333 is Attractive

I’ve had my snack of stick pretzels and water. My hair is dirty (I’ll wash it tomorrow.) I’m wearing an orange t-shirt and black shorts to bed (very Halloween colors.)

I placed a BN order, among other things, I ordered the hot new Rhonda Byrne book The Secret. I ordered it and didn’t even see her on Oprah. So there. Supposedly The Secret is based of the principle of attraction. People who put out good thoughts, receive back from the Universe. Something like that. I’ll let you know more after it arrives and I’ve read it.
I looked it up on the Internet and apparently some people are calling this thing “cultish.” It doesn’t sound like the definition of a cult. What’s wrong with putting out positive energy? Seeing the glass half full. Looking on the bright side of life. Being happy with the green grass on your own side of the fence. Letting a smile be your umbrella.
I guess I’d rather pay for a book like that, than pay money to a TV preacher who threatens that God will call him home if he doesn’t raise X number of dollars by such-and-such a date. Don’t the evangelicals preach that if you give them, say, one thousand dollars that the Lord will repay you sevenfold? Or is it seven times seventy? I get my sevens mixed up.

Isn’t seven a magical number? Asians think the number eight is lucky.

We discussed this awhile back:

Daniel Paul Tammet is a British autistic savant gifted with a facility for mathematics problems, sequence memory, and natural language learning. He was born with congenital childhood epilepsy.
Experiencing numbers as colors or sensations is a well-documented form of synesthesia, but Tammet is unique in how specific and detailed his mental imagery of numbers is. He claims that in his mind each number, up to 10,000, has its own unique shape and feel, and he can "sense" whether a number is prime or composite and "see" results of calculations as landscapes in his mind. He has described his visual image of 289 as particularly ugly, 333 as particularly attractive, and pi as beautiful.
Tammet holds the European record for memorizing and recounting pi to 22,514 digits in just over five hours. This sponsored charity challenge was held in aid of the National Society for Epilepsy (NSE) on “Pi Day,” 14 March 2004 at the Museum of the History of Science,Oxford, UK. The NSE was chosen to benefit from this event because of Daniel's experience with epilepsy as a young child. Professor Allan Snyder at the Australian National University said of Tammet: “Savants can't usually tell us how they do what they do. It just comes to them. Daniel can. He describes what he sees in his head. That's why he's exciting. He could be the ‘Rosetta Stone.’”

False Prophet and John Paul

Pope Benny calls Dylan a false prophet. I hate Pope Benny. He's an ultra conservative in-a world-of-Conservatives Catholic. At least Pope John Paul met with all kinds of people . . Jews, Muslims, Hindus. He didn't proselytze (sp?) He was kind of a Live and Let Live Pope (especially fetuses--rofl)--not like this boy Benny. Blech. Aint no one gonna diss Bob to me! He doesn't make himself out as anything other than a singer-poet-songwriter . . what others think of him doesn't concern him. A good example to follow.

I tried to embed "The Cost of War" statistics in my blog again. I wanted it to show up under my profile to the right of the screen, but I could only get it to show up at the very bottom of my blog. Oh, well.

Doc/Vet

Yesterday was a busy one.

I worked until noon, then took LP to the doctor's office. He's been having sinus headaches and I wanted to make sure he didn't have an infection. He doesn't. The doctor said I could give him a Sinutab or a over-the-counter Claritin every day. I don't/won't do this. He doesn't have trouble every day, so why medicate him every day? I should have saved the 50 bucks.

Then I took Nesta (who I call Miss Kiki Marie more than I call her Nesta) to the vet's to get her annual rabies shot. She HATES that carrier and wails all the way to the doc's office. I talked and cooed to her. This cat never meows/wails unless she's in that carrier. Poor kitty. Doc says she's healthy and fully grown at seven pounds. He said "Some cats are fat; some are skinny." Hm. Words of wisdom. It was the fastest vet visit ever. We were in and out of there in under ten minutes--and that includes the time it took me to write a check! Miss Kiki Marie was glad when we returned home, and promptly ran into LP's room and up on his bed.

