Let's do a little meme-ing. Music meme-ing, no less. Courtesy of Doug, we have this lovely meme: take the list from the year you graduated from high school then strike the songs you hate, bold the ones you love, and the ones left over are the ones you supposedly couldn't care less about.

Okedokey. I graduated in 1989. If you're interested, take the jump. more...

Posted by: Kathy at 05:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm assuming most people have seen this, but in case you haven't, courtesy of the Huffington Post, we have Robert Kennedy, Jr. who, apparently, is the tackiest man alive.

In March of 2001, just two days after EPA Administrator Christie Todd WhitmanÂ’s strong statement affirming BushÂ’s CO2 promise former RNC Chief Barbour responded with an urgent memo to the White House.

Barbour, who had served as RNC Chair and Bush campaign strategist, was now representing the presidentÂ’s major donors from the fossil fuel industry who had enlisted him to map a Bush energy policy that would be friendly to their interests. His credentials ensured the new administrationÂ’s attention.

The document, titled “Bush-Cheney Energy Policy & CO2,” was addressed to Vice President Cheney, whose energy task force was then gearing up, and to several high-ranking officials with strong connections to energy and automotive concerns keenly interested in the carbon dioxide issue, including Energy Secretary
Spencer Abraham, Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Commerce Secretary Don Evans, White House chief of staff Andy Card and legislative liaison Nick Calio. Barbour pointedly omitted the names of Whitman and Treasury Secretary Paul OÂ’Neill, both of whom were on record supporting CO2 caps. BarbourÂ’s memo chided these administration insiders for trying to address global warming which Barbour dismissed as a radical fringe issue.

“A moment of truth is arriving,” Barbour wrote, “in the form of a decision whether this Administration’s policy will be to regulate and/or tax CO2 as a pollutant. The question is whether environmental policy still prevails over energy policy with Bush-Cheney, as it did with Clinton-Gore.” He derided the idea of regulating CO2 as “eco-extremism,” and chided them for allowing environmental concerns to “trump good energy policy, which the country has lacked for eight years.”

{...}On March 13, Bush reversed his previous position, announcing he would not back a CO2 restriction using the language and rationale provided by Barbour. Echoing Barbour’s memo, Bush said he opposed mandatory CO2 caps, due to “the incomplete state of scientific knowledge” about global climate change.

Well, the science is clear. This month, a study published in the journal Nature by a renowned MIT climatologist linked the increasing prevalence of destructive hurricanes to human-induced global warming.

{...}In 1998, Republican icon Pat Robertson warned that hurricanes were likely to hit communities that offended God. Perhaps it was BarbourÂ’s memo that caused Katrina, at the last moment, to spare New Orleans and save its worst flailings for the Mississippi coast.

{my emphasis}

Niiiiiiiiiice, Bobby.

Note that this was published on Monday evening. No one had any idea of how bad the damage was, or how many people had been killed in Katrina's wake. No one had any idea about any of this, but Junior, who was safe in New York, just assumed that since the hurricane had passed over, this would be a good time to start banging the climate change gong. That Katrina could have been prevented if only Bush hadn't listened to Barbour and had decided to push Kyoto. Which is complete and utter bullshit and Junior knows it, too. If you want to blame anyone for not pushing Kyoto, blame your good buddy Bubba Clinton, who never submitted the Kyoto Treaty to the Senate for ratification. If only Clinton had pushed Kyoto through, well, why that would have been a few years earlier and that would have given us more time to prevent these horrible hurricanes!

Never mind that good ol' Junior decided to publish this little treatise before the bodies were even cold. Or even until we knew how many bodies there were to be buried---which, I might add, we still don't know. It's all about scoring cheap political points in the wake of one of the largest natural disasters to befall our country. Way to go, Junior. Way to be just another spoiled rotten, Kennedy bastard who assumes the world should listen to you because of your pedigree.

I sincerely hope that Junior is ashamed of himself. But I doubt he is. He's a Kennedy, after all: that family has absolutely no shame whatsoever.

I think it's genetic.

Posted by: Kathy at 10:17 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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The marketing department at Blizzard Entertainment is just wishing they'd thought of this campaign.

I guarantee it.

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Hitch v. Jon Stewart.

I'll leave it to you to guess who wins. You won't have to expend a great deal of brain power to figure it out. I promise.

