October 2005 | Main | December 2005
November 28, 2005
It's Monday and I have to catch a plane
Let's see - oh, right, I'm on my way to Canton, Ohio this morning. It's for work, not for sightseeing. Gee, it is so hard to get back into the work thing after a nice Thanksgiving!
Posted by Beth at 4:01 AM | Comments (2)
November 27, 2005
Bar Stuff
Okay, to continue with me attempt to earn some Christmas money, let's talk about bar stuff.
The best corkscrew we have found is the Rabbit
Shooters
I really like our Smoothie Maker
Also, various bar glasses are good - I love these big goblets
I also like these Pilsners
Posted by Beth at 10:16 AM | Comments (7)
Allan is changing his look
You might want to stop by and check out Allan's new look. I'm waiting for him to post a picture of Ali, too.
Posted by Beth at 10:01 AM
November 26, 2005
More on Kitchen Appliances (small ones)
Everyone ought to have a bread machine. I have the Ultimate Bread Machine
Whatever bread machine you get, be sure that it will make 1, 1 1/2 and 2 pound loaves. The best recipes I have found are from the internet - chocolate bread, onion cheese bread, and more. I bought some bread machine cookbooks, but when I want to make bread, I turn to Google to find some interesting recipes.
I gotta tell you, I have a Cuisinart Food Processor
Did I ever mention that once upon a time I managed a small appliance repair shop? It's been about 20 or 21 years, but I can tell you that some brands were and still are (because the engineering has not changed)cheap. They break a lot.
Cuisinart can handle a lot of stress.
I almost forgot the coffee maker. Oh, gosh. We love our coffee maker. We have had many different brands through the years, but this Capresso
I love it, love it, love it.
Everyone needs a toaster, but I've never really found one that toasts really evenly. So I have no recommendations there.
Okay, that's it for kitchen appliances - later I'll tell you what I think of knives, and more importantly, bar supplies!
Posted by Beth at 5:59 PM | Comments (7)
Thank you, Amy!
Prochien Amy is one of the nicest, kindest, most generous artisitic people around.
Amy redesigned my blog some months ago, and now she has added a rotating banner - so everytime you come to my blog, you can see different critters!
I love it!
Posted by Beth at 5:09 PM | Comments (2)
Blatant attempt to earn some Christmas Money!
Ann Althouse, Instapundit, and many others are schilling for Amazon - I think I have made 93 cents in the past 6 months by linking to Amazon.com, and frankly, dear readers, that doesn't even buy me a comic book!
If you click on one of these links and actually buy something, I will get maybe another 4 or 5 cents, so by the year 2010, I might have enough money to buy this book
With 8 cats and 3 dogs, we have a very hairy house. John and I have destroyed some very high-priced vacuum cleaners at the rate of about one per year. we now have a solution for our hardwood floors - Roomba
Now, for our carpeted bedroom and the kitchen floor (unfortunately carpeted), and the carpeted staircase and walls and ceilings, I love my Dyson
Please note that I did NOT purchase the animal Dyson vacuum - the only difference is the turbo-thingy
Okay, let us look at some cool kitchen appliances that I cannot live without:
1. My Kitchenaid
I'm hoping to get some attachments for my Kitchenaid this Christmas - maybe the food grinder
2. My second favorite appliance is my Braun Hand Blender
I will continue with more later - I really have to go decorate my arbor with Christmas lights now.
Posted by Beth at 2:00 PM | Comments (9)
November 25, 2005
Time to feed the birdies!
I love nature. This time of year, I start putting out sunflower seeds for the birds. I have 5 seed feeders and one suet feeder (I need to get a block to put in that one).
All the feeders are situated in the front of the house - just outside my office window. So when I am actually home, I can look out and watch the birds and see if anyone new is coming to the Donovan Cafe for Birds.
I'm happy to report that I just saw a House Finch - not terribly common in our part of the country. He is a pretty thing - deep red breast and back - here is the USGS picture of one.
