...where the heck I've been.

Well, a couple of factors have played into my absence.

1. The weather was gorgeous yesterday. After more than a week of living in a steam bath, it was beyooootiful yesterday. Highs in the mid-70's with a slight breeze. I had better things to do than try to keep you people from surfing pr0n.

2. The mother-in-law came over for dinner yesterday. I had to clean---again---and get ready for the visit. She will be flying back to Phoenix today, so the Cake Eater Pad will shoot back into its normal state of disarray quite quickly, but never fear, my devoted Cake Eater Readers, she'll be back in two months!

Oh, and she used the bathroom.

WooT!

3. Since I was a slacker yesterday, I did not get around to posting the grand total for the RAISE MOOLAH FOR JAMES' WALK fundraiser. We managed to raise {insert drumroll here} $345.00

WOOHOO!

James (and I) would like to thank everyone who donated or helped to get the word out. You're wonderful people.

Posted by: Kathy at 09:03 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Moo knew has been having some issues this morning. Sorry about that, but it's working rather well with my master plan for the day. Which is to get the Cake Eater Pad cleaned up because---ahem---my parents are coming to town tomorrow!

This may not seem like a big deal to you guys, but it is to me. Because we've lived in the Twin Cities for nine years and other than a couple of visits over at el aeroporto when they've had layovers, they've never been to visit us. Which I know sounds rather lacksidaisical on their part until you take a couple of things into account:

• First, we haven't reproduced. Hence there are no grandkiddy functions that it's necessary for them to attend, hence providing an excuse to visit.
• Second, I don't want them driving up here in the middle of winter, and that means the months between November and April are automatically unavailable for visitation. Besides, there's nothing to do here when it's cold. They also generally go to Florida for the month of October and over to Texas to visit my sibilings who live there for part of November, too. Mom's busiest season ALSO is from April to right until they leave for Florida, too. (You did know that September and October are the new June for weddings, right? You didn't? Well, they are.) That pretty much takes care of a whole calendar year right there. And if there was one weekend that was available, well, one my stupid siblings, OF COURSE, had to plan a trip into Omaha and that generally put a kaibosh on the whole deal right there.
• Third, I don't belive my father is really all that interested in coming to the People's Republic of Minnesota. I believe he thinks he's going to be forced to pay our extorbitant tax rate even if he only comes for the weekend.
• Fourth, it's generally easier for us to visit them than the other way round. The Cake Eater Pad not being a huge place.

So, they do have good excuses. But Mom isn't busy with being the bridesmaid couturier with the mostest any more (she's a word of mouth kind of gal and "her circle," as she puts it, is pretty much done with marrying off their kids, hence her business has slacked off.) and she finally blew my other sibilings off, hence they're coming to visit!

Oh, and there's a polka festival this weekend, too.

One of my dad's friends, Big Joe, the friendly and lovable scourge of Sunday mornings when I was growing up, is putting this show on out at the Medina Entertainment Center. Joe is a good guy and he's managed to parlay his love of polka into a show on RFD and he's putting this thing together so he'll have some footage to air on his show. He's also asked my Dad to come and help out with the running of the thing. When I was eighteen, Big Joe hosted a huge festival out at Ak-Sar-Ben (spell it backwards) and Dad helped him run it. Of course, I went out to see what was going on with this thing one night with my mom. Imagine my surprise one day, years later, when we were down in Clear Lake, Iowa for a wedding reception for some friends, I turn on the tee vee where we're staying, the room has Dish Network, and I stumble across the RFD channel to see my eighteen-year-old self dancing with my dad across the Ak-Sar-Ben ballroom. AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! But I digress. Anyway, Joe trusts Dad, hence he's asked him to come out and help. If you like Polka Music, and you happen to be in the Twin Cities from Thursday to Sunday and would like to partake in some HAPPY MUSIC FOR HAPPY PEOPLE! it's $15 at the door. Ten bands a day for four days! What more could you ask for?

Beer, perhaps, but I do believe they serve it out there. Because a polka festival is just not a polka festival without copious amounts of beer.

(Ok, Dad. There's your plug.)

I don't know which day we'll be out at the festival, but if I happen to know before we actually walk out the door, I'll let you know so, if you happen to be really, really bored, you can come out and meet me.

Anyway, all of this is to explain that posting might be sporadic over the next couple of days.

Now, I'm off to clean the house.

Posted by: Kathy at 12:48 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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{Insert copious amounts of snickering here}

Posted by: Kathy at 08:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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*At least that's the Cameron I think they're referring to, but we are talking about MIT geeks. It could be something obscure.

Posted by: Kathy at 01:04 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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*Obligatory Warning*: I had no dog in the Terri Schiavo fight. I did not pen one post about it. I stayed the heck out of it. Wasn't going to touch it with a ten foot pole. I made one comment on someone else's blog about an obscure part of the case and I got my head bit off for the effort expended. After that, I kept quiet and watched. Because we all know I'm something of a voyeur when it comes to Internet catfights. So, I make this observation not to get a "nanny-nanny-boo-boo, you suck!" shot across the bow, but rather to simply make the observation. Let me repeat that: Kath did not have a dog in this fight. Got it? Good.

