of my Facebook profile page, "What's On Your Mind?" Now Mr. Online Mailman wants to know the same thing. Does the whole world need to know what I'm thinking at every moment? I can't write that in a public place ya know. But if you had to answer that question honestly at 9:00 am each morning, what would you say? Easy. SLEEP is on my mind. If I have worked the night before, I am really sleepy. If not, odds are I just got up and am looking for any excuse to go BACK to my bed.

8. Do you know how you became friends and followers with everyone in your list on Facebook and Twitter? Honestly? Yes. There are some, though, that I *barely* remember from high school. I think they were just looking for a Farmville buddy... mwaa haa haa

9. Have you ever been deceived online by someone you thought was someone else? How did you know? Been lucky enough not to have fallen into this one, because I am suspicious of everyone :)


10. Do you enjoy chatting via Yahoo Messenger or AOL the old-fashioned way? If so, who do you chat with most online? Each morning, MM and chat on MSN messenger before I go to bed (after I've worked). It's a nice way to kind of wind down, and reconnect, talk about things. I occasionally end up chatting with family on the FB chat thing.

11. Have you ever been contacted on Facebook or via email under false pretenses, for dubious purposes, or by meddling nosy people in general? I wouldn't call her dubious, but this one lady tried to "friend" me, thinking I was from her Aerobics class in Florida....


12. Think about it. We are all flitting around making bird noises on the internet. What would the PETA people say?! Can you think of a more suitable animal mascot for Twitter? What kind of sound would we make? How about a Narwhal, and we could all make whale noises?


13. What kind of new cool innovative application would you like to see on Facebook or Twitter? What would you call it? Plain and simple. I'd like a dislike button on Facebook. And an 'extreme dislike' button that involved a hand reaching out of the computer and slapping someone!

14. Have you ever had to block someone from Facebook or Twitter? Um... I've blocked certain people that don't do anything but the annoying applications.... but they don't realize I've blocked them, because basically I just hid their stuff... (shhhh!)

15. Do you allow your real life friends to communicate with you there or do you prefer to be incognito to the universe at large? My 'real life' friends are all over there, and I would not be opposed to my online friends finding me on FB, a few of them have. Strangely enough, most of my 'real life' friends don't read my blog.... I bore them live and in person, I guess


16. Do you belong to any CAUSES on Facebook or Twitter? If so, what makes you passionate about them and why did you join? I belong to the cancer causes, and the veterans causes, because I am affected by both of those things.

17. Do you know what a Twibe is? Not a flipping clue.

18. Have you ever rage twitted? Tell me! Nope, failing once again

19. I find that more and more people are reading my blogs on Facebook and commenting there. Do you share your blog posts on Facebook? Do you find that it helps or hinders your blog traffic? I don't put my blog on FB, the people that really want to read it know where to find it. I am not worried about blog traffic, I guess...

20. Wanna be my friend on FB? I have nearly 800 now. At least I'd recognize you!
Don't you be foolin' me now. There's always the dreaded dungeon.
I wonder if there's an app for that. Hmmmm......If I friend you do I get out of the dungeon? Mwaa haa haa. Are you sure you'd recognize me?
For more fun, go here

Think? ah..

I can't think, its Monday!! so here are a few tidbits of what is going on.

-MM is out of town, for roughly a few weeks, for training. He is all the way in Madison, Wisconsin, and I miss him. He gets to come home on the weekend, though, and then go back

-My cats are going crazy with this spring weather.

-The dogs seemingly care less

-We are in the process of setting up a 75 gallon fish tank. Yes. 75 gallons. Yes, its crazy. But its also very beautiful. Today, I am going to go find some plants, both alive and plastic to put in it. Maybe, possibly, it will be ready for some fish, soon. I am hoping to get some Bala sharks for this tank

-I miss MM, did I mention that?

-I am going to put up my Hammock today, and hope its warm enough to hang out in it for awhile. It's still a wee bit chilly, though

Happy Monday, everyone!

