Month: May 2005

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Plonked and Circumscribed

Graduation time of the year. So?
 
Jordana of Curmudgeonry (although from a sample, she doesn’t seem to know much about being a curmudgeon.  Besides, she’s too young to be a good one. 🙂 poses a few questions for folks stuck in the “Gee, it’s graduation time” grind, being invited to shell out for kids they only vaguely recall from some distant memory of having a passing aquaintance with a former neighbor’s uncles’s cousin’s friend long years in the past…
 
Here goes:
 
(1) Who was the most memorable (good or bad) graduation speaker at a ceremony you’ve attended — not necessarily your own?
 
Aw, gee…  That’s a toughie, cos all of them were of nearly equal inconsequence. OK, the speaker at my college graduation is pretty memorable, although I only recall one word he said.  Seriously. A former poly sci prof, pretty decent guy who fell into bad company and was governor when he spoke.  Later, fell into even worse company and became a U.S. Senator.  Used to be a pretty nice guy…  Maybe now that he’s been a decade or so out of office he will have made a partial recovery.
 
(2) Approximately how many graduation ceremonies have you been in as a graduate and how many others have you gone to?
 
Three of my own—and none of this b.s. about “eighth grade graduation” (what a weenie idea).  A ceremony for release from “prison for kids” (high school graduation) was bad enough.  Nine, as I recall, of other folks’ graduations.  We’re skipping my daughter’s graduation from grad school this year, because, well,  she is. Wish I’d skipped mine. *yawn*
 
(3) After finishing high school and/or college what did you do for the summer?
 
Worked.  What else? *sheesh!* Wasn’t school enough of a waste of time, already?
 
Bonus Question:
 
What was your favorite graduation gift?
 
Money.
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Make your grocery list out from these

 
Oh, heavens.  Making it hard to diet.  I may have to depend on The Relativity Weight Loss Planâ„¢ after just viewing some of these recipes! Stop the madness!!! It’s just too much of a good thing!
 
(Making out my grocery list, now… )
 
N.B. The Relativity Weight Loss Planâ„¢ depends upon a little-known quirk of Einstein’s brilliant work.  It seems that as an object approaches the speed of light, it approaches infinite mass.  Therefore, since weight is a function of mass in a gravity field, the slower one moves…
 
Patent Pending
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More coffee blogging

If you have not yet blogrolled/made a regular read of Morning Coffee and Afternoon Tea, what is wrong with you?!?!?
 
I mean, really: a blog that features this just has to be a must-read.
 
(The featured post? Yum.  My walls.  Coffee.  What’s not to like?  Hmmmm…. could I be ready even to try used coffee grounds in a wall treatment?  My office!!  Yes!!!  Let’s see…. dry them, powder them, glazing compound… “It. Could. Work!”)
** 
 
 
 
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UPDATE: Good News (so far) on the Cardio Front

UPDATE: bumping the date. This just in from Wonder Woman:
 
“I got an email from the Dr.’s office.  Everything is normal and we are moving ahead with removal.“
 
So, with this latest nuclear stress test backing up the previous two, along with her device’s report on her heart capacity and freedom from incidents, it looks like it is a go for Wonder Woman to forsake her bionic addition.
 
That will be Thursday, May 19 at 8:00.  In and out, with callback the next day.  Device removed and leads capped but left in, for those wanting some details.
 
(Originaly posted at 3:32 on 05/11/05)
Wonder Woman’s trip to the cardiologist went well
 
  Indeed, contra to almost all the other checkups and tests in the last (nearly) seven years, this one ended with her still full of energy to a greater degree than any other I recall.  All of those in the last two years have been better tha during the first five.  Her first few nuclear stress tests were enervating—she was completely wiped out and wobbly-legged afterwards.  This one?  Energy left over. No “Wobblies.”
 
So, subjectively she’s very upbeat about this checkup.  The cardiologist will read all the test results/pics and come back with replace device or remove device.  Today was the go/no go test, since all other tests and defibrilator/pacemaker records indicate a go for removal.
 
So, seven years after she “died” (three times in one day) and then had her pacemaker/defibrilator implanted, she may become Wonder Woman without the Bionic Woman enhancements.
 
We’ll see.
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Free Market Research

 
…but you just know that any company stupid enough to forbid employees to park non-DC cars on premises is also too stupid to take such excellent advice.  A snippet of the post”
“When you encounter incompetence to such a degree, it’s difficult not to imagine instead that it’s sabotage.”
As always, Kim’s a good read.  Follow on down today’s posts and read his pursuit of some ideas explored by John Derbyshire and Jonah Goldberg.  Good stuff. (But where was a Gratuitous Gun Pic today? I wanna purty picture of a gun, Kim! Alla time.)
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Not exactly another Blogosphere Meme Poolâ„¢ creation

[UPDATE: see here for the latest on this not-a-meme]
 
Nah.  Call it a “pseudo-creative writing assignment” if you want
 
You meet the most… interesting folks in waiting rooms.  Or not.  But yesterday, in the cardiologist’s waiting room, I sure did meet some folks who had tales to tell.  From memories of the Korean War (complete with graphic descriptions of Pork Chop Hill) to other, tamer recollections. One not-so-tame, but less dramatic story involved a “waiter’s” (you know, one of that group who’s waiting for their spouse/friend/neighbor to finish some strenuous test/procedure) tale of his sister-in-law who went to the bathroom and lifted the toilet lid in preparation for an important function.  Luckily (for the storyteller as well as his sister-in-law), she happened to look into the toilet bowl before proceeding and saw… a squirrel.
 