Now for the observation.

Ahem.

Terri's autopsy report came out today. Terri's battle really brought out some of the worst behavior I've ever seen in the blogosphere. If Rathergate was the high point, this was most definitely the low. Perhaps it was simply meant to be that way, to show us the glaring failures of this new medium we're so very fond of proclaiming is the new information revolution. I don't know. I don't read entrails for a living, so I couldn't tell you for certain: this is just my gut feeling. Anyway, a lot of people made hay on this issue. Serious amounts of hay. Enough to feed all the livestock for a very long winter. But, and here's where the observation comes in, very few seem to be chiming in now that the autopsy report is in. Perhaps this is because the actual science of the report goes against what they were proclaiming to be the truth to her condition back when she was alive.

I know whom I'm looking for to chime in on this one, and they haven't. They've been silent all day long about it. I'm not going to name them, because they're very middle of the road bloggers. Not freepers. Not moonbats. They don't deserve the ignominy of being called out for this one. I felt that perhaps they were a wee bit overwrought about the entire deal. Say whatever you will about the entire situation, but you cannot deny that Terri brought out people's passion. And it brought it out in both beautiful and incredibly ugly ways. It was personal for these bloggers and that passion, perhaps, sometimes, I thought, got the better of their usually calm, reasoned rhetoric.

A friend of mine likes to remind me that this is a very new medium and that we'll never really replace the mainstream media, or even really make all that big of a dent in it, because bloggers, as a whole, aren't really held accountable. A reporter is held accountable to an editor, who is held accountable to the publisher, who is held accountable by the paying public. We're just spouting off here and are accountable, in only a very limited sense, to our readers and our blogging compadres. But since we can delete our blogs with the click of the mouse, and we'll never really face any real-life consequences if we've spouted off about this, that or the other, unless we're blogging at work and have been fired for it. That's about it. In other words, we really don't have an obligation to say "we were wrong" if we should be proven to be wrong. Audiences, as anyone who's been doing this for a while can tell you, come and go. You may be someone's favorite one week, and they might lose interest the next. Publish something your reader disagrees with and the beauty of the blogosphere dictates that there's probably someone out there who's said exactly what they want to hear, and has done it even better than the blogger they just abandoned. That's fine. As far as I'm concerned, readers are allowed to do that. What I do wonder about is this, though: there are plenty of blogs, this being one of them, who proclaimed the information revolution was well on its way when Dan Rather resigned because of the ball that started rolling in the blogosphere. Some of these very same blogs made some specious claims about Terri Schiavo. And today they've been proven wrong. Will they feel the obligation to say they were wrong?

And if they don't, what happens to the information revolution?

Posted by: Kathy at 12:19 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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You know, I'm really not a scary person. I know sometimes I come off like one, because this place is where I put a lot of my angst. But you shouldn't take it seriously. I'm not that frightening of a person. Really, I'm not. Most people think I'm really nice.

Except...

When someone tries to use me. Then I have to draw the damn line, because homey just don't play that. For those of you who are wondering what I'm going on about this time, well, it's this: I am getting exceedingly tired of bloggers who perhaps don't have a huge audience---and would like to gain one---tracking back to a post I've written on a similar subject WITHOUT LINKING ME. They're doing this to gain hits. To gain notoriety. I know that's the reason they're doing it, but it's---and I'm going to shout this so they get it the first fucking time---TACKY IN THE EXTREME. Your trackback will get deleted. Trust me on this one. Get your own damn audience, or at least get some balls and send me a promo email. If you want me to get angry, like I just did, try and sneak around me, assuming I won't care. Because, let me tell you kids, that's a surefire way to bring the heavens down upon you. But, really, if you want me to promote one of your posts, send me an email that goes something like this:

Hi Kathy,

I'm a fan of the Cake Eater Chronicles and I just wrote a post that dovetails nicely with one you wrote about such and such subject. Here's the link if you're interested in reading it.

Thanks for your time,

So and so blogger

Now, that wasn't so hard, was it? I may link you. I may not. You'll never know unless you try.

And just a super sekrit message to the dude who inspired this post: if you'd sent me an email, I would have linked to you. It was a good post. But now I won't because you tried to horn in on my blog and my traffic without giving me anything in return. It's pretty fucking simple. Blogging is, at best, a quid pro quo excursion. If you're not going to give, neither am I. Take your parasitic behavior and go elsewhere.

Posted by: Kathy at 03:36 PM | Comments (22) | Add Comment
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1 It was only with the greatest of self control that I did not link back to this post!

