I Wanna Be Your Dog

I Wanna Be Your Dog from LEGS on Vimeo.

By Legs' Georgie Greville (whoever the heck that is)...I haven't decided how I feel about it.

According to the website, "Georgie won the Samsung Grand Prix for this piece at Diane Pernet's festival 'A Shaded View on Fashion Film.'"

I'm off to Vegas until Monday, so I'll have a good excuse for not posting for the next week at least.

Time Flies...

Wow, where has the time gone? I can tell you! At work. I've been working stupid hours for the past month and am just exhausted. Now, I realise that LL normally works 12 hour days, but I think (and I could be wrong) that 12 hours of physical labor, while physically tiring isn't as mentally exhausting as 12 hours of office work, especially when you take into account the lack of daylight. Zone D for Dungeon is so not a good time. I honestly don't have a clue what is happening outside ever. Summer, fall, winter, spring – it's all the same in this crappy area.

Now, you might think that once I got home I could write a blog entry, but I was so tired, it was all I could do to get a beer out of the fridge. Yes, I've been eating oh so healthily, too. And with it being October, I've been trying to knit as much as possible. On my trip to Atlanta , I met a young man from my hometown on his way to Afghanistan , and I told him that I would knit him a hat since Afghanistan can be bloody cold. I finished the hat last week, but am waiting on his father to call me back with the address. I have some of the yarn leftover (hoping half) and I'm thinking of making another for him to give to someone in his unit. It only took me two days (once I got going – had the damnedest time joining in the round w/o twisting it), so I could whip one out and that makes me think about knitting a bunch for the South African AIDS orphans. I started knitting for Knit-A-Square a few months back, but they need more than just 8" squares (to be sewn into blankets once they get to South Africa) and are happy to accept hats and pullovers. The idea behind the squares is that they're easy and quick and not as imposing as knitting a whole blanket. I mailed mine a while back right in the middle of their mail strike and so far, they haven't gotten them. I'm getting worried, although I'm sure they'll get there and help to warm up so poor child.

I'm home sick today. I don't know what is up but I'm nauseous all the time. I left work yesterday around 12:30 and went straight to bed. I've been up a whole hour and a half and am ready to go back to bed. I hate being sick. And with that, I'm signing off...because you don't really want to read about me feeling like puking.

Vacationing in a Flood Zone - Part Deux

Happy Sunday, all and sundry.

I made it home from GA earlier today. Way earlier than my original flight, too. I tried to stay awake since I knew taking a nap would make the whole sleeping tonight process much more worthless, but I just couldn't. I completely unpacked(!!!) and then just needed to sleep. I set the nap alarm, but my body would NOT get out of bed (and I don't blame it all). It was a very exhausting Wednesday-Sunday kind of weekend.

Due to the flooding in Atlanta, we didn't do the tourist-y things we had planned (MLK museum & some civil war site - I was bummed about missing MLK, not so bummed about missing Civil War stuff) and it didn't matter anyway. I'm one of those anal travelers. Airlines tell me to get to the airport two hours early and I get there two hours early (the time I don't will be the time I miss my flight), so I was sitting at my gate waiting for my 10:30 am flight on Wednesday when a NorthWorst/Delta employee comes over and tells the few of us sitting there to go and get on that plane over there (if we were 10:30 flight ATL passengers). He said something about a mechanical problem, but I was really not sure what was happening. Turns out that the plane for my 10:30 was the plane with the mechanical problem and that flight out and out canceled. He had said our luggage probably wouldn't make it, but I decided what matter was that I get to GA. I land in ATL right around the time as HRH and we get the rental and head out to get some food as my luggage wasn't going to arrive until 3:00, which would have put paid to our tourist schedule if we hadn't already decided not to play tourist.

We head for our hotel in Lawrenceville and on the commute I said something about making dinner to meet college friends of mine. And she says, "Didn't you get a hold of her yesterday to cancel?" "No, I tried to get a hold of her to see how things were, but I never did and I didn't know I was supposed to cancel?" Turns out that when HRH had suggested just heading straight to the hotel and getting settled, she had just meant canceling the MLK & Civil War stuff, she met canceling dinner with my friends. I called my friends and there was no flooding there and even though there was flooding in L'ville (or so we were told), we never saw a bit of it. We checked in and ran and made it to my friends' house before the "man of the house" even got home from work.

We had a lovely evening with my friends, HRH and Man of the House and his mother (who was visiting to babysit the 3 daughters this weekend so my friends could go to Florida to hang with friends) got along famously bitching about health care. I heard the words "health is a privilege, not a right" spoken. I had already abandoned the table to help clear up, because I was not getting sucked into the conservative discussion. I knew the opposition and was not prepared to engage and heat up an evening with friends I don't get to see very often. Of course, just to set the stage - I was sitting in a 9000 ft house with secret doors and granite countertops the size of my bed.

Thursday we went to the track (Road Atlanta) and met up with one of our old racing buddies, DH1 whom we hadn't seen since Cleveland 2007. Even though the forecast had been rain and thunderstorms and cloudy, it cleared up and got damn close to 90F. And even though I put on my sunscreen (SPF 55) as soon as I sat down and again later, I got sunburned in interesting locations. *sigh* It was bad enough that on Friday I wore a regular t-shirt instead of my tank top. DH1 and I walked the entire track on Friday - saw the spot where Scott Sharp had a massive shunt on Thursday and put the entire schedule behind as they had to repair about 900 ft of catch fencing which had done its job of catching the car and throwing it back on the track instead of it ending up in the spectators.

