Tax Day

Went to the Tax Day rally just up the street for a few minutes, and saw this sign. Pretty must lost interest in life in general because nothing will ever be as awesome as this sign:

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Hello old age

I just pulled a grey hair out of my head. I guess that means I can start my midlife crisis now?

Ooh! I know what I'll do! On every webzone I frequent I'll just drop in some unsolicited advice, which will be the best advice ever, because I am a wise elder now. I am world-weary and wise from my decades of experiences. Everyone will pause and listen to and follow my sage wise sageness. It's gonna be awesome!


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San Diego 2010: My vacation and Hubby’s “not a vacation”

This post is long, but there are purdy flower pictures below the fold

We went there for a military conference, so that meant I had to occupy myself while Hubby was busy during the day. I was lucky enough to convince my dad to come down so we could see desert wildflowers together (the timing was just too good to pass up).

Sunday: Butt crack of dawn flight, got to the hotel around noon, after a very long time at the rental car facility. Hubby got an upgrade from a sedan to a Explorer. We had 5 people and their giant suitcases to fit, so that fact alone was enough to need an Explorer. That thing ended up being very nice, a new one, with the two extra seats in the back. So we were able to drive that around town with big groups of our friends. Thank you tax payer.

After check in, we really needed some lunch bad, and Hubby being the ex-longterm resident of San Diego, was going to take us to a place he liked from like 20 years ago. Before we left he looked the place (Carlos Murphy’s) up online, saw they had a web page with address and everything, and called it good. Garmin took us to a nice outdoor mall, with Hubby saying “I don’t remember this being here.” Bad sign, and a foreshadowing for how this search would turn out. We wandered around the mall, didn’t find it, plugged in an alternative address for the place (the address you get when you plug in Carlos Murphy’s into Google Maps). When we got close to the place, we could tell that not only was that particular restaurant not going to be there, it was a safe bet that no restaurant had ever been in the area. It was a medical/industrial park. We had passed at least one real sit down Mexican restaurant and a couple taco stands between the mall and this medical park. We why didn’t just turn back around and hit one of those, I don’t know. We ended up driving by a strip mall with a Chili’s out front and a Kripple Kreme next store over. Kripple Kreme come from the reaction of driving by the place, and while two of the girls were in midsentence screamed out in unison: “Krippa Kreme!! Krippa Kreme!!” They were so excited they couldn’t even say the words. It was awesome. And Kripple Kremes are darned tasty. Too bad Maryland sucks and only has a couple. So, we ate at Chili’s (what is it with us and hitting up Chili’s whenever we travel? How unimaginative are we?) And hit up Kripple Kreme’s after.

So, finally had food in our bellies, spent probably two hours making fun of Hubby and his mannerisms. Got back to the hotel in time for the rest of our friends to be looking for dinner. They had a restaurant in mind, down in Gas Lamp district. (We ended up spending a lot of time there. It’s a cool place and nicely set up.) This ended up being a nice steak place. We pulled to car over nearish to the place, we all got out to walk the half block while Hubby parked the car. As we’re walking up the block, we see a silver Explorer backing into a spot right in front of the entrance! Yes, Hubby has found the perfect parking place. We paused to enjoy the moment, as it will never ever happen again for our entire lives. Anyway, food. Steak place. It was super good (I only had appetizer). No need to say more. OK, fine: tasty.

Monday: First day of me being bored while Hubby was busy. I think this was the day I had a breakfast of Kripple Kremes (those things stay good for a long time if kept in the box and the humidity is high) and then a Maritime-themed-business Espresso Drink in the courtyard of the hotel. That was a lot of sugar and caffeine to work through, so sorry for all the tweets. Don’t remember what we did for lunch, it was probably just something simple at the hotel. Dinner was a social event I invited myself to. Mexican them, but food was pretty bad. You would think they could find a caterer in San Diego who did good Mexican food. By the time everyone was good and drunk, it was time to move the party to Gas Lamp. We went to Whiskey Girl, which I have to say, is a really cool place. Normal bar, the guy played lots of good music (until requests started and the 90% white crowd got a ton of shitty rap to be played). It was good people watching as drunk people just have a hard time getting along with each other. Like the young guy trying to move in the girl who had all her drinks paid for by some old married dude. And the Shanks. Oh Jesus the Skanks. There were lots of them. It was a Monday night. Anyway, my dad got in late, met us at the bar, met my friends while they were all loud and drunk. He seems to still like them, though. Our group ended up closing down the place. (At 1:30! What happened to 2??) Lots of scuffles outside where I was waiting for the second or third tab-paying and shots-rounds to finish up. One taxi driver in particular was being a real dick to the bike-taxi guy, since the two bike taxis were in the empty spot at the curb the taxi driver though his car should be. Guy in bad shape in the half pass out stage, being held up by two friends, puked on the sidewalk. Skanks exiting the bar walked through it in their skank shoes: awesome. Finally a worker dude threw a bucket of water to wash away the puke (not mine this time!). Got everyone back to the hotel without barf inside the car.