Posted by: RP at June 15, 2005 08:15 AM (LlPKh)

2 Awww. You do realize that he'll never blog again in this town. Not that I know what town he's in...

Posted by: sadie at June 15, 2005 11:06 AM (zZMHN)

3 You're talking about me aren't you? I'm sorry. I promise I won't do it again, I thought I had linked back, really I did. Honest. Can't we put this behind us and go back to the way things were before? If I offer to wash your back will it make things all better? It's because I'm fat isn't it? I'm with RP on the self control bit, at least Steve-O didn't let us down.

Posted by: phin at June 15, 2005 11:34 AM (Xvpen)

4 Wait, you have an audience worth stealing?

Posted by: ndh at June 15, 2005 11:50 AM (MazhS)

5 Phin---let's just say I'm the Kramer of this self-control contest. I've never been "Lord of the Blogging Manor."

Posted by: Steve the LLamabutcher at June 15, 2005 12:07 PM (eVpBU)

6 See, that's the point, ndh...I don't have a huge audience. I don't know why people do this sort of thing, when I'm actually pretty generous with what linky love I can offer.

Posted by: Kathy at June 15, 2005 12:18 PM (cgZvM)

7 It happens to me fairly frequently. And it ticks me off! So, yeah, what you said!

Posted by: Ith at June 15, 2005 01:04 PM (46fe5)

8 I'm calling blog daughter privelege - I linked it. I couldn't help myself. It was too funny!

Posted by: Phoenix at June 15, 2005 02:25 PM (4N2f4)

9 That's some A++ quality navel gazing there, Kathy. I look forward to the next thrilling installment!

Posted by: charlie eklund at June 15, 2005 06:57 PM (ywZa8)

10 You frighten me. Now I'm gonna go trackback this post...and not link.

Posted by: Kevin at June 15, 2005 10:55 PM (e7I2/)

11 Well, people DO tell me I'm scary, but only if you have to work with me. I'm not proud of it, but who the hell is happy at work anyway? Sigh. I really think I'm taking the rest of the week off. What was that about navel gazing? Oh, YOUR navel. I get it. Me wonders if we suffered the same phenom from the same new local. I was going to be polite and send a friendly netiquette e-mail prompt. But, I've been too lazy this week, so the trackback is even still there. But YOU just let 'er rip, which is what I like about you, come to think of it. It's nice to think someone out there is scarier than me. I think I'll use it to threaten the hubby.

Posted by: Sandy at June 16, 2005 12:53 AM (r49o0)

12 What I hate is when someone comments with something like "go to my post" without ever really saying anything about the post I've written. I don't mind someone leaving a comment and linking to their blog if they have written on the same subject, but at least really SAY something about what I've written.

Posted by: Rachel Ann at June 16, 2005 06:47 AM (Jgwqx)

13 I'm not a blogger, however a read a lot of blogs. What the hell is trackback anyway? Perhaps you could share with us less enlightened folks?? I've often wondered WTF that was for.

Posted by: Dude Hanz at June 16, 2005 09:19 AM (iqW/Z)

14 And that would be why I used the phrase "navel gazing" in the title, dude Trackback is a pretty simple thing once you get the hang of it. It works on the same principle as a submarine ping: remember that scene in Hunt for Red October where Ramius is asking for a ping to verify the distance to target? Well, trackback is pretty much the same thing, hence the usage of the word "ping," when referring to track back, as in "I pinged your blog." It's a tool that allows bloggers to know who's linked a particular post they've written. If you click on the trackback link up at the bottom of this post, you'll see all the people who have "tracked back," meaning they've linked this post on their own blogs. There are other ways of tracking who's linking to your blog, but they're time consuming and late. Trackback is quick and efficient and you usually know about it within a few minutes of being pinged. And all of this is made possible by an html link that's assigned to each and every post. Now, some blogging software, like Movable Type (the one in use on this here blog) automatically tracks back to other MT blogs. When you link to them, it automatically pings their blog. You don't have to worry about it. Other blogging software, like Blogger, doesn't have automatic trackback, so if you want to trackback, you have to manually ping someone using a software add-on. Haloscan is the primary manual trackback software out there. Now, it's no big deal when someone links to a post you've written and then has manually tracked back, to let me know about it. This is considered to be the polite thing to do in terms of blogosphere etiquette. It lets me know who's linking me and I rather like knowing that. That's not what I'm talking about here. The problem comes in when someone doesn't link me, but tracks back to my post anyway, because it's on the same subject. There are any number of reasons why people would do this, but the main one is that they're looking for links. It's like putting an ad on my blog without my consent, without me getting anything in return. It's very rude. I hope that explains it.

Posted by: Kathy at June 16, 2005 09:44 AM (cgZvM)

15 I'm new to this blogging shit, so when I link to someone I'm supposed to email and let them know? Damn that's too much work, I'm never linking again!

Posted by: livey at June 16, 2005 01:51 PM (lYZQs)

16 "Damn that's too much work, I'm never linking again!" And thus we witness the end of your blog.

