My Political Views
I am a left moderate social libertarian
Left: 3.53, Libertarian: 2.82

Political Spectrum Quiz

You can find the quiz here if you want to take it yourself.

Hat tip to Mule Breath for the link.....

The latest zoosk.com ad is the bomb (and I don't mean "awesome")

I don't normally pay much attention to TV ads, but the latest one from Zoosk.com is really starting to piss me off. Not because it's for *yet another* dating site, but because it essentially ridicules people with severe allergies. The typical hayfever "sneezy" type allergies can be annoying, certainly; what I'm talking about here is an immune response serious enough to make someone swell up -- maybe not to the exaggerated extent shown in the ad, but swell up nonetheless.

Hives and tissue edema may seem funny (or at least the people behind the zoosk.com ad apparently want us to think so), but they aren't. Folks, if someone's swelling on the outside, it's an almost sure bet they're swelling on the inside too. Imagine having your throat swell shut so you can't breathe and your blood pressure drop low enough to cause your heart to stop. It's called "anaphylactic shock" and it's not funny at all. It kills people. Look it up and familiarize yourself with the symptoms and the treatment. See how long you might be able to wait for medical care to arrive before you pass out from lack of oxygen.

Most of us will never have a reaction like that, so we don't worry about it. Maybe we should. It's not the first exposure to an allergen that's dangerous, it's the second one. Or maybe the third . . . or the fourth. Maybe you never react at all. Or maybe that next bee sting, that next dose of penicillin, or the next bite of shellfish or peanut butter, will make you react. There's not much way to predict who will have a severe reaction and who won't. You or I may be next. It could be your spouse, a friend, or a stranger in a restaurant....

Or it could be your child fighting to breathe while their tissues are blowing up like a pufferfish. Still think it's funny?

Adendum

Many thanks to Athos for editorial help and additions....

Thursday Rant

I both love and weep for my country.

Why weep? Observations on a number of things being covered as news at present:

*Birthers and Truthers. Even in the face of reality, they continue to cling to delusions. Enough said.

*Tea Party zealots. They have a champion who drops lines about "Second Amendment solutions", ignoring the fact that what they're really doing is fomenting an armed rebellion against the legitimately constituted government of the United States. Can you say "treason"?

Maybe I'm mistaken, but from where I sit, these Tea Party folks don't seem to have planned anything beyond threatening to take the next election by force if necessary. Should their "Second Amendment solutions" really come to pass, as my husband has observed, the result might be far more like the French Revolution than the American Revolution. Proceed with extreme caution and think about what it is you're doing, people. This would not turn out well for the country you claim to want to protect. (As an aside, keep two things in mind: (1) when the second amendment was written, the government and the populace had pretty much the same level of weapons technology; (2) for those of you that think an armed rebellion here in the early 21st century has a chance, did you really pay close attention to the abilities of the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan? Go ahead and take your deer rifles out against M1 tanks, F-16s, or drones with Hellfire missiles. I'll bring popcorn.)

The Tea Party types want smaller government. Fine, which departments do they suggest we dispense with? The FDA, which oversees the safety of both drugs and foods in this country? Surely we can trust Big Pharma and the huge food conglomerates to do what is in the best interests of the public, not their own - can't we? The Department of Agriculture, which oversees the production of crops? Perhaps the FAA - no need to control airplanes; if a few crash and burn, well, that decreases the population. Maybe the DHS; after all, no one abuses children or needs mental health services in this country, why should we waste money on that? Or the Department of Transportation - why do we need roads or railways? Maybe we should eliminate the FBI, police departments and fire departments as unnecessary.

Are there problems in government? Yes. But it is pointless to sit there and say "we must take our country back"; back to what? becomes the question. Back to the days of Jim Crow laws, slavery, and women as second-class citizens? Back to the days of a theocracy, where half of the human race were mere chattels with no rights?

Or maybe just back to the days of the fictional "Father Knows Best", where children were seen and not heard, wives greeted their husbands at the door with a drink not an opinion, people of color "knew their place", and drinking and driving were the norm.

I know I would not want to live in that version of America. It is a fantasy at best, and a lie at worst.

*The immigration foes. I don't even know where to begin on these people. Unless you are full-blooded Native American, you have immigrant blood running in your veins. Unfortunately, anti-immigration sentiment is nothing new in the history of the country:

A PROMINENT American once said, about immigrants, “Few of their children in the country learn English... The signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages ... Unless the stream of their importation could be turned they will soon so outnumber us that all the advantages we have will not be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious.”