Tuesday: Day 1 of Anza-Borrego flowers. Henderson Canyon and Coyote Canyon (so, North side of the park). We actually heard coyotes while at Coyote Canyon! We pretty much were driving aimlessly around, following signs and stopping when the flowers were pretty. Something I found out about myself: I am so much of a control freak, I get physically ill when not driving. So, we had to pull over because I almost barfed (was kneeling in the sand too close to a bunch of ants. Didn’t get bit, but it made me nervous). Turns out my puke place was pretty good flower viewing. There were lots of cacti there, and we didn’t really see much anywhere else in the park.

Me in Henderson Canyon area. (Mom will love the visible bra strap.) Taken by my dad using his camera with Godzilla attached.

A boy and his camera. Henderson Canyon area.

This is one picture I was hoping for when coming out to the desert. I wish the ground had been more cracked, though. Henderson Canyon area.

Henderson Canyon area with Godzilla.

So more driving aimlessly, found a good pasture of flowers near or at Henderson Canyon. Went back to the country club we had passed earlier for lunch. It was yummy, and the weather was so nice! Found the Visitor’s Center to finally get a pace of the darned place and figure out where we were going. Then Coyote canyon where there were less numbers of flowers, but there was lupine there.

I like to buck the establish photography community by having the thing you expect to be in focus out of focus. Yeah, that's it. Totally on purpose, that was. More like: what I think would look good in my head does not end up looking good.

At least the thing in the center is in focus this time

Like the tall thing with red honey suckle flowers, this particular cactus was all over the park, in various stages of growth. Some were huge with tones of little arms coming out, most were pretty small.

This was a very good lizard. He let us get very close taking all our pictures of him.

Coyote Canyon

My favorite. Coyote Canyon.

I'll call this one a Desert Creeper.

While most of the other flowers and cacti has areas where they were either thick or nonexistent, this plant was pretty much everywhere, although not always flowering.

Dinner I think was me and my Dad at a super tasty Italian place on Coronado. He knew about the place from when he and my mom had driving through town, and he had two reviews for places. They had gone to the other place that time, but he said this place was way better. He even was going to set up a reservation for when he’s in town again for a car show next week.

Wednesday: Day 2 of Anza-Borrego flowers. South end of the park, where we had heard was good viewing from the purser at the country club restaurant. A disappointment as there wasn’t much to see. Not many flowers and not many different cacti either. We did have to go through Border Patrol checkpoints, and I may have used international data rates on the iPhone even though we never left the country. Ran across two illegal immigrant relief points, with the water and the shade. Didn’t see anything moving in the hills, but we wondered why anyone would come though that way in the first place. The terrain is very hilly. There are much easier ways to come though. Like through some poor rancher’s land.

Probably a red-tailed hawk, But Sibley doesn't really show any hawks that have so much red in the wing area. South end of the park, near the illegal immigrant relief points. We should attach camera gear to these guys.

Near the illegal immigrant relief spots. I don't care if this picture is cliched, I was hunting for it as soon as I saw train tracks

Dinner was back in Gas Lamp for Indian. This dinner was me, Hubby, dad and three other friends. We were fetching my friends from a social cocktail hour, they were pretty much gone by the time we asked them to sit still in the car without throwing up for 15 minutes. One of the people with us was a small Asian woman who happens to lack the ability to metabolize alcohol. So she had had like 4 or 8 or 12 (depending on who you talked to) wines before getting in the car. She barfed all through dinner. Not at the table or anything, just had to leave for the bathroom many, many times. We got a tasty appetizer of chicken deep fried in a chickpea breading, the tandoori mixed grill, chicken tika masala (of course), a lamb vindaloo and a shrimp vindaloo, and a whatever the chickpeas is called. (Rogan josh? Don’t remember.) We probably should have gotten one more meat, as we usually get one dish for each diner. We did when you count the tandoori, but the portions of the entrees were just a bit on the small side. Anyway, food was super good, we were trying to get our friend in bad shape to eat a little of the rice, the naan, anything. Finally was we get the check she says “OK, I’m hungry.” So we got another of the chicken cracklins appetizer (those things are effing delicious) and I thought another meat but I don’t remember anything else coming out to the table. Oh yes. She really likes veggies better than meat so she got a plate of chopped veggies. Not sure how good cucumber is at absorbing alcohol but whatever.

On the way to the car we walked past a bar with a big picture window and a mechanical bull inside. The previously almost-pass-out-with-alcohol-poisoning girl stopped short and declared her desire to ride the bull. So we went in, paid her fee, got video of it, and left. She was wearing track pants or whatever you call the slick material pants so she was disappointed that she didn’t stay on longer. Apparently she’s an expert at this and knew she would have done much better had she been wearing jeans. Did not know that about her!