Posted by: jimg at June 16, 2005 07:58 PM (5ZWwc)

17 A lot of bloggers consider sending an email like you suggested, tacky. With everyone having their own set of rules how can anyone possibly know the right thing to do?

Posted by: Lynn S at June 17, 2005 09:14 AM (bGY+D)

18 Good lord, that just seems incredibly petty to me. Of all the things to hyperventilate about.

Posted by: Jay at June 17, 2005 09:24 AM (/yylU)

19 I'm sure it does seem like a "petty" thing to "hyperventilate" about, Jay. Unless you have to deal with it over and over again. Which, for some strange reason, I do. Then it becomes a pain in the ass. The last thing any blogger wants to do is smack down a blogger who's getting their feet wet. It's not nice. And I don't really like doing it, but honestly, how much am I supposed to take? Particularly when this blogger pretty much acted like a some as*hole pr0n operator who floods my older posts on a regular basis with comment and trackback spam. Which I then have to go in and delete and then rebuild my site, which hangs things up for my readers. I mean, is that a cool thing to do? Is that how this blogger really wants to get more traffic to their site? By being an a**hole? If that's "petty" of me, well, then so be it. Get a blog and you, too, will know that running one takes work.

Posted by: Kathy at June 17, 2005 10:23 AM (cgZvM)

20 Thanks but I would rather not. It's sounds like stress I would rather not have. And work. I'm not a really a lazy person, but if it's work (as opposed to fun) then I like to see results. I don't see much concrete benefit to expending that level of energy. Anyway, I digress. Focus your anger and frustration elsewhere. I am not your enemy, just some random guy who wandered by to say hello. Relax. My god. There are mountains, and there are molehills. And frankly, who is (not) tracking back to your blog.... is a molehill.

Posted by: Jay at June 17, 2005 12:57 PM (/yylU)

21 Sorry, Jay. Didn't mean to make it seem like I was aiming both barrels at you. I apologize. Not that it's an excuse, but I'm having a cranky sort of day.

Posted by: Kathy at June 17, 2005 01:40 PM (cgZvM)

22 question: what would be the appropriate etiquette for someone who links to you? for example, big fish links to small fish. does small fish return the favor by linking big fish coupled with a trackback? im trying to learn.

Posted by: Dr. Zubov at June 30, 2005 12:19 PM (lLExy)

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I'm BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK.

Did you miss me?

I doubt it. But here I am nonetheless.

And I will shortly be deserting you for the very nice weather that is currently gracing the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Sorry, kids. Iron hot. Striking. That sort of thing. The husband would like to have a conversation with one of his Cuban friends over at the lake (if you have no idea what I'm talking about know that the friend is not legal and he smokes quite nicely. If you can't figure it out from there, well...sorry) and I need to get outside and kill the creeping charlie that is profusely sprouting all over my flowerbeds. The junk that I have for creeping charlie demands that it have two days without rain to work. Since it finally appears as if we've got that with the weather forecast, well, this means you're screwed. Sorry. Life is occasionally like that.

I would like to thank my very nice guest bloggers, Robert and Sadie, for chiming in over the past couple of days. I hope you enjoyed their contributions---I know I did. Steve-o, I believe, was peeved that I did not allow him access to upload images, hence no participation. All I can say to him is that if you live by the sword, buddy, you'd better be prepared to die by it.

On the whole, I had a very nice few days off. I feel refreshed and probably will have a few things to say about this, that, or the other shortly. It was probably a good time for the blogmutes to settle in as I really did have "other things" to do. Which included some cleaning, some laundry and painting a sandwich board for the sidewalk outside the husband's new computer fixit shop. This meant coming up with my own stencils (thank you photoshop and acetate sheets!) and then hand-painting the letters in. Since I'm no Rembrandt, well, this took some time to get right. Hopefully this thing will bring in some customers. All I can really say is that I'm glad it will be leaving the premises tomorrow and I never have to look at it again.

As far as the archival transferral is concerned, well, that's an interesting thing. I asked the husband to help me out with it, and utilizing his high-level of logic, he decided it would simply be easier for him to do it rather than telling me how. Hmmmph. Go figure. Anyway, the reason you're not seeing almost two years worth of monthly archival listings over on the side is because he couldn't do it. He was able to package everything up according to MT's instructions, but as far as loading them onto the server, well...he couldn't do it. He didn't have the access to get them into the right spot, so he sent them to God Himself and hopefully they'll get uploaded sometime over the next couple of days. Keep your fingers crossed. In any case, since we have the archives elsewhere now, the old blogspot home has been BLOWED UP! Yep. That's right. I deleted it. It was a curious experience. I used to wait and wait and wait to upload a post to the blog yet the deletion of said blog took about three seconds...total. Hmmmm. Quite weird.