I would love to figure out how to take pictures of our feathered visitors, but the window has kitty nose prints all over it - they also enjoy watching the birds eat, for some unknown reason...
Posted by Beth at 12:20 PM | Comments (3)
November 23, 2005
I can't believe how much I've been working
I think I have to learn to say "NO!" I was hoping this would be an easy, pleasant week working from home, but I have been deluged by requests from clients and boss.
I find myself getting up at 5 am (well, the cats make me get up then, really), making some very strong coffee and then getting on line and working on these requests for my clients.
There is not enough time in the day!
Yesterday, I put in what - 14 hours?
Andy and one of his roommates are coming home tonight, and I still have to get groceries, vaccuum, dust and do laundry.
But I have 3 conference calls today and I have got to figure out how to take a bunch of data I have and create a database for it that I can run reports from.
Ugh.
I am a workaholic.
I need another cup of coffee!
Technorati Tag: work
Posted by Beth at 5:31 AM | Comments (9)
November 21, 2005
If only ...
The Fairy Princess
You are youthful, cheery, and exuberant with a
sunny disposition and a mischievous sense of
humor. You are very lively and are always up
for a good bit of fun. You have a deep love of
nature and animals.
Role Model: Titania
You are most likely to: Convert a pumpkin into a
useful mode of transportation.
What Kind of Princess are You? - Beautiful Artwork (Original Music is BACK!!!)
brought to you by Quizilla
Thanks to CalTechGirl !
The woman always finds fun stuff.
Posted by Beth at 2:34 PM | Comments (7)
ugh
Okay, so there is this OSMPajamas Media thing now. I guess it will separate those of us who blog for fun, as a hobby and those who wish to use blogging as extra income.
I'm pretty noncommittal about the whole thing. I'm sure that my low stats will fall even lower because I frankly don't care enough about them to spend more precious time blogging and trying to be clever.
I have met a lot of really great people blogging. I hope that John and I will continue to be able to meet other bloggers, but I wonder if the now professional bloggers will lower themselves to meet those of us who are amateurs.
I fully expect that they will all blogroll each other and delete those of us who don't have the time or self-interest to be professional bloggers.
Maybe they should not be called bloggers anymore?
Maybe they should be called advertisements with some opinionated commentary?
I hope they all do well. I suspect that this is the beginning of the end of blogging, though.
Posted by Beth at 7:53 AM | Comments (12)
November 19, 2005
Blogging news
Wow, Aaron just had his 1,000,000 visitor! That is ONE MILLION!
Congrats, Aaron!
In about 10 years I might hit that!
Posted by Beth at 7:45 AM | Comments (1)
November 18, 2005
What the Move On crowd won't tell you
The economy is booming so much that many States are running huge surpluses in tax revenues and many are considering tax cuts!
Three years of strong revenue growth have left many states with large surpluses. New Mexico is looking at a $1 billion surplus. Florida expects more than $3 billion.Even financially troubled California took in $3.4 billion more than it spent in the budget year that ended June 30 — the state's first surplus since 2000. California's deficit was erased by a 13.2% revenue increase.
And that quote is from USA Today - not exactly a paper prone to pointing out good things.
So, President Bush - brag about this! Tell one and all that your tax cuts have stimulated growth (and tax growth) so much that even California is running a surplus!
Posted by Beth at 6:02 AM | Comments (5)
It's been a week ...
It has been a very long week. Things have not gone as well as they normally do because of some technical difficulties.
I will be so glad to get home tonight!
By the way, I'm all for the mom who had her kid wear a sign in public admitting that she didn't do homework and talked back to teachers. Apparently it worked - the kid is behaving.
Needless to say, child development experts everywhere are screaming that the mom has psychologically harmed the child by humiliating her.