Rats/Hunger/ and Robins

Random thoughts:


1. I saw this headline on cnn.com: “Rats chew off baby’s nose”
Who wants to read that crap? Not me.

2. Is there a bigger turd on TV than Tucker Carlson?

3. I had an 11 am meeting with my boss. He talked and talked and talked some more. It was noon. I was hungry. I tend to get mean when I’m hungry (shocker, I know.) I wanted him to shut up so I could go & have lunch. He said something I’m sure he thought was quite insightful, and then looked at me for affirmation, or something, and I gave him that Jim from The Office Look—you know that head tilt and semi shoulder shrug. So he shut up and I went to lunch. I ate a hamburger with jalapenos and banana peppers, half order of fat crinkle fries, and a Dasani water. When I partake of bottled water I hear Verb whisper to me that “bottled water is the biggest con perpetrated on the American public,” but I enjoyed it anyway. I also had a Reese’s Peanut butter cup, and felt better.

4. After all this horrible weather—the snow, ice, salt and rain—I finally ran the car through the car wash and, boy, does it look spiffy.

5. For dinner we had homemade tacos, then I drove LP to the video store and he rented Flyboys and that Robin Williams’ Man of the Year. What was Robin Williams’ last good movie? I can’t think of any I’ve enjoyed since Dead Poet’s Society. Most of his stuff is true crap. Sorry, Robin.

6. I know a real life man named Robin. I always thought of Robin as a girl’s name. I wonder if boy-Robins feel emasculated. My Mom said that Meredith used to be a man’s name, but in this day and age Merediths are women. Wonder when that switch happened. I know a man Gale, and a woman Gail.
I know a man Gene and a woman Jean.
I know a man Lou and a woman Lulu (besides you, Lubbbbbbbbbbeeeeeeeeeee)

Turbo Scratcher

This is a Turbo Scratcher cat toy. My cat LOVES it! Nesta's never been one for cat toys. She'd rather chase/fetch a tossed straw or a red dot from the laser pointer, but I bought this yesterday and she LOVES it. It has a golf ball embeded into the ring so it rolls around, and corrugated cardboard in the middle for scratching. It came with a packet of catnip to spread around the cardboard, but she's never been one for catnip so I didn't use it. She lays on it and bats at the ball, then she'll scratch the cardboard, then she'll jump on it, then she'll crouch down beside it and leap on the ball. Now she's just sitting atop it like she's the Queen of the World.

Admit it . . this picture is MUCH better than the Ball-less Basil on Meme's blog!

LP and I visited my Mom yesterday. All's well there. It snowed a little bit, but the drive home was gorgeous. The sun finally came out and the skies were actually blue. I can't remember when the last time I saw a blue sky was.

Good News/Bad News/Friday

Good news:

1. My sister emailed yesterday that our Little Rock/Clinton Library trip is all set for May! YAY! We're staying at the Peabody Hotel and it will be fun.

2. I'm buying bagels for breakfast this morning.

3. It's Friday.

4. LP and I are visiting my mom and staying over Saturday.


Bad news:

1. Weather sucks

March/Cinnamon Scone/Doe's

March is coming in like a lion. We've got a full blown thunderstorm here: complete with thunder and lightning. Ugh.

Update on yesterday: We bought tax lady Judy a cinnamon scone and received a bigger refund than anticipated. Don't think the two events are related. With having to prepay quarterly estimateds, we just never know how much we'll receive/have to pay.

Oh! Judy's family's originally from Little Rock. I mentioned that my mom, sister and I might make a trip there this spring to go to Bill Clinton's Presidential Museum, and she lit up. Another Bill fan! Evidently Bill has an upstairs apartment on property that he stays in whenever he's in town. She gave me some tips on restaurants. . . . especially one named Doe's. It's a little hole in the wall, but a Little Rock icon and a Bill hang out. She said that her ex husband was one of Bill's good friends and they hooked up with Bill on several occasions. No, I didn't ask her to define "hooked up."

No Work/Errands

I am taking off of work today. BP and I have an appointment with Judy, our tax lady this morning. Then he and I are going out to lunch and do some errands.

I went to my bank yesterday and asked about the George Washington dollar coins. They said they didn't order any and the only way they'll get them is if a customer brings them in. The nerve! So anyway a friend went to buy stamps at the Post Office and the lobby machine gave him dollar coins as change. So I guess I'll do that. I saw the coin live and in person yesterday and it's quite pretty.

In May the Post Office is raising the price of their first class postage stamp to 41 cents.

Oh! That reminds me . . I have to get passport applications for all of us.

