Gen cracks me up so easily!

Two hours and $400.00 (with a 10% discount) later, the cats are done with their annual exams. Not sure how long it would take and knowing I couldn’t bring seven cats in all at once, the clinic just set aside a block of time for me, starting at 3pm today.

Wisely, well before appointment time, I had found the carriers (in the garage, ick) and spent some time cleaning them thoroughly. Unwisely, I lost track of time and didn’t even get ready to leave until 5 ’til 3pm.

I decided to start with Spritel and Maggie. They get along and I could fit both of them into a carrier. I found Maggie on the bed and Spritel on the bedroom floor. I picked up Spritel first and carried him out to the dining room where the carrier was waiting. When I returned to the bedroom, Maggie was nowhere in sight. She’d apparently heard the carrier door opening and closing and knew it didn’t bode well. I finally had to call Dale down to help me flush her out from under the bed, then I had to keep Spritel in the carrier while Dale put Maggie inside. I hauled the heavy carrier out to the car and we were off. Fortunately, we live only about a mile from the vet so we weren’t overly late.

After Spritel and Maggie were done, I went home and loaded up Bailey and L.B., this time in separate carriers. Dale helped me load them into the car. L.B. yowled loudly all the way to the vet. Another ‘fortunately,’ the clinic was holding the same room for me, so I just had to let them know I was back and I could head right into it. I had to make two trips to get both cats into the clinic because there’s no way I could manage both carriers at once.

Dale helped me unload those two, then we crated up Loki and Velco. This time, Dale was able to go to the vet with me, so we each lugged a cat inside. Dr. Wells took Loki back first. When he returned with Loki, Dale took Loki home to get Pumpkin and Zoë. Dr. Wells finished with Velcro long before Dale returned. I was wondering what was taking so long.

Dale finally showed up with Pumpkin, about 20 minutes later. Poor Pumpkin had freaked out when Dale tried to put him in the carrier, fighting and peeing on the floor before escaping. Dale had to clean up the mess then track down Pumpkin. When he found him, Pumpkin was back to sweet and loving until he caught sight of the carrier. He escaped again. The third time, Dale was able to get him into the carrier.

I figured he’d just not bothered to get Zoë when he suddenly pulled the car keys out of his pocket and said, “oh, go get your dog.” Zoë was her usual spastic self and overjoyed to be at the clinic, such a contrast to all the cats. When Dr. Wells returned to the exam room, he took Zoë next to weigh her (the reason we brought her) then did poor Pumpkin’s exam.

Each cat had the usual wellness exam and rabies and distemper vaccinations. Dale and I opted not to get them the feline leukemia vaccinations since they’re all strictly indoor cats so the odds of them ever contracting it are extremely low. Zoë was weighed because she was at the top end of her recommended weight when she had her annual exam in July. I’d cut back on her food a bit and she’d clearly lost weight, but I wanted to make sure it wasn’t too much. Looks like I did good, because she was down from 52lbs to 47lbs, and Dr. Wells was very pleased with her appearance and enthusiasm.

Overall, all the animals are in excellent health. Dr. Wells said we get the award for the most cats with clean teeth. While all but two of the cats are overweight (and all but two have gained since last year), Dr. Wells said they looked so good and healthy, he wasn’t concerned about their weight.

In addition to the exams and vaccinations, I picked up a 6 month supply of Revolution for Zoë and two bags of rawhide dental chews. The clinic gave up a pill plunger for the cats after I asked about buying one. And they also gave us a 10% multi-cat discount for the visit. The total was still over $400. *whew*

Now we’re all back home and tired. And Dale thinks he got cat pee on himself so he’s gone to shower. I need some Tylenol and a nap.

Oh yeah, I’m still boggled by the cats’ weights. I knew they were plump and I knew some had probably gained a bit since last year. Last year’s heaviest cat (Velcro - 18.6lbs) and smallest cat (Maggie - 8lbs) didn’t gain anything. The other five gained between .8lbs and 2lbs. Spritel went up a whopping 2lbs to 16lbs, passing Pumpkin who was second heaviest last year. We have two cats over 18lbs, Velcro and Loki. All together, the cats more than double the dog’s weight, totaling 101. 2lbs. That’s a lot of cat!