That was probably the end of the night. I don’t actually remember. Hubby and I were moved to a hotel just down the street by this point, since he registered late and there was another conference starting Thursday. Hubby had spent the day at the zoo while I was in the desert, so it was probably an early night for us.

Thursday: My dad left for the airport early, called me at 9am for me to go back and retrieve his shirt. He was already home at that point! That must have been an early flight! And his shirt is still sitting at my house waiting to be mailed.

I pretty much had the afternoon to myself. I got my hair cut by a nice lady named Dottie, and then I walked around Balboa Park for a couple hours for more pictures. I took some, but I didn’t really explore too much of the different areas. There was a dog park and I was tempted to scare all the owners by barging in and taking pictures of all the doggie faces (faces not feces). I decided against this for fear of being arrested.

Balboa Park

Skiddish lizard at Balboa Park. He ran away while I was trying to get closer.

For dinner we met our regular group at the sports bar on the resort property. We didn’t know this when plans were being arranged, but there was a big (in all uses of the word) group of Kentucky fans watching the March Madness nonsense. The game had just started when we were getting close to being done and these people cheered at Every. Goddamned. Point. So we tried looking up the Cornell fight song and what their mascot even is. The only fight song I found was an mp3 of the band version, so no words. Anyway, countermeasures failed and we popped smoke. I think we just ended up being lazy and went to the room of one of the guys in the group, drank the last of his vodka, and went back to our room when the police was called. At 9:30pm. The cop (he looked like a real cop with the mall security rentacop bravely standing behind him) told us to break it up or take it outside. Let me get this straight cop: we either have to break up our little shindig at 9:30 at night because at most three people are bothered (side, side, upstairs) or take it outside where we can bother 10 or more people? The choice was easy! We went outside where they had nice little café tables set up in front of each unit. But we’re nice people, so we really did try to keep quiet. But also, we were hanging out in this guy’s room as a time to formulate our next plans, which we did for another hour or so. They all wanted me to drive them someplace. I said it’s bedtime, as our flight was the next day. Not early, but I still wanted to get some packing done. So Hubby and I headed back to our hotel, and I don’t know what the party animals ended up doing.

Friday: Breakfast at the original resort with our flying buddies, then flight, then getting home at like 1 in the morning. Kitties had an empty food bowl and growling tummies because they were too stupid to knock over the food bag I left open for them. Honestly, out of three cats I would have expected more from them. One time they ripped a hole in the bag, so I thought leaving the bag open would make it easier for them. And all the fishies lived and all the lizzies lived. Which is more than I can say about last year this time when we left the house under the protection of a long time friend of ours.


The End. This post has 2722 words. That’s gotta be a record for the little amount of information conveyed.

The road goes ever on.

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Kill the Bill, DC March 20, 2010 [with a couple pictures]

We're heading to DC is a couple hours. This is a place holder to see if I can get some pictures loaded from the phone while down there. (Still can't upload pictures from phone to here, will have to be links from Twitter.)

In a related topic, my town had a Kill the Bill rally earlier this week. We didn't know it was happening, of course, because we aren't on any mailing lists. We went to the July 4 one last year and would have signed up then. But you know what? We're the sort of people who don't like to have our names on lists! So that got me thinking: how do you have email lists to organize for a group of people who don't want their names on any lists? Even though I know that's what the list would be for, I still don't want my name on it! So I guess that means that it's even more remarkable that so many people show up to the various Tea Party events around the country.

Anyway, pictures hopefully soon. And I'm bringing a video device, but don't know if anything will be worth recording. The last time I started recording speeches the guy went off on a How Awesome Ron Paul Is speech. So I didn't post that.

UPDATE below the fold:

I had my iPod on me, but wasn't close enough to really be able to see or hear what the speakers were saying. But I got a couple pictures. Everyone liked my shirt (Obama on a Unicorn) and my sign.

And then just a few of the crowd:

We stayed toward the back of the crowd by the traffic circle. We couldn't even see where the speakers were from way back there. Walking up the street towards the Capitol (we were late) you could here everyone cheering for whatever someone said before you could see them. And the way it all echoed of the buildings made the sound carry a lot farther down the street. It was pretty cool. And then to slowly be able to make out all the yellow flags in the huge crowd of people in front of the Capitol. I actually had goosebumps!

So, my rough estimate is maybe 1/4 of a Rose Bowl, so 25ish thousand people. It sounds like a lot, but it felt like a lot of people. [apparently at the thing they announced they were at 25000 people.] I was just on the outskirts the whole time, but I could see that the crowd was stretching out a long ways. I saw lots of white people, which makes sense since there is mostly white people in this country. There were plenty of different ethnicities there also. A group of Japanese exchange students (is my guess as to who they were) asked me who the man on my sign was, so I explained. There were a lot of kids coming through on tours, who probably just wanted to get a nice picture of the building. I really felt bad for them, because I hate having people in my pictures. Especially when I was in Philly trying to get a clean picture of Independence Hall.