Two of My Favorite Green Men

Larry David (drives a Prius; his wife Laurie is very active in environmental causes)

Ed Begley, Jr & his wife Rachelle. Living with Ed. 'Nuff said

19 Time Loser

This is movie sound mixer Kevin O'Connell. He was nominated last night for Apocalypto. he lost to Dreamgirls. He's been nominated 19 times, he's lost 19 times. Poor thing. Story.

"How many people win an Oscar? How many people get nominated for an Oscar in their life? It's insane, just to be part of that is an incredible feeling, so I don't get discouraged."

From CBS:

For each of his nominations -- starting in 1984 for "Terms of Endearment" up to his most recent, for "Memoirs of a Geisha" in 2006 -- O'Connell has penned an acceptance speech, all of which are tucked away in a drawer at home.
"Some of them are written on the back of a business card, some of them are written on the back of a napkin," O'Connell said ahead of Sunday's Oscars. "I collect memorabilia, so it's become an extension of my hobby."
He has also framed and mounted each of his 18 Oscar nomination certificates. "I don't have any space left on my wall now," O'Connell said. "But there's still plenty of space on my mantlepiece!"

Maybe next year, Kevin.

Me, Badgley Mischka, Wolfgang Puck and Uncle Harry

I watched the tape of Saturday Night Live. It was so awful even Rainn Wilson couldn’t save it.

I went grocery shopping at Meijer’s and bought kitchen-can sized garbage bags, big trash can sized garbage bags, scrubber sponges, milk, eggs, rye bread, jalapenos, pineapple, mango, organic grape tomatoes and a Wolfgang Puck cheese pizza which is in the oven right now. I’m the only one home, so I doctored-up the pizza. I added snipped fresh rosemary, crushed pepper flakes, roasted red peppers, oregano, and sliced garlic,.

That’s me in my Oscar night Badgley Mischka dress. I’ll be borrowing twenty million dollars in jewels from Harry Winston . . . or a Winston from my Uncle Harry. I forget which.

This is my awful secret: I don’t want Jennifer Hudson to win Best Supporting actress tonight. She probably will, but I’m sick of her. I’m sick of seeing her on every magazine and television show. Enough already. Same thing withHelen Mirren. I love her but I want Meryl Streep to win for Devil Wears Prada. She’ll give a funnier speech than ole Helen.

I hope Ellen DeGeneres is funny. I love Ellen, and I’m excited to see how she’ll fill out her tuxedo,

I wish I had some Poppycock to eat during the show. You know Poppycock? Butter Caramel/Toffee corn with nuts? Yum.

In the dress department . . . . Who will be this year’s Bjork?

Hair and Movie

I got my hair cut and highlighted yesterday. I love my hairdresser Kasey, but yesterday she was driving me crazy with her talk of her two pitbulls. I know more about those two creatures’ habits, likes and dislikes than a person needs to know. She’s 6 months pregnant and has to give away the big pit bull Charlie because he is evidently a pussycat who loves to flop his big ass 100 pound self on her lap and get petted. Blah, Blah. Blah. Hairdressers should know when to shut the hell up and just do their thing.. BTW she’s naming their baby boy-fetus Logan with no middle name because her husband’s Italian and the people in the part of Italy his family is from do not believe in middle names, but if it was a girl-fetus the name would beLoreleiJaneandtheLoreleiisfromsomebodyon
TheGilmoreGirlsandKasyandherhusband
JameslovetowatchtheGilmoreGirlsandI’m
runningallthewordstogtherbecausethisishowKasey
wastalkingtomeyesterday.
I was willing myself to breathe and be calm and wishing my hair was naturally cut, highlighted and cute so I wouldn’t have to hear these stories. I wish I could just stare at Kasey’s vivid green walls and the plastic neon pink flowers that were held in a glass vase at her work station. The upside? My hair looks fabulous.

I just watched For Your Consideration and I didn’t love it like Guest’s other movies, but it’s still worthy. The standouts:

Fred Willard as an Entertainment Tonight-type host with weird freaking rooster comb hair.

Ed Begley, Jr as a gay make up artist

Catherine O’Hara as an over-the-hill actress who believes the hype found on the “WorldWide Interweb.” In the last part of the film she gets a face life, Botox and collagen and goes from a normal looking person to a plastic Hollywood woman. Catherine O’Hara really did give an Oscar worthy performance. She was very good.