We were all exhausted by the hot sunny day and didn't stay on Thursday for the combined night practice (we figured we'd see them race in the dark on Saturday). Oh, were we wrong. The weather prediction for Saturday was for rain all day to which HRH was looking forward, but I was not yet. It never fails that when she wishes for rain, we get a friggin' deluge and they "race" in the yellow which means running behind a pace car which means no passing - essentially a parade of race cars in the rain. This time, however, we got red-flagged which means they stopped the damned race, because of thunder and lightning. I had made a new friend, Liam (19 year old Brit whose father works for Panoz), at the race track (as I usually do) and was sitting with him down at the fence just before they disappear under the tunnel to go into the last turn of the racetrack. As much as HRH says she loves racing in the rain, she really hates the outdoor elements and she was watching in the van (rental, of course) and DH1 was watching from his truck. Anyway, Liam and I were being diehards and sitting the rain (in our rain ponchos and under Liam's umbrellas until the thunder and lightning came, and they red-flagged the race. We sat in the van drying to get dry and watching the rain run down the straightaway and carry red Georgia clay with it across turn 10a. We stayed for a few hours, but when they announced that the rain was supposed to let up in about an hour and half and that they would then start to prepare to re-start the race and this was 6:00 p.m., we figured if they ever did go racing it would be at 8:00 p.m. at the earliest and it would be an hour and half race at the longest. We decided it wasn't worth it and maneuvered our way around the freaking Honda minivan that was blocking us in. Liam called his parents to come and pick him up (at one point, he said, "I'm sitting in a car. pause with my buddies.") and we said we'd wait until his father got there so that he wasn't sitting in the rain with all of his stuff, and then we made straight for ATL as HRH had a 6:30 a.m. flight out to Toronto this morning. Our incredibly icky hotel room was directly under the flight path and I don't mean a few miles away, I mean planes flying about 50 ft overhead as they prepared to land. Good times.

I was up at 3:15 today to get HRH to the airport on time, and to deal with NorthWorst/Delta (whom I am never ever flying again - if Southwest doesn't fly to a destination, I don't need to go to that destination - that's my new rule) who had sent me an e-mail on Thursday telling me that my 2:30 p.m. flight was canceled and that they had moved me to a 10:30 a.m. flight - which in actuality was better for me, but I was still annoyed because if HRH didn't bring her laptop everywhere she goes, I wouldn't have been able to check my e-mail and find out about the change and in theory could have shown up at ATL at 12:30 for my canceled 2:30 flight). Anyway, I go to check in and it says I can't, so I find a real live person and she tells me that I'm on the 2:30 flight, I explain that I got an e-mail saying it was canceled, she checks again, etc. In the end, I gave the nice lady (she really was pleasant, but her charming personality doesn't make up for NorthWorst's shitty policies) my Southwest credit card to pay an extra $50 so I could get the bloody hell out of the Atlanta airport earlier than 2:30 p.m. (it was at that point 4:50 a.m.) I shall be calling Northwest, sending them a copy of the e-mail which said my flight was canceled and getting my $50 back. Fuckers. At this rate, I can pay an extra $100 for a Southwest flight and still be ahead when you take into account the ridiculous $15 baggage fee and the aggravation of dealing with the world's shittiest airline - Northwest/Delta.

And now it's time for me to get ready to go for dinner. A friend is moving to Atlanta and he leaves tomorrow. I shall miss him but wish him much luck.

I hope you all had a less eventful weekend - or at least less stressful, i.e., didn't have to deal with air travel! ;-)

Vacationing in a Flood Zone

I have proven my drought-breaking abilities once again. I have an airline ticket to Atlanta tomorrow...and if you've been paying attention, you'll know that they've been getting shitloads of rain and been suffering from floods. I'm so excited to be spending my vacation in a flood zone and more than likely a quagmire of mud at Road Atlanta.

You're probably wondering about my claim of drought-breaking. Well, a good 20+ years ago California was suffering from a drought. I made plans to go and visit my aunts in SoCal and NorCal....and it rained the entire freaking time I was there. It started in Los Angeles (where I also started) and it followed me to San Francisco. It rained the entire time I was there, after a few years worth of drought.

Essentially, I'm just letting you know why I won't be posting - all three of you readers who are left. ;-)

Have a great weekend and please pray that somehow Road Atlanta dries up really quickly and I won't be traipsing through mud for the entire time I'm there.

Oh, and the ENTIRE TEN HOURS of Petit Le Mans will be broadcast live on Speed Channel, so check it out for a few minutes on Saturday.

I love live music.

Earlier this summer I received a phone call from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra asking me to consider subscribing to a concert series as I had in the past. As there had been no new rumors about lay-offs at work, and thinking about how much I had missed going to the symphony, I went for it (fewer concerts for about the same amount of money), and tonight was my first concert, and Opening Weekend. I waited until the last minute to find someone to go with me, because when I got the tickets, it just seemed so far away. Oops. I sent an e-mail to my friend RE on Tuesday, but never heard back from him (figuring he's on vacation and doesn't use that handy Out of Office message supplied by most e-mail software programs). Next I tried my friend Carol, but she couldn't (can't remember why), third was my other friend Carol (she thought she had to babysit her granddaughters). I then had the brainstorm to ask one of the engineers from Mexico. He's returning to Mexico in three weeks, and although he's done a lot (hell, he knows how to get downtown which is something my mother can't do although she's lived her entire life) and taken advantage of his time here in Detroit, he hadn't gotten to the symphony.

In my last two years of missing the symphony, the DSO hired a new music director (Leonard Slatkin) to replace Neeme Jarvi (who is irreplaceable in my book) and he was the conductor this evening. As is normal, we started with the national anthem. It's the most amazing thing. How many sporting events have I gone to with tens of thousands of people where everybody is too damn cool to sing the anthem? Not so at the symphony. Everybody stands (of course) and sings proudly. It really is quite moving, at least for us wusses.