(Cross-posted from the babyblog.)

Here’s the first of many questions for you parental types out there.

Would it be easier to travel with a newborn/infant by using a carseat that locks into a matching stroller base, or just to move the baby from the carseat into a separate stroller?

I like the carseat/stroller base option. It seems to me that if the baby is asleep, it’s simple enough to remove the carseat from the car and put it in the stroller without waking her. Dale thinks it would just be easier to move only the baby.

This afternoon, I found Dale’s computer toolkit and got the needlenose pliers from it. Armed with the pliers and a roll of painter’s tape (to wrap the tips of the pliers), I went out to the car.

Before wrapping the pliers in tape, I tentatively poked at the CD a bit. I wanted to see if I could encourage it to enter. To my surprise, a slight bit of downward pressure caused the little door of the CD player to lower. I applied a bit more pressure, the door dropped, and then the CD was retracted fully into the player. I thought I’d fixed the problem until the display demanded “LOAD CD.”

I pressed the LOAD button and nothing happend. I pressed the EJECT button and it asked me to choose a CD. I pressed 1 and it said “NO CD. CHOOSE A CD.” Then I pressed 2 and it spit out that CD. Then it said “LOAD CD.” I pressed EJECT again and it said “CHOOSE CD,” so I pressed 3. I proceeded to eject all the remaning CDs, except the new Green Day CD. Now all the CD player will say is “LOAD CD.” Somehow, the new CD is lost in the bowels of the car and the CD player refuses to acknowledge it in any form.

When I got back inside, I looked at Dale and said, “the CD isn’t stuck in the opening of the player any more.” He said, “cool, how did you fix it?” I replied, “I didn’t say it was fixed.” He then gave me THE LOOK.

I suck.

I jammed the CD player in the Murano, with a brand-new CD.

It’s a 6 disk player, so Dale removed one of the disks. After I opened the new CD, I tried to insert it. Instead of getting gripped and pulled in, it kind of rolled to the left along the opening. I reached over to steer it back, then it rolled to the right a bit, then suddenly got pulled in. Unfortunately, it didn’t go in all the way. You can still see the edge of it in the opening and the display just says, “PRESS EJECT.” Pressing Eject doesn’t do anything though.

Dale kept giving me crap about “shoving” the CD into the player until I finally yelled, “I didn’t SHOVE it! Jeez, you’re making it sound like I used enough force to snap the CD in half. I know better than to force the CD into the player!”

He finally conceded that I didn’t force the CD since it was further in the player than I could physically reach. It’s just not far enough into the player.

The car manual was no help at all. It gives only basic instructions with no troubleshooting help. Dale said he checked some Murano forums but hasn’t found a solution yet. I don’t know if we should try pushing it in further or use tape-wrapped needlenose pliers to pull it out. And it figures that I can’t find either of the two pairs of needlenose pliers that I own.

I really wanted to listen to the new Green Day CD too.

(This is cross-posted from my baby blog.)

A little while back, Dale and I visited a few baby stores and checked out the crib bedding sets. I took pictures of the sets we liked, then fell in love with one set in particular. Fortunately for me, it turned out to be Dale’s favorite set as well. Today I went back to Baby Depot and bought it. It’s “Blossoms” by Martex, and it looks like this:

In addition to the 4-piece crib set, I picked up the fabric wall decorations and the pair of small throw pillows (one shown on the little chair).

I’ve been occasionally looking at cribs, but I intensified the online search this afternoon. Since I saw it in a Pottery Barn Kids catalog, I’ve really like the Jenny Lind-style spindle crib. Unfortunately, PBK isn’t carrying it any more, and they wanted well over $400 for their antiqued version of it. It took a while of searching before I started to find spindle cribs under $1000. Most of what I saw was in the $450-600 range, but I finally found some as low as $109.