Saw a sign of Pennsylvania Nurses against HCR, so looks like there were some groups who actually came from pretty far away. Talked with a retired couple for a long time (while Mr. Voight was speaking :( ), but they were like us and most people there who hadn't done that sort of thing before. The mood was like the one July 4 rally we went to in my town last year. People cheer when they hear throw the bums out, or cut taxes, or whatever. But mostly it's just a bunch of people milling arund admiring each others signs. I don't know why every one like mine so much, it wasn't very original. There was a guy who does caricatures for a living, and did a great Obama as Pinocchio (with the long nose and leaves coming off of it). That sign was really a piece of art, and he's saying "Oh, it only took me a minute to do up."

Anyway, I had a good time, even if we spent a lot more time travelling than actually there at the event. I thought this one was pretty awesome, so I can only imagine how goosebumpy the 9/12 march was!


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Chores

The weather has been absolutely dreadful here the last month or so. Each weekend it was raining, and now it gets dark about half an hour after we get home. So that doesn't leave much time for getting outdoor work done (that's my excuse, anyway), like the lawn mowing, avocado pasture prepping, and car washing I've been wanting to do for a long time. Well, I finally got one of those things done: I finally got the lawn mowed after fixing the mower. It was actually a good thing it was so cold, or else the grass would have been a foot tall instead of just the six inches that it was. But, now I don't have to worry about the HOA beating down the door with complaints about the grass. And something I found out while mowing: that rider sucks up the leaves a lot better than the push. I don't remember if it was last year or earlier that I discovered mowing the leaves is waaaaaay easier than raking, and now the rider makes it even easier! Yes, I fully acknowledge I'm a lazy slug.

So let's see. Other chores I wanted to get done this last weekend included cleaning all the fish. It took me two days, but finally got them squared away. I didn't expect them to take so long. And on the topic of fish: the pH meter I use to control CO2 delivery needs another probe. Haven't been able to find the right one yet online, but it's supposed to be a consumable so hopefully not very expensive.

Another thing I want to get done is get my PC up the Windows 7. I don't have a whole lot of programs to worry about not being compatible, except old versions of Paint Shop and all the Office products. I'm going to have to get the paint shop thing figured out, because I currently don't have any suitable program on my Mac. On my old Mac I have Photoshop, but I don't have anything that's compatible with 10.whateversnowleopardis! It makes me wonder why I bother upgrading.


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And I did it all by myself

So I have two days before Hubby gets back (I thought it was one day, so I didn't go to work today to spend the day cleaning. Oopsie!) One of my tasks I gave myself was to get the mower repaired and get the lawn mowed, since it hasn't been mowed since the mower's catastrophic failure.

The repairs that are need are the tension spring that engages the blade belt needs to be replaces, and I ordered a new front wheel, because the valve stem on the one I messed up is damaged and the Mr. Tire down the road can't fix one that small. :(

The wheel is easy because all it is is undoing a bolt and putting the new (hopefully already seated and filled) tire and wheel on. The tension spring is more complicated because it (oddly enough) has a lot of tension on it, from the blade drive belt that is pulling against it. You can apparently reduced a little of the tension by raising the whole deck, but it only helps a little. So I needed a way to pull on the spring to get enough slack in the belt to slip it over the last pulley. I am not strong enough to just use something like a hammer to hook onto the thing and pull, while using my third hand to reach around to get the belt on.

The thing I ended up using was something I wasn't sure was even going to work. Hubby has a bunch of tie down strap thingies that have winches on them. I was able to hook both ends onto sturdy parts of the mower. (That was actually the hardest part: finding the second thing to hook onto!) and then start doing up the winch. Hubby also has these clamp wrench things that you can securely clamp onto something to give you more leverage. In addition to giving me the last bit of leverage I needed, they also allowed me to keep my fingers away from the thing I thought was going to snap. So, a few winch strokes, a few more that were harder, then the last couple that I did gingerly because I didn't want it to fly apart in my face. Et Voila! The belt slipped over the pulley!

Now. To undo the winch strap without a violent snap in my hands... hmmm. Didn't think that far ahead.

Well, I ended up getting it undone, still have all my fingers, no black eyes. Yay me! The hard part is done, but I'm still waiting for the tire to show up. Click for full post and comments

Party Time

The month of September was a very social one in the Papaya household! We went to two BBQs at friends houses, and hosted a going away party for a Captain who is PCSing. The one we hosted was the most interesting because it involved Rumpelmintz and puking.