After the anthem, the orchestra played Dvorak's Carnival Overture which was spectacular. That was followed by a Sibelius Violin Concerto with soloist Midori. It was fine. The woman at the end of my row, however, was quite impressed because the second it was over she was on her feet yelling Bravo and clapping madly. I have nothing against Sibelius, but he's not my favoritest composer ever. In fact, while listening to it, I was making up a list of My Favorite Composers (mostly in order) which I'm going to share with you...otherwise, that Sibelius was completely wasted. ;-)

1) Mahler - I know he's not universally beloved, but I think he's utterly brilliant. Check out his Symphony #5.
2) Shostakovich - Have you heard his Symphony #7? It's been much too long since I've heard it. I'm getting it out to rectify that problem.
3) Prokofiev - I have two words for you - Alexander Nevsky. Netflix the movie, buy the CD. It's stirring.
4) Tchaikowsky - I like bombast, percussion and, in case you couldn't tell, Russian composers, particularly late 19th Century/early 20th Century Russians.
5) Dvorak - Symphony #9 "From the New World" is special, but don't limit yourself to only that one.
6) Beethoven - Hey, look! Late 18th C / early 19th C and not Russian (yes, I know Mahler and Dvorak aren't Russian). He was my first classical music love.
7) Mozart - I know people who don't like Mozart and I can understand (to a degree), but he has written some beautiful violin concertos.
8) Haydn - I really like his so-called "London" symphonies

After the Sibelius and the intermission, we were treated to Copland's Symphony #3 which is very Copland-esque, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I figured it was a nod toward 9/11 by having an American composer as the main piece of the night.

I don't love all 20th Century music, just for record. Have you heard Messiaen or Boulez? Kill me now. When I lived in SF, I had a six concert series and the SF Symphony likes to play a 20th century piece as their first piece for every concert - at least, that's the way it seemed. Anyway, they all sucked, except for the Benjamin Britten work. I heard a Messsiaen, a Boulez - one of which was described as "repetitive and clangorous" - doesn't that make you want to run out and buy it? - a timpani concerto which was godawful and a viola concerto which wasn't much better.

That said, we were treated to an encore just like Maestro Jarvi used to do, except that Maestro Slatkin actually used a microphone to talk to us (I never could hear a word Neeme said) and he told us that he was going to continue the tradition, except that we wouldn't always get an encore (we always did with Jarvi) and we wouldn't know when we would be so treated. He said he was being humble by playing his own piece as the encore. He got the appropriate laugh and applause with that line. The piece played was called Fin and he said he wrote it when he was in Florida and saw a pod of dolphins swimming. I quite liked it.

Not only did I get to listen to great live music, I got to see Norbert who sits across the aisle from me. He said that he spent the past two years looking for me wondering if I were ever going to show up again. We were both happy to see the other person, even though we only know each other from the symphony and only talk briefly. He knows where I work and was happy to hear I was still employed. I know where he works and was also happy to hear he was still employed. All in all, it was quite a lovely day.

It's now 2:30 a.m., the bar is finally quiet and all the loud, yelling drunks should have gotten to their cars by now, so I'm going to go to bed.

Happy Labor Day Weekend! August Books & Movies

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

I hope everybody has fabulous plans for the last real weekend of summer. The weather here in Michigan is finally supposed to be nice. 70s and sunny all weekend long! Woohoo!!! I'm going to sit outside Sunday and Monday.

Saturday is Yarn Fest Aught-Nine (that's what a co-worker named it) which means heading up to Port Huron to Mary Maxim's for the end of their August Tent Sale (better sale prices than at the beginning of the sale) for our third straight year. I have a list, so I'm not buying all willy-nilly (which will probably still happen – sigh – because I have ZERO self control when it comes to yarn), theoretically.

Last night I crawled into my lovely warm soft comfy bed at 9:00 p.m., got all settled with both cats cuddled with me in their preferred locations (Boris at the knees, Igor at my upper arm) when we all got the ever-livin' shit scared out of us when fireworks started going off about 3 blocks from my apt. The cats lost their minds and were gone before the first firework faded. My heart started racing from the adrenaline of the cats rocketing off the bed, and it didn't stop for an hour.

To me, it looked like they were going off from my "favorite" bar, Crave, and I was secretly hoping one would backfire and burn the fucking place down (while not affecting any of the adjoining businesses or hurting anybody). I texted Urs to find out if she had a freaking clue why there were fireworks on Thursday, Sept. 3. She, of course – being the in-touch person she is (she follows the city on Twitter) – knew that the City was setting off the fireworks that had gotten rained out during Homecoming (first weekend of August). I believe my response to her text about settling in with a cup of tea because it was "promised to be the biggest of the year" was "Oh, for fuck's sake! My heart's still pounding from the initial shock." She laughed and said she could hear me saying "Oh, for fuck's sake" and that it was appropriate because her house was shaking as if we were having an earthquake and her dog was barking like mad.

After they were finally over I went looking for the kids. I never found Igor, but Boris was under the couch as low to the ground as he could go and looking out at me with HUGE eyes. Poor sweet pea. I told him it was all over and okay to come out, but he chose not to believe me and figured he was safer under the couch. I petted him for a bit and then went to bed where I had to practice deep breathing exercises in a worthless attempt calming myself.

Honestly, a Thursday??? What was wrong with any of the nights of this coming weekend? Bloody stupid decision making. I'm guessing City Council didn't work today.

My August Books and Movies follow…

Books

40. The Eight by Katherine Neville (598 pages) – This book should sound familiar because I'm pretty sure I've talked about it previously. It's my favorite book which is saying something since when I first read the back cover of the book way back when in the mid-90s I thought to myself, "Dear God, historical fiction about chess. This is going to suck." The premise was that there was a mystical chess set that had belonged to Charlemagne and had been buried in a convent in the Pyrenees because it was so dangerous, but the nuns dug it up during the French Revolution because the Bishop of Autun had passed a law which allowed the government to acquire all of the church's belongings. The chess set ends up dispersed across the lands and the story switches from the time of the French Revolution to early 1970s New York & Morocco. It's called The Game and there is a white team and a black team (the Black team is the good guys). At any rate, I started reading it (it was a Monday, I remember, because my plan was to start it that night but return it to the friend who had lent it to me the next night at the bar and back then Tuesday was bar night) and it hooked me immediately. Now, I do not enjoy the game of chess, although I technically know how to play in that I know how each piece moves, and a book about chess could not be good obviously. I was so wrong. I've now read the book three times with each subsequent time me wondering if it was going to stand the test of time. It does. I re-read it this time because Katherine Neville had finally come out with a sequel and I wanted to refresh my memory before diving in.

