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April 30, 2005

I'm not exactly sure why -

But I kinda like this kid.

He needs a blog, though!

Posted by Beth at 9:03 PM | Comments (1)

bobble heads

As you likely know, both John and I have been under the weather all week - me for nearly two weeks now. I am healthier than John at the moment, and this morning, I got up and dressed to run a few errands - we were out of laundry detergent and I have a ton of laundry - at least a ton!

So, I went to the local Wal Mart and then to Home Depot and bought those things I needed. On my way home, a little old lady was driving a big old Buick with about 35 bobble headed dogs in her back window - and they were so funny, I just had to laugh.

So now, I want some bobble headed things for my car. I'm thinking maybe the horses.

I was amazed to find that there is a Martin Luther bobblehead doll, a Jesus bobble head and pope bobble heads.

Apparently nothing is sacred and free from bobbleheadom these days.

Posted by Beth at 8:40 PM | Comments (3)

Baby Charlotte

Please, go and read about Charlotte, a baby girl in England who's parents may have to go to court to bring her home. You should read her biography.


If you can donate a bit to help her parents purchase the medical equipment she needs, click here.

It becomes more obvious every day that any handicapped person is at risk of not being allowed to get treatment - because they might suffer (according to the 'do-gooders' who think they can determine your quality of life and if it is worth living).

Posted by Beth at 7:22 PM

hmm

I am:
90%
Republican.
"You listen to a lot of AM talk radio, don't you?"

Are You A Republican?

Posted by Beth at 3:37 PM | Comments (2)

April 29, 2005

I am now a Virtual Associate!

As of 6:00 pm today, I work out of our home - well, anyway, when I am not traveling, I'll get to work at home!

I have been begging my bosses for this for several years. Finally, I get to do this.

I am so happy - maybe now I'll be able to keep the house in better shape - I'll save 2 hours a day that I spend commuting now.

Posted by Beth at 8:57 PM | Comments (4)

April 28, 2005

Musical Tastes

This seems about right for me -

Your Taste in Music:

80's Alternative: High Influence
90's Alternative: High Influence
90's Rock: High Influence
Progressive Rock: High Influence
80's Pop: Medium Influence
90's Pop: Medium Influence
Adult Alternative: Medium Influence
Classic Rock: Medium Influence
80's R&B: Low Influence
80's Rock: Low Influence
Country: Low Influence


How's Your Taste in Music?

I got this from CalTechGirl

Posted by Beth at 7:17 AM | Comments (5)

Ugh

What a week. I swear, I put in more hours when I'm not traveling. And I still have a cold. And to make it worse, poor John has it now, too. In fact, he is really sick - maybe I had the flu?

Anyway, CalTechGirl is the best.

She is this week's hostess for the Carnival of the Recipes and she has it all under control!!

Posted by Beth at 6:49 AM

April 26, 2005

New Pope

The more I read about Pope Benedict, the more I like him. I am very pleased that he loves kitties, apparently as much as John and I do - only we adopt all those strays!

Posted by Beth at 12:57 PM | Comments (1)

April 22, 2005

I have SO screwed up!

I completely forgot about the Carnival of the Recipes.

I failed to let poor Bev, taker of beautiful pictures, know about the passwords, where to get the recipes, etc until this morning.

If she can still do it, it will be up sometime this weekend.

If she can't do it, I will push the Carnival hosting dates back one week and I'll put it together.

A Carnival will happen.

Obviously, I need a backup brain. At least when I'm traveling and in New Orleans.

Can I blame it on the drive-thru Daiquiri bars?

I am so sorry.

I will email the world as soon as it is up.

Posted by Beth at 5:47 AM | Comments (7)

April 21, 2005

More mini-linky-love

I woke up at 4:00 am - I do have a cold, darnit! And John is flying here today so we can have some fun in this lovely, crazy city.

Waking up so early isn't all bad - I had time to catch up with some of my favorite bloggers.

Check out e-Claire's post of the Minutemen on our border and how the ACLU just can't stand that those watching our border are calm and responsible - as opposed to the ACLU.