This sentiment did not emerge from the rancorous debate over the immigration bill defeated last week in the Senate. It was not the lament of some guest of Lou Dobbs or a Republican candidate intent on wooing bedrock conservative votes. Guess again.

Voicing this grievance was Benjamin Franklin. And the language so vexing to him was the German spoken by new arrivals to Pennsylvania in the 1750s, a wave of immigrants whom Franklin viewed as the “most stupid of their nation."

You can find the rest of the article here. I strongly recommend reading it.

Among those "alien" immigrants have been the Germans, French, Irish, Catholics, Quakers, Baptists, Italians, Spanish, and Chinese; the "involuntary" African immigrants; and now the Mexicans, our brethren from south of the border. We do not know or understand them, therefore we fear - or perhaps hate - them. We may view them as a threat to our own beliefs and way of life, possibly even as a physical threat to our very lives. In psychoanalytical terms, they are "the Other", that which is outside of or opposite to our own identity.

Othering is a way of defining and securing one’s own positive identity through the stigmatization of an "other." Whatever the markers of social differentiation that shape the meaning of "us" and "them," whether they are racial, geographic, ethnic, economic or ideological, there is always the danger that they will become the basis for a self-affirmation that depends upon the denigration of the other group. When a group claims to be "chosen by God," the danger multiplies, not only for the "unchosen" other who may be subjected to violence, but for the chosen group itself that is at risk of being undermined. [In other words, convenient though othering is as a way of propping up one’s ego, it has an inherent fragility because it must constantly led be fed by the illusory inferiority by the Other – and is thus constantly at risk of being discredited – MU]

Notice the line beginning with 'When a group claims to be "chosen by God"'. The three monotheistic religions we as Americans are most familiar with, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, hold this to be a truism. The ancient Hebrews and their descendants, the Jews, were the People of the Covenant, YHWY's Chosen People, from whom we have the Pentateuch or Torah. From the Jewish people came Yeshua, Christ Jesus, whose followers styled themselves Christians, the People of the New Covenant, who gave the New Testament to the world. Then around 610 CE, the Word of Allah, the Qu'ran, was given to the Prophet Mohammed, and Islam was born.

What a different place the world would be if the three People of the Book, as these religions are known, could have existed together in peace. But no, as each considers their holy text to be the true or final Word of God. The most dogmatic followers of each have traditionally believed in their own religion's superiority to all other beliefs and practices. One could write a lengthy dissertation on the number of religious wars that have resulted from this Weltanschauung. (Personally, I have never understood the seeming necessity for conflict over religion; can one means of approaching or understanding Deity be inherently 'better' than another, when in truth we are all blind men attempting to comprehend an elephant? But I digress.)

*Which brings us to: The anti-Muslim forces behind the current xenophobic uproar over Muslims and the building of mosques across the United States, particularly the proposed one two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center.

No one is denying that the destruction of the WTC was carried out by terrorists, but should all Muslims to be blamed for the actions of a few radicals? Terrorism is defined as "the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes". By that standard, Christians should be held accountable for the actions of those home-grown terrorists, the abortion clinic bombers. Their intent is to intimidate and coerce doctors and women to refrain from performing what is, after all, a legal act. Likewise, all Americans (or, at least, those radical anti-government, pro-militia, 'White Power' types among us) should logically be held responsible for the reprehensible actions of home-grown terrorists Timothy McVeigh and his co-conspirators. And what about those who perform violence upon places of worship, be it for political or religious reasons? That's terrorism too.

I fear we are in great danger of losing some of the most important freedoms enumerated in the First Amendment to the Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.^[1]

Take particular note of the right of free exercise of religion and the right of peaceable assembly. There seem to be a growing number of people in this country who want to deny American Muslims both of these rights. This is dangerous ground, friends. If we deny Muslim citizens their rights, whose will we deny next? There are a multitude of religions and denominations in this country. (If you would like to see a listing of those denominations that have official web sites, see here.) Which of them shall we start denying the right to assemble and worship? The ones who are looked at as, ah, 'different' by the mainstream, the Scientologists, Mormons, Pentecostals, New Age Pagans, and Primitive Baptists? Maybe those who have chosen a simpler lifestyle and don't chose to live with modern technology, like the Amish and Mennonites? What about Sikhs, Hindus, and Baha'i? Maybe we should even restrict certain Christian sects, such as Greek or Russian Orthodox Christians? A radical notion would be to restrict the practice of any religion not native to this continent, and allow only the Native Americans religious rights. (Which might not be a bad thing, if you think about it.) Or maybe we should just ban churches with televangelists. Now there's a thought....