I maybe should have taken the problems I had in the lead up to this shindig as I sign for bigger things to come. All I wanted to do was mow the grass. First, I got one of the small front wheels caught along the sidewalk so the rubber just came right off the rim. This was evening time the day before the party, and I already knew I wasn't going to get the whole yard mowed before dark. I just wanted the front and half the back done. So the wheel is off the rim. We get that off the mower, and use the air compressor to try and get it full again, but it was a tubless tire, so you had to make sure the rubber veil or apron or whatever was seated against the rim. We couldn't get it to seat, to I took it the the tire place down the street with 10 minutes before closing. They got it full, but it turned out the valve stem was broken. Awesome!. But I got it back on the mower right quick, and was able to get a couple rows before it was totally flat and falling off the rim again. That front tire doesn't take a whole lot of weight, so you can go pretty good with it flat. But the yard has hills and you end up needing that corner to be supported. So the tire's flat, I decided to call it a day. I got up early the next day and started the thing up (sorry neighbors) and got about 10 feet before the GODDAMNED DECK BELT BROKE AND THEN I COULDN'T MOW AT ALL!!!!!!!!

Our BBQ was put on as a potluck, because it was decided at a BBQ one week prior to the event that it should happen at all. So, potluck is good because it gave me a chance to not worry about food at all. I ended up doing a chocolate cream pie, some roasted zucchini/squash, and some home made guacamole that turned out horrible because the avacados were not good. Ripe, but not good. The thing I'm most proud of, though, was being able to whip up a goop to put on some chicken breasts that came naked. I googled up chicken marinades to see what type of things go into one, and the first recipe had dry mustard, oregano, pepper, brown sugar, etc. in it. Well, I don't have dry mustard, but I have Heinz, so I squirted some of that in a bowl, sprinkled in some pepper, salt, oregano, and brown sugar (I think, I can't remember), and let the designated barbecuer taste. He was genuinely surprised that I could come up with something that didn't taste like ass. I was not offended, I thought it was funny!

Let me just say that if you have any friends from Guam, have them bring and barbecue up the ribs (beef or pork, both super tasty). The pork ribs were so good and sweet like bacon and I wish I had more leftovers in the fridge.

So once the food was done, it was time to move on the booze. The keg was flowing the whole time (only used half-2/3 of a pony!) and Rumpelmintz was brought by one family that I may have to disown. Apparently that shit sneaks up on you to the point where you can be on round 4 or 5 and be feeling fine, but then the next second be in a horizontal position. Not because you've passed out, but because you feel the need to be steadied by the ground. The guy in question, our barbecuer, had been working on beers all day while grilling. The when that job was done and he could relax, he moved on the 100 proof candycanes of death. After 4 rounds he was standing up on the deck talking to us all, and we literally could see the "oh I don't feel so good" look cross his face. That was when he laid down on the plastic bench. (Which I still have in my yard, freaking two weeks after the party, and haven't returned to our friends yet.)

So he's laying down, by this point it's time for a second round of food, so people start eating again, and then people are leaving. And he's still laying down. Then it's just our core friends relaxing inside (it got coooold!!). And I get a request for the plunger. Because when you're sitting in the bathroom cradling your head, of course you're sitting on the toilet for a chair and then when you have to puke the sink is right there. So we needed to unclog the sink. That was taken care of, and he was either locked in the bathroom or sitting at one of our desks which are 5 feet from the bathroom.

Meanwhile, one of our friends who had had a puking incident at our 4th of July party
back in 2008 was relieved for there to finally be another story to come out of the Papaya household that wasn't him puking in the driveway and me hosing it down while he's still puking. Seriously, one of the guys was still talking about that 364 days after the fact. Guy giving up his crown says "I at least owe the man dinner!"

And then the evening wrapped up with the new puke king half passed out in one of our office chairs, and all of us (his wife too!) taking pictures of him and writing on his head. We were back to chatting in the other room when he all of a sudden got up and walked out the door to the car. "Time to go, I guess" is what we all said. So we hastily packed them up some food and they got going. They had church the next day, and his head said "fucking A" on it. These are the kinds of friends I have.

And we have about 30 hotdogs and a big box of burgers that weren't even opened, with buns to go with them. It's two weeks later, and I'm am still eating hotdogs.


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Icky bugs!

So we're just getting home from a BBQ now (midnight). We left before the mail came so we got it now. It was dark and Hubby didn't know what he was reaching his hand into until he got in the house and felt crawlies on his hand. And then looked down at the mail. And saw ants all over the mail and his hand. And didn't scream like a little girl, at least, but still was not pleased at all. So the ants were flicked into the sink or squished, the spray was got and used. And we went out to the mailbox to see just what in the Sam Hill was going on in there. There were trying to build a nest, as there was a big pile of eggs in there!! And so they were sprayed. And it was good.