Friday Mieography

Rosalyn Sussman was born in New York City, daughter of Simon, and Clara. Her mother was a German Immigrant, and her father had been born in NYC. Neither one of them had a high school education, but they were determined that their children would go to college. They had no money for books, so her brother would take her to the library, weekly for reading material.

By seventh grade, she was a mathematics scholar. She did graduate highschool, and was accepted at Hunter College for women in NYC. Her interests at this time were mathematics, chemistry, and physics. Her family, however, wanted her to become a school teacher. Also complicating matters was that the "good" graduate schools were not accepting women, at the time.

In the last half of her senior year at Hunter, because she knew the right person, and because she knew how to type (!) she got a job working as a secretary for Dr. Rudolf Schoenheimer, who was a leading biochemist at Columbia University's college of Physicians and Surgeons. Trying to get in "the back door", she graduated from Hunter, took a course in stenography, which allowed her to take another job with a different biochemist, and never gave up her hopes of a degree in physics.

By February of that same year, she got offered a teaching assistantship in physics at U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She was offered this job on the mere fact that most of the men were off fighting the war, and the university was offering positions and scholarships to the women to prevent having to close down. She took two free physics classes at NY University that summer, and off she went to Illinois, where she was the only woman among the 400 members of the physics department. While she was there, she met Aaron Yalow, and they married in 1943. She graduated with her Ph.D in physics in 1945. She and her husband moved back to NYC, where, initially, she took a job teaching Physics at her old alma mater, Hunter College. Soon, though, she was offered a job at the Bronx Veterans Administration hospital, where she helped to set up their radioisotope services, and, with her work partner, developed RIA, a radioisotope tracing technique that allows the measurement of various biological substances in blood. Initially, this was used to test for insulin for the diabetics. It is now applied to hundreds of substances, including hormones, vitamins, and enzymes.

By 1968, she was appointed Research Professor in the Dept. of Medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital, where she later became the "Distinguished Professor at Large". (what a title).

In 1975, she was awarded the AMA Scientific Achievement Award, and in 1976 she was the first female recipient of the Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research. By 1977, she was awarded the Nobel Prize. Continuing her work, in 1988, she was awarded the National Medal of Science. She has won a host of other awards as well

She and Aaron have two children, and still live in NYC.

Wordless Wednesday

Queen Meme Tuesday

And I am supposed to make my Bucket List.

I have a hard time with this, I have tried to make a bucket list before.

And honestly?

I've come up short.

There are things that I would love to be able to do, like, go to the top of Everest.

Being the realist that I am, I know that really isn't in my cards. I am just not athletic enough, or monied enough to pull off Everest.

I want to see Springsteen in concert.

but will my life be meaningless because I didn't?

No.

And I still might do so. Or I might not.

I guess what I'm trying to say, in my own, pessimistic way, is that I can't really think of anything that I want to do that is going to break me if I don't do it.

I have what I want, actually, a secure job, a roof over my head, my little family, and my extended family, all of who love me and I love them. Call me pedestrian, but I am satisfied...

am I ready to die tomorrow?

Hell no.

So my bucket list?

1. Spend years and years enjoying every moment with MM

2. Watch MG continue to grow and spread her wings, and become the phenomenal woman I know she is going to be, however she chooses to do it.

3. Enjoy my family

4. Enjoy my life, and embrace whatever comes my way.

Thats it. Thats my bucket list...

To read other, probably less pedestrian and more fun bucket lists, go here

Another creepy song

I was eating lunch with the family the other day, at a small diner that had some music (cough cough) being piped in. Music is usually always around me, whether it's my own internal soundtrack, or what is playing so that everyone else can hear it.

I focused in on the tune, because it was hauntingly familiar.