Where does it end, where should the line be drawn? If we permit the free practice of one religion, we must permit the free practice of ALL religions. Anything else is simply un-American.

Think about it.

Normal? What's that?

Things have been . . . interesting here. We got Dad moved into assisted living and he's doing OK. He complains about the food, but I notice he's put on a few pounds, so I assume he's eating. LOL We'd started packing up and clearing out the house, then had to go into panic mode when it sold less than two weeks after being put on the market. Yes, we got lucky to find a buyer that quickly. We had a little bit of back and forth negotiating on the price, but that's to be expected. That's why everybody lists high, right? It took us all of about three days to come to a mutually agreeable price and then . . . the deed was done.

Now we just have to arrange to have all of Mom and Dad's stuff that's still in storage moved up here. We acquired a trailer to haul everything home, only to discover that none of our vehicles can pull it at highway speeds with it fully loaded. Hmm. Inconvenient. So we may end up trading the trailer in for the slightly smaller one we almost bought and make a few more trips. Or maybe just let the professionals handle the move....

More crap you probably couldn't care less about:

* We finally got our three deceased cats buried. Two of them have been in the freezer since last winter 'cuz we couldn't dig a grave in the frozen ground, and this was the first chance Athos had to make another coffin and dig a grave. We've lost three cats and two birds in about six months. It sucks mightily.

*Squidboy finally got the chance to email us. He's been out of touch for a couple of months while the sub's been on station . . . who knows where. He can't tell us and we can't ask. All I know is that I miss him terribly. I'm still not ready for my little boy to be grown up and gone, but he is.

*My oldest cat may have cancer. We're waiting for the biopsy results. I really don't know if I can take losing another one this soon after losing the other three. The most recent death was exactly a month ago....

Squidboy update

Well, he's been deployed and will be out of contact for weeks (months?) at a time, which makes it hard on those of us at home who miss and worry about him.

On the "up" side, he's called us more frequently from Europe than he did from Norfolk. The caller ID has shown some really odd places for point-of-origin when he has called, including far inland states and from the opposite side of the planet. It keeps us guessing when the phone rings and we don't recognize the number.

Anyone remember....

Sam Kinnison? One of his old routines bears a striking similarity to reality these days.

"Guys? Guys? You love me? Do you? Do you love me? THEN KILL ME NOW!" ...followed by an ear-splitting howl of frustration and anger.

Blessed be the Pessimist...

... for he hath created backups. -Exasperated 4:17

Believe it or not, I had a nice, long, well-thought-out post all ready to go the other day . . . and my browser crashed on me. Said browser is pretty stable, and doesn't crash often, but there we were. Hey, no problem, Blogger auto-saves, right? Right?

Auto-save isn't working today either. *sigh*

Old post, never made it out of the drafts...

Well, it's a new week, and a new year. I have blog entries written (well, ok, more like partially written - LOL) that I couldn't post because of connection problems. Damn you Verizon, why couldn't you have left Alltel alone?!? Reading back over what I have, it's probably just as well that I couldn't post them to the blog--there's some serious editing that needs to be done. Ah, well.

I have learned some things over the last month-plus:

*I can continue to function with insufficient sleep for four days. Day Five pushes me over the top and I become extremely grumpy and irrational.

*I need to reassess my wardrobe in a bad way. My clothing comes in two sizes: too big or too small. *sigh* I discovered this after hauling a bunch of stuff that I can no longer wear, halfway across the continent.

*In a pinch, I can sleep in places I wouldn't have thought likely. Some of them are even surprisingly comfortable.

*CCU NURSES ROCK! And Gods bless 'em for it!

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Nothing much new here, except for the snow and the ice. Mom's getting weaker and Dad's increasingly becoming a royal pain in the arse. Same ol', same ol'.

