Book suggestion

Gotta love Saturday mornings. I’m sitting here with my coffee, BP’s in Maryland on business, LP is playing an extremely violent Xbox game called "The Godfather" (I hear m-fer and other choice words every so often—not from my angel LP, of course, but from the game) and Nesta is happily playing with her pink straw.

On tap today is laundry. I’m also making LP go around the yard and pick up sticks and other stuff that’s blown around for the last month. He wants to stay all night with Eric, so I told him that if he did everything I asked of him this morning and afternoon with nary a peep or whine, maybe just maybe I’d let him.

Anyway, I got another BN order yesterday. In the carton was a sample package of Starbucks coffee. What arrived: Bleeding Hearts, a China Bayles herbal mystery by Susan Wittig Albert, the complete third season of "Columbo" (one of the best ever television detective characters) and a small, incredibly tasty book titled Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism by Bob Edwards. (I’m three quarters of the way through it already!) It’s part of the “Turning Points” book series published by John Wiley.
Watching the movie "Good Night and Good Luck" fueled my interest in Edward R. Murrow. What a wonderful journalist this man was. The book reprints some of his actual radio news reports from London during the Nazi bombings prior to American participation of WWII. He highlighted how the everyday Londoner was coping with the hailstorm of bombs. Very vivid first-person accounts. The news radio medium was very new back then and Murrow brought the war directly to the American public. After Pearl Harbor when we entered the war, Winston Churchill credited Murrow with educating the American public to Nazi horrors and with showing them they should be interested in what Europe was going through, even though (back then) Europe was so very very much removed from the life of the average American. His first hand account of his visit to the horror that was the concentration camp Buchenwald is extremely moving. $19.95 well spent for this slice of journalistic history.

Michael Buble

Verbie sent me one of those emails that ask you what your favorite this and that is. I completed it and passed it on to several of you. One question was "What CD are you listening to a lot." I had to confess to Michael Buble's (pronounced Booblay) It's Time.
If you don't know him, he's a Canadian crooner in the style of Harry Connick, Jr., Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin. His big hit is a song called "Home" but both of his CDs are filled with old time classics like "I've Got You Under My Skin" He even covered Van Morrison's classic "Moondance."
This is good driving-the-car music. Very soothing.

Evil Red Dot

Here’s the new Nesta story: A laser pointer.
The girl goes absolutely bonkers when LP or BP runs the red dot all over the carpet. Sometimes they run it so it appears to go down into the floor heater vent. The cat will just sit and stare at the vent in case the Evil Red Dot appears. She’s guarding her humans against the ERD. Last night I ran the ERD into her kitty condo, and she took a flying leap and landed inside it. Run the dot alongside the wall near the floor and make it disappear around a corner and she’ll take on her crouched, attack kitty stance mode and fly around the corner. She’s a funny cat. I’m interested to see what she does this summer if a lightning bug gets inside the house.

Not one flake

We were expecting a major snowstorm after midnight last night and of course LP just knew he wouldn't have school today. This morning, not one flake of snow on the ground. Needless to say it was Grumpyville around here this morning. But we are expecting one to three inches of snow sometime today.

As far as winter is concerned, it needs to Shit or Get Off the Pot (as my Grandma used to say.)

Have a perfectly pleasant day.

Busy Weekend

1. Got new tires for the Lexus

2. LP and I stayed Saturday night at my Mom’s. Ordered pizza and salad, washed her dishes, scrubbed her sink, cleaned her toilets, changed her broken wrist bandages and soaked her arm, and watered her houseplants. And yes, Schell, she had a martini.

3. Did some yard work today, but we might get snow overnight tomorrow.

4. Went to Menard’s with BP and bought some gutter downspouts and assorted accoutrements.

5. Did six loads of laundry.

6. Watched a taped biography on Food TV’s Ina “Barefoot Contessa” Garten.

7. Vacuumed the living room.

8. ohh-ohh . . . Meme, guess what? The cat learned something cute to do! I’ll detail it in the next update!