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My weekend

Had a pretty good weekend, meaning lots of lazing.

Friday: stayed home and played Evony all day, then finally made some beer bread and dips for BBQ at 10 or 11 pm. Hubby rented some scaffolding to put a blown off piece of siding back up. (Been getting harassed by HOA for maybe 7 months to get that up.)

Saturday: played Evony and went to a BBQ for like 10 hours.

Sunday: played Evony, got surprise tickets to AAA baseball Ironbirds, so went to that. Hubby got the siding piece back up. Took all of 30 minutes with the scaffolding up. Played more Evony after baseball.

Monday: played Evony. Gave two cats baths, flea problem not as bad as I thought, as I only saw one flea. Mowed the lawn while avoiding rain (it decided not to downpour). Played Evony and did laundry.

Man I like 4 day weekends!

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Ahh, finally back to the warm weather

My parents are turning 60 this year, and they just got done redoing their back yard, so they wanted to throw a big shindig to celebrate both. Hubby and I left Tuesday, even though the arty was Saturday so he could get in some face time with his parents. Also, he needed his drivers license renewed so we needed a business day to do that. Plus there was whatever helping needed to be done ahead of party time.

So we left the house in good hands paws:

I didn't take any pictures until I got to my parents' house Thursday, where I finally got to meet their newest additions:

Jenny Smudge. She is such a cute sweet little thing. I don't care what the pound says, I'm guessing her age to be 2.5-3 months old:

And Squeaker Stinker (she has a tummy problem). I think she's 3-3.5 months old:

They love each other, honest!

OK, maybe they love each other when one isn't taking up valuable real estate.

OK! Party Time! I just took a couple shots of the party. 

Not a lot of people in that picture, because most were downstairs hanging out with...

...some very lovely ladies.

So after helping with cleaning up the house, peeling shrimp (blech), putting together some focaccia creations, and eating candy I was too tired to do anything. Except it was so freaking cold, I had to do something to stay warm! It was 100F in Seattle not 10 days ago, and it was in the 60s when we were there. So I stayed in the kitchen mostly and played some outdoor games with Brother to keep warm. Also wrapped myself in an afghan that I'm pretty sure had cat pee on it.

But all in all it was a fun time, and Hubby was a hit because he was just a Chatty Cathy the whole time. (He claims agoraphobia only when kids are round.)

I feel like I am forgetting something, but I'm just end here with me enjoying the 90F 50% humidity. I never thought I would love this weather, but it was just so cold there! And then the flights home were cold! If I had known, I would have at least packed socks and shoes instead of sandals. And maybe a jacket.

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Day late, but I don't care

I went to the Tea Party in my town (sent a pic to Insty, and got posted!) Hubby estimated the crowd to be 3-400 hundred, which I think is pretty good. I wasn't really expecting many to show up, but they did! And they seemed like a happy crowd, not angry, or militant, or nasty or anything like that; just regular people who came to hear what was being said. I only took a few pictures, because I was paying attention to the speakers. Also, we were only there for a short time because we had to get ready for BBQ. But here are the few:

(a guy and a donkey sitting next to each other, guy holding the Cap and Trade Bill, donkey sez "I'm waiting for the movie to come out."

This Senate hopeful was the first speaker when we arrived. He seems like a good guy. Now if only I knew his name to vote for him!

Hey! That's me!

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I'm starting to get suspiscious

Background info: We are current Verizon customer with a land line we don't actually used, but thought we should keep the account because we've been waiting to upgrade to Verizon's FIOS for Internet and cable. The line was installed earlier in the year, and we've gotten a few cards from sales reps trying to sign us up. I knew it would be a while between the lines being laid to when we could actually start the service, so we weren't in any hurry to contact anyone.

Current situation: a door-to-door sales rep came by last Friday or Saturday evening. We signed up for the triple play (phone, Internet, cable) even though we don't need the phone. But you sign up for all three then cancel what you don't want later. That's fine, that seems to be the way it usually works.

So anyway, the sales rep guy needs to use our computer to plug in the order on the Verizon site, I guess. I thought the whole process seemed a little weird, and they call a thrid party service to confirm you have knowledge of this guy placing an order in your name. I thought it was weird, but I saw he had other filled out slips in his folder, so we're at least not the only people falling for a scam. So we set an install date for a couple weeks from now.

Yesterday I got a voicemail from Verizon giving me no more information than call this number in less that 24hrs or your order is cancelled. So I tried the number. Invalid number.

I don't know my login or account number or anything for the website, so I can't really do anything from work. At least this evening I'll have an account number the plug in and see if the website tells me anything.

And the weirdest part? The computer the guy used to put in the order is dead as of two day ago. Wonder if he put a virus on it.