Then groaned, audibly, while my brain did that time warp wavy thing that always accomplishes the worst flashbacks ever. What I heard, was this:

You live your life in the songs you hear
On the rock and roll radio
And when a young girl doesn't have any friends
That's a really nice place to go
Folks hoping you'd turn out cool
But they had to take you outta school
You're a little touched you know, Angie Baby

Lovers appear in your room each night
And they whirl you across the floor
But they always seem to fade away
When your daddy taps on your door
Angie girl, are you all right
Tell the radio good-night
All alone once more, Angie Baby

Angie Baby, you're a special lady
Living in a world of make-believe
Well, maybe

Stopping at her house is a neighbor boy
With evil on his mind
'Cause he's been peeking in Angie's room
At night through her window blind
I see your folks have gone away
Would you dance with me today
I'll show you how to have a good time, Angie Baby

When he walks in her room,
He feels confused like he's walked into a play
And the music's so loud it spins him around
'Til his soul has lost its way
And as she turns the volume down
He's getting smaller with the sound
It seems to pull him off the ground
Toward the radio he's bound never to be found

The headlines read that a boy disappeared
and everyone thinks he died
'Cept a crazy girl with a secret lover
Who keeps her satisfied
It's so nice to be insane
No one asks you to explain
Radio by your side, Angie Baby

Angie Baby, you're a special lady
Living in a world of make-believe
Well, maybe
Well, maybe

Thats right. Helen Reddy.

We had this record. It got played, A LOT.

and this song always creeped me out.

So, I'm guessing its going to take another 30 years or so to burn this from my brain again...

unless any of you have a hot poker I could borrow....

Oh, hey, look at that

Yesterday was my Blog-a-versary.

Three years, now.

Huh.

Who'd a thunk it?

Friday Mieography

Today, instead of singling out one, single woman, I am going to tell you about many.

WASP. Makes you think of the bug, right? Or maybe a bunch of uptight white people?

Well, it also stands for "Women Airforce Service Pilots".

They were a pioneering organization of civilian, female pilots that were employed to fly the military aircraft during WW II. There were a little over 1,000 of them.

They flew only non combative missions, such as ferrying the aircraft from the factories, to the military bases, or towing the drones and aerial targets.

The women involved all had their commercial pilot rating, and they received 30 days of orientation to learn the Army paperwork, and to "fly by military regulations". Then they were assigned to various ferrying commands. The training took place in Sweetwater, Texas. More than 25,000 women applied, and less than 1900 were accepted. 1, 079 of them got their wings and became the first women to fly military aircraft, and they flew from 120 air bases from across the country, relieving male pilots for combat duty. They flew sixty million miles of operational flights, in practically every type of aircraft that was flown during WW II. Some of them were even allowed to test the rocket-propelled planes. Between September of 1942-December 1944, they delivered 12, 650 aircraft, of 78 different kinds.

Thirty eight of the WASP's lost their lives during this time, eleven in training, and twenty-seven of them during active duty. They were not considered to be "in" the military, and were sent home at the family expense, without even a flag for their coffins.

The ones that did survive did not receive any military benefits, either. Their records were sealed, classified, for thirty five years, so their contributions to the war effort were little known. In 1975, the WASPs went to Washington DC, to obtain recognition as veterans of World War II. They gained this in 1977. In 1984, they were given the WW II Victory Medal. Recently, they were given the Congressional Gold Medal. Roughly 300 of these women are surviving, now.

Wordless Wednesday

from the dank, dark dungeon, my new home

Its that time again, Queen Meme Tuesday. This one is kind of hard for me, I don't usually think about this stuff. Hmm. Lets see what I come up with...

I actually believe that if "shoulds" and "nevers" were banned from the English language we'd all be better off. Who needs to live in absolutes? Should evokes unnecessary and unhealthy guilt.
Never is never enough no matter what you should be doing. Not ever! See? But in this fill-in-the-blank exercise you can be as dogmatic and brutal as you dare.
After today's meme, lose the words.
Seriously.
You should.
Oh, never mind.