I’m tired. Oops, I forgot to mention that we bought and watched Good NIght and Good Luck. Terrific movie. I was impressed with Dubya, Rummy, and Ashcroft playing the part of Joseph McCarthy. Good job, fellas!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

That Demonic Company, Halliburton, Does it Again

The wonderful company once headed by Dick "Quail Hunter" Cheney---the company who gets billion dollar no bid government contracts--- has done it again. This time they haven't been purifying water that American soldiers fighting in Iraq rely on.

Contaminated Water

The moon and bacon

1. The moon was beautiful this morning.

2. For breakfast I had a bacon, egg and cheese crossainwich at Burger King, and I’m enjoying coffee now in my office.

3. The anti-abortion bill is still being tinkered with in Indiana. The text of the bill says that, before the abortion, the woman has to be told that the fetus may feel pain and that life begins at conception. Who died and made these legislators God?

4. Why aren’t these bastards as concerned with the deaths in Darfur, or that Slobodan Milosovic was a modern-age Hitler? Nooooooooo, they’re saving babies for God. All those assholes protesting at abortion clinics need to get out their check books, or board planes to Africa and save those babies from AIDS, or do something constrictive, and leave uteruses the hell alone.

5. I read George Clooney’s “I am a Liberal” blog over at the Huffington Report. Good job, George.

Shat is the shit

Last night BP and I watched an interesting show on the History Channel last night: How William Shatner Changed the World. They followed NASA engineers, creative types, and the creator of the cell phone through how Star Trek inspired them to create things. It was two hours long. I only watched the first hour because then they got into Star Trek: The Next Generation which I never got in to.

On their website, you can enter a sweepstakes to actually meet William Shatner at a Star Trek convention in Las Vegas: http://www.historychannel.com/space/sweeps/registration.jsp

Sorry, but this is just too cute.

The cat was looking down in the sofa cushions for a straw, and all that was peeking out was her head.

Meme--Don't Look!

This cat is funny. She's a fetcher. We have a box of plastic bendy straws and LP and BP love to throw one into the next room and Nesta will retrieve it to them. Every once in awhile she's cart off the straw to her secret hiding place, so somewhere in the house she probably has a stash of yellow, blue, pink and green bendy straws.

Bummer

BP and I took the LP to his heart doctor yesterday and spent four freaking hours waiting around Riley’s Children’s Hospital. His last appointment was in July and his doctor recommended surgery for LP’s vsd (small hole in the heart.) He said that this surgery is better done now when there’s little damage, rather than waiting until LP’s in his thirties or forties and he’d have to be on blood thinners the rest of his life. The surgery is booked for the end of May, which we’re not looking forward to at all.

This is about television

Project Runway.
Daniel V got screwed. He deserved to win. He won the majority of the challenges on this season. His designs were wonderful. I like Chloe, but in my mind she came in second. The judges were right about Santino’s clothes. They were beautiful, but the tops didn’t fit. Why would you go to an important debut like this and not fit your clothes on a live person?? I’m glad Michael Kors offered Daniel a job. He’ll go far.
I’ll miss Tim Gunn.



Sons and Daughters.
There’s a new sitcom on ABC. Sons and Daughters is produced by SNL’s Lorne Michaels. It is very very funny. Max Gail (Detective Wojohowicz from Barney Miller) plays the main character’s stepfather. What fun it is to see him back on tv. They have a stereotypical old lady character by the name of Aunt Rae. She’s what Archie Bunker’s older sister would be like. Check it out. Wednesdays.


The Amazing Race.
It’s too early in The Amazing Race to be interesting. They have a wacko dentist and his wife. The dentist (name is “Lake” as in the ocean) who one team calls “Scott Peterson.” Ha ha.


New sitcom.
I love Julia Louis Dreyfuss but I doubt if I’ll watch her new show The New Adventures of Old Christine. The previews show typical blah sitcom fare.

Would you eat this?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/03/08/furry.lobster.ap/index.html

HP Day

I skated out of work for a half hour to go and buy Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on DVD. Special 2 disc set. Eat your heart out, Muggle!

Foggy, Paint, and the Oscars

It’s very very foggy here today. We got some snow yesterday but later on in the week it’s supposed to climb to 60 degrees.