Update

Well, we had Mom scheduled to start chemo the Wednesday after Thanksgiving, but she decided against undergoing treatment. The oncologist told us that only about 25% of non-small cell lung cancers (the ones associated with NOT smoking) respond to treatment, and as bad as she already felt, well, I couldn't really argue with her decision. And honestly, I doubt I'd have opted for chemo if I were in her position.

So Thanksgiving morning I headed to Athos' mom's house to have T-day dinner with them, spent the night, and drove back to my parents' house Friday morning . . . only to discover that Mom was having major heart problems. Atrial fibrillation is NOT your friend, folks, and neither is a chest cavity full of fluid! Off to the ER we went. In retrospect, we probably should have called the ambulance, but her doc just said "get her to the hospital".

Almost two weeks later she was released to go home. Why home instead of to the skilled nursing facility she really needed? Well, by that point the big mucking chest tube they used to siphon off several liters of fluid had been replaced with a smaller indwelling tube -- and apparently no one was willing to take responsibility for dealing with it. Let's get this straight: A drain set-up that the average lay person could be expected to handle after a single walk-through is too complicated for a trained health care provider?!? Gimme a f***ing break! The damn thing has a one-way valve in it, so the likelihood of ending up with pneumothorax is nil. Ditto for infection if simple, common-sense wound care is used.

So we got her set up for hospice care and took her home, and my aunt and I have been trading off "duty shifts" so Mom's never alone for more than a few minutes. One of us has been sleeping in the room with her, so as to be available if she needs anything in the night, while the other gets the bed for some uninterrupted rest. That's been working out pretty well, although we've both reached the point where we're needing some "away time" to avoid burnout and my aunt kindly allowed me to take the first break. We'll be going back down in a few days, then my aunt will go home to spend Christmas with her family.

Why haven't I been posting? Well, it's like this: My parents' house has no internet access whatsoever, not even dial-up, and I have yet to locate any place with free wifi in that town. But I was smart -- before I left home I bought a wireless broadband card so I'd have 'net access. At least, I thought I was being smart. It took three weeks of off-and-on trial and error on my part, and over SIX HOURS of intensive attention by my wireless carrier's "experts" to get the damned device working. (Side note: I really really miss Alltel. I could dial *611 and talk to an actual person without having to wade through an almost endless number of prompts and menus, only to be told to "hang up and dial ___".)

But with any luck whatsoever, I'll be able to post once I'm back with Mom....

The latest news

Lung cancer.

Adenocarcinoma, Stage IV.

Inoperable.

Incurable.

Ugly words. Scary words.

Words you never, ever want to hear.

Words that were spoken to my mother earlier in the week.

It started off a couple of months ago, when Mom noticed she was losing her stamina. She was no longer able to walk at the mall with my father. Then she started having serious trouble trying to breathe. They thought it was pneumonia, but she hadn't run a fever, and with pneumonia -- even so-called "walking pneumonia" -- one runs at least a bit of fever.

Finally Mom broke down and went to the minor emergency clinic because she couldn't breathe and felt like she was suffocating. The doctor took a chest x-ray, and discovered she had a large amount of fluid in the right side of her chest, and that was keeping the lung from inflating.

The x-ray also showed a 5 cm by 6.5 cm mass in her upper right chest. That's where all the fluid came from. So they tapped her chest and removed the fluid so she could breathe again, and took a sample for testing. They also did a biopsy of the mass at the same time.

The good news is that there weren't any cancer cells in the extracted fluid.

The MRI of her brain showed no suspicious spots, so it hadn't spread to there yet. More good news.

A not-so-good discovery came with the PET scan. (Don't ask me what the initials stand for, I have no idea and will have to look it up later.) The radioactively tagged sugar they injected her with revealed additional masses (smaller ones to be sure, but still unwelcome) in the adrenal gland, the lymph nodes in the center of her chest, and a small 1-2 cm mass on her bowel.

The doc has the first round of chemo scheduled for next Wednesday . . . except Mom's not sure she wants to even try it. She says that as bad as she feels now, if the chemo makes her feel any worse (and it very likely will), she doesn't want to be subjected to it. I think she ought to at least try one round of chemo, and then make a decision yea or nay. But it's her life and her decision, and what is right for one person won't be right for another.

Honestly, I don't know that I'd take the chemotherapy either, were I in her position. Walking across the room winds her badly, she has to stop for air every few words when she's talking, and even sitting on the toilet leaves her light-headed. If there's a chance the chemo side effects would make her feel even worse (and that's likely), well, that option isn't necessarily much of an option, especially since the odds apparently are that she'll only have 12-14 months, even with treatment.