I'm sorry, but sometimes humiliation is necessary to get a kid to behave. I have had psychologist and social worker friends who have been so afraid of messing their kids up by publicly correcting them that the kids are just a mess.
Too bad more parents don't care enough about their kids when they get in trouble at school by disciplining them.
Technorati tags:
Oklahoma
Mom
sign
daughter
Posted by Beth at 5:13 AM | Comments (3)
It's been a week ...
It has been a very long week. Things have not gone as well as they normally do because of some technical difficulties.
I will be so glad to get home tonight!
By the way, I'm all for the mom who had her kid wear a sign in public admitting that she didn't do homework and talked back to teachers. Apparently it worked - the kid is behaving.
Needless to say, child development experts everywhere are screaming that the mom has psychologically harmed the child by humiliating her.
I'm sorry, but sometimes humiliation is necessary to get a kid to behave. I have had psychologist and social worker friends who have been so afraid of messing their kids up by publicly correcting them that the kids are just a mess.
Too bad more parents don't care enough about their kids when they get in trouble at school by disciplining them.
Posted by Beth at 5:13 AM
November 17, 2005
Political bullshit
Former president Clinton is behaving badly. So are Senators Kerry, Pelosi and many other Democrats.
To me, it appears the Democrat Party has been taken over by the Move On people - they have lost all semblance of normalcy. They all appear to be flat out loons.
Nuts they are.
Nuts.
Posted by Beth at 6:08 AM | Comments (2)
Is yelling ever acceptable at work?
Currently, I have a nice Team Lead at work and a nice Manager. They are respectful to me and truly listen to me when I have a worry or a suggestion.
My previous Team Lead (who is now in a different part of the company) was a terrible boss. He yelled at me - actually raised his voice (which I find completely unacceptable in business) because I disagreed with him on an issue.
I am a member of Tech Republic because I do techie kinda stuff. Currently, there is a discussion going on there about when it might be appropriate to yell at co-workers or employees.
I cannot believe that these folks are even discussing the possibility of yelling as acceptable business behaviour. I was shocked when my last Team Lead yelled at me.
My feeling is that bosses should always treat people with civility. There is never any reason for raising one's voice in the business world unless you are warning someone of an impending disaster - like a tree is falling over on the employee.
Apparently, many people think it is just fine and dandy to yell at people - in front of other people.
So, tell me - you who are in management - do you yell at people at work?
Posted by Beth at 5:08 AM | Comments (13)
November 15, 2005
this week
This has been an interesting week so far. I flew into Baltimore and drove to Silver Spring, Maryland on Sunday. One of the Castle Argghhh! Denizens, Boquisucio, and his lovely and talented wife, Kathy, took me out to dinner.
We went to a Salvadorean restaurant and had a really good meal and a lot of very entertaining conversation. They are the proud parents of a cockatiel, Mikey, who believes he is a human. Boquisucio should start his own blog, by the way - he's funny and smart, as is his wife.
Then yesterday - oh gosh - the system admin made a UID change for a system user and broke everything that I had previously installed. So I'm almost starting from scratch.
I did actually get through the entire 45 minutes yoga video last night - so all was not lost. Now, if I could just do my yoga every evening I'm here - I'll be happy.
Posted by Beth at 5:32 AM | Comments (5)
November 12, 2005
Leafy leafy leafy
Well, Fall has fallen here in Leavenworth - and all within about 5 days. We have leaves in our front yard that are already about 15 inches deep. We love our trees, indeed we do. But ... this time of year, they make quite the mess. And what is even worse is that all the trees in the entire neighborhood are apparently aiming at my front yard.
I started to rake, but it is so windy today that I was getting nowhere. Besides, I fly to D.C. tomorrow and won't be back until next Friday - maybe by then the Leaf Fairy will come and clean up the yard.
I have not been a total slug, though. I filled my 5 birdfeeders and I've put away clothes. But, I should be doing a bit more. So I'll go now, and attempt to assuage my very Catholic guilt for having a messy house!