41. The Fire by Katherine Neville (451 pages) – The thing that struck me about reading The Eight this time was how prescient she had been about oil consumption, etc. And oil raised its head in The Fire. I enjoyed The Fire, but wish it had been longer and dealt with the historical aspect a bit more. I don't want to give away too much but suffice it to say that The Game starts up again with descendents of The Game played in the 1970s and a few players who are still around. It's a perfectly good book, but just not as good as The Eight.

42. The Kindness Handbook: A Practical Companion by Sharon Salzberg (172 pages) – This is a book I got from one of my book clubs by not stopping the stupid automatic shipment. It's about treating yourself and others with lovingkindness which in this book is one word. It was okay, but required more effort than I was willing to put forward right before bedtime (which is when I read this).

I wasn't a complete slacker book-wise, although it looks it. I'd also read about 180 pages of Fordlandia and 200 pages of Sophie's World. I could have finished Fordlandia if I had concentrated on it, but I'm finding it a bit difficult to read because that project was an incredible bit of cluster-fuckededness.

Book of the Month: I'm going to break my own rule here and choose The Eight (not that I don't think you should read The Fire as well).

Movies

I did much better on movies than I did books.

38. (8/1) Sands of Oblivion - 2007 (Sci-Fi) – I had DVRd this movie because it has Morena Baccarin and Adam Baldwin of Firefly in it. Wow, did it suck. If you want to read a synopsis, click the link. I'm not wasting my time.

39. (8/7) America - 2009 (Lifetime) – Another movie watched solely because it was filmed in metro Detroit . This one has Rosie O'Donnell working as a psychiatrist/social worker with at-risk youths in a group home. The title character was just a Detroit kid that Rosie saw in a downtown Detroit restaurant that had the look she wanted. My favorite trivia from the interviews were when she went over to his family having dinner, they said, "You're Roseanne Barr, right?" And she responded, "Close enough." I thought that was hilarious. The movie was what you'd expect from Lifetime – a tear-jerker and a bit overdone, but I thought the actors did a really good job.

40. (8/7) Witness for the Prosecution - 1957 (TCM) – From the TCM website was this synopsis, "A British lawyer (Charles Laughton) gets caught up in a couple's (Marlene Dietrich & Tyrone Power) tangled marital affairs when he defends the husband for murder." This is the movie where I first heard/saw Marlene Dietrich singing which had me in stitches thinking about Blazing Saddles and Madeline Kahn. I had always thought she exaggerated the singing style, but she didn't. Elsa Lanchester (you'll recognize her from Murder by Death and Mary Poppins) was very funny as the annoying nurse trying to take care of Charles Laughton's character.

41. (8/9) The Breakfast Club - 1985 (K) – I'm pretty sure I don't need to tell anybody about The Breakfast Club (or the following two movies). This was my John Hughes Retrospective Sunday.

42. (8/9) Pretty In Pink - 1986 (K) – Same as The Breakfast Club. For the record, having been a teenaged girl, the ending is what a teenaged girl would have wanted, so anybody who argues that she should have ended up with Duckie, stop thinking like an adult and try thinking like a teenaged girl.

43. (8/9) Ferris Bueller's Day Off - 1986 (K) – I have nothing fabulous to add, although I think there is some interesting trivia re: this movie. 1) the house where Cameron lived was put up for sale within the past few months. 2) The actor that played the principal had a run-in with the police re: child pornography. Try watching that movie now knowing that and think how much ickier it makes him.

44. (8/10) Quills - 2000 (N) – I have to say that I did not really enjoy this movie. I don't think it was as bad as Sands of Oblivion, but I still wouldn’t recommend it to anybody. The people at Yahoo! Movies gave it a rating of B…no way in hell it would get a rating that high from me. The acting was quite good, but I think it was a bit over the top.

45. (8/16 & 17) Coraline - 2008 (MKJ) – I love Neil Gaiman and I enjoyed the book. The movie is very well done, but as is usual it didn't follow the book and although I did listen to the commentary and the director/writer explained away his differences, I want to go on record that I do not pronounce "Pontiac" that way. I did enjoy looking for the teeny tiny knitted items she wore… ;-) The funny thing is that I borrowed this from a woman at work whose daughter loved the movie, but hadn't read the book. I gathered up all my Neil Gaiman and lent them to the daughter who read Coraline but didn't really like Neil's writing style, so wasn't even going to try the rest of the books. Does anybody else wonder if Neil is generational, i.e., appeals to those of us who are about his age, but teens/young adults don't get him?

46. (8/22) To Catch A Thief - 1955 (TCM) – Yes, I own this movie, but I have lent it to a girl from work and when I was over visiting some friends, I noticed they had it recorded on their DVR and I said what a good movie it is. Amy asked if it were appropriate for her second oldest (13?). Heck yes! It's 1955 and Hitchcock. I covered his eyes during the kissing scene (which he probably didn't want to see anyway). Her oldest son (16?) had been the one who recorded it, so I'm excited that kids these days appreciate old movies. Amy thinks he has an old soul. So, next time I go over, I'm going to take some old films.

47. (8/22) Flushed Away - 2006 (Amy) –Yeah, I know I just watched this, but the younger kids had come home by the end of To Catch A Thief, so we picked a kids movie. What can I say? I like this movie.

48. (8/23) Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - 2006 (N) – Another movie, like Quills, that I picked because it had some good actors in it and I thought the premise sounded intriguing. Not so much in actuality. I think the murderer was supposed to come across as sympathetic, but he didn't. Even though he was supposed to be some sort of perfume genius, he came across as slow and I don't mean like a turtle or a snail.

49. (8/29) Religulous - 2008 (N) – I enjoyed the movie, although I have to say that I thought the Catholics came across as the most with-it of the religious people interviewed, which probably helped my feelings toward it. If you're religious and believe the earth is only 6000 years old, you'll hate it, so don't waste your time. I can't argue with someone who takes on the Creationism museum.

50. (8/29) RocknRolla - 2008 (F) – If you liked Guy Ritchie's Snatch and/or Lock, Stock and Smoking Barrell, you'll like this movie. It's your typical Guy Ritchie British caper film. It was fun with excellent actors (Thandie Newton, Tom Wilkinson, Gerard Butler), and a set-up at the end for a sequel.