Her sister's set it up for the doctor to call on Monday to talk to us about statistics, so if the odds are good, we might be able to get her to at least try one round of chemo. We'll see. I'm not sure she'll make it to Christmas if she declines treatment....

PSA

From Military.com:

'Help Our Troops Call Home'

The Army and Air Force Exchange Service's (AAFES) "Help Our Troops Call Home" Program recently surpassed the $8 million mark in contributions. Military Exchange Global Prepaid Phone cards purchased through the program can be sent to individual servicemembers or "any servicemember." By logging on to the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) at aafes.org or calling 800-527-2345, friends, family members and civic groups can take part in the "Help Our Troops Call Home" effort by sending any one of three Military Exchange Global Prepaid Phone cards, including a $27.50 card capable of providing more than two hours of call time from any of 69 phone centers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait to the U.S.

For those with a loved one on sea duty, ship-to-shore calling cards are also available.

Cue Willy Nelson

"On the road again, just can't wait to be on the road again...."

Athos and I have been traveling of late. He's teaching a class at an industry conference, one which is being held rather conveniently in my hometown. His old stomping grounds are not far away, at the other end of the turnpike, so rather than him flying in for three days of the conference, we loaded ourselves into the car and are driving there.

Observation: Why is it that the more toll-road miles a state has, the worse its rest stop facilities are?

So far, we've encountered:

- A motorcycle "trike" with a wheelchair strapped upright to the back. (And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the WIN of the day!)

- A hearse with a bicycle on the roof. (WTF?)

- The nearly-obligatory wreck. We didn't see it happen (thank gods!), but we got to see the before-cleanup aftermath. Two or 3 highway patrol cars, one of the big mucking rigs they use to drag semis around, a fire truck and an ambulance. This one was going to take awhile to un-SNAFU. One semi had run into the back of another semi's trailer, and both trailer and cab were pretty well fucked up. We hope the fact that the ambulance was just sitting there, and the paramedics didn't seem to be in any major hurry, was a good sign. At any rate, somebody was going to be shoveling a LOT of feed corn off the highway!

- An "Italian" restaurant that uses canola oil instead of olive oil! I was told they didn't have a bottle of EVOO in the place! Folks, I was appalled. No olive oil? Heresy!! Needless to say, the food was okay, not not spectacular. Not a lot of there there, is probably the best way to describe it. Olive oil just adds a layer of richness that canola doesn't.

- And let us not forget the "good ol' Southern boy" in the Walmart shirt who was digging for gold in his nasal cavity right there in the hotel hallway, in front of everyone. I didn't stick around to see if he found anything -- or what he might do with his nugget prize. Redneck much?

More to follow....

Zombie Chickens - cool!

"The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the Zombie Chicken-- excellence, grace, and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all."

Dori, gods bless her, recently honored me with this and I'm pretty sure that means I now owe her a drink when we finally meet up face-to-face. LOL (It's so going to happen, just the when and the where that are TBD.) So now I get to pass the award along -- just as soon as I can figure out which of the bloggers I read regularly I should name.

Yes, Virginia, asking a simple question CAN get you arrested, even in America

This is a video that everyone should see, especially if you still think the insurance companies have the consumer's best interests at heart....

You can read the details here:

FOR ASKING WHY YOUR INSURANCE RATES INCREASE, YOU CAN BE ARRESTED

Now, in the interest of fair play, I have no way of knowing exactly what transpired between their arrival at the Anthem offices, the lock-out and subsequent appearance of the local constabulary. But having dealt with insurance company run-arounds, evasions and equine excrement before, I'd hazard a guess that it didn't take much at all for the visitors to become personae non gratae. Blue Cross/Blue Shield sure as hell didn't like me asking questions and wanting answers....

FedEx FAIL!

Early last month, Technogeek pre-ordered a copy of Apple's "Snow Leopard" OS from Amazon.com. We knew it wasn't being released for shipment until the end of the month. We're cool with that. We've always had good luck with ordering from them . . . but not so much from some of their shippers. I love it when they send our stuff via UPS, because we know we'll get it when promised. Sometimes our orders have even shipped/arrived earlier than expected, which is a nice little bonus!