Posted by Beth at 2:22 PM | Comments (4)
well, durn it
I had this nice post written about where we went last night to see this comedian and this comedian and how much fun we had and how nice it was. But as sometimes happens, my browser went blip and I lost it all, and I'm not about to repeat the whole durn thing.
So there.
Posted by Beth at 9:40 AM | Comments (2)
November 11, 2005
Have a laugh or two or three
Ellison has an ode to the alphabet that must be read.
Punctilious has a few worthwhile observations here and here and here.
Posted by Beth at 8:13 AM
November 9, 2005
Finally!
John comes back home tomorrow - we will get to spend Friday, Saturday and oh, half of Sunday together before I fly off to Washington D.C.
So, Bosq - do you wanna have a drink and dinner next week?
Then there is a chance that I will go directly from DC to Grand Rapids for a weekend upgrade - still waiting to hear on that one. But I will be home the entire week of Thankgiving - yay!
I've spent much of this week trying to make myself a place in the mudroom for fiddling around with my stained glass stuff and other artsy things, and for John to have room to mess around with his stuff, too. We have a huge basement, but the finished part is pretty much the Armory and the unfinished part is dark and dreary and not a place I like to hang out doing stuff in.
I did this once before, but with all my traveling, the workbench got stacked up with all kinds of stuff and became completely unusable. So... I bought some heavy duty Velcro and put some strips on the walls, and I am putting velcro on all the tools that laying all over the house - we both have a bad habit of getting tool out and using it and then just putting it in the nearest drawer or on the nearest shelf or table. Needless to say, because we can never remember where we put things, we end up running out and buying what we need quite often.
As a result of our disorganisation, we now have duplicates of many tools and triplicates and more of a lot of tools.
I don't know if we will be any better at putting things away since we just have to stick them on the wall, but it is definitely worth the try.
Posted by Beth at 8:48 PM | Comments (1)
More about Cats
I admit that I have been behind in blogbrowsing for the past 6 months or so, but darn, I can't believe I missed Gigolo Kitty! Wow, I love this blog!
I especially like Gigolo Kitty's letter to Santa. I will have to read all the archives so I don't miss anything about Gigolo Kitty.
Posted by Beth at 11:49 AM | Comments (1)
Cat Stories, Part 1
Back in 1994, John was driving from Oklahoma to Leavenworth for a conference. He stopped at a rest stop just outside of Ottowa, Kansas and a kitten followed him from the car to the restroom. The kitten apparently liked John, because he waited outside the restroom door for him. Then he showed John just how talented and smart a kitty he was by chasing, catching and eating a june bug. yech.
John checked with some of the truckers who were at the rest stop, and they told him the kitten had been there all day long, so he put the cat in his truck and went on his way.
Back then, John and I were dating. I lived in Olathe, Kansas (Olathe is Shawnee Indian for Garage Sale, by the way) and my house was on his way to Ft. Leavenworth. John knew I was a critter lover, as I had two dogs at the time.
He was pretty smart about it - John called me from a pay phone and did not ask me if I wanted the kitten, but explained the situation and said he was going to take the kitten to the Ft. Leavenworth veterinarian and let the vet find a home for him. I am a sucker for critters, and I told him that I'd take the poor kitty. What he didn't tell me was that he had already stopped at the grocery store and had purchased kitty litter, a litter box and kitty food already, or that he was just a couple miles from my house.
So John brought the kitten over, named him RestStop and I had a new critter.
RestStop was petrified of my Golden Retriever and my Black Labrador Retriever puppy and spent his first two weeks wih me in the rafters of the basement.
Since then, he has learned to get along just fine with dogs. In fact, he has even come to Houdini's rescue when Whiskey was going after him.
And he does have nice hair, Jim!
Posted by Beth at 7:12 AM | Comments (2)
November 8, 2005
Cat stuff
With 8 cats, kitty litter changing is extremely important. I try to scoop all 6 litter boxes each day, and once a week, I change the litter completely.