Dale prefers sleigh cribs to spindle cribs, but since he’s not doing any shopping for them, he can suck it up pick from what I find. He also prefers a dark wood finish to the white I want, but I’m more willing to give in there.

After a few hours, I put up a small gallery of cribs that I found that were the style I wanted (plus a couple of other nice styles), attractive, and not outrageously priced. We haven’t finalized our crib choice yet, because we haven’t even decided on a crib budget, but you can feel free to take a look and share your opinions.

Friday, Dale was kept busy with work, on the phone almost continuously from 9:30 am - 5pm. I was bored and restless so I decided to be proactive. I got the current batch of clean laundry folded and put away, packed up our travel bag for the weekend, got Zoë’s stuff together, laid out a set of clean clothes for Dale, pulled up the weeds from the patch of dirt where we needed to plant grass plugs in front of one of the redone flower beds, watered the flowerbeds, then did the dishes and wiped down the counters and stove. By the time I was done, Dale was napping. Guy he’d been talking to had to go do another assignment for his boss, so he said he’d call Dale back in 45 minutes. I woke Dale at 6 and the guy still hadn’t called back, so Dale called it a day. He then went out and dug up my little mountain laurel and I replanted it in a large pot (until we find a better place for it) then he planted the tray of grass plugs, changed the cat litter, showered and dressed, loaded up the car, and we were finally on our way to Houston.

We arrived a little before midnight, tired and bored. I managed to enter the wrong code and set off his mom’s house’s alarm. Fortunately, I got the proper code entered quickly enough so the security people didn’t call or show up. After we unloaded our stuff, since we had the whole house to ourselves and the back yard is pretty private, we decided to go for a midnight skinny dip. We quickly concluded two things: neither of us had ever gone skinny dipping before, and the pool at midnight was FREAKIN’ COLD! It took about 10 minutes for the shivering to stop enough for me to relax and actually swim, but then it felt pretty good. After only 20 or 30 minutes, Dale suggested we go inside because he didn’t want me to drop my body temperature too low, so we called it a night.

Dale had planned to get up a little earlier than usual on Saturday to go to his Uncle Mark’s house (down the street) but we ended up sleeping in. We went to Mark’s with the intention of visiting until about 12:45, because we were supposed to head to Galveston to see some of his Dad’s family, but the guys (Dale, Mark, 6 yr old Race) ended up sucked into Unreal Tournament 2004 (again) so I wasn’t able to get Dale to leave until almost 2, and then we went out to lunch with Mark, Vonna, and Race. They took us to a little hole-in-the-wall diner. The burgers were as great as they’d claimed, and the environment was as hole-in-the-wall as they’d described. I had to use the restroom while we were there and it made me laugh a little. Far from being handicapped-accessible, the bathroom at this place was barely pregnant-woman accessible. You had to walk past the end of the counter, through part of the panty and past the fridge, then through the hot water heater closet, and into this tiny bathroom. At least it served its purpose well.

After lunch, we said ‘bye to the Carters and went off in search of some camera place. Dale had claimed we were already “1/3 of the way there.” 15 minutes later I was complaining and when we scrolled around on the GPS, Dale conceded, “ok, 1/3 of the way, as the crow flies.” Dale wanted to go to this place to buy a filter/lens cover for the new camera. When I asked if he’d confirmed they had it in stock, he admitted it would have been wise but he hadn’t, so I reserved the right to mock him if we’d gone all the way out there and they didn’t have it. Fortunately for Dale, they had it. Unfortunately, I had to be the party pooper again and tell him to stop browsing and just get the items he wanted.