Rosemary has a discussion of where intelligence comes from over at Dean's World. Rosie puts more emphasis on genetic factors than I would. I strongly believe that nurture is as important in IQ as the X chromosome. I truly believe that great parenting makes kids smarter. Heck, Jake Esmay is a very smart young (7 yrs old) man - Rosemary and Dean should give themselves credit for being really great parents.

Joanie wants a picture of your belly!


I better start getting ready for work. See you all later!

Posted by Beth at 6:02 AM | Comments (4)

April 20, 2005

Just in case I have not mentioned this lately

Michael Jackson is a very odd man. He disturbs me. I'm not even sure he is still human - more like a visitor from a planet that got bulldozed or something.

Posted by Beth at 8:48 PM | Comments (3)

Boy, I love New Orleans!

When I got up this morning, I had a scratchy throat - you know, the signal that you are about to have a bad cold. It got no better as the day went on.

One of the guys I'm training said I should just stop at a Daiquiri Drive-thru and get a large frozen daiquiri.

So I got a large frozen Pina Colada. You actually drive up and pay and they hand you a big cup full of whatever frozen alchoholic drink you can think up and you drive off into the sunset.

Now, you can't put a straw in the cup until you get to where you are going - then you would have an open container. (wink wink).

Every town ought to have a drive through frozen Daiquiri place. Every town in every country. People would be so much happier!

And the restaurants! I had dinner at ACME Oyster House last night, and the grilled oysters were out of this world

Posted by Beth at 6:20 PM | Comments (4)

Short Linky-love

This Geocaching thing sounds like fun. I think I'll talk to John about purchasing a Magellen and checking out http://www.geocaching.com/. What a great way to get out of the house and get some exercise!

Today is Rosemary's First Blogoversary - Yay, Rosemary!

Laurence has a great post on Andrew Sullivan's opinion of the new Pope.

VW is starting a new Carnival - Karnival of Kidz

Boudicca has some choice stories about her Dad and his influence on the boys.

I have to get moving now, I will attempt (but no promises) to link to more of my favorite bloggy friends the evening.

Posted by Beth at 5:38 AM | Comments (2)

April 19, 2005

The new Pope

Full Disclosure - I am Catholic. I don't practice Catholicism very well, but I am very much a Catholic.

I am appalled, dismayed and disgusted by all the people in the Blogosphere who are damning the new Pope Benedict because he is not a liberal willing to say that abortion is okay for Catholics. Or, that he doesn't appear to be in favor of female priests. Good Lord - he just got elected Pope today - give him a break, already.

And, by the way - Catholicism is a very old religion - the first Christian religion, and it started with St. Peter. People who don't like the Church's Doctrine can leave any time and join a church that matches their beliefs better. There are plenty of religions out there willing to change what is good and bad to get more adherents - like the Unitarians, and more and more, Episcopalians.

Why is it okay to slam Catholics? Why is it okay to throw fits because the Church is not going to say that homosexual marriage is okay or because the Church (hopefully) will never allow abortion except to save the life of the mother (not the mental health, but the life) or that the Church will never say that sex outside of marriage is okay.

That is the entire point of a religion - to set moral standards - not to change standards to make members feel less guilty.

What many non-Catholics do not understand and do not realize is Catholics understand that we are all sinners. We aim to follow Church doctrine, but if we fail, we can ask for and gain forgiveness through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Lefties, righties, middle of the road people - this is our faith, our religion. You have no right to stomp your feet and tell us that it should be this way or that way.

It's not like Catholics are trying to force the world to follow Sharia law.

So cut it out.

Posted by Beth at 8:49 PM | Comments (9)

This has not been my best week!

Yesterday, I cracked my laptop case. This morning I got up, went out to the car and there is a huge dent in it. It's a rental car. Fortunately, Diner's Club covers any damage, but I'm so irritated that someone would hit it (probably when pulling out of a parking space) and not even leave a note.

And, if John didn't mention it, yesterday, not only did I break my laptop, but when I went to Barnes and Noble to buy another book to read, it ends up that I bought a book I had already read.