I swear, every single cat wants to be the first to christen the new litter each week. Hal usually wins out. In fact, he manages to pee a little bit in every single litter box as I clean them.
I think he is trying to be the alpha cat. He doesn't seem to realize that Little Girl is the alpha cat and Empress of Dark.
Oh, and RestStop came to Houdini's rescue the other day. (Houdini is the troublemaking dog). Whiskey was having a bit of an altercation with Houdini, and RestStop ran to the fight and started hissing and biting Whiskey. (who is about twice Houdini's size).
This was a first - and RestStop is something of a slug most of the time - he normally just sleeps, eats and gets plumper.
Need to get to work!
Posted by Beth at 7:51 AM | Comments (10)
November 7, 2005
We cats are bad, bad, bad
But it was all really mom's fault. She didna give us our din din at 5:00 pm sharp.
We warned her plenty. We warned her from noon and so on.
Mom did not leave her computer until 5:15! And we were not happy kitties. Especially when she went out the door and got in that funny looking thing that takes us to get shots and she went away.
We was plenty mad.
So we knocked over her very favorite hand thrown pottery casserole. It broke into a whole lot of pieces. Pieces of pottery everywhere.
Annie tried to cover them up, but her invisible dirt didn't work this time.
Oh, we cats are gonna be in trouble!
Posted by at 6:44 PM | Comments (2)
Oh Crap
Oh, damn. I have dreaded this moment.
People from California are moving here. To the midwest - the Great Fly Over states that the Coasters love to mock.
GO AWAY! There is nothing to see here. Don't come here and raise housing prices.
Don't move here and tell us that we should live like you did on the Coasts.
I like it the way it is - the fewer people here the better!
But if you insist upon moving into the middle of the country, please, don't pay more for the house you want to buy than the asking price - that will screw up housing here for the rest of us.
From the New York Times:
Source
Today, the most popular destinations for people moving from Los Angeles and San Francisco are less expensive parts of California, like Riverside and Sacramento. Las Vegas and Phoenix also remain near the top of the list, but Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Nashville, Virginia Beach and Oklahoma City are becoming popular, according to Economy.com.In the Kansas City area, which straddles Missouri and Kansas, a small band of Californians are discovering the plentiful supply of spacious homes for prices that would not buy a shack back where they came from.
"They just walk in and go 'Wow, we can have space,' " said Sandy Tasker, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker in Overland Park, Kan.
According to I.R.S. data, the net population transfer to Missouri from California more than tripled, to about 2,200, from 2001 to 2004.
Guadalupe Osegueda, a 34-year-old ironworker who grew up in Los Angeles, recently chose Kansas City over the desert cities that have traditionally drawn Californians.
"I didn't want to go to Las Vegas or Arizona," said Mr. Osegueda, who lives with his fiancée and their two daughters. "Everyone is going there and the prices have gone up drastically."
The couple sold a three-bedroom house near Los Angeles for $450,000. They bought a four-bedroom house, with two kitchens and a swimming pool, for $185,000 in Gladstone, Mo., near Kansas City.
Posted by Beth at 6:53 AM | Comments (13)
November 6, 2005
ok - what is this about?
someone pings my post on tornadoes from his/her post - so I look to see what he linked with - nothing - there is no link - the person just pinged to pick up traffic.
And to make it worse, he links to someone who purports to have a photo of the tornado, only it is not his picture, he hotlinks to a weather site and it is not the terrible tornado of last night.
Folks - if you want to link to me, fine, but if I don't see a link attached to your ping, I will put your blog on my blacklist and delete the ping.
Understood?
good.
Posted by Beth at 10:30 AM | Comments (3)
Tornadoes
What an awful tornado in Indiana and Kentucky! The TV news channels are reporting the heck out of it.