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Making my list, checking it twice

I am putting together the list of food items to be at the 2nd annual Maya Papaya BBQ, along with what each item needs. I am moving a lot of the things to be made the day before, which is something I didn't do last year. Let's just say there -- wait -- corn on the cob -- OK where was I. Oh yeah: last year was kinda hectic day of BBQ. There's a lot of dips I can do up the night before; since they need to chill for a couple hours anyway, why not over night? But another reason I want to ease up on the amount of work day of, is there is a TEA party in my town in the morning. I really want to go and show off the Debt Star sign I'm going to make. Judging by the activities of our "representatives" of the last week, I think there are going to be plenty of things for people to gripe about. I just hope not a lot of people are leaving town that weekend. I think they did it in the morning so it wouldn't get in the way of any afternoon or evening activities we might have planned, so that was nice of them.

Anyway, back to thinking about food.


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No luck

I drove up to where the eagles live hoping to use Godzilla for some nice bird nostril shots. I may have heard an eagle, but with the leaves on the trees you can't actually see them. The water at the dam was high, so that may be the reason I didn't see any out. There is supposed to be a small resident population there, which grows into the hundreds during their migration. But anyway, I didn't see any of the profesionals there, and I'm assuming they know all the good times to be there. I may have seen a heron or two as the base of the dam, but decided to wait for a different time to try for pictures. Maybe there is a schedule of when they release water so I know when the water will be low.

Anyway, back to killing my back cleaning the stupid tiles I put in years ago.

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Tax man!

So I guess now I'm going to have to drop the "Going Galt" bit from my routine. OK, fine I don't have a routine, and I've probably only mentioned not having done anything with taxes yet once. Because today our taxes are done and filed. We submitted the paperwork to the tax guy before we left for Mexico, and because that was over tax day, he filed and extension for us. And a couple back and forths getting the final tidbits of paperwork to him, and finally we're filed. Our estimated for 2008 actually overpaid by almost one quarters payment, which has already been applied, so we don't get to actually see the cash. :(

Anyway, one less thing to worry about. On to trying to figure out how I'm going to get Gravy to the vet Monday if it's raining, with the only enclosed car in the shop. A soft top for the Jeep is looking better and better...


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Bits

1. Addendum to "stuff in my yard": Hubby saw a baby fox in the back yard last week while I was a tupperware party. He should have taken a picture, even though I know it would have come out blurry. I thought they were very protective of their young, so I don't know why one would be out on its own in the grass. But I have noticed the fox activity is up from years past. I have only seen adults, two different ones I think. One is kind of mangy looking, and the other looks in better condition.

more rambling after the fold

2. Biscuit barfed. He had a hairball and ate some grass to alleviate the problem, and he alleviated it all over the carpet. At least it was dark carpet and not the almost white. He's been shedding like crazy lately and I hope it's just the increasing heat and not something serious.

3. Gravy does this thing that I don't know if it comes from being a kitten or her half feral beginnings: if she gets really hyped about a toy or some activity, she'll spaz attack my hand if I am grabbing her. Like with sharp teeth and razor claws really start biting and clawing and kicking hard. She's still little so it may hurt a lot for a kitten but in the scope of cat-damage it not really a big deal. I yell at her ferociously in my angry voice, but I don't think she cares.

4. I was putting the pre-shredded cheese (Kraft brand) on my microwave burrito today, and happened to look at the ingredients. I already knew there was starch or some sort of moisture absorber to keep the individual shreds individual, but it turns out there's an antibiotic in there too (for mold prevention)!! This I was very surprised at. It's natamycin. I've never heard of it, but it's not like I'm versed in antibiotics. I know the few used in aquaria, and that's about it. Anyway, it seems like this would not be a very good thing gut-wise. Or just general superbacteria-wise. Maybe we shouldn't be putting antibiotics in the general food supply? Or maybe we already do? I don't know, it just feels wrong.

5. I watched a few movies recently. hhmm, Netflix says I've watched Boogie Nights, Taken, The Machinist, The Bank Job, Knocked Up, American Psycho, latest James Bond, and the Harold and Kumars.
- Boogie Nights: still love it. "Have you seen my fucking wife?" Love it!
- Taken: I liked it because he wasn't afraid to kill bad guys. Problem is he's ex-CIA in a foreign country and so should maybe not run roughshod over their laws, but still I liked Aslan kicking ass (more that Aslan already kicks ass) a lot.
- The Machinist: I looooove loooove looove Christian Bale in a totally I'll leave my husband sort of way. He lost 60 pounds for his role. Hubby left halfway through because it's kinda artsy, but I enjoyed it. It may have borrowed too much from Memento and ... shoot I can't remember now. Anyway, good and creepy and one that makes you think about what you just saw when you get to the end.
- The Bank Job: not the next in the line after the Italian Job (that's The Brazilian Job) but it has Jason Statham in it as well. Based on a true story. I liked this just fine.
- Knocked Up: Hubby had no interest in watching this, but I found it a little funny, but also a little sweet at the end too. One reason I liked it was the lead actress Katherine Heigl seemed like she really fit the role of upper crust who shouldn't be telling or laughing at dick and fart jokes. Or maybe it was just stiff acting, I couldn't tell.
- American Psycho: again with the Christian Bale! (and guess what's next in the Q? 3:10 to Yuma) People may give him shit for his meltdown, but dude can freaking act! This was a really good movie, and he did a really good job in it. I mean, he really was quite amazing. And I'm not all fangirl with the vapors about this. He really did an amazing job. Sounds like overall, though, the book is much better as usual, just because you get so much more detail about what's going on in that noggin of his.
- Quantum of Solace: I really dislike the name of this one. But I still enjoyed it. What's not to like about a super-secret super-powerful super-embedded group of super bad guys? Except for the fact that head bad guy is a douchey twerp, but I liked it anyway.
- Harolds and Kumars: I actually liked both these movies because they were a lot smarter than I thought they would be.