Movie of the Month: I'm following my own rules for this pick (meaning I have to pick something I haven't seen before): RocknRolla.

I hope you all have a great Labor Day!

Quote of the Day

"I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the general public never harbored any fantasies about one day owning a 1985 Dodge Diplomat." JM, 9/1/2009

I laughed out loud sitting at my desk.

More of Nothing - including too close to home school bombing

Let's see, how will I bore you now? I have no news on my medical issues – couldn't get in to see the doctor for the more invasive tests until after Labor Day – so I'm guessing that's supposed to indicate a "no big deal" kind of thing…still, do we ever feel it's no big deal when it's happening to us?

I had a lovely birthday, thanks for all the well wishes. Actual day of I went to my favorite bar after work and had a boatload of work friends show up. The weather was decent (didn't rain, although it threatened later in the evening) and I decided to celebrate my birthday with margaritas. Yum.

I've been working for my current company for 9 years, but it's a pretty big company, so I don't know everybody. Anyway, someone said to me, "So-and-so came to your party." Now, I had zero clue who So-and-so was, but turns out he's kind of high up. Whatever, besides he wasn't there for my party, he was there with his own department. One of my friends is fairly high up (it's all relative at my company as the hierarchy is a bit insane) and knew this man. He talked to him and then brought him over to say Hi. So-and-So asked what the occasion was and I said it was my birthday, and these were my friends. He asked what department, and I said, "Well, that group's from this program, these here are from this department, blah blah blah." He then asked, "Well, what department are you?" So, I told him, but I could tell he was a little thrown by the diverse group. It's normal to go out with your own department, but to make friends in other departments?? That's weird. That's what I get for working with a bunch of engineers. ;-)

Every morning (or most), I go to www.freep.com to check on Detroit news and then I go to www.sfgate.com, mostly for the Day in Pictures, but also to see what's going on in the Bay area. This morning, I got quite a shock. Did anybody outside the Bay area hear about a bombing at a local high school? I know I didn't.

The reason it was such a shock is that it was at the high school near my aunt's house which means that I was pretty sure it was my cousin's school. I jumped on Facebook (See? It is useful.) to check my cousin's status. Sure enough, it was her school. I damn near had a heart attack. Nobody was injured and my cousin didn't even know about the bombing until she was evacuated because she was on the other side of the school, but still. This 17-year-old apparent drop-out had made ten pipe bombs (he detonated two, before being rushed by two teachers into another teacher and the three tackled him to the ground), a sword and a chain saw. Supposedly, the plan was that as students came running out of classrooms to escape the bombs that he would attack them with the sword and the chain saw. Thanks to quick acting teachers and the principal, he was swiftly subdued and we have a happy ending.

Does anybody want to come to Detroit and go to the Zoo with me? I want to go, but won't go alone – it's too boring not to have somebody with whom to share the zoo and the animals' antics. Complete strangers think you're a weirdo if you talk to them and I need someone to whom I can say, "Oh, look how cute the rhinos are."

Really Nothing - Revised

Hey all, it's been too long since I've blogged. I'd like to say it's because I've been doing something fabulous, but that would be a bald-faced lie. I haven't felt like doing anything at all. I've barely done any knitting. I've made a few rosaries (with two more to make), but I've actually been watching TV without doing anything else at the same time. That is so not like me.

I write great blog entries in my head when I'm nowhere near a computer, but now that I have the time and inclination, I can't remember those great blog entries in which I'm brilliantly clever and funny.

I just read this story and dammit! It makes it really hard to hate the Yankees organization. It made me cry - I'm a wuss, I readily admit it.

This morning I heard on the radio something that had me scratching my head, questioning whether Americans really are this stupid. The report was that GM had done a study where they found out that people didn't know that Chevy and Cadillac were brands of theirs (apparently Chevys and Cadillacs are selling, while anything with a GM badge wasn't – I'm thinking GMCs), so they were going to start NOT badging their GMCs – no clue what they're going to call them, but to those of you who don't live in southeastern Michigan, is this true? People don't know that Chevy and Cadillac are GM brands? Along with Pontiac and Buick? Even if they are killing off the Pontiac brand (something they should have done before they killed Oldsmobile, IMHO).

One of my co-workers was pregnant, due at the end of September, so I made her some cute little booties and then started a sweater to go with the booties as I chose red yarn and I figured babies don't get a boatload of red clothing. Anyway, I say she was pregnant because she gave birth Friday night – six weeks early – and the darn sweater isn't done!!! Because as I pointed out earlier I haven't been doing a damn thing, not even knitting. So, now I need to finish the sweater, and then make a preemie hat. I'm thinking that if I could find an adorable dress in white with red swiss dots that the red sweater and booties would be perfect. Hmm.

Hmm is right. I reached a point in the sweater where I don't know what the hell to do, so I packed it up to take to work tomorrow, so my friend Mary can help me. She's an amazing knitter and doesn't let little things like Cast on 2 stitches in the middle of a row worry her. So, I've started a hat.

My birthday is tomorrow and I have to tell you that I got the most amazing present from a group of my friends...a hand-painted picture of Ian Curtis by someone I actually know. She's a very nice young woman (that's how you can tell I'm old - I have a good 20+ years on her) and I'm honored to have her art in my house, as corny as that sounds.



I received some not so fabulous medical news today. I won't know anything for a few weeks, but in the meantime, if you could keep me in your thoughts and prayers (if you're so inclined), that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

And because it has been requested...CATBLOGGING!!!

16 Books - July Books & Movies

Happy last day of July, everybody! Sorry about no post last week, but we had a funeral to attend which brought the LB to town, so Saturday was spent watching le Tour and then heading to Grandma's condo for a big family get together. It was nice. I got to see some cousins that I haven't seen in quite awhile and aunts and uncles.

I enjoyed the heck out of the Tour de France this year, especially since it's the last sport I truly enjoy, sadly it only lasts three weeks. I wish Versus would show the Vuelta a Espana.