However, the ignorance of the East Coast news readers as they talk to police and hospitals is very evident.
I have heard several of them ask how people could have been caught in their homes in a tornado - didn't they get any warning?
As someone who has lived in Tornado Alley her entire life - the only people who should leave their homes in a Tornado are people who live in mobile homes.
The rest of us are safer going to a safe room in the house - in our case, we have a room with no windows in the basement - it is a cinderblock room and happens to have a bathroom in it.
The entire house could come down around us, and we would most likely survive in that room.
For those without basements, a closet or bathroom with no windows on the lowest floor is the safest place to go.
Getting into a car when there is a tornado siren is idiotic - if you are outside, take cover in a low area and protect your head.
If you live in a mobile home court, you should have a community tornado shelter that you should get to as soon as possible.
Tornadoes can occur any time of the year. I recall a particularly nasty tornado in the suburbs of St. Louis when I was a kid. It was January 24th - and it was an F4 tornado. I remember it because my parent's anniversary was the next day and because my cousin's house lost its roof in the tornado. 3 people died and well over 100 were injured.
Tornadoes do not search out mobile home parks, despite the fact that it seems so. It's just that trailers are very susceptible to wind damage.
Posted by Beth at 9:16 AM | Comments (11)
Crafty suggestions needed
Okay, my crafty friends - what do I do with these Holy Cards that belonged to my Grandmother? They are all over 100 years old, and they are in great condition, even after being stuffed in a cardboard box for years.
I scanned them and you can see them in the extended entry.
Thanks for any suggestions!
Posted by Beth at 8:45 AM | Comments (8)
November 5, 2005
Exploring my past in an old cardboard box
With John in Georgia, I thought I'd do some things here at home that I don't seem to have time for when he is here.
I have had an old cardboard box stuffed full of pictures and papers since my mom died in 1986. She had it before me. I recently realized that I ought to start scanning and saving those pictures before they are lost forever, so I sat down and started going through them all.
There are pictures of my sister and I when we were little, pictures of Mom when she was little, and pictures of other relatives, too.
I also found First Communion Holy Cards going back to 1904. For those of you who are not Catholic, I should probably explain about that tradition.
When a child makes his or her First Holy Communion, it was traditional for each child to give out Holy Cards to all the other children making their First Communion. Assorted relatives, nuns and priests would also present children with Holy Cards for other occasions, like winning a spelling bee, etc.
Anyway, these are absolutely incredibly beautiful cards - pierced paper, gilt, some in German (my grandmother's maiden name was Mangold - I think her parents might have been immigrants - don't know for sure.)
Now, I need to figure out what to do with them. I think they would look lovely matted and framed - matted on a dark background to bring out the pierced paper.
Any suggestions?
Posted by Beth at 7:04 PM | Comments (3)
The French Mess
What a mess is France these days! Is this their just deserts for ghettoizing African-Muslim immigrants? Or should the immigrants get all the blame?
Actually, I think that both are at fault. The French government has placed all these immigrants into Pruitt-Igo
And these people have no police protection - so gangs can grow and take over the areas.
It does appear that some French Muslims are appalled at the situation and are trying to calm the uneasy waters. On the other hand, it seems that the riots are well-organized and are spreading to other cities in France and even to Belgium and Denmark!)
The riots, in my humble and non-academic opinion, are a direct result of multiculturalism. When a country allows immigrants to become citizens, it is of the utmost importance that they be integrated into the general population - learn to speak the host country's language and learn to accept the host country's laws - especially those laws relating to women.
Posted by Beth at 2:40 PM | Comments (1)
Pirates!
Holy Cow! Pirates attacked a cruise ship today in the waters off of the Seychelles. I just saw it on Fox News.
The Cruise ship was able to outrun them, but I have to wonder who these pirates are and what are they after - and are they really pirates or are they terrorists?