Jon Stewart really is a smartish sort of dolt, isn't he?

{Hat Tip: INDC Journal}

Posted by: Kathy at 10:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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My kid's blogiversary was yesterday. Go over and wish her a happy belated blogiversary!

I'm such a slacker mom.

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Sheila would like to wish a very happy 20th birthday to The Breakfast Club.

I was in eighth grade when that movie came out, hence I couldn't go to see it, the movie theaters in Omaha being the only place in the whole frickin' world where MPAA ratings are respected and enforced. I remember renting it about a year later, and I vividly remember my mother BLOWING A GASKET when she saw the rating. Of course this was after I'd watched it five times.

Heh.

It's an incredible movie that finally got the whole high school experience so incredibly right. I can't bother watching any of this crap that comes out nowadays that's meant for the youth of today. I just can't. It's all too happy-go-lucky, high school is the best time of your life, everyone's beautiful---including the unpopular people, that unpopular girl is just one makeover away from being gorgeous, etc. It's just all bullshit. It's someone's representation of how high school should be, rather than what it actually is: four years of being judged upon who you seem to be, rather than who you actually are. Which is very freakin' odd if you think about it, because no one at age fourteen has the slightest clue of who they are and who they will be, but that's beside the point. The Breakfast Club ignored all this and portrayed high school as it is and it's a brilliant film because of it.

Go read.

Posted by: Kathy at 02:03 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Skippy or Jif?

For me, it's Skippy all the way. And not the chunky stuff, either.

Posted by: Kathy at 01:38 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 Um. . .whichever's on sale?

Posted by: Margi at August 30, 2005 01:52 PM (nwEQH)

2 Jif. Chunky when I can get it. With a spoon straight from the jar.

Posted by: caltechgirl at August 30, 2005 02:18 PM (fyWFC)

3 Chunky no matter what. Will you all be grossed out if I tell you I mix it with a bit of margarine or butter? I can't stand the sticky feel.

Posted by: Rachel Ann at August 30, 2005 03:17 PM (Sb9NF)

4 Smooth, creamy Skippy.

Posted by: The Maximum Leader at August 30, 2005 03:46 PM (jiSuM)

5 Skippy, smooth, one heaping tablespoon full every morning before heading to the gym to lift weights and otherwise mortify the flesh. Sometimes if the Boy Child is awake in time, we share my tablespoon and then its extra heaping.

Posted by: RP at August 31, 2005 03:36 PM (LlPKh)

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So, did anybody else watch Prison Break last night?

I can't decide whether this show is overly clever or is actually pretty interesting. I'm still on the fence about it.

A few observations:

• So, is Dominic Purcell in hock to FOX, still, for John Doe? I have to think he is, given the number of times he keeps popping up on that network's shows. While I really liked John Doe and was sincerely bummed when it was cancelled, he just hasn't impressed me in anything he's been in since. Including this show. He just doesn't have the props to be playing a guy on death row. It's not working for me.
• Wentworth Miller---Hottie McHotHot. Rowr.
• I personally think Oz set the bar higher for all prison dramas and, baby, Fox River Penintentiary just ain't Oswald Maximum Security Prison, ya dig? Fox River seems to me to be the equivalent of a training bra, whereas Oz was a black lace merry widow, replete with underwires, boning, hooks and garter attachments. None of Michael's maneuvers with his fellow jailbirds were a surprise if you'd watched Oz.

  I really do miss that train wreck of a tee vee show. You couldn't be neutral about it: you either loved it or you hated it. And if you loved it, well, you probably hated yourself, like I did, for watching it because it was such a freak show. You just couldn't turn away from it and you felt dirty because of it.

• Is Peter Stormare getting a lot of work these days or what?
• The story set-up happened too quickly for my tastes. There was an awful lot to absorb in the first ten minutes of the show, and I don't know if that's a disservice to the viewers or not. We'll just have to see.

Discuss.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:29 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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JB over at Fraters has posted an interesting little piece:

{...}It is a matter of faith among the left that there is something wrong, if not immoral with Wal-Mart. Much of it stems from a simple elitism that allows them to make high-minded criticisms of a place they consider to be for the proles and the semi-washed. They realize it just doesn't sound right to admit that they hate Wal-Mart because they consider themselves superior to the people who shop there, but saying "I disagree with Wal-Mart's (fill in the blank) policy and therefore I go to Target" allows them to avoid the place (and the people) AND to make what passes in for an intelligent point at the same time.