1. If I never see __spaghetti__________again it will be too soon.

2. Should I meet my Maker tomorrow, I would ask for one more day on earth to _____________say a proper goodbye to my loved ones________.


3. Never in my life have I ______coughed________like I did today.

4. I should always allow more time to ___un fog my brain______.

5. I should've never listened to __myself_______ while under the influence of ___teenage hormones__________.

6. I never ____sleep_______in my car but I should always carry _____pillows_________with me just in case.

7. I should spend more money on ______tea_ because it makes me happy. I should spend less money on __cough syrup_______because it makes me sad.

8. _________head colds____ should never be shared with strangers.

9. I should tell _my bed__________that I never really meant to __get up___________.

10. Never in a million years would I want you to know ___how much snot I've produced in the last week

OK, looking back on this, I can see that is heavily influenced by the fact that I am not in a healthy state yet. I'm getting closer to fine, though.

For more fun, and possibly less gross answers (especially that last one) go here_____________.

We've had our share, can it be over now?

MM and I got an unexpected gift from our weekend in Monterey last weekend.

A kick ass, cough inducing stuffy nose achy head so no one rests upper respiratory infection.

Our house is so full of germs and snot I hesitate to even let anyone walk in the door.

MG has, so far, been unscathed.

We've been through more Thera Flu, Nyquil, and Robitussen this winter then I have ever needed in my LIFETIME.

We are both feeling somewhat better. But I've had it.

NO MORE!!

(please?)

wandering off to bed now so I can go to work tonight...

Friday Mieography

Meet Sally Kristen Ride. Most of us have some sort of memory of her, right? Because she is still alive!
She was born in Encino, California where she spent much time going to school, and playing tennis. She began playing tennis at age 10, and was nationally ranked by the time she was college aged. She was accepted to, and began her education at Swarthmore College, but dropped out to pursue a tennis career. 3 months of this showed her she wasn't cut out for this, so, she enrolled at Stanford. She graduated at 27 years old, with a B.A., B.S. and a Master's Degree. (in Physics) She decided to to her doctorate work in astrophysics, also at Stanford. During this time, NASA put out a call in the Stanford paper looking for astronaut candidates. She was one one of 8000 to apply, and one of SIX women to be accepted into the program. Only 35 people were chosen out of the 8000.
She went through rigorous training at NASA, parachute jumping, water survival, gravity and weightlessness training (if only we could all have 'weightlessness training'.). She enjoyed the flight training so much it became her favorite hobby. During her training, she was the Capsule Communicator for the second, and third Space Shuttle flights, and helped to develop the Space Shuttle's robot arm.
On June 18, 1983, she became the first American woman in space, as a crewmember on the Space Shuttle Challenger. They deployed 2 communication sattellites, did some pharmaceutical experiments, and were the first to use the robot arm. She went up again, on the Challenger, in 1984. She was in training for her 3rd flight when the Challenger exploded. After that, she was named to the Presidential Commission for investigating the accident, and headed the subcommittee on Operations. After the investigation, she was then assigned to NASA headquarters in Washington, DC. While there, she became more involved with the future of the Space program, writing a report called "Leadership and America's future in space", and she founded NASA's Office of Exploration.
She left NASA in 1987, and took a job back at Stanford, at the Stanford University Center for International Security and Arms Control. During this time, she was briefly married to another astronaut. It ended in divorce. In 1989, she became a professor of physics as UC San Diego, and the director of the California Space Institute. In 2003, she was asked to serve on the SPace Shuttle Columbia Accident Investigation board.
Now on leave from the University, she is the president, and CEO of Sally Ride Science, a company she founded in 2001 that creates science programs, and publications for elementary and middle school students, with a particular focus on girls. She has also written, and co-written multiple books about space, aimed at children, to encourage them to study science.
She has won multiple awards, including the Lindbergh Eagle,and the National Spaceflight Medal, twice. She has been inducted into the National Woman's Hall of Fame, and the Astronaut Hall of Fame. 2 elementary schools are named after her, (Texas, and Maryland), and she was also inducted into the California Hall of Fame.