Posted by Beth at 12:37 PM
A good time was had by all
I really love meeting other bloggers. I am luckier than most because I travel so much anyway, and that gives me more opportunities to meet other folks. In fact, I need to make a new blogroll - that lists all the bloggers I have met in person. That list is getting longer all the time!
I do apologize for taking a full week to finish this post, by the way. I have a very bad habit of procrastinating. A lot. Often.
This past weekend, John and I went to Straight White Guy's blogfest. Eric and his lovely, friendly, sweet, incredibly patient wife, Fiona, were wonderful hosts. They have a lovely home in Eastern Tennessee - a gorgeous, huge backyard with a huge deck and lots of trees - and a patio out in the yard, too - they even have a fire pit! And two cats - but we only got to meet one, Fred. Ginger is too shy to make an appearance among strangers, and believe me, we were all pretty strange.
John and I didn't get there until a bit afternoon of the blogfest, so we missed going to the range with the guys and/or antiquing with Army Wife, Toddler Mom (who made the 9 hour drive from Arkansas!!!). We missed meeting Key Monroe - darn it - I so wanted to meet Key!
Speaking of Army Wife - this woman is drop dead gorgeous - she is in great shape (you would never guess she has kids!) and has great hair and a great personality on top of it all. She's got more energy than I've ever had. Or at least more than I ever remember having!
I was absolutely thrilled to meet Denny (Grouchy Old Cripple), as I have been reading his blog for as long as I have been blogging. Since he retired, he's not nearly as grouchy as he used to be. And ... he plays guitar just beautifully. I love his finger-picking, and luckier still, he has a very nice voice. Here is a picture of Denny and Jim of Parkway Rest Stop as they serenaded thier adoring fans.
And Jim is super smart and super funny and has great hair and really sings nicely!:
Actually, Jim, Denny and John all have great hair. (which reminds me - last night I dreamt that John had hair down to his waist and he looked ridiculous - and if you know John, you know just how ludicrous that dream was!)
We finally got to meet Matt. We have been trying to get together with him (and Eric) for gosh - two years?
Oh, and we met Redneck - he's kinda cute, too.
Oddly, I seem to have taken tons and tons of pictures of Harvey and his lovely wife, TNT (boy, she is one buff chick!). I don't know if it was just coincidental that they seemed to be everywhere, or if they really were everywhere at once. TNT and Harvey are very lovey dovey with each other - it's so sweet! They asked that I don't publish their pictures, so I won't - except for the back of the head of Mrs. Bad Example as she sings along with Jim and Denny and Eric.
Tammi, as always, was stupendous. I really want some of her energy. I've never known anyone who is so much fun to be around - even when she is around old fogies like John and I! Tammi is one of those all too rare women who make you feel like you have known her forever. I'd tell her all my secrets!
I met a true Princess, also - Princess Cat. She looks just like Gina Davis only younger and prettier. Oh, to be young and pretty again! (yeah, once upon a time, I was a looker)
And Sissy, what a sweetie! She has the most brillient blue eyes ever! Again, I don't have permission to post pictures of her, so you must use your imagination.
Sissie came all the way from Arizona - that's dedication to her blogfriends!
That 1 Guy is a hoot, also. Unlike the unpictured chicken shits aboveT1G said it was okay for his pic to be up - so here he is - I think he's a great guy to hang out with - especially if you need protection in a bad part of town. 
Boudicca and her sister also made an appearence at the blog meet. Smart, smart, smart women, those two - and very pretty, too - every guy there made mention of their now legendary beauty.
Zonker is a hoot. He was on his cellphone a lot - talking to more important bloggers, I think. He's the guy outside the door on the phone behind the flowers:
I wish I had spent more time talking to him - I really like his sense of humour.
Oh, and Johnny O is just the cutest, nicest guy around. Hope he doesn't mind - here is his picture, so all you young women can oogle him. Hmmm. I shoulda taken a picture of his butt. It's cute, too.
Not that I would know at my advanced age!