I don't quite know how I feel about this development. It's not really bothering me per se, but I do kind of feel like I've just blown up the trailer park from which I sprang forth. Every time I surfed over to the old home, well, I felt like poor white trash who'd gone off, got themselves edumacated, and went off into the big wide world only to come home and see the old homestead with a new pair of eyes---a new pair of eyes that thought the old homestead looked pretty damn shabby and simply couldn't understand how anyone could live like that. Which is a pretty snotty attitude to have, I gather, yet is one that I am completely unrepentant about holding. I'm spoiled rotten right now and I like it like that. Sue me.

Anyhoo, expect some posting after the sun goes down.

Posted by: Kathy at 12:45 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Allrighty kids.

You'll undoubtedly have noticed that I haven't had much to say over the past couple of days. I have a serious case of the blogmutes settling in and instead of forcing you to suffer through it, I've decided to take the rest of the week off. There is no point in writing what, undoubtedly, would be crap just for the sake of keeping this thing up and running.

And besides, I've got other stuff to do. Around the house, and here, as well. I can no longer put one particular task off: I must transfer the archives from the old Blogspot home to this one. This task will take some time. Actually having to come up with content in the meanwhile? Well, that sort of puts a damper on getting the basics done.

I know. You're undoubtedly heartbroken, right? You, my devoted Cake Eater Readers, are afraid you will not know what to do with yourselves and are wondering if you're going to be forced to resort to surfing Asian Lesbian pr0n, like you did before you found The Cake Eater Chronicles.

Well, have no fear my children. I have lined up a few guest bloggers to entertain and enlighten you.

I may regret my choices later, but I am handing the keys to the kingdom over to my dear pals Robert and Steve, aka The Llamabutchers and to The Goddess of All Things Bloggy, and another dear pal,Sadie, who despite her busy schedule, has promised to drop by later this week. Between the three of them they should keep the lights running on this production and they should have a good time running amok in my playground while I'm away from the keyboard.

Besides, as an added bonus, this will be good for Mom. She tells me she never clicks over whenever I include a link. Which is a habit I'm trying to disabuse her of, but she does it nonetheless. I feel she's missing out on some good stuff, so, instead of forcing Mohammed to come to the mountain, well, I'm bringing the mountain to Mohammed.

{Kath checks pockets for her keys. Nope. Not there. She remembers that she handed them over already. She says, "good" and moves on to other things}

Have a great rest of the week, kids and I'll see you on Monday!

Posted by: Kathy at 10:31 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 I don't suppose you could links up at the same time to some of the aforedescribed Asian materials? Just in case we get bored while waiting? Just asking.

Posted by: RP at May 25, 2005 12:29 PM (LlPKh)

2 D'oh. That was "put links up".

Posted by: RP at May 25, 2005 12:30 PM (LlPKh)

3 Enjoy the breather dearie! I shudder to think what will come to pass in your absence

Posted by: silk at May 25, 2005 04:10 PM (KDoVK)

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Die trackback spammers, DIE!

Posted by: Kathy at 11:50 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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A few months ago, when I was sorting out how I felt about P.G. Wodehouse, I posted this bit linking to an article Hugh Laurie/Bertie Wooster had written a few years back. I also learned during this Wodehousian adventure in Googling that Laurie had also written a novel, The Gun Seller.

It seems as if the guy who plays Dr. House is a talented gentleman.

I finally was able to lay my hands on a copy through the library and I have to say, it's just a wonderful read. It is, truly, something very special, or maybe I just feel that way because it's right up my alley. Who knows? Anyway, I finished it last night and I'll be purchasing a copy when I finally have some spare coin for such things. I was curious about some of the reviews, however, because they seemed to think this book was a "spoof" or a "satire" on the spy-novel genre. I don't think so. It's a thriller with a sense of humor and to imply that Laurie was simply spoofing the genre really doesn't give him the credit he deserves.

Ah, anyway...there was one part of the book that had me chuckling more than usual and appreciating the author's cleverness, so I had to share it with you. If you're interested read on after the jump. more...

Posted by: Kathy at 03:40 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 Stephen Fry has also written several books worth reading. His autobiography, Moab is My Washpot, actually made me tear up. And his fiction can be quite wickedly funny.

Posted by: Robert the Llama Butcher at May 06, 2005 04:43 PM (XBUdh)

2 Hugh is a genius. We went to the same University (he was a few years before me) and I remember having the pleasure of meeting him and Stephen Fry (who played Jeeves) a couple of times. I recalled when they filmed 'J&W' in the USA - except it wasn't but took place in one of the London museums! Jolly nice chap and I was so chuffed to see his face on the screen when I arrived on these shores. A touch of home! /claimtofamemomentover

Posted by: Hugh Laurie at May 07, 2005 12:09 PM (ddzYA)

3 And I am a completed retard of a tool this morning. I woke up about 5 mins ago (give or take) and just typed Hugh Laurie in the name box on the last entry. Duh! I really shouldn't be allowed to surf at this time of day!