I forgot to mention that while we were at lunch, Dale managed to dribble burger grease down the front of his shirt and onto his shorts, so once we left the camera place, we had to head back to his mom’s house, throw his current clothes in the wash, and get him dressed in another shirt and pants. Then we were finally able to head to Galveston. I think it was about 4:30pm when we left. We’d originally planned to leave Houston at 1pm. *sigh* Even then we didn’t have an easy trip. Once we got on hwy 45, traffic was solid and crawling. We knew the Lone Star Rally (a big motorcycle rally) was taking place in Galveston, because Dale’s dad was going and we going to see him, so I wondered if all that traffic was really caused by the rally. After about 20 minutes, we saw two cars pulled over on the left shoulder with a police car behind them. The hood of the front car was up so we figured it was a breakdown and the rubbernecking of that was the delay. But it didn’t lighten up. Several more miles down the road, we came across the last of a car accident in the right lane. That seemed to be the problem because once we were past that, the traffic loosened up and we made good time.

We didn’t actually go to Galveston. Just before the bridge, we turned off to Tiki Island. Dale’s Aunt Rootie and Uncle Don had moved full-time to their Tiki Island beach house and that was the base of operations for the family gathering taking place. Rootie and Don’s beach house was pretty neat looking. We arrived just in time to say hi, potty, get drinks, lose our socks and shoes, and climb aboard Don’s boat for a ride. It was interesting to essentially step off someone’s back porch onto a boat and then drive off. The ride was fun. I was granted a seat in the back (where there was much less bouncing and splashing and need to hold on for dear life). It was hard to hear anything, so I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. Fortunately, neither motion sickness nor morning sickness bothered me, though halfway through the trip we stopped to refuel the boat and the smell of the gasoline was making my head hurt. On our way back, we stopped to watch a school of dolphins. They would swim almost up to the boat before doing their little leaps. There was a family of four dolphins, including a juvenile, that kept performing these synchronized leaps. They are just so neat to watch!

Though the motion of the boat hadn’t bothered me, I had trouble regaining my ‘land legs’ after we returned. Even sitting down, I felt like things were moving oddly around me. People sat and chatted and snacked and took photos. I grew so tired that Dale finally asked Rootie if there was some place I could lie down. I was directed to a guest room where I ended up dozing for about an hour and a half, missing dinner in the process. With myh ü, I emerged in time to have Rootie pull the just-put-away food right back out of the fridge so that I could have something to eat. After I ate, I rejoined the crowd on the upper deck and got to listen to stories about Rootie and her brother, Hugh, nearly decapitating the boy Rootie had a crush on, and about their other brother, Art (Dale’s dad), setting the family house on fire as a teenager. OK, all that sounds pretty awful but no one was disfigured or seriously injured in either story so they ended up being pretty funny. Near 11pm, the party broke up and Dale and I headed back to his mom’s house. We got home just before midnight and decided to go swimming again. It was MUCH colder this time and we didn’t last 10 minutes.

Sunday we were on a less flexible schedule. After getting up and showering, we went out and picked up some breakfast, then delivered it to Mark and Vonna’s. We sat on their back porch and ate kolaches, then talked until it was time to leave for Race’s first soccer game. He was supposed to be on the field, ready to play, by 12:45pm. We got there about 12:30. Well prepared, we all had our hats, folding chairs, water, and sunblock, and Mark even provided me with a large golf umbrella for shade. Good thing, because it was HOT and we promptly discovered some evil, wicked feline had peed on my hat and it was just unwearable.

All the league kids were divided into teams of 6 and there were 4 games to be played simultaneously. Race’s team was the Lions and they were playing the Pumas. Once we found out which field they were on, we had to move camp. A short while later, Dale’s brother, Adam, joined us but got to sit on the ground since we didn’t have enough chairs. Not surprisingly, it was past 1pm before the games began. Herding that many little kids is like herding cats and it was cute to watch. Though there are 6 kids per team, only 4 were supposed to be on the field at a time. They were rotated out by twos frequently to give everyone enough play time. Race wasn’t in the starting line-up and he looked so bored sitting on the field. Also, since this was such a young, inexperienced group of players, they had no assigned positions. There was no goalie. Most of the time, it was a pack of 8 kids hovering around a kid-sized soccer ball.