Parker Posey was also in the movie and everytime I see her in a movie I think of old Feral Wolfy—may he rest in peace in someone’s basement and/or tool shed.

An Alert for The Office Fans

Although there is usually only about five funny minutes in any given 90 minute
episode of SNL . . . this week Rainn Wilson is hosting it. I'm going to tape it.

LP asked me this afternoon if Britney Spears had died. I told him that I didn't think she had because Sparky didn't post anything about it. He looked at me quizzically.

DVDs/Ice

I went DVD shopping yesterday. I bought two seasons of Fresh Prince of Bel Air for LP. He started watching it on Nick, and loved it (don't ask me why.)

I bought Chris Guest's For Your Consideration and will watch it this weekend. I just read Respighi's less than stellar review of it on her blog. Bitch. I'll still love it though. I love his humor and his ensemble of actors he uses.

I also bought Season 4 of Columbo. I've blogged before of my Columbo love.

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We have dense icy, sleety fog this morning! A 2 hour delay for LP's school. I'll let him sleep a little longer and I'll make coffee as soon as I finish here. I called in work and told them I'd be in late, after I drop him off at school.

Hello????

1. Just when did "at the end of the day" become a wind up a national catch phrase? Watch a news interview show and tell me if someone does not say, ". . . at the end of the day, it's his fault." " . . . at the end of the day, Iraq is a quagmire." " . . . at the end of the day, George W. Bush is the 'decider.'" News shows, television shows, it's all about "the end of the day."


2. Remember when everyone said "HELLO!!!???" as if the comment s/he made was so earth shattering everyone knew what they were talking about? "HELLO?????!!! I said this meeting is bogus."



3. Remember when white girls copied black girls and said, "Oh, no you dit int!" with an attitude? I said this to one of my younger staff members last week--with a snap. She snorted, "Gawd! you're too old and white TO SAY THAT!!!" She was right, but it was funny.




4. Remember when everyone said "NOT!" at the end of a sentence? "You're so handsome . . . . NOT!" I think SNL started that. That got old really fast but people still say it. "Sure you can go home at 3 today . . . . . NOT!" "Bert sure has a long penis . . . . .. NOT!" harhar

2 Great Websites to Visit

If you either, A) don't believe in global warming, or B) don't care a rat's ass about global warning, read no further.


www.TerraPass.com

I learned about Terrapass through the Living with Ed HGTV show. Basically you pay a fee and it will reduce your carbon footprint. You can pay for your car, home and even the airplane trips you take. Terrific organization. I bought a TerraPass for both my house and my Lexus, so now I have negated my carbon footprint in those two areas. YAY

From their website:
The first step you can take to fight global warming is to reduce your carbon footprint through conservation. Drive less. Turn down the thermostat. Buy locally produced goods.
Then use TerraPass to reduce your carbon footprint all the way to zero.
When you buy a TerraPass, your money funds renewable energy projects such as wind farms. These projects result in verified reductions in greenhouse gas pollution. And these reductions counterbalance your own emissions.

Read the FAQs on their website--very interesting.


Another great conservation site is www.greendimes.com .
If you get a megaton of unsolicited credit card offers, requests for donations, catalogs, and other junk mail, this site will eliminate the junk mail you receive, and plant a tree for you every month. It helps save trees and water.

Top Sheet/Monkey

LP had his friend Chace (sic) spend the night. When I went to bed they were in his room watching a movie Once Upon a Time in America. This morning when I get up they’re sleeping in the living room . .LP on the couch and Chace sprawled out in the big recliner. I’m guessing they came out here to play Xbox or something like that then just fell asleep. I’m letting their lazy butts sleep until 10 then I’m getting them up.
I’ll either make them eggs and bacon for breakfast, or we can go to IHOP. I’ll let them choose.

What’s on tap for today: I have to launder my sheets and pillow cases, and I have to vacuum, and clean the bathroom.

This just came to me: When we were growing up, we never had a top sheet. Just the fitted mattress sheet. I don’t know why. Maybe there were just too damned many of us to buy top sheets for our beds. I’ll have to remember to ask my mother. It wasn’t until college when I saw my roommate make her bed with a top and bottom sheet that I decided that two sheets was a good idea. Today, it would feel odd not using a top sheet.


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It's the Year of the Pig!!! And I'm a monkey
Chinese Zodiac