Posted by: Puffy at May 07, 2005 12:11 PM (ddzYA)

4 yeah, thanks for giving me a momentary heart attack there, Puff! Not like I suspect for one big fat, flaming moment that Hugh Laurie is a lurker here, but stranger things have happened. Fortunately, I saw the email address next and relief flooded. Phew. Don't do that again! That's very cool that you've met him. He seems like he'd be a decent guy to know. I can only think that meeting Stephen Fry would be intimidating as all hell. Probably a nice enough guy, but he seems to have one heck of a brain on him. People who are that smart scare me Then again, maybe I should be scared of you, having gone to Cambridge and all

Posted by: Kathy at May 07, 2005 05:53 PM (cTptB)

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"I mean, seriously. Blog feuds are like watching Trekkies fight over who has the more authentic-looking rubberized Spock ears."

Posted by: Kathy at 04:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, the FIRST ANNUAL HAVE YOUR CAKE BLEGATHON is now officially over.

The regular readers can come back now. Did you hear that, kids? Antiques Roadshow will now be seen at its regularly scheduled time again. You will no longer be forced to watch Josh Groban warble at warp speed. Come on back!

Anyhoo...I would like to thank all of my contributors for finally allowing me to claim I'm a "real writer," meaning that I've been paid for my work! You've helped me realize a life goal, and I appreciate it.

For the rest of you slackers, well, eh? As long as you sent me some happy thoughts you're in the clear. You did send some happy thoughts, right? I have this sinking feeling that you didn't and that I won't be able to escape from Neverland and the evil clutches of Captain Hook (ha ha! get it?) anytime soon. So, not only are you cheap ass bastards, you couldn't get it together in time to send me happy thoughts...of all the nerve! Slackers.

The bitterness that I'm not suddenly able to afford a spring getaway to Jamaica aside, the Pay Pal key is still up there. And it's staying put, so throw some cash in the kitty if you ever get the chance. Or you can buy some crap from Cafe Press. Either way is good.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:34 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Note to my devoted Cake Eater Readers: this post will stay at the top of the page until next Monday, April 11, 2005.

{Insert Kath feeling mighty uncomfortable about what she is about to do here}

Ahem.

The Cake Eater Chronicles has just morphed into a for-profit enterprise.

Yes. That feeling that just hit your gut is absolutely right on: this is a blegging post.

For almost two years now, I have been using the Cake Eater as a repository for thoughts that had nowhere else to go. Surprisingly, a goodly number of you started showing up to read said thoughts and got something out of them. For that I am eternally in your debt, and as my father is wont to say, "your kindness will never be mentioned." (And, yes, I know that doesn't fit, particularly since I'm mentioning it right now, but it doesn't really fit when my dad says it, either, yet he says it anyway, so like father like daughter, blah, blah, blah.) Nothing is so satisfying to a writer as actually having readers because the whole enterprise is something of a wash if no one really cares all that much. I'm glad to have you, and while in the past I've asked for donations for charitable causes, I've never really asked anything of my readers for myself, other than the odd plea for comments.

That, my devoted Cake Eater readers, is about to change with the FIRST ANNUAL "HAVE-YOUR-CAKE-BLEG-A-THON!"

Woot!

Yeah, I know. I'm having a hard time getting excited about it, too, so I can't blame you for your lack of enthusiasm.

As many of you know, I do not contribute anything to the GDP of the Cake Eater household. The husband does this and I am grateful to him for it because he works his fine, fine non-ass off at it. But it's time I contributed something. Since the novel isn't in any shape to send out, and I spend a goodly portion of my free time on this thing, I must work with what I've got---which would be you, my devoted Cake Eater readers.

You will notice that on the upper left sidebar, there is a now a PayPal "Make a Donation" key. If you're so inclined, click on it and donate what you can. I'm not that picky. If all you can afford is five bucks, I'm thankful for it. If you are like my mother and are leery of internet transactions, yet would like to contribute, drop me a line and I'll send you the snail mail address to the Cake Eater Pad. If you can't afford to give anything at all (and believe me, I understand that) send me some happy thoughts and all will be well with the world.

Now the reason I am so uncomfortable doing this is because whenever money is involved, strings suddenly become attached. It's just the nature of the beast. This blogging exercise will turn into a quid pro quo excursion and I don't really like the thought of that. I'm selling out. But it's past time for me to do this, hence I will have to suck it up.

Conversely, I also understand that a goodly number of people have been soured on this experience by a particular blogger's bleg-a-thons. This particular blogger not only refused to attach the strings, he blatantly abused his readership in the process by lying to them, and gave the rest of us bloggers an undeserved black-eye in the process. I can't tell you what to do. But I will say this much: I'm not going to guilt you into giving. If you can and you're inclined, thank you very much. I appreciate it. If you can't give anything or have been turned off by blogger bleg-a-thons, no hassles. I understand.