Race’s team was the first to score, though the Pumas got their own goal not long after. They each scored again during the first half, but the Lions ended up dominating the second half. I think the final score was 6-2, though it wasn’t emphasized or even relayed to the audience. After all, it’s about the game, not the score, right?

There were a lot of funny moments during the game. One little boy, Alex, really had our attention. He was by far the shortest kid on Race’s field. His mom was sitting near us and his dad was acting as the assistant coach or kid-wrangler or something. Every once in a while, Alex would become distracted and just lose all interest in the game. One time he stopped in mid-field and hollered, “Hey Mom! I gots mud in my shoe!” Mom replied, “That’s ok, honey, we’ll take care of it later.” Alex queried back, “Mud in my shoe?” “Yes, honey, go play!”

Later on it was, “MOM! My shoe fell off!” Then he stopped in the middle of the field to put it back on.

One time, he was running for the ball and tripped. “HEY MOM! Did you saw I fell down?” “Yes, Alex, that was good!” “I fell down??” “Yes, that was good, Alex!”

Early in the game he collided with another boy and they knocked heads. Alex slowly meandered towards his mom and we could just see his face crumbling. He collapsed into her arms and burst into tears. She soothed him for a couple of minutes until he calmed down and wandered back on to the field. Because he walked on and off the field so often and kept getting replaced in-game by another kid, there were several times when the Lions had 5 kids on the field. Alex would just stroll around non-chalantly unless he was told to play or come to the side for his time-out.

Despite his distractedness and the tears, Alex was a plucky little guy. Several times we saw him charging all-out for the ball, hollering, grimacing, and elbowing the bigger kids out of his way. It was hysterical. Dale got some pictures of what he called Alex’s “game face,” this very intent scowl.

Race was also a little less into the game. Perhaps it was the heat, or maybe he just wanted to go home and play UT2004 with Dad and Dale, but he didn’t seem to mind his time-outs. He’d get into the game once in a while, chasing the ball, but he was often at the rear of the pack. One time, that really turned to his advantage. The Pumas managed to get control of the ball and were driving it towards the Lions’ goal, so we hollered at Race to block the goal. He hustled back and prevented a goal that got him a lot of cheers. After that, he seemed to prefer the defensive position of self-appointed goalie. He performed it pretty well. Except for the time that the ball was being brought back into play and Race wasn’t paying attention AND managed to get himself tangled in the net. The coach had to go over and free him. Mark just shook his head and said, “I’m glad I’m taping this. It’ll be worth something when he’s in junior high.”

At half-time, the Pumas on the field got into a huddle. Race really seemed to like that concept and from then on proceeded to pull teammates into a huddle at every opportunity.

I saw a really nice display of teamwork between two of the Lions. Two blonde boys, the dominant players and usually the scorers for Race’s team, were running for the ball. One called to the other and stopped running. The other boy caught the ball just before it went out of bounds, then kicked it back to the first boy who made a shot at the goal. The ball missed, but I was impressed that two 6 or 7 year olds coordinated their efforts like that.

At the end of the match, all the kids lined up and shook hands. Then we packed up our gear and headed out. Dale and I ended up going to his mom’s, switching out the laundry, and dumping our current clothes into the machine. It had been so hot, we’d sweated up everything we were wearing. I had to pull my just-washed swimsuit out of the washer and put it on. Then again, I had to play timekeeper and insist Dale pack up his laptop and put on his own suit so we could go to Mark and Vonna’s to go swimming with them. Adam joined us at their house but didn’t swim. Instead he played with our camera and got some pretty good action shots of Mark doing a cannonball and Dale throwing Race around the pool. The water was cold at first, but it quickly cooled us off and felt good. Dale and I were the last ones out of the pool and then we had to head back to mom’s to throw enough clothes in the dryer that I’d have something to wear when we were done showering. We cleaned up, put the rest of the stuff in the dryer, and made it back to Mark and Vonna’s in time for dinner and a slideshow of the day’s photographs. Then the guys played UT2004 until Dale and I decided it was time to go.