Even those who aren't lefties and are in fact quite conservative can be heard making the case that Target is superior for this or that sundry reason and would never consider setting foot in a Wal-Mart. In the Twin Cities, part of this is the fact that Target has been around much longer, but the elitism of the left can affect conservatives as well (like people who somehow cannot find one item of edible food on a Friday's menu and moan about "chain restaurants").

I guess it comes down to the fact that Wal-Mart is perceived (correctly) as catering to lower class and lower middle class customers (one woman I work with said it was too "Bubba" for her). By shopping there and by telling (admitting?) others you do, you are positioning yourself with the lower class. For many people, they could care less how they are perceived by others, but for many others, this kind of decision is one of the ways (including the car they drive, their house, their Ipod) they tell society who they are. "Oh, we aren't one of those Wal-Mart families, Target is so much hipper and cosmopolitan" is every bit a part of the psychology of choosing where to shop and as important as rational reasons like location and price of the goods.{...}

JB makes some interesting leaps of the imagination, no? While I don't doubt that JB's got a point about the difference between Wally World and Le Boutique de la Target (pronounced Targhzay), I think, perhaps, he's overthinking it a bit.

To out myself: I am a Target shopper. There was no Wally World in my neighborhood when I was growing up. There was, however, a Target about three miles from the house. We went just about every Sunday, right when the circular came out in the newspaper, and had to fight to the death for a parking spot. We bought our school supplies there. When I was little, my mother outfitted me in Garanimals purchased from Target. Target was where it was at. I didn't know there was such a thing as Wally World. I had no clue that there was a whole league of shoppers in this country who were devoted to buying things from the Walton family. I wasn't introduced to Wally World until I went to college. And even then I really didn't go there because it was the difference of about five miles and an interminable bus ride. Wally World was on the other side of town, near the mall, guaranteeing that you had to take the bus to get there because no one who had a car shopped at the Ames Mall. They drove to Des Moines, instead. You could, however, always catch a ride with someone to Target, which was nearby. I've got nothing against Wal-Mart, it's just never been convenient for me to shop there.

My local Target is here. The nearest Wal-Mart is here. In case you're not from the Twin Cities, this is how you'd get from the Target to the Wal-Mart. Target is much closer to the Cake Eater Pad than Wal-Mart is. Keep in mind that we don't currently have a car and are reliant on public transportation to get around. The bus may not go to either store, but to get anywhere near the Wal-Mart, I'd have to transfer, which is generally not convenient, ya dig, particularly not when you are schlepping bags full of laundry detergent and other products. None of this, of course, mentions that the East Bloomington Wal-Mart is---and how do I put this politely?---skanky. Been there, done that and I am NEVER going back there. The neighborhood Target is nice, clean, well-lit, populated with friendly and helpful employees and the chances of you being raped in their parking lot is much less than it would be if you went and shopped at the Wally World in East Bloomington in the evening. Call me crazy, but I think it's kind of stupid, in terms of a woman's personal safety, to shop repeatedly at a store where the management deems it necessary to have a security guard escort you to your car if you were unaccompanied. Granted, this was a while ago, but this one experience guaranteed I was never going to go back to that store.

While there are suburban Targets, there are very few urban Wal-Marts. Wal-Mart is always and forever on the fringe of cities and you have to drive to get there, as is evidenced by the massive parking lots. This is not to say that Target doesn't have massive parking lots, but is there a Wal-Mart in downtown Minneapolis? I think not. But there is a Target in downtown Minneapolis and it's nice. Wal-Mart is geared toward the suburban market. They need large tracts of land to set up shop and the only place they can get that land is on the outer fringes of cities. Target stores are, in my humble opinion, more geared toward the urban audience because they will work with what space they can get and will set up shop accordingly. While there are any number of Targets in the outer reaches of any metropolitan area, there are also Targets in the midst of the same metropolitan area. Target makes it easy. Wal-Mart, in my humble opinion, doesn't.