And then, Andy sends me an email - he is going to get an apartment or house with two girls for the summer - if he can find a job. He said the way things look, we may have to call him McAndy.

Well, he is 20, after all.

Sigh.

Posted by Beth at 8:07 PM | Comments (3)

I need a tougher laptop

I also need a new laptop backpack. Because the backpack can't close, the laptop flew out onto the parking lot last night.

I cracked the case.

Do you suppose that anyone would notice if I duct tape it together?

Posted by Beth at 7:06 AM | Comments (9)

April 18, 2005

Insomnia Strikes Again!

Sometimes, I have trouble sleeping when I'm away from home. I have a nice room in a nice Hilton Garden Inn - Tammi will verify that they are nice places to stay in.
Last night, the person or persons in the room above me were either doing aerobics or having pretty crazy monkey sex - I tend to think the former rather than the latter from the rhythm of the noise.

Then, I woke up all congested around 3:00 am - finally gave up, turned on the light and played webboggle - to which I am hopelessly addicted.

I don't play it very well at 3:00 am, so I downloaded the newest updates for Ad aware, and ran that and Spy bot. Both claim the laptop is clean, but I have my doubts.

The project manager at this site wants me to move hotels, so I can share my car with someone else. I would not mind this so much, except I don't find out about it until I have already checked in here and unpacked for the week.

I'll have my manager contact him and tell him to leave Beth alone. The hotel room I have is about 1/2 as much as the one they want me to move to - I'm sure the client will not mind paying less for once.

I have pictures to upload and post - maybe tonight.

Posted by Beth at 5:04 AM | Comments (7)

April 16, 2005

Carnival of the Recipes

Countertop Chronicles has posted a wondrous edition of the Carnival of the Recipes - go and read the recipes, then ... cook, eat and drink!

And since I'm home for all of what - 36 hours - this weekend, I won't be able to try out any of the yummy recipes. Dammit!

Posted by Beth at 5:18 PM | Comments (1)

April 14, 2005

Recipes Recipes Recipes

Recipe reminder and announcement!

Get your recipes in to recipe.carnival - at - gmail - dot - com for this week's carnival.

Announcement - Countertop Chronicles will be this week's host.

Posted by Beth at 5:18 AM | Comments (2)

April 12, 2005

New York

I've been quite remiss in posting this week. On Sunday, I flew to Long Island and then drove into Manhattan. It was my first visit to New York City, and I look forward to coming back again and seeing more.

I rode up the two elevators to get to the observation tower on the Empire State Building. That is one beautiful Art Deco building.

And driving in Manhattan was - interesting to say the least. I found myself swerving and racing in between doubleparked cars and keeping up with the taxis. It was wild. I've never seen anything like it before. I even saw a car full of clowns.

I was disappointed to see how much trash is in the streets, though. Everyone puts their trash out on the sidewalks, and no one seems to care if the trash bags break open and crap flies all around.

I took pictures and I probably won't get around to downloading them until I'm home.

I'm working at Stony Brook University Health Sciences Center this week. The building is very interesting. It looks like something out of the future. Actually, it reminds me of the old Woody Allen movie, Sleeper. Remember when Woody Allen was funny? Of course, it's probably been 25 years since he was funny. I'm just showing my age, I guess.

I need to do some work now.

Posted by Beth at 8:18 PM | Comments (5)

April 9, 2005

Big day for Harvey!

Today is the 6th Anniversary of the day that Lorena agreed to put up with Harvey until death do they part.

Actually, Harvey is the bestest, according to Tammi and the others who met him in Florida - the week after and before I was there - bad timing all around!

And I hear that Lorena is just incredible!!!!

Happy Anniversary, you two lovebirds!

Posted by Beth at 8:47 PM | Comments (2)

When I have a hard week at work

This is how I relax.

southparkbeth.JPG

Got this from Romeo Cat

It's fun - go try it!

Posted by Beth at 8:40 PM | Comments (3)

Egads!