Dale took some more pictures around the yard, we packed up and loaded the car, then hit the road, making it home by about 10:30pm. Overall, it was a pretty fun weekend, filled with family and activity.

OK, I don’t usually post quiz results (any more), but I was really amused by these results.

The deranged inner child in all of us
Find out what anime girl you are.

Although you are a computer genius, you tend to borderline on cuteness vs. pyschosis. You are energetic, and most likely people have a hard time deciding if they should hug you or slap you.

I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry, but maybe she ought to stub out that damn cigarette before worrying about how noise can affect her unborn child.

Sometimes I wish I could reach out and slap people long-distance.

Bless Kathie for sharing this with me: a 4096 Web Smart Color Wheel. I love it!

I swiped this link from Dorota.

Crazy Train or Emotional Subway Attack

Yesterday, Dale and I were at his Uncle Mark’s house for a while. Mark, (his wife) Vonna, (six year old son) Race, and Dale’s brother, Adam were present. Mark, Dale, and Race had been playing Unreal Tournament 2004 for a while. Yes, the six year old had been playing too, and he’s pretty good at it. Prior to Adam’s arrival, Mark and then Dale took turns trying to beat the final boss of the tournament ladder. Turns out he’s rather tough and we’re conviced the computer cheats. Dale managed to scrape out a 1 point win, resulting in cheers all around. (You win by being at least 1 point up at the end of 30 minutes.)

After Adam arrived, the other guys decided to tease him a bit. They suggested he give the final boss a shot, explaining that Race had beaten him easily. Adam was game and sat down to try. He got off to a good start, getting first blood. Then he and the Clanlord (the boss) swapped a few kills. Once, Adam got in a particularly impressive kill, and this little exchange took place.

Race: That was cool!
Adam: ‘Cool’ is my middle name.
Pam: Except it’s spelled with an ‘F.’
Race: Oh… FOOL!!
everyone: *laughing*
Vonna: I’m going to have to remember to tell Race’s teacher about this!

In the end, Adam lost to the Clanlord. He made some comments about how tough it was. I think he eyed Race with some new respect. No one ever told him it was Dale who beat the boss, and just barely.

The landscaper and his assistant showed up a little after 11am today. By 2pm, they were done and the beds looked great. Pete and his assistant repotted the healthy plants that were removed from these beds, so now Dale and I have to figure out what to do with them. (By the way, the small brick edging around the beds against the house were put in by Pete and his assistant. The larger brick border around the oval bed was done by me and Dale a couple of years ago.)

I really should have taken some “before” photos of our front flowerbeds. They were awful. Instead I got some pictures after the landscaper had done a little bit of work. You can still see how bad the beds looked, all choked with weeds.

Here are my (sort of) Before and After photos.

• BEFORE - Right front flowerbed, and close up of the weeds
• AFTER - Right front flowerbed, and another shot
• BEFORE - Left front flowerbed (the black tubing is for the drain spouts)
• AFTER - Left front flowerbed, and another shot
• BEFORE - Oval front flowerbed (with new plants waiting for installation), and close up of bed (this bed was in the best shape)
• AFTER - Oval front flowerbed

Overall, we’re thrilled with Pete’s work and how quickly it was all done. If anyone in the Austin area wants a landscaper referral, just let me know and I’ll pass along his information (he doesn’t appear to have a web site).

Remember my earlier post about the lady fired for refusing to remove a John Kerry bumper sticker from her car? Well, her story reached Kerry himself who promptly called Lynne and offered her a job.

AmericaBlog.org had also begun fund-raising on Lynne’s behalf, collecting almost $2000 in just 24 hours.

Cool.

Earlier today I had two hot, sweaty men getting down and dirty in my front yard. And it’s not nearly as sexy as it sounds.