If there was a Wal-Mart nearby, I'd probably shop there. I have no particular loyalty to Target in regards to its products. You can generally find the same thing at Wally World for the same price. The only thing about Wal-Mart that bothers me is that they are very choosy about what entertainment products they will choose to sell. Don't get me wrong: they've got every right to choose wisely what products they will put on their shelves, but---and this is a BIG "but"---when they deliberately choose not to carry certain items, like, say, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas because of concerns over the content, I would say that they're doing their customers a disservice. They're playing the part of the morality police and that bothers me, but I will admit, they're free to do this. It's their business. It's worrisome, given their market share, but--again---it's their business and if that's what they want to do, that's their right.

While I don't doubt there are plenty of people who do shop at Target for the reasons JB stated above, that's not always the case. It could simply be because Target has aligned themselves better in some locations than Wal-Mart has. And that's simply where I live---other people might think differently.

Now if only the local grocery union would lighten the hell up and allow for a SuperTarget somewhere inside the 494/694 ring, I'd be a very happy camper.

UPDATE: The kid throws her two cents in.

Posted by: Kathy at 10:49 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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When Christi, et. al. were here at the end of July, they decided the kids would have a treat for dessert one night and that treat was root beer floats. So, along with about five hundred other things that Christi left in my fridge, there was also leftover vanilla ice cream and sugar free root beer (It was James'). They'd taken the good stuff with them. The husband, a true root beer snob conoisseur, stuck his nose up at the sugar free stuff---he prefers IBC---and, since he knows I don't particularly enjoy diet root beer, either, decided the only way I'd drink the stuff (because he sure as hell wasn't going to) was if he put it in float form. He knows I enjoy a root beer float every now and again when we go here. Which was convenient because there was leftover ice cream. And I enjoyed it...but there was still leftover vanilla ice cream when I was done with the sugar free root beer.

So, the husband bought me a liter of IBC root beer, because I'd enjoyed the float so much. Then I ran out of ice cream, but still had root beer left. The husband then bought more vanilla ice cream...and so on and so forth. Everytime we ran out of one, there was still something of the other left and that just demanded the other be purchased. You know, because it just works that way.

Work with me here, people.

It's a vicious cycle, let me tell you. Fortunately, I haven't gained any weight from this month-long root beer float binge, but I just ran out of both root beer and ice cream. The cycle is at an end. Or so one would think. I am free of both products. I have no need to purchase one because the presence of the other demands it. Yet...I am still not done with the floats.

They're just too damn good. So, I'll go to the store tomorrow and will buy root beer and ice cream. I will have another float for dessert tomorrow night, like I've done on a goodly number of nights this August. I can't imagine that these will taste good for much longer, because, you know, fall is just around the corner, but I'm going to enjoy them while the getting is good. The cycle may be vicious, but it sure is tasty, too.

Posted by: Kathy at 09:58 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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I just wet myself reading this.

{Insert hysterical laughter and a few "nannynannybooboo"'s here}

Posted by: Kathy at 04:27 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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As we've already established, the husband and I live in Cake Eater Land. While we love the houses around here, we could never afford one of these monsters. They're gorgeous, but they're pricey. Yet that doesn't stop us from having some good fun while we walk around the neighborhood every evening, looking to see which houses sell and which ones haven't. We also have a good time trying to estimate how much people took out in home equity loans for some monstrous additions some homeowners in the neighborhood have added. It's sport for us. And there's the added incentive to paying attention in that if the real estate market takes a big fat dive, (and we win the smallest powerball lottery) we'll finally be able to afford one of these homes. Right now we would have to win a $20mil jackpot to even be able to afford it.

So, I have to say that I fully agree with Jonathan's hopes/dreams/assessment of the real estate market in this post.

Go read the whole thing.

Now, I understand about supply and demand, but there is no way any of the houses in my neighborhood should be priced at two million plus. Don't get me wrong, it's a great neighborhood. We have good public schools, great wide, streets that are actually plowed in the winter (which, quite frequently, doesn't happen in a certain city coughcoughMinneapoliscoughcough), and a city government which takes good care of the taxpayer. A five bedroom, four bathroom, brick house with ivy crawling along the outer walls may be wonderful. And it may be equally wonderful that it's in a neighborhood with established trees, but when it's on a lot the size of a postage stamp there's NO WAY IN HELL it should be priced that high.