Here are the books and movies I read and watched in July.

Books

32. Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling - 870 pages - 2005 - I wanted to re-read book 6 before I saw the movie and thought it would be smart to re-read the fifth book, before the sixth one.

33. Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling - 652 pages - 2007 - Ditto.

34. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling - 759 pages - Well, after I had re-read the previous two, I had to finish the series, didn't I?

35. Fade by Kyle Mills - 344 pages - 2005 - I had read Kyle Mills' previous books and this had been out for a while (as you can see), but I finally picked it up. If you haven't discovered Kyle Mills yet and you like thrillers you are missing out. His books are meticulously researched and his characters are flawed but likable. In this one the title character, Fade, is an Arab-American who had been a Navy SEAL and ended up injured on a mission. The US government wouldn't pay for the very complicated surgery he needed and he ended up angry and embittered. However, the government now needs his special skills, but he won't play ball.

36. The Second Horseman by Kyle Mills - 339 pages - 2006 - In this one, a career thief, Brandon Vale, is busted out of jail by the person who put him there (for a crime he hadn't done), because he needs Brandon's special talents. There are WMDs, millions of dollars, behind-the-scene string pulling, and Israel-Arab tensions.

37. A Darker Place by Jack Higgins - 337 pages - 2009 - I've been a Jack Higgins fan since The Eagle Has Landed. I've read everything I've been able to find. It seems he's phasing out Sean Dillon (it's about time, he's got to be at least 65 by now) and Charles Ferguson (he's got to be at least 85), but I'm waiting to see where he's going with it. In this one, we had a Russian defector who wasn't quite what he seemed. It was less formulaic that I thought his previous few had been. He's still a classic thriller writer.

38. Darkness Falls by Kyle Mills - 299 pages - 2007 - This was very much a doomsday type scenario book. It scared the ever-livin' shit out of me. Again, the research done by Kyle Mills was extraordinary, this time into oil wells, production, fields, etc. I was especially happy to see that he had brought back Mark Beamon (from his first few books). Previously he was an FBI agent, in Darkness Falls he's the head of the energy department of Homeland Security, and he needs to find out why some major oil wells have stopped producing.

39. Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich - 308 pages - 2009 - This might have been the one that pushes me over the edge on reading anymore of these. She blew up at least four cars in this one. I don't know why Ms. Evanovich think it's necessary for her plot line to blow up cars so regularly, but I'm really over it. The YS has bought the last two books, so at least I'm not wasting my money on these.

Movies

33. (500) Days of Summer (Theatre) - 2009 - I loved this movie. I had wanted to see it after I had gotten my VSL newsletter. I laughed out loud a lot, as did most of the crowd at the Detroit "premiere." My friend Katie had free passes and asked me to go when she watched the trailer and saw the lead actor wearing a Joy Division t-shirt. When she asked, I said, "Oh yes, I've been wanting to see that movie." The best part of the movie was that he wore THREE Joy Division t-shirts in it. Two were Unknown Pleasures but one when he was a teenager and another as an adult, along with a Love Will Tear Us Apart t-shirt.

34. Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix (K) - 2007 - I had to rewatch the movie before seeing the sixth movie. It sucked just as much as it did the first time around. Read the books, people, they're so much better than the movies.

35. Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince (Theatre) - 2009 - I already gave my opinion on this movie at Zombieslayer's place. I have to agree with ZS's assessment that the director sucked. It's the same director as Order of the Phoenix and when a certain character dies and I don't cry...that's a problem...same as in the fifth when another major character had died. I sobbed my way through the end of the book (every time I read it), but the movie was so badly done, I didn't cry. I'm highly annoyed. We won't even discuss the bizarre addition of the burning of The Burrows. WTF was up with that???

36. The Children's Hour (N) - 1961 - Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine own an all-girl's school and are working hard to keep it going. There's a mean, vindictive girl there who spreads a story about them because she had been disciplined. All the parents take the girls out of the school and the women are destroyed. It was friggin' depressing, but it was really well done.

37. Momma's Man (N) - 2008 - I thought this was going to be a comedy and watched it after I watched The Children's Hour thinking it would cheer me up. Yeah, not so much. This was another recommendation from VSL, but I have to say that I did not love it. In fact, I would say that it fights with HP & the Order of the Phoenix for last place in Movie of the Month.

Book of the Month: Fade by Kyle Mills (it was hard since I had read three Kyle Mills and they were all great, but I loved Fade most). Please give him a chance. if you don't want to spend money, go to the library. He really is a brilliant writer and super nice as he responds to every e-mail - I've written to him twice now (last time after I had finished Smoke Screen a good 3-4 years ago and this time after Fade).

Movie of the Month: (500) Days of Summer - There's a line in this movie that is so worth watching. It made giggle for a good five minutes after it was said. It might have been a little juvenile, but it was still stinking funny.

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Sixteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First sixteen you can recall in no more than 16 minutes. Tag 16 friends, including me because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose. (A friend tagged me on Facebook, but I figured what the heck I'd share with you kids, too.)

As this took me over a week to do, I'm obviously not big on rules.

1. The Eight by Katherine Neville
2. Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity by Bruce Bawer
3. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
4. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
5. The Sewing Circles of Herat by Christina Lamb
6. Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis by Jimmy Carter
7. Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O'Reilly by Joseph Minton Amann & Tom Breuer
8. Alex Zanardi: My Sweetest Victory: A Memoir of Racing Success, Adversity & Courage by Alex Zanardi, Gian Luca Gasparini & Mario Andretti
9. The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins
10. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
11. Aztec by Gary Jennings
12. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
13. The Dante Club by Arturo Perez-Reverte
14. The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason
15. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
16. Torn Apart: The Life of Ian Curtis by Mick Middles & Lindsay Reade

Cat Scratch Saturday - Igor

Happy Saturday, everybody.