In conclusion, I will say thanks for everything. Showing up, reading, commenting, and if you are able, for helping increase the Cake Eater Household GDP. I appreciate it all.

Posted by: Kathy at 07:52 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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While this statement will undoubtedly come back to bite me in the ass later on when I decide to break the rules, it's about time someone finally decided to devote a blog to blog etiquette. There are simply too many simple rules of blogging that some of us long-term bloggers take for granted that new bloggers may not know about.

Darling Phin, as a contributor to this new blog, has asked his fellow bloggers to provide examples of what agitates them. Instead of hogging his comments section, I decided to post over here, which will also perhaps spread the word about this new blog.

If you're interested in what agitates me as a blogger, well, read on after the jump. more...

Posted by: Kathy at 12:17 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I am hereby announcing I am taking Saturday and Sunday off.

I know you really don't want or need to hear it; that my time is my own, etc. Yeah. Ok. That's all well and good but I've noticed a curious phenomenon: whenever I tell you I'm not going to post, you still come by anyways and keep my stats from going to hell in a handbasket. If I don't announce anything, you desert me quicker than a rat on the Titanic and I wind up having to make up lost ground (read I am NOT going back to marauding marsupial status!).

You'd think it'd be the other way round, wouldn't you? But nooooooooo. You, my devoted Cake Eater Readers, are a contrary lot. And I wouldn't have you any other way.

To keep you happy in the meanwhile, here's some hot link on link action.

• It's International Children's Book Day. Michele is reminiscing and would like you to join her in a stroll down memory lane.
• Steve-o is wondering why Saturday brings out the weirdos. I haven't the foggiest. Last night someone got here by Googling "how to carve a boob cake." There was another funny one, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it was.
• Ah-bloody-ha! Fausta finally answers the question I've wondered about for a year: why the hell was someone googling in looking for "Zapatero Bean Morph"? Thank God that mystery was solved!

  She also gives good reasoning as to why you should want to bitchslap that little Spanish bastard.

• Ith has a serious list of House spoilers. DO NOT CLICKET IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW. Of course, I clicked and all I can say is Good God, bring 'em on! And I think I'm actually going to have to subscribe to her email list, which will bring me one step closer to stalker status. Eeeew.

  Also, on the actual House site linked above, they've produced a list of "House-isms," which pretty much sums up why I like this show so much. Note that there's quite a few good ones left off this list, too. But you can only find out about those if you watch.

• Via email yesterday, Jonathan told me an incredibly amusing tale which made me laugh uproariously. Sadly, I cannot share the details with you because he has forbidden as much, but go on over to the Galley Slaves and bug him to give up the goods. Because this is really something he should share.

That should keep you happy. But if it doesn't, well, you're screwed I suppose. Sorry, but that's just the way life goes, eh? I suppose this would be the perfect time, though, to tell you to go and scroll through the new and improved blogroll on your right. There's bound to be something good there.

UPDATE: Oh, and before I forget: it's my sister Christi's birthday today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTI!

Until November, you're back to being two years older than me!

{Insert triumphant dance of the terminally younger here}

I really am a stinker, aren't I? Heheheheheh.

Posted by: Kathy at 12:17 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 Okay, you just made me spit tea. Stalker status! Does that mean you're stalking me, or Hugh? Either way, it's tea spittable Bummer is, no one on my email list appears to like spoilers, so I post all that great stuff, and no one wants to talk about it [pout]

Posted by: Ith at April 02, 2005 02:10 PM (iu6/Z)

2 You lucky marsupial!!!

Posted by: Pious Agnosti at April 05, 2005 03:21 PM (7dkzi)

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Yeah. I updated the blogroll. Verily, sayeth the Lord, goeth and peruseth.

A brief note about the Cake Eater Blogroll Policy because, invariably, I get a few emails every time I update the stupid thing:

I blogroll blogs I actually, you know, read. If you've made it on there, congratulations! I'm a finicky reader and you passed the test. You should be pleased you have earned the respect and admiration of the Cake Eater. Go treat yourself to an adult beverage and fantasize that I'm at the bar with you. It'll be fun, I promise. I'll wear something low cut just for you. But, no, I won't buy you any shots because shots are eeeeevil and I don't want you puking on my (imaginary) Manolos.

If you didn't make the blogroll {Insert massive, exhausted sigh here} please don't whine and complain about it. Have some pride, for fuck's sake. Don't send me an email asking me to please include your blog on my blogroll. Don't send me an email reminding me that you've linked me so I should return the favor. None of this is going to cut ice with me. Life sucks. Get a helmet.

Why do I have this policy? Because when I make a blogroll, I want to know that it's because someone likes what I've written, not because they thought they needed to emulate Emily Post with the blogosphere etiquette. It's pretty simple.

Don't you want that, too?