It seems the market here in the Twin Cities is at least coming back down to reasonable levels. That brick house I mentioned up there is not a hypothetical house: it was just for sale in the neighborhood. And it came off the market after what the husband and I assume was a two-month contract with the realtor expired. There are any number of large houses just like it in the neighborhood, that were priced comparatively, that haven't sold, either. In fact, even if you're in the market for a fixer-upper, there's a nice four bedroom colonial in the neighborhood for sale. It has gorgeous, if a wee bit dark, antique walnut paneling in the living room; a formal dining room with a built-in clam-shell shelves in one corner and gorgeous woodwork; and two fireplaces attached to a central chimney. It also has a plumbing system that's all galvanized steel; a roof that looks like it would come off entirely if there was a gust of wind over twenty mph; an electrical system that's only at 60W; rotting clapboards that haven't been painted in years; and a kitchen that would serve the needs of a hobbitt quite well. This house is, reportedly, a bargain at $799,999. The realtor, when we chatted him up and conned him into letting us take a peek at the thing whilst we were on our walk, admitted flat out that it needed work and that it would take about $300K to get it up to snuff. But, really, even then it's a bargain! Well, no, it's not and the fact that it's been sitting there for two weeks---which would have been unheard of a couple of years ago---is not at all surprising. No one wants to spend that kind of money on a fixer-upper right now. Money is not as cheap as it was a few years ago, and the real estate agents have, apparently, yet to figure this one out. As far as we can tell, just from observing, the real estate market here in this part of town is going tits up. And, considering it was never the most reasonably priced neighborhood to begin with, this doesn't bode well for all the people who went debt crazy over the past few years, and---Good God---there were quite a few of those people in this neighborhood. Contractors have made a fortune fixing things up around here. Huge additions, new garages, new wrought-iron fences, new landscaping, new kitchens...you name it, something's been done to the majority of the houses in this neighborhood. I've long thought that people were borrowing too much money here in Cake Eater Land to keep up with the Joneses---we'll just have to see how it all turns out.

Because even if it doesn't help us to live where we want to live, well, it's at least fun to watch.

UPDATE: The discussion continues.

Posted by: Kathy at 03:55 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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So, it was a pretty uneventful weekend at the Cake Eater Pad. Does that mean I'm not going to get a long-ish post out of it? Nope. I can ramble away about ANYTHING! It's one of my "gifts." So away we go, kids.

While the weekend was calm, I shouldn't really say it was "uneventful" because there was an "event" this weekend: the husband and I celebrated our eleventh wedding anniversary on Friday. But we didn't do it up in great style---we had some steaks, pasta and salad for supper on Friday and we ate them by the light of candles. And that's it. No presents, no big, fancy meals out. Nothing like that. I'm sure you're wondering why we didn't do more, but really, we're cool with it. I think once you get past the first ten years, it's not really a big deal any more. Sure it's a big deal in the sense that you've managed to stay married for one more year and you should celebrate that. Yet, in contrast to The Doctor and ML who just celebrated their second anniversary and who did it up right with all sorts of presents and everything, we didn't do any of that. We didn't feel the need. The husband bought me flowers and they were lovely, but you just don't feel the need to get all, I don't know, excited about it. It's a special occasion, sure, and the meaning of the occasion doesn't lessen the longer you're married, but blowing the roof off the joint every year to celebrate doesn't make as much sense now as it did when we were younger. Perhaps we've gotten over the "Hallmarkization" of anniversaries. Who knows? Anyway, we had a very nice evening.

To jump ahead to one of the other exciting bits of news, the Friday before last, the husband and I were headed out to supper with Mr. H. and as we were leaving we saw a rather large note from the landlord taped to the front door, informing us that he was going to start doing a little DIY on the front steps and could we please use the back entrance? We nodded, turned around, went back up the steps into the apartment, walked through the apartment, exited the back door, went down the back steps and left the house through the garage. (The house is set up kind of goofy, if you hadn't already figured that out.) When we got around to the front, one of the large stones that partially makes up the front steps had been removed, leaving a large gap and showing a lot of sand and other rubble. The front steps of the Cake Eater Pad have long been a source of discontent for us. They're made out of stone and we assume they're original to the house, which was built in the late 1920's. Of course, they're a crumbling mess. Certain stones have been split entirely because of our unique environmental conditions (hot and cold extremes aren't so good for anything made of rock or concrete). The mortar was crumbling, and the steps were uneven, bumpy, and completely disintegrating in a few places---which is not so good when the steps get icy because you can't remove the ice to save your life. The steps were a big concern for us. As we, the tenants of the Cake Eater Pad, were listed in the lease as being responsible for snow removal, we were constantly living in fear that the Great White Hunter landlord would pass off any lawsuits filed by disgruntled, broken-back-owning mailmen or UPS drivers onto us. We kept those stairs as clean as we could for years on end, while constantly bitching at Tweedledumb to do something about it. But, being true to fucking form, Tweedledumb was deaf as a post when it came to listening to complaints and never did anything about the steps. So, last Friday, we're pretty excited that something was finally being done and we went on our merry way for the evening. On Saturday morning, however, we came out and the landlord was whacking away at the pile of the steps and admitted sheepishly that he may have bitten off more than he could chew.