John, my love, of course, had a great time. Even if he was giving me funny looks:
There are more pictures below...
I forgot to mention that many stars from that hit movie about penguins were at the party:
Posted by Beth at 12:31 PM | Comments (12)
November 4, 2005
sigh
I just learned that one of my clients passed away yesterday. I worked with him a lot over the past 3 years or so, and I am really saddened.
Terry was a real challenge when it came to teaching him about stuff. He would ask questions that no one else ever thought of - probably because he was an old mainframe guy now using UNIX. He had a very wry sense of humour and I loved going to see him to work with him.
He was just about a year from retirement, and he became ill a couple of months ago.
Damn. Live life, don't wait for retirement to do those things you want to do!
Posted by Beth at 10:59 AM | Comments (2)
November 3, 2005
heh
Posted by Beth at 1:10 PM
November 2, 2005
My Opinion
Democrats are sounding like whiney children. Harry Reid stomps his foot and takes the Senate into a closed hearing. And apparently, there was nothing - nothing discussed that had anything to do with National Security.
I guess the Democrats are saddened that President Bush has not resigned because one person in his administration has been indicted - not convicted, but indicted.
Ummm, hate to suggest this - but President Clinton didn't resign (nor did anyone suggest he must) back when his administration was being riddled with indictments.
Oh, and apparently the Dems have forgotten who was President in 1998 - the whole WMD thing did *not* start with President Bush. Glenn Reynolds has a great article here - go read it.
Oh, oh, oh - don't forget about Prince Charles telling Americans how we should do things.
Prince Charles to Explain Islam to American PublicSource
Prince Charles of Wales will explain the virtues of Islam to the US President, George W. Bush, and the American people this week.According to British daily Sunday Telegraph, Prince Charles thinks the United States has been too "intolerant" of Islam since 11 September 2001.
During his eight-day visit, Prince Charles will try to convince Bush about the merits of Islam and attend some conferences on religions at various platforms.
The Prince of Wales had expressed his concerns earlier regarding Washington's "confrontational" approach to Muslim countries and its failure to understand the strength of Islam.
He came together with senior Muslims in London following the September 11 attacks and said, "I find the language and rhetoric coming from America too confrontational."
Goodness, we wouldn't want to confront this or this or this or this now, would we?
And a future English king (whose birth earns him riches and title - not a thing that he has done for the world) can hardly be a spokesman for religious tolerance. After all, English law allows the monarchy to belong to any religion, but Catholicism:
that all and every person and persons that then were, or afterwards should be reconciled to, or shall hold communion with the see or Church of Rome, or should profess the popish religion, or marry a papist, should be excluded, and are by that Act made for ever incapable to inherit, possess, or enjoy the Crown and government of this realm, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, or any part of the same, or to have, use, or exercise any regal power, authority, or jurisdiction within the same: and in all and every such case and cases the people of these realms shall be and are thereby absolved of their allegiance: and that the said Crown and government shall from time to time descend to and be enjoyed by such person or persons, being Protestants, as should have inherited and enjoyed the same, in case the said person or persons, so reconciled, holding communion, professing or marrying, as aforesaid, were naturally deadSource
Posted by Beth at 8:01 AM | Comments (6)
November 1, 2005
Tons of things to blog about
But I'll start with last Thursday. I had to change planes on my way home from Boston at Chicago, Midway. Flying Southwest, I was in the "A" line, patiently waiting to board.
As sometimes happens, the gate changed. I bent over to pick up my backpack and I was very nearly knocked over by this guy - who shoved me out of his way so he could be ahead of me in the line at the new gate.
I called him out on it - when I recovered my balance and ended up just a few people behind this absolute jerk, I said, rather loudly, " So, do you get a big kick out of pushing 52 year-old women around?".
For some odd reason, he didn't reply, and refused to turn around.
Posted by Beth at 9:16 PM | Comments (13)