The only real problem we'd had until now was one time when Amazon shipped an order through the post office, and USPS managed to misplace (or misdeliver?) it and my movie went MIA. I contacted Amazon and they expedited shipment on a replacement, no problem. (And WTF is up with USPS not admitting they even *have* a package until after it's delivered? Tracking numbers are no good if you can't actually, you know, TRACK YOUR EFFING PACKAGE!)

However . . . Techgeek's software still has not arrived. Amazon sent it via FedEx on August 31st. FedEx's tracking record shows it arrived at their Sacramento location on Sept. 8th. Why the discrepancy? Who knows. Even if one makes allowances for the Labor Day weekend, that still leaves 5 working days where the package was in limbo.

So FedEx admits to custody as of the 8th. It's now the 15th, and the package still isn't here. FedEx's own records show it's not due to arrive for two more days!

Here's where it gets . . . interesting. The package departed Sacramento, CA on Wednesday the 9th and arrived at one of their distribution locations on Sept. 11th. Um, hello? It would have been faster to drive halfway across the country and pick it up than to send it via FedEx!

So. The available online tracking information shows his software was physically present (or at least, logged as such) on the far side of our state, less than 5 hours' drive from here, on Friday the 11th, at 11:54AM. It left there roughly 4 and a half hours later. So apparently it sat in a truck all weekend. C'mon people! Are they telling me that none of their people work weekends? Gee, and here I thought they meant their "When it absolutely, positively, has to be there overnight" slogan was supposed to have any basis in reality.... (And yes, I know we weren't promised overnight delivery, but still!)

On the 14th (!!) we find an entry: "Shipment information sent to USPS". Um, WHY? Does FedEx still have custody at this point, or has the post office taken over? Oh, there we go: "Arrived at FedEx location" and "Departed FedEx location" on the 14th as well.

It gets better: at one point the package was all of than 20 miles away from us. Yep, it went from 4 1/2 hours east of us, to 1 1/2 hours west of here. IN ANOTHER STATE.

Go figure.

And they don't expect to have it here for 2 more days!

Yes, Technogeek has registered a complaint about their shipper with Amazon. Hopefully they will be equally displeased that his order will have taken TWO AND A HALF WEEKS to arrive. That's outrageous, even with "super shipper saving" or whatever they call it. I've gone that route for years, and never has an order taken that long to arrive! In fact, Amazon usually has packages at our door in less than a week even with the "slower" delivery service.

Wednesday update: Apparently FedEx has handed the package off to USPS; the tracking info shows it logged into the local post office facility as of yesterday afternoon. Maybe we'll get lucky and it'll be here today....

It's official

I probably should have titled this oh my gawd, what have I done? but I just can't force a feeling I don't have. I'm not having second thoughts or regrets -- unless, of course, I should regret having a conscience and trying to do "the right thing" by giving notice instead of just saying take this job and shove it, and walking out. Life would be one helluva lot easier at times without a conscience, you know?

I turned in my resignation today. Maybe not the best idea in today's economic climate, but it needed to be done. I'm tired of putting up with the bullshit and the slights. And it's tough working for someone for whom I've lost respect.

At lunch, Athos asked me what I would say if the owner offered me another, better, position. Not that I'm likely to be offered either a promotion or a raise; I'm sure the office manager wouldn't allow it. Yes, I've been working in a company where the owner has less say about what goes on than does one of his underlings! Isn't that just peachy?

No, if I have any regrets, it'll be because I will no longer be working side by side with a couple of wonderful, hard-working, largely unappreciated people who I have the honor to claim as friends. J.L. and I.W., I will miss you.

And as for C.Y. and P.H., you can kiss my gassy ass!

Um...oops?

Western Pa. historic war buff charged for firing

cannonball through wall of neighbor's home

Do home owners' insurance policies cover that sort of thing?

Not-so-helpful advertising

Why is it that certain stores send out sale fliers without actual sale dates on them? I'm sitting here perusing one that came . . . oh, sometime within the last two months, and I have no idea if the sale's still on or not. Every single ad-item coupon in the flier reads: "Effective dates on back page".

What's on the back page? "Sale starts today and lasts 10 big days".

Well, gee. That's certainly helpful.....

{Insert evil laugh here}

Well, I found out Squidboy lost the link to my blog. I told him that if I'd known, I could've been posting all sorts of things about him that he couldn't refute! His response? "You have until I get home and get the link again, then I may have to thump you." ROTFL

When did I get old?