Sorry if this is overly snarky, but the expansion this time around was looooong overdue, hence it's jumped a bit in size. I'm just trying to avoid the inevitable if it's at all possible.

Posted by: Kathy at 12:22 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 "Because when I make a blogroll, I want to know that it's because someone likes what I've written, not because they thought they needed to emulate Emily Post with the blogosphere etiquette." Exactly the way I see it. Thanks for the linky.

Posted by: Pammy at March 28, 2005 10:48 AM (Ew78u)

2 Thanks much for the link!

Posted by: red at March 28, 2005 12:08 PM (qxKkx)

3 I may have to steal that because I never know what to say when I get an email asking for a link. Part of that, I think, is that I'd die of embarrassment if I ever asked someone to link me, and part of it I don't want to hurt someone's feelings. So my nonconfrontational recourse is usually to just ignore the email. I'm such a wimp!

Posted by: Ith at March 28, 2005 01:05 PM (YS7HR)

4 Sure am glad I made the list, that way I don't have whine and complain about it. I can save what little pride I have left when I decide to beg for something else.

Posted by: phin at March 28, 2005 04:48 PM (DGPlf)

5 We're honored. You do great stuff here. I hope to have the chance to meet you at the next blogger bash.

Posted by: Sandy at March 28, 2005 04:58 PM (S01DI)

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The people have spoken!

It was close, but this toon has won. By a whopping two votes. I will, however, take it where I can get it.

Thanks to all who participated. I appreciate it.

Super Sekrit Message to my sister: after much scrutiny and many moments of doubt, I'm sticking with my story. She's not a redhead.

Neither am I for that matter. You and the husband both need to get your eyes checked.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:56 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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For the most part, I've dodged this problem since I've been on Movable Type. I've been protected and well by the powers that be. Other bloggers have had it far worse than I have. I know this, but I just got slammed, and I'm wondering what exactly do these people think they're achieving with this garbage.?

Their bots place spams on old posts, so no one sees them before I've had a chance to delete their crap. Then they're not even worded cleverly, so that some unsuspecting reader might actually click over. It's ALLSEXALLGAYSEX, etc. all the damn time. Nothing pisses me off more than having to erase the tracks of people who are, above all, STUPID!

Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

If you're going to make my life hard with this crap at least, for the love of all that is good and holy, be clever about it!

Posted by: Kathy at 02:43 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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and for the love of all that is good and holy, I'm a disappointment.

I got nothin'.

I don't think I'll ever be doing this guest blogging business again. I noticed the malaise setting in last week, but thought I could pull out of it. Nothing's tripping my trigger, though. I can't get fired up. Bleh. Hence the lameness at two blogs, not just one.

Yesterday, I had to go over to the Mall of Gomorrah to visit my sister-in-law and my niece, who were in town for some shopping. Today, well, I had high hopes, but around midday I just started to not feel so well, so I went and napped. I'm still feeling a bit bleh, and will be shortly retiring to the sofa to read.

The fact that we are indeed moving at the end of the month does nothing to help, either. The places we've seen don't do a damn thing for me. It might have one feature, but it's lacking another we currently have. And I ain't going back down the ladder, ya dig?

When we found this apartment, we were the first people to see it and we took it, right there and then. It had everything we wanted. A fireplace. Older neighborhood. Archways. Walking distance to many things. A deck. A washer and dryer. But, most importantly, it had a dishwasher. The dishwasher is a non-negotiable item. We can't live with each other if we have to actually wash our dishes. We would have filed for divorce years ago if we hadn't figured out the amount of strife this business of dumping soap into the sink was causing us. But I digress.

Anyway, I've figured out the the solution to all my problems.

Powerball, baby.

The current fantasy I have running through my head is to win the Powerball and be able to actually, you know, purchase a house, wherein I could paint the walls purple if I wanted to. Not like I would, but just the mere thought of finally being able to move beyond rental white is a heady elixir indeed. There are two houses within spitting distance of the Cake Eater Pad that just went on the market and are perfect. We could get either one and I'd be a happy camper. But we'll never be able to afford either place unless we win the Powerball. The mortage on one with a 20% downpayment, I shit you not, would be just shy of ten grand a month.

But if we won the Powerball....

....well, we could purchase one of these two houses, hire packers (and people to unpack the crap as well. I'm not fucking about here.) and could go on vacation while all this business was going on. No muss, no fuss. I could, by the end of the month, finally be the mistress of our very own piece of property and be slurping a margarita on a Mexican beach.

Anyway, that's my roundabout way of apologizing for the lack of fresh content. Hopefully tomorrow will be better than today.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:54 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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...you don't post all weekend or most of today and your mother calls to see if everything is all right.

Posted by: Kathy at 09:17 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 ROTFL! That gave me the giggles

Posted by: Ith at March 07, 2005 10:17 PM (+80Iy)

2 LOL

Posted by: Fausta at March 08, 2005 08:20 AM (G3tVf)

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