Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Not a Midwesterner in the bunch

She's does a fabulous job, but not a midwesterner. Hm.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Ninja Hamsters

Sunday, February 24, 2008

If Dogs Could Talk

I didn't watch the Superbowl, so I missed most of the commercials, which are historically pretty good. This year? Not so much. But a few had me laughing like crazy.

Including this one: 'Talking to Animals'. I have no doubt that if dogs could really talk, this is what they would say.

Canned Pancakes

Well, this might be a sign of the coming collapse of society: pancakes and waffles from an aerosol can. Organic, even.

Seriously. About 9 full-sized pancakes, dispensed from a can like whipped cream. They're pretty good, actually, and definitely live up to the promise of "quick".

Of course, we probably don't need to have nearly instant pancakes, just sitting there in the refrigerator, waiting to be zooped out onto a hot griddle. I think we'll be having too many pancakes for the next week or so -- since we bought the stuff from Costco, and so have THREE cans o'pancake in there.

They certainly aren't as good as made-from-scratch batter (even made from mix batter), but they are light and have a nice buttery, yeasty taste to them. Tender, and not chewy at all (which is my primary complaint about Perkin's pancakes -- chewiness).

I'm not sure if this is meant to be marketed towards parents...I can't imagine that pancakes every morning is a good idea with small children, but talk about convenient. We certainly had fun with them!

Bacon!

For those of us who crave bacon on a regular basis (and especially during those monthly cycles where bacon and chocolate sound really good together) -- I submit for your enjoyment,
The Bacon Flowchart.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Monday, February 18, 2008

What the f-- is wrong with these people?

A proposed Pennsylvania bill: Allow doctors to deny treatment, medicine on religious grounds
Pennsylvania Senate Bill 1255, also called the Conscientious Objection Act, would absolve medical care providers of liability in cases where reproductive care was denied based on a practitioner's religious or moral beliefs.

Services a provider would be free to withhold, with immunity, include performing an abortion, artificial insemination, and prescribing birth control or emergency contraception (also known as the "morning-after pill").

"There shall be no cause of action against a health care provider for declining to participate in a health care service that violates his or her conscience," the bill reads. "A health care institution that declines to provide or participate in a health care service that violates its conscience," it adds, "shall not be civilly, criminally or administratively liable."

"I intend with this bill," says Senator John Eichelberger (R-Altoona) to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, "to make it very clear that people in health care and in medical institutions would be held harmless if they for religious reasons decide not to provide procedures for abortion or contraception."
What the fuck? If you refuse to perform the required, legal job, you shouldn't be a doctor or pharmacist or what have you. How hard is that for these idiots to comprehend? What next? Refusing to provide required medical care because the person is Muslim or Catholic? Or they belong to the wrong golf club? Or they are the wrong color? The criteria here are just as arbitrary, and I, for one, am horrified a the implications. Apparently there are a lot of people out there who have no problem at all insisting that their personal beliefs be legislated for everyone.

Just fine and dandy, you think? Wait until the personal beliefs don't happen to coincide with yours. Keep your private, personal religious beliefs out of the public sphere, mmmkay?

What is wrong with these people?

Huh?

This morning on NBC’s Today Show, President Bush denied that the there’s any link between the faltering U.S. economy and $10 billion a month being spent on the Iraq war. In fact, according to Bush, the war is actually helping the economy:

CURRY: You don’t agree with that? It has nothing do with the economy, the war — spending on the war?

BUSH: I don’t think so. I think actually the spending in the war might help with jobs…because we’re buying equipment, and people are working. I think this economy is down because we built too many houses and the economy’s adjusting. ...

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Crab Cakes!

And a four-pound brownie. We went to dinner with our neighbors again -- the Oceanaire, since my sister gave us a gift-certificate for Christmas. She's the best at picking gifts: I mentioned months ago that we had been to the restaurant to my other sister, who mentioned it in passing, and J remembered it -- from back in September. Wow.

Mmm. The best crab-cakes I have ever had. Absolutely.

This whole week has been one fabulous meal after another -- Wednesday, one of the tech reps at the cath lab took everyone out to Sugarbeet, in Longmont, to demo a new product. Valentine's Day, we stayed in and grilled filets, made our so-not-good-for-you Fettuccine Alfredo and drank a top-ranked bottle of wine from Mollydooker, and Friday out to the Oceanaire for crab cakes that are out of this world good... We are spoiled, I tell you what!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Communiques

I'm sure everyone has seen this, but it made me giggle:

The Dog's Diary 8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing! 9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing! 9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing! 10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing! 12:00 pm - Milk bones! My favorite thing! 1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing! 3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing! 5:00 pm - Dinner! My favorite thing! 7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing! 8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing! 11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

The Cat's Diary

Day 983 of my captivity.

My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet. Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates my capabilities. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a 'good little hunter' I am. There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of 'allergies.' I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow, but at the top of the stairs. I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released, and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird must be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe ----- for now

Thursday, February 07, 2008

No Wonder!

Well, we all knew it -- 96% of the email sent last year was spam. If you're like me, you get one or two actual emails accompanied by pages and pages of ads, offers, and other crap that seems to overwhelm everything. Even with good spam filters, dozens of these make it through every day.

Can you imagine how much better things would perform if there wasn't 96 spam messages for every four valid emails? When they need just one person to respond to the spam to "pay" for the millions of messages they send, well, it ain't gonna go away anytime soon.

So, the Economist has quantified it:
LAST year, spam accounted for up to 96% of all e-mail traffic, according to Commtouch, a security-software company. Undeterred by tough legislation and better security, spammers use increasingly sophisticated methods to evade filters and fool increasingly savvy internet users. But the nature of spam remains pretty basic. In the last three months of 2007, 70% of e-mails offered sexual enhancers,
Well, that certainly describes my inbox. Viagra, Cialias, less-than-savory offers for things that will enlarge or enhance a part of the anatomy that I don't have...

Only about 1% are pornography, and about 5% are fake financial scams. I don't know if this includes the "phishing" emails -- I have to assume it does, since those are the most common financial emails out there. I knew it was bad, but I didn't realize that almost 70% of ALL EMAIL traversing the internet was for 'sexual enhancers'. Well, we know what's important, now, don't we?

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Jumbotron

Well, I have a new tiny-little sorry-assed first-world problem: my new monitor is SO BIG that I have to turn my head to see the corners.

I have a cramp.

Of course, I'm having a hard time finding anyone to really pity me much for this awful and nearly insurmountable problem. Woe is me.


My company paid out their stock options last week, and we allotted a smidgen of it for "fun money" -- my immediate purchase was an absolutely glorious 30" Samsung monitor. It's bigger than the TV! It's HUUUUGE. The monitor on the left is 20" and it's puny, bwaahahaha!

The Adorable Husband had to build an extension shelf onto the back of my desk, so I could push it far enough back that it wasn't like sitting in the front row of a movie. I moved my old monitor over to be my work monitor (yes, I have two computers on my desk, one for work and one for non-work. The last time I installed work stuff on my own desktop, it took weeks to clean up the resulting mess. )

I think I may have regained some of my geek points.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Queen of the World

Since I've been pretty lax in posting anything to the blog (it's been really busy at work), I thought I'd share with you all this photo of a blissfully sleeping puppy.

Obviously, Berit is a nervous dog, unsure of her place in the world....