I've been busy already today. I got up late which happens when you're tired, but can't go to bed before 2:30 a.m. because of the stupid bar district. I got my fat butt on the treadmill this morning and then walked to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and since I was only a block away I continued on to the fruit market. Once I got home I did dishes and even though I haven't eaten I just don't feel like cooking anything. It's not hot or anything, I just have reached the point where I don't feel like doing anything resembling housekeeping, so I kind of blew it all on the dishes.

I knitted four whole rows last night on my sweater after not knitting at all for over a week. It's not because it's summer and it's too hot to knit, because it's not hot at all. Today's high is supposed to be 68F...it's July, dammit!!! I want to be outside sitting in the sun!!! Perhaps napping. I think I have too much yarn now, because I'm overwhelmed with everything I have to knit, so I choose to do nothing. Hmmm, not good.

I'm very bummed re: le Tour de France as my favorite guy, Levi Leipheimer, broke his wrist on Thursday, which means he had to abandon le Tour. Bums me out, not that he really had a chance since Lance and Alberto are considered the true GC guys of Team Astana, so unless something drastic happened to either of them, Levi wasn't going to win, but hope springs eternal...or did.

Well, it's Saturday and that means Catblogging. I realised that the last five catbloggings (at least) have been of Boris. It's not that I don't love Igor, it's just that Boris is much more photogenic. Igor, being black, is much harder to photograph, but here he is.



Last weekend, I drove to Pittsburgh. HRH wanted to get the heck out of her town since the Icky Racing League were there and she hates them even more than I do (nominally). I also had to get some very cool Champ Car memorabilia to C&C and it was something that I couldn't mail or take on a plane as it would look fairly bombish. Turns out that Pittsburgh is about 4-4.5 hours drive for all of us. We all travel well together as we're easy-going about doing this, that or the other thing. HRH found vintage racing at BeaveRun race track. It wasn't a great day for racing as it was wet and a tad chilly, but we had fun nonetheless, once the rain stopped and the cars came back out on the track. Old race cars are cool and I love seeing them race. Heck, I got to root for a Pinto!!

Pittsburgh is a beautiful city built as it is at the confluence of three rivers and surrounded by high hills/small mountains covered in trees. They were having a street art festival. It wasn't overly large, but the first booth I saw was a woman who handspins and hand-dyes her own yarns. I supported her and picked up a very pretty hank of wool dyed in blues. I like to support independent artists and stores.

I hope everybody is having a good weekend. I want to go for sushi, but it probably won't happen. *sigh*

Hodgepodge to annoy LL & the Good Doctor

Along with consistent catblogging to annoy LL to the nth degree (no, I haven't forgiven you for the whole Crosby thing yet), I've decided to tell you what I've been up to...my friend Stephanie (from work) told me that I should occasionally knit for myself (I rarely do) and I was telling her about Beth and she said, You two need to pick a month when you knit only for yourselves. It was an idea that piqued my interest. So, I wrote to Beth and said that during the month of June we needed to knit something for us. And since we are who we are, we still knitted for others, but we had to work on something for ourselves more.

I had bought a number of knitting books in June and I chose this sweater (I liked the pattern, but even better, I had the necessary yarn) from them. In case that link doesn't work perfectly, it's on page 30 and it's pink - while mine is most definitely not.

I have finished the back and have started the front and I could have probably come close to finishing the knitting part of it this weekend, but I spent it re-reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in preparation of re-reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince prior to seeing the movie next week. It's going to be an exciting month of movie watching as I've already seen one in the movie theater, and with HP6 coming out, that'll be TWO movies in one month in the theatre. It's craziness...and it'll probably be it for the year, unless I can catch HP6 at the IMAX.

Is anybody watching le Tour de France? I love it and am excited about this season and hoping like hell there's no bloody stupid doping scandal(s) this year. I'll be happy with any number of winners - the only one I don't want to see win is Cadel Evans. Anybody but him and I'll be pleased as punch - unless he's improved on his personality since last year - which I doubt.

Happy Canada Day (plus One)

Sorry to abandon you all so abruptly (especially you, LL, I know how much you appreciate Catblogging), but Thursday was spent packing and downloading pictures to my computer (from the February Vegas trip) and then putting 2007 pictures on disk to save up room on the computer hard drive. I left early on Friday from work for Baltimore where I was until Tuesday. I was visiting my friend Rebecca and her family, and on Sunday I got to visit with my friend LT and his family, including my beloved Tyler.



Apparently, Boris doesn't just love boxes, but anything of a particular beige color. How can you not love catblogging, LL???

Wouldn't it be crazy if I listed June's books and movies early in July instead of waiting until August or September, as I seem to be doing of late?

I did really well book-wise.

Books

21. Wicked Prey by John Sandford - 402 pages - John Sandford is one of those authors whose books I buy as soon as I see it's available (and then lend it to a friend, after I read it). His books can include some violence, but I find them enthralling and I read them pretty quickly. You don't really need to read the Prey books in order, so you can pick this one up w/o worrying about really missing anything, but I think you'll want to read them all once you start.

22. Fables: Legends in Exile #1 by Bill Willingham, et al - 125 pages - My friends Katie and Dan own Green Brain Comics and since I like to support my friends in their businesses, I asked Katie to recommend some comics/graphic novels that I would enjoy. I have never been much of a fan of short stories, which is kind of how I view comics, but I love fairy tales and I loved The Sandman series way back when, so I was willing to try something different. Fables' main theme is that the fairy tales characters were chased out of their own lands by something called The Nemesis (I think) and are now living in New York City. In this volume, someone seems to have killed Rose Red and Snow White puts the Wolf (who looks human for some reason - which is interesting since all the other animals are still animals) on the case to find out who did it. I thought it was quite well done, although I'm still in novel mode as I don't always remember that I'm supposed to look at the pictures. DUH.

23. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway - 213 pages - A friend from work bought me this book after she had told me about it and I thought it sounded really interesting, especially since I was reading Shakespeare and Company already (only at night, so while I started it before the Hemingway book, I finished it afterward). Both are about Paris in the 20s and about all the ex-pats, mostly writers, who lived there.

24. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - 312 pages - I love Neil Gaiman and this book is no exception. While it might sound gruesome, it was really a very sweet story about a boy whose entire family is killed one night (he was supposed to be as well), but he had crawled out of his crib and found himself in a graveyard where the "ghosts" of the inhabitants took him in and kept the assassin from getting to him.

25. Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon - 87 pages - This is volume #2 in the Serenity graphic novel series. I'm enjoying these and I think the artists have done a great job in capturing everybody's likeness - some better than other, but still, enough to make me happy - old guy love and all.

26. Shakespeare & Company by Sylvia Beach - 220 pages - I liked this book better than the Hemingway book even though it was about the same period. I didn't know anything about the Paris bookstore when I bought this book, but it sounded quite interesting. Sylvia Beach owned the English-language bookstore in Paris until WWII. It was also a lending library for people who couldn't afford to buy books. She was also the first publisher of James Joyce's Ulysses which was banned in the U.S. and Great Britain. She also supported (it seems) Joyce, money-wise, but she didn't seem to mind, even though it seemed to me that he took advantage.

27. Fables: Animal Farm #2 by Bill Willingham, et al - 127 pages - The animals, save the Wolf as I've already mentioned, from fairy tales are stuck living on The Farm because, I guess, talking animals living in New York City would freak regular non-fable people out. Anyway, the animals revolt lead by two of the three pigs (a tad reminiscent of Orwell). It was quite good. I'm proud of myself for branching out into comic books, even if I am limiting it, so far, to Fables and Serenity.

28. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling - 111 pages - I think J.K. Rowling is awfully clever to write fairy tales for witches. Maybe I'm easily impressed, but these are the stories she mentioned in the Harry Potter books. And if you go to that link, you can even hear her read one of the tales.

29. The Sorcerer's Companion by Allan Zola Kronzek & Elizabeth Kronzek - 274 pages - This was written in an encyclopedic way, but I read it in order. It was interesting, and was well-researched, I thought. For example, it discussed dragons and how they were scary in Europe, but considered good luck in Asia - with a bit more information than that. ;-)

30. Things I Learned About Knitting...Whether I Wanted To or Not by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee aka The Yarn Harlot - 160 pages - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is an absolutely hysterical writer of knitting books. If you're not a knitter, you might not appreciate her writing fully, but omigod, I laughed out loud a lot while reading this book.

31. Facing the Extreme: One Woman's Story Of True Courage And Death-Defying Survival In The Eye Of Mt. McKinley's Worst Storm Ever by Ruth Anne Kocour with Michael Hodgson - 273 pages - I needed a book to take to Baltimore with me and this one won out because it was small enough to fit in my purse. I read it Tuesday and it proved to me that while I love reading mountaineering books, I have no desire ever to climb a mountain, especially one where it snows. It wasn't the best mountaineering book I've ever had, but it was pretty good.

Book of the Month - The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Movies

27. - 6/6 - The Paradine Case (TCM) - 1947 - This movie was unavailable for a while on DVD, so when it came up on TCM (last June 26 - yeah, it was on my DVR for damn near a year), I DVRd it. After watching it a second time, I realised that this is a Hitchcock film I don't need to own. It's not that it's bad. It's just not a very happy film and it makes me sad to see Gregory Peck so pathetic.

28. - 6/7 - Bell, Book and Candle (TCM) - 1958 - I remembered seeing this movie many many years ago and wanted to see it again as I remembered liking it. Tastes change as we get older, I've discovered. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't extraordinarily fabulous. I wasn't in love with Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart together in Vertigo, and it didn't work for me here either.

29. - 6/7 - The Last Metro (N) - 1980 - This is about a famous Jewish French play director during WWII who goes into hiding (supposedly left the country), while his wife, Catherine Deneuve, continues to run the theater with a very young Gerard Depardieu as leading man in the new play. It was told as a true story...no clue if it is. It helped keep me in my WWI/Nazi theme of the past couple months. *sigh* So uplifting.

30. - 6/26 - Flushed Away (RR) - 2006 - When you visit friends with a 5-year-old you end up watching animated films - not that I'm complaining, because I love animated films, and I got to see two (see #32) new ones (okay, new to me). I love Aardman and this came from them. It was very cute. Premise: Roddy is a pet rat who gets flushed down the toilet by a pretty disgusting rat and he spends the movie trying to get back to his cushy life as a pet. He meets up with the usual cast of characters - bad guys with an evil plan, normal rats living their lives, love interest, etc. And, of course, learns what is actually important in life.

31. - 6/26 - After The Thin Man (K) - 1936 - I had sent my DVD excel spreadsheet to my friend Rebecca on Thursday to see if there were any movies she wanted me to bring and she asked for a Thin Man movie. The first one is lent to a friend from work, so I brought the 2nd one. I love the Nick and Nora movies and this one has a very young James Stewart. If you haven't ever seen one, please do yourself a favor and watch them. They are quite clever and what is funnier than a police detective getting all angry and swearing heartily by saying "Phooey."

32. - 6/27 - Robots (RR) - 2005 - This was my second children's movie of the weekend (and better than my other option of Madagascar 2 which I had seen and wasn't overly fond of). I quite liked this...I thought the main character robot was cute and it was a lovely story appealing to my socialist heart. ;-)

Movie of the Month - The Last Metro (although I'm more likely to watch Flushed Away again, as it was a tad happier)

Cat Scratch Wednesday

How adorable is Boris in this picture? With his little chin resting on his elbow. So sweet!

Cat Scratch Tuesday

This is my very beloved Tikal shortly before I had to have him put to sleep because of a tumor underneath his tongue which wasn't letting him eat.




First off, LL, Derian Hatcher was never The Face of the Red Wings, much less the preferred face of the NHL.

But if you want to root for somebody like this...



I guess that's your prerogative.

Cat Scratch Monday

I find it a lot easier to take pics of Boris as Igor is so dark and he fades into the background...but here he is, oh so relaxed, and you can see his cute six-toed paw(s).

Really, LL, you root for this guy???

Cat Scratch Sunday

LL will learn not to say shit he really knows better about saying...I'm keeping my threat of catblogging for a week. ;-)



This is The Libertarian's cat, Carbon.