[OK gotta pause and watch me some crab show]

6. My fish still have fin rot. And I don't know if there are any babies left running around. I just wish I knew why this tank has so many problems. Discus seem to be doing A-OK.

7. "Something has happened in Iran": Yeah, no shit Sherlock. I would say "Turn on a TV and open your ears" but we all know this story is not being talked about except by the internet, as usual.

8. And that reminds me about why this Iran thing bothers me so much. Yes, it's the wanton abuse of the regular people just to scare the rest into submission. But it's also the way they are going about it: stalking to dormatories and killing students who were going to go to, no have been to, opposition rallies. Also the government wanted to try and track Tweets and texts to locate the people writing them. And by locate I assume they mean learn their names and addresses so they can later sneak into their homes and kill them. Now it looks like some stories are saying that Hamas has perpetrated some of these killings, and so the Iranians are sort of consolidating against Palistine. I'm thinking only good things can come from this if that's the direction they are heading.

9. As usual no links to anything because I'm too lazy to look stuff up. Just search the HotAir archives.



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Dirty inuendo of the day

RE: wondering if we should start Boogie Nights at 10pm:

Huh, this movie is two and a half hours.

Yeah, I seem to remember it felt long.

Good night! Remember to tip your waitress


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Thanks a pantload, Apple

So while some people are bitching about the upgrade price for the iPhone 3GS (whole new phone), I'll just bitch about how that upgrade finally allows video capture, while the software update to 3.0 still does not. Poop!! But I'll have cut and paste and MMS, so there's that.

P.S. Google, who actually loves me and doesn't just use me, made Chrome. I've been using it for only a day but I already know I LOVE it!! It's fast! I'd reckon it's faster than Safari, and Safari is pretty darn fast. (I think Chrome is only for PCs running Vista or XPsp2.)


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Can someone please tell me what the HELL is going on with my arm?

I'm afraid it's a spider egg repository, and any day now baby spiders are going to come spewing out. Yuck!! The other dot is a mole.


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Tidbits

- I got a shipment of superworms today. They must like the 60F weather, because there were zero dead in the 1000. And three freshies! (no shell = no chitin)

- I recently discovered that there are mockingbirds here. There is a bird with a particularly annoying and grating squawk. I thought it was a grackle, but it's mockingbirds:

Anyway, I was able to tell what kind of bird it was from one of my iPhone apps. It's been advertised on TV, and it's awesome. You can search a type of bird by location, how often you should expect it at your bird feeder, it's colors, multiple subgroups of its call, and many other qualifiers. And then when you have a bird selected you can see the drawing of it, or some submitted pictures of it. The most awesome part: you can play its song. And if you put the phone on loud you could probably attract one.

- Saffron is a lazy kitty. But a rabbit in the yard finally got her attention after chomping on the clover for a long long time. It must know it's safe. Well, Biscuit at least catches stuff.

hey buddy. what chu munchin on?

Come back! Please? I'm lonely.

- Saffron is a dirty and disgusting animal. She rolls in dirt and doesn't groom herself. Also, she has a skin condition. So that all combines into a short hair cat having a bad mat problem. I've given her a nice bald spot on her back by cutting out some of the worst offenders, but I'm probably not even half done.

- I thought I had 14 fry in my cichlid tank. I count every time I look in the basket, and keep coming up with 13. So, I figured one died. I discovered a rogue in the rocks, who must have escaped during a recent transfer when I was cleaning. So I am back up to 14! Well, was, before I discovered a dead fry in the basket. The other fish on the outside of the box suck the food through the mesh, and he must have gotten in the way. So, back to 13.

- Gravy is doing very well. I think I'll be able to move her into the cat room this weekend, as Biscuit and Gravy are on the verge of starting to play together. When Biscuit isn't too annoyed to, that is.

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