OK, so I'm nowhere near the "one foot in the grave" stage, but more and more I find myself looking at the younger generation and wanting to ask two questions we all hated when we were growing up: "What were you thinking?" and "Where the hell are your parents?"

What brought this to mind this morning? Well, here I am, sitting in Local Friendly Coffeeshop, enjoying a mug of the good stuff, and what do I see? A friend's daughter, sporting a hair style that would be far more appropriate on a 20-something (or maybe a 40-something trying to pass for under-30) and an outfit that screams "jail bait" loud and clear. She's no older than 12, maybe 13. Her mother dresses conservatively, so it's not like mom's a bad role model, walking around looking like a hooker!

WTF is with all these Lolitas? And with the parents who not only allow, but seem to actively encourage, their young daughters to dress like a sex crime looking for a place to happen? I've seen babies and toddler sporting apparel emblazoned with the word sexy -- and I know damned well that the kids didn't buy that clothing for themselves. Now, anyone who knows me knows I'm no prude, but I'm sorry, sexy is just not a word that should ever be associated with someone that young!

Let's do this right!

I couldn't say it any better than Bernice did, so I won't even try. Please just go read this and then do what your heart tells you to do....

For Dori

Back when I first started this blog, I seem to recall promising (or maybe threatening) to talk about cooking and post some recipes. Well, it's taken me a year to get around to it, but I'm finally doing it. I would have (should have!) done this earlier, but I just haven't been able to get back into the swing of things and cook like I used to. Long-term depression robbed me of several things, among them my passion for cooking. I'd probably starve if Athos weren't around to cook and then make me eat.

Anyway, we found this in the Aug./Sept. 2009 issue of Fine Cooking and decided to give it a try. It passed muster with Future D-I-L, who is gamely trying to get used to the "weird food" (Squidboy's term for anything NOT burgers or pizza) we've been inflicting upon her. The good news in all this? We haven't scared her off yet!

Hopefully no one will get their knickers in a knot over my sharing this....

Quick Tandoori Chicken Thighs
by Domenica Marchetti

The yogurt in this spicy marinade helps tenderize the chicken and brings lots of tangy flavor to the dish.
Serves four to six.

1 cup plain low-fat yogurt
2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 Tbs. minced fresh ginger
2 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. ground turmeric
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. garam masala
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
Vegetable oil for the grill

In a large bowl, whisk the yogurt, lemon juice, ginger, garlic, turmeric, coriander, cumin, garam masala, 1/2 tsp. salt, and several grinds of black pepper. Add the chicken thighs to the marinade and turn to coat them thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate while you heat the grill.

Prepare a medium gas or charcoal grill fire. If you are using a charcoal grill, spread the hot coals across two-thirds of the bottom grate and leave the remaining portion clear. If you are using gas, turn one of the burners to low to create a cooler zone. Scrub the grill grate with a wire brush and then use a paper towel to wipe it with oil.

Remove the chicken thighs from the marinade and wipe off the excess (don’t worry if some remains). Put the chicken, skin side down, directly over the hot part of the grill and grill, covered, until the skin is browned, 3 to 4 minutes (don’t leave the grill at this point because flare-ups may occur; if they do, move the chicken away from the flame).

Flip the chicken and grill until well browned on the second side, 3 to 4 minutes. Move the thighs to the cooler part of the grill and continue to grill, covered, until their internal temperature registers 165°F on an instant-read thermometer, 10 to 15 minutes more.

From Fine Cooking No. 100, pp. 89

If I only had a brain...

I might just be dangerous. And no, I haven't turned into The Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz, although some days I feel like someone's sending flying monkeys my way. Oh, wait, that was just my therapist. (And yes, he does keep little rubber flying monkeys in his desk; they were a gift from his daughter.)

Today's screw-up du jour involves a cake that I almost forgot to bake. A birthday cake for a friend-and-coworker who turns 26 tomorrow. Yep, he's still a young pup, but he's a good guy and well worth a homemade b-day cake. I adapted the Special Mocha Cupcakes recipe from the Taste of Home website into a pan version. Much easier to frost that way! The doubled recipe was just the right volume for a standard cake pan, although I had to increase the baking time. I can't tell you by how much, since I forgot to turn the damned timer on and had to keep a close eye on the cake so it didn't burn....