Dale and I finally gave in and accepted that we were just never going to get around to fixing up our front yard, so we hired some professionals. About a month ago, Michelle from Red Sun Landscape Design came out, looked at the weed-overrun ruins of our flowerbeds, discussed our preferences with us (xeriscaping, low-maintenance plants), and then sketched out some new designs for our three front flowerbeds and gave us plant lists and a landscaper referral.

A week or so later, we met with the landscaper, Pete Bruhn. We discussed the job and he gave us a labor estimate, then left with the plant list. I’d slightly altered it, dropping some plants and changing the ones for the front flower bed. Later, we got a call from him with the materials estimate.

Honestly, I have no idea if we’re getting a good rate for the job, but we agreed to it because we just need it done. (And I’m physically not capable of that much work right now.)

Pete was scheduled to start this Thursday, estimating it would take a day and a half to two days to do all the work, including putting in brick border around two of the beds. This morning, we got a call saying he’d like to come by in an hour or so and start because he got rained out at another job he’s working on. We were fine with that.

Pete and his assistant worked for several hours putting in the new borders/walls. They had just about finished that part when it started raining again here, then didn’t show any signs of letting up for a while. They ended up having to call it a day here as well.

I’m pretty impressed with the work they’ve done so far. Dale and I put in a border around the front flower bed, digging out the trench, putting in a sand base, making sure it was level, etc. I think it took us a couple of days. Granted, these other two beds used smaller versions of the same bricks, but they still managed to finish in a fraction of the time. I guess that’s why they get paid to do this type of work and we had weed-infested flowerbeds.

Now that they’ve gotten started, I’m really looking forward to seeing the finished work! (It’ll also be nice to have the HOA stop sending us letters admonishing us to weed the flowerbeds.)

Baby dropped out of car during police chase

Despite the shock value headline, the story has a happy ending for the baby. The 8 month old girl was strapped in her car seat when she was dropped and suffered no injuries.

In a display of poetic justice, or karma, the man who tried to use her life as a delaying tactic to aid his escape crashed the car he was driving and died of his injuries.

Lynne Gobbell put a John Kerry bumper sticker on her car. Her boss, Phil Gaddis, told her to remove it. When she refused by saying, “you can’t tell me who to vote for,” he fired her. And then he put a pro-Bush flyer in with her final paycheck.

It would have been one thing if Mr. Gaddis had stated that political discussion was to be kept out of the workplace (his factory). But telling someone what she can or can’t display on her privately owned vehicle and punishing her for having a differing political opinion cross a few lines.

PENSACOLA, Fla. — A man who was trying to shoot seven puppies was shot himself when one of the dogs made the .38-caliber revolver discharge, deputies said.

Perhaps the gunshot wound and felony animal cruelty charge will teach this man that he would have been better off spaying and neutering his pets, rather than letting them breed and winding up with a bunch of puppies he didn’t want.

Asshole.

Bad Things

• Headache that won’t go away - for a month
• Getting the second half of the credit card bills for Dale’s last business trip
• Still waiting on the reimbursements for his previous THREE trips, plus other business expenses, so we can pay off this trip
• All the flavoring from my slushy disappearing and leaving just a cup of pureed ice.

Good Things

• Expecting our first child and knowing that she’s healthy
• Finding TGI Friday’s Sour Cream and Onion Potato Skin Snack Chips at the gas station
• Having a great friend I can whine to (love you, Genevieve!)
• Getting a surprise gift in the mail - many many thanks to Shannon for The Girlfriends’ Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood!

Overall, I have to say that the Good Things definitely outweigh the bad. I have a good life full of good people, and that makes me very very happy.

I wanted to add this bit to the Stikfas entry in the last post, but deviantART wasn’t cooperating. Of course, the page I wanted started to load right after I’d hit ‘publish.’

Anyway, I was introduced to Stikfas and Bolt Gallery through photographs like these by deviantART member DivineError. In addition to the funny Stikfas photos, DivineError does some amazing 3D work. You should check them out.