And was he ever right. I believe he was thinking he could just relay the stones so that they weren't quite as dangerous as before, but unfortunately the job got bigger than he had bargained for. The entire base is rotted out and must be replaced.

So, the Cake Eater Pad currently has no front steps. Over the course of the week the landlord has managed to pull out a lot of the stone (it's actually quite pretty and I'm glad he wants to reuse it). He was prying the stones apart with a shovel for the first few days, but on Wednesday he finally caved and bought a sledgehammer. He claimed the demolition was quite cathartic and I believe him. He said he was actually having fun with it. But I think the fun went by the wayside on Saturday, when the entire block turned out to say "hi" and see what was going on. The poor guy couldn't get much work done because he was too busy talking to everyone. Fortunately, everyone seemed to have better things to do on Sunday, when he was out there chiseling mortar off the stones that were to be reused. He's also hired the neighborhood contractor to do the rest of the work on the steps, so things should move quickly from here on in. Currently, there's a big mound of rubble leading up to the door and the...crikeys, I don't know what you'd call them, but things that look like arms where you'd put pots of flowers are entirely gone, but there are wood frames just waiting to be filled with concrete in their place. We'll just have to see what happens.

The landlord's been a busy beaver in the past couple of weeks. I think he's trying to keep himself occupied since his roommate died and that's not an entirely bad thing, on the whole. At least he's got a big project to occupy himself. The poor guy was was pretty ripped up over Eric's death. I also think his girlfriend is either moving in, or is lobbying to move in, now that he's got the space. She's a sweetheart and the husband and I like her a great deal, but she's been a busy beaver over the past week as well and it's making us wonder if she's actually keeping house or is just playing house. I was just down in the laundry room and she's cut up a carpet remnant and has placed that in front of the washer and dryer (which is awesome because it means I no longer have to wear shoes down into the basement! WooT!). She's also been painting and cleaning in the landlord's apartment and it's looking a bit too homey, if you take my meaning, for a bachelor's apartment. So, she's either just helping him out (because pretty much every last stick of furniture in the place disappeared when Eric's girlfriend came over last weekend. The landlord didn't have so much as a chair in the living room when she was done.) to make the place more homey for him, hoping he'll see what a great homemaker she is or she's just biding her time at her old place and is making the place habitable for the both of them. Again, we shall have to see.

Finally, as far as the "brothers who could qualify as being silly" in the title is concerned, well, my brother, Steve, it seems, about gave the Cake Eater Mother a heart attack. Steve is Montana's answer to Donald Trump when it comes to car dealerships. The dude and his partner own the largest chain of dealerships in Montana and in the past year they've expanded their business to New Orleans. Steve worked for a dealership in New Orleans years ago---like when I was in high school---and because of this connection he and his partner were offered a stake in a Chrysler dealership down there last year. The dealership is located on Canal Street.

And the doof was in New Orleans last week---and didn't leave until Saturday afternoon.