Wordless Wednesday

Lucky Birthday Girl edition....

Still in the lock up

and it's likely I will stay there for the forseeable future...

for more fun, go here.


1. What year were the very very very first Olympics held? In the year of-478 BT. (not sure what BT is? I can't tell you, or I'd get scolded)

2. The original games were banned for being a pagan festival because the Olympics celebrated the Greek God of........??

A. Mars
B. Venus
C. Zeus
D. Google
none of the above. They were celebrating the Greek GODDESS of Cheese, Feta.
3. In 1896 the first modern-day Olympic Summer Games were held. Which country won the most medals that year? Aquitaine. Because Alienor is still alive and coaching their team...


4. Which country has won the most medals EVER at the Winter Games? Anjou, because they were trying to run away from Aquitaine.


5. I predict that Blogging will become the next Olympic event recognized by the International Olympic Committee as a valid sport. How would you train for this event? And if you think it should be a team event, who would you include on your team? See I think I'd have to have tryouts for my blogging team. You'd all have to come to California, sample some Death Rum Punch or one of MM's magic Margarita's, we'd play spin the bottle, and then see who could type the fastest... and then, after that, the training could start in ernest...

6. What do the five Olympic rings represent? The rings of a Chastity Belt

7. No country in the Southern Hemisphere has ever hosted the Winter Games? Why? Because their accents are too thick...

8. What the heck is curling? Why should it be a sport??The only curling that I could objectively see as a sport is the curling of eyelashes. And the sport is keeping your tongue in your mouth while you're doing that, and applying the mascara...

9. Mark Spitz won 11 medals in the most combined overall medals category. What was his sport?
A. Skiing B. Swimming C. Looking good D. Resigning from public office after a sordid scandal

I thought it was Spitzing Watermelon seeds...

10. In ancient times females were forbidden to watch the games.
What was the penalty for doing so? Having to give massages to the Curlers

11. In 1908 the organizers of the London Olympic Games added another 385 yards in order for the royal family to have a better view of the finish line.
Which sport was it? Croquet, of course...

12. What event would you like to see added to the Olympics? Why?Baklava Baking. Because that is a REAL challenge

Extra credit and a guarantee you won't end up with no medal or meal in the dungeon this week.
What was your favorite Olympic event or moment to witness this year at the 2010 Olympics? I didn't get to see a whole lot of it, but I did enjoy the Hockey this year...

weekend wrap up

This weekend was amazing..

MM and I left MG with the Kilt family Friday night, and went to spend the weekend at a town on the California Coast, Monterey. We stayed in a very nice hotel, and explored Cannery Row, went down to the beach, and looked through the large aquarium that is home to Monterey.

Let me give you a little background.

I love fish. And not just to eat.

When I was little we would go to places like Marine World, and I would love every part of it. Except one.

I hated seeing the big Orca's in the tank. (No, I am not veering off into another story). I don't think those whales, no matter how "stimulated" the parks keep them, belong in a tank smaller than the ocean. Its my opinion.

The aquarium this weekend was having a Seahorse show. Where I discovered something else about myself.

Though they were beautiful and amazing to look at, I don't think Seahorses belong in small tanks. (says the lady who keeps fish tanks at home.)

Before the word hypocrite skitters through your mind, my fish are not fish from the wild. They have been bred, for years and years, in tanks, some of them probably just like mine. Those Seahorses?

I am fairly certain they are wild caught. And that living in a tank with hundreds of thousands of people streaming past, pointing at, and, at times, tapping on, is, I am sure, their idea of hell.

Regardless? It was a great weekend, relaxing and nice...

( I was very sad to hear of the earthquake in Chile, however, and very glad that no large tsunami waves hit anyone else...)