(Pause for a moment while the image sinks in.  Load your copy of Ray Stevens’ “Mississippi Squirrel Revival” then proceed to the rest of the post.)
 
So, a little help here.  Any takers on using “squirrel in a toilet bowl” in a post?
 
Bou? (Surely your boys have had a squirrel adventure! 🙂
 
George? (Consider it a news break with possibilities along the lines of “Costello buys a computer.” 🙂
 
Kris? (Think: house hunting. heh )
 
Harvey? (Oh, the delicious dread contemplating what might come from THAT Bad Example… *ouch*)
 
Dan? (Breaking News! 🙂
 
Anyone?
 
🙂
 
No rules about tagging or contents or format.  This is NOT a Blogosphere Meme Poolâ„¢thing like the stinky punchbowl meme or even the Blogmothers Dayâ„¢ or Blogfathers Dayâ„¢ mini-memes.  This is just a “what if” kinda thing.  What if… someone posted a “squirrel in the toilet bowl” recipe to recipe.carnival (at) gmail (d-o-t) c-o-m (*shhhh* don’t say that so loudly! Someone would)?  What if… some engineer who had a rodent problem with her car contemplated engineering solutions to a squirrel in a toilet bowl (“Here: I have a very fine scientific calculator which I will give you to remove the squirrel from my toilet bowl.”)?  What if, some talented musician played and sang a lullaby to the sweet squirrel in the toilet bowl (while hubby sneaked up on it with a bludgeon)?  (See update, below) What if some irrascible old goat looked at said squirrel and simply warned, “You try collecting these nuts and you’re history!”? Or What if some intrepid reporter uncovered the hidden connection between Hillary Clinton, Kofi Anan and the squirrel in the toilet bowl?
 
What if…
 
That’s all.  No meme, just a wee “what if.”
 
Just what if?
 
(Yes, I have an offering percolating, but I’ll post it later.)
 
Update: Well, Kris has had one real-world “squirrel-in-the-house” adventure and apparently wants a bye on contemplating one in her toilet bowl.  I can understand that, but with a response like this, I couldn’t help but wonder how much fun a “squirrel in the toilet bowl” submission from her might be…
“When I opened the door, the squirrel (up on a shelf) panicked and leaped out toward me into the kitchen behind me. He bounced off a cabinet and unceremoniously landed on the floor, where, sprawling and scrambling, he began to run back toward the door to the basement. I’m not the kind of person who gets freaked out by this sort of nonsense, however — I just lifted my foot (clad in a nice heavy shoe) and brought it down on top of him before he could reach the doorway. No way was that thing getting away from me… I took the Daisy off safety and did away with him on the kitchen floor, under my foot.”
Yeh.  Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!  Now, if she’d just cornered it in the toilet bowl…
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DU’s Funny Oregano

George of GM’s Corner wonders what the Democratic Underground’s been smoking…
 
“… 59% of the “voters” in the DU poll believe that Al Qeada is a fictitious organization. What have they been smoking?”
 
C’mon, George.  You know they won’t give up their connection to primo dope.
 
Well, at least their committment to the Great Oblivious remains intact.  Read George’s comments for a snippet of the DU googly-eyed wonders’ obliviousness gleaned from Little Green Footballs.
 
 
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Calling All Caffeine Heads!

 
Now you can stop stealing the art off her blog.  🙂
 
And if you’re into tea as well, she has another post on top of the linked one you might wanna share with a child or some other tea lover with a quirky sense of fun: Teddy Bear Tea.
 
(Now for another cuppa joe for myself… I need the 3 IQ point boost, right now. heh)
 
Addendum: One of the sites Christine linked has a few coffee contests to enter.  Give em a whirl over at Coffee Sage. And from that site, this gem from The Unknown Psalmist:
 
Caffeine is my shepherd; I shall not doze. It maketh me to wake in green pastures. It leadeth me beyond the sleeping masses. It restoreth my buzz. It leadeth me in the paths of consciousness for its name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of addiction, I will fear no Equal™, For thou art with me; thy cream and thy sugar they comfort me. Thou preparest a carafe before me in the presence of Juan Valdez. Thou annointest my day with pep; my mug runneth over. Surely richness and taste shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the House of [Coffee] for ever.
 
Amen
 
(Another cuppa joe?  Why, thank you.  Don’t mind if I do.)