You have to understand that Steve, God love him, is the King of Procrastination. He leaves everything until the last minute and then finds himself in the position of moving heaven and earth to get things done the way he wants them done, whereas if he'd just left himself a little bit of time...he would have been fine. But Steve is a stress puppy. He loves stress. He loves that go-go-go lifestyle. He's always flying here or there or anywhere to do this deal, or get that done, or meet with these people. And he's good at it. Exceedingly good. This is how he runs his business. Once you get used to it, it's no big deal. However, the only problem is that not everyone else understands how he can work and live this way. Our mother would be chief amongst these people. She's worried he'll keel over from a heartattack before he hits fifty. I don't think so, because he's in great shape, but moms will worry and if there's nothing to worry about, well, they'll find things to worry about. At least our mom will, and Steve apparently gave her plenty of reason to worry this weekend. According to our sister Christi, who I just talked to on the phone, Mom was worried he was going to miss his flight out of New Orleans on Saturday because he'd leave it to the last minute and would miss his flight. The fact that Mom's a hurricane junkie and a Weather Channel devotee did nothing to ameliorate the situation. But, like I said, this is nothing new when it comes to Stephen. He's always cutting it too close for comfort. But this is a situation where cutting it too close might mean putting yourself in a life-threatening situation and that was enough to freak Mom out. Fortunately he did get out of town. He got to the airport and caught his plane and all is well for the time being. But...

...say a Hail Mary that his dealership doesn't completely get trounced from the storm. Fortunately, it's an in-city dealership, so they don't have an acreage just chock-a-block full of brand spankin' new cars. Hence they managed to get all of the new cars up onto the second level of the dealership, where they have a large showroom, and where they should be protected by the rising water. So, that part is good. Unfortunately, however, they couldn't do anything about the used cars that are on the lot. So, they're just sitting out there, being flooded and pelted with debris. If nothing else happens to the actual structure, they'll be ok: they can handle the loss of a few used cars. But if the structure floods excessively, well... I think you can use your imaginations to good effect on this scenario. Keep your fingers crossed, kids, eh?

And therein ends the tales of the weekend and of silly brothers who shouldn't be scaring their mothers to death.

Posted by: Kathy at 02:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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So, in case you haven't been following the news that there is Hurricane Katrina. She's a Category Five Hurricane with sustained winds of 165 mph.

And, as of right now, she's headed straight toward New Orleans and is going to make one hell of a mess as she goes through the city, and moves northward through Mississippi and beyond.

Here's a link to the American Red Cross Online Donations Page.

Please go and give what you can. Direct your donation to the National Disaster Relief Fund, so the money gets where it's needed the most. And if you're a blogger, get the word out.

This is what the National Weather Service has to say about this storm:

EXTREMELY DANGEROUS HURRICANE KATRINA CONTINUES TO APPROACH THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER DELTA...DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED...

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.
PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD
FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE
BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A
FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY
VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

If this thing is as devastating as they're making it out to be---meaning if it lives up to the hype---New Orleans and other affected areas could, quite literally, be back in the stone age by tomorrow night.

Help them now if you can.

Posted by: Kathy at 08:36 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 345 words, total size 3 kb.

I KNEW it! HA!

Rosalind Russell You scored 21% grit, 38% wit, 28% flair, and 19% class!

You are one wise-cracking lady, always quick with a clever remark and easily able to keep up with the quips and puns that come along with the nutty situations you find yourself in. You're usually able to talk your way out of any jam, and even if you can't, you at least make it more interesting with your biting wit. You can match the smartest guy around line for line, and you've got an open mind that allows you to get what you want, even if you don't recognize it at first. Your leading men include Cary Grant and Clark Gable, men who can keep up with you. Find out what kind of classic leading man you'd make by taking the Classic Leading Man Test.

{hat tip: Clark GableDoug}

Posted by: Kathy at 12:45 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 196 words, total size 4 kb.

Phin has some advice for all the coders out there.

Posted by: Kathy at 12:34 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 14 words, total size 1 kb.

This one should help the husband out:

"It's August. Where Is Everybody?"

Posted by: Kathy at 12:13 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Slash's real name is Saul.

Kinda kills that badass image he's got going on, doesn't it?

Anyhoo...I wish Slash and Duff the best of luck with their lawsuit. If anyone deserves to have the spandex sued off of them, it's Axl.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:06 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 49 words, total size 1 kb.

Don't you just love being jerked clean out of a nice, deep sleep by a booming crack of thunder at five in the morning? Furthermore, don't you just adore the way your heart goes THUMPTHUMPTHUMP!!! during said awakening? I also quite enjoy the sitting straight up in bed part, and the sharp inhale of breath, too.

It's all just so much fun, let me tell you. It's like waking up in the middle of a big loop-de-loop on a rollercoaster. Wouldn't you agree?

Posted by: Kathy at 10:47 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 93 words, total size 1 kb.

Coo-el.

Posted by: Kathy at 10:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 7 words, total size 1 kb.