I am so far behind. I just spent 2 hours cleaning up 300 comment spams. And I spent the entire day yesterday attempting to get rid of something called webpup32. Nothing, and I mean nothing, has worked - I got it at the hotel in Chicago - as soon as I connected to the network there, I started getting popups and my computer came to nearly a standstill. I must have picked up 100 browser hijackers and other bugs - my virus scans didn't see anything, so I ran SpyBot, Adaware, and about 6 other spy removal softare packages.
I'm down to this one - and it is absolutely making me crazy trying to get rid of it.

Anyway, Amanda, our Down Under friend, has produced a gorgeous Carnival of the Recipes - beautiful!

Unfortunately, our host for next week, Conservative Friends, was hacked and hijacked. Go over there and send Drew a note about how much we would like the site back!

I have someone in mind who I will ask first about hosting the carnival on the 15th because I left her out on my list accidentally - this travel is causing me some headaches with keeping track of everything.

Oh, and good news - my boss called me yesterday and said I can be a virtual associate - that means that I won't have to make the commute to our office when I am in town! I have wanted to be virtual for several years, and finally, I have my chance - this might mean I'll be able to keep up with the laundry and cleaning - it will give me back 2 hours a day that I used to spend commuting.

I'll have to have a phone line installed and I need to buy a decent desk - the one I have was a cheapie Walmart desk that I can barely fit anything on.

Whoo hoo!

I have to get beautified today - time for color and a cut.

Maybe I'll get some highlights, too.

Posted by Beth at 9:39 AM | Comments (7)

April 6, 2005

Chicago, Day 2

I have so much work to do that I don't really have time to eat out anywhere farther than the pizza joint down the street!

John and I will come here and visit and see David and Teresa and Blackfive when I'm not attached to my pc - this is just a weird client and a weird week!

Posted by Beth at 5:56 AM | Comments (4)

April 4, 2005

Chicago

I'm in Chicago for a few days, and I'm even staying in a downtown hotel - I can see Nordstroms from one side of the building and Bloomingdales from the other side!

I think I might have to limit John to an allowance of a buck two fifty this week.

I want to shop!!!!!!!!

Posted by Beth at 10:51 PM | Comments (8)

Blogroll

Aaron (formerly of Aaron's Rantblog, Aaron the Liberal Slayer) is back in business - his current blog is called Aaron's cc: I'm glad he is back!

Posted by Beth at 7:06 AM | Comments (1)

April 1, 2005

Home today!

I go home today. This has been an interesting week at work - and I'll be back here again.

I did a little shopping, and because I bought some books that will probably put me over the weight limit for my suitcase, I had to go buy another one last night - so I can divide up my stuff and not be penalized by the airline.

Must get packed!

Posted by Beth at 6:16 AM

Happy Birthday, Andy!

Yesterday was Andy's 20th birthday. With all the sadness going on yesterday with the death of Terri Schiavo, I did not blog Andy's birthday. So I'll blog it today!

Andy is a wonderful young man. I am very proud of him. He is funny and smart and loving. He is also a very talented writer and is on his way to being a talented programmer. No one could have a better son.

I'm a bit perturbed that the Mrs. Field's Cookies Birthday Brownie did not reach him at the dorm, someone at the dorm signed for it - it was fed-exed.

Hopefully, it will show up and Andy can have his treat soon.

He is at the age where it's very hard to buy gifts for him, so he just gets money anymore, pretty much.

My wishes for Andy are a long and joyful life filled with love and happiness.

Posted by Beth at 6:13 AM | Comments (6)

Prayers

My prayers are for Terri's family today. They can rest assured that they did everything in their power to save their daughter. The responsibility for killing Terri is on the heads of her 'husband', his lawyer and the Florida legislature, which allows doctors to kill patients by removing nourishment and fluids.

My Prayers are also with the Pope. The TV coverage of his illness is odd - the talking heads (on all channels, even FOX) have absolutely no clue as to how the Catholic Church works. They don't understand what a Sacrament is, and their attempts to explain them are close to ridiculous.

Posted by Beth at 6:06 AM