We accepted a bid to paint our soffits, fascia and window trims. The guy is supposed to come by on Wednesday and talk to BP and get a down payment. Now we’ll just have to wait until we get a week or so stretch of 55 degree weather—maybe later this month or April.

Last night BP watched the Oscars with me. He loves Jennifer Lopez. I think she’s evil. I think her evil mind almost made Jennifer Garner trip on the stage.

What’s with that hairdo everyone had last night? The Uma Thurman/Sandra Bullock hair of the Grecian goddess. Pulled back but wavy. I saw a lot of people doing their ‘do like that. I hated the color of Michelle Williams’ (of Heath Ledger fame) dress. It was mustardy yellow lime. Yuck. Even a hot dog wouldn’t look good wearing that.

Updates

1. My mother’s surgery went well, although she chastised the doctor for being 45 minutes late. BP said to me, “You come by your impatience honestly.” It’s true. I’m very impatient.


2. BP and LP got the mourning dove out of the basement Thursday. Now all is quiet downstairs.


3. I watched Part One of the Project Runway finale. Santino actually seemed a wee bit humble. I like Daniel’s shorter hair. And Chloe’s family history—she and her seven sisters were born in Laos and her parents tried to sneak them out during the war, got caught, and all had to spend time in “Family Jail.” Fascinating. I’d love to get a visit from Tim Gunn. Santino’s collection looks very good, but I still want Daniel to win. That big pink coat that we saw from Chloe’s collection is hideous. Can’t wait for the finale Wednesday night.

Scaredy Cat

When I was in bed Tuesday night I heard weird noises coming from the basement. I hate that! This kind of stuff usually happens when BP is away on business. I bolted upright, and strained to hear wtf it was. I put on my glasses. Putting on my glasses always makes me hear better. Like turning down the radio in your car when you’re lost and trying to find a street address. Anyway, it stopped. Then started again. I took a flashlight and check in on LP. He was sawing logs. Then I took the flashlight and shined it out on the back porch. Nesta was sawing logs too. Damn, I was hoping she had knocked something over. But no, it was all quiet. So I went back to bed. And it started in again. I went out into the living room and called BP. It was about 1am.

BP: (groggy voice) What’s wrong?
Me: I heard a noise.
BP: What noise?
Me: A noise. In the basement!
BP: A human noise? You think there’s someone down there?
Me: No, not a person. What kind of stupid person breaks into someone’s house and makes enough racket to wake the dead? It was a noise. Like a wild animal down there?
BP: It’s probably a bird. Remember? About once a year one of the stupid birds---which you feed, by the way--gets into the house.
Me: I hope it’s just a bird and not a raccoon. You know, Vanda52 has raccoons in his attic.
BP: Who?
Me: Nevermind. You’ll be home Thursday right?
BP: Yes Puddin.
Me: Then it’ll be here waiting for you.
BP: Yeeesssss Puddin.
Me: I’m sleeping in the living room. I can’t hear it there. Bye.
BP: Love ya.

So I did. I slept in the living room. So yesterday after work I walked all around the house. I saw it. On the basement window ledge was a little mourning dove. That basement window hasn’t been opened in a hundred years and I wasn’t going to break it. I had LP hit the window with a broom, while I held open the basement door, hoping it would fly out on its own. It didn’t. It looked perfectly fine sitting there. And there it will sit until this afternoon when BP gets it out.

Pimp Name

Get your pimp name here


I have two:

Ice Master E. Clinton

Vicious D. Writes Ice

Yesterday's Online Purchases

Rosemary Clooney Sings the Lyrics of Ira Gershwin CD
(FOEs--abbrevation for Friends of Emma, which is odd because it spells "foe". huh. Go figure. Anyway, FOEs know that I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Rosie's voice. Love her, love Gershwin tunes.)


Frommer's Portable Las Vegas for Non-Gamblers
(I'm a gambler, but this book looks like it will be helpful)


Daisy Cooks!: Latin Flavors That Will Rock Your World
(This broad has a PBS cooking show and she is wonderful!--Love her)


On the Road with Francis of Assisi: A Timeless Journey Through Umbria and Tuscany, and Beyond
(Looks interesting, and I love reading about that region of Italy anyway)