Riddle Me This

I post a lot. A whole whole bunch.

On Facebook.

If you aren't my friend Over There, comment, email, whatevs. Find me and you will hear so much more of my day to day.

Because blogging is so early 2009.

We Surround Them

I grew up in a “traditional” home. God-fearing parents who sent us off to church on Sunday. Raised strictly by parents who may have had occasional marital problems, but worked through them out of love for each other, for my sister and I, and because they simply knew no other way than to stay married.

Though they had my sister when they were just out of high school, they strove to raise my sister and I with certain values. Honesty, humility, sincerity, courage.

Hard work and personal responsibility were driven into us. A requirement.

Thrift was a necessity as we did not have much money growing up. Gratitude for what we did have was taught over each meal, each gift we received.

Charity was never discussed. We didn’t volunteer or donate money. Charity was in our hearts. If someone needed a place to stay, they stayed over. If someone needed something, we shared what we had.

Now that I am older, about to marry and am thinking about children, I have come to believe in certain principles.

1. America is good.
2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
6. I have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

I don’t believe many people can disagree with the values and principles recited above. The government, over the last 50 years has encroached on these values and principles. It has pushed against our freedoms and have sanctioned actions that I simply find deplorable.

This is not a fight against Obama, or the Democrats, or the Republicans. This is a fight against the government as a whole encroaching on our lives.

It is time America started standing up for itself. We have cowered too long in silence as our renegade government has enslaved us more and more each day. We have to take action, and this may very well be the first step.

I encourage you to take action, and go to one of the many meet-ups that are being organized to view this program. Take that first step, and acquaint yourselves with your fellow citizens who still give a damn about this country and what’s right.

There is strength in numbers and in the unification of people with a common cause.




http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/21018/
http://wesurroundthemmap.com

The Post Where I Show That I Am Absolutely Nucking Futs

The most sure-fire way to ensure I will not accomplish something is to tell people that I will do it.

Logically, the exact opposite would occur. I would feel responsible to complete the project, go to the whatever, buy the widget, see the movie, write the blog post. However, in reality, if I tell you I will do something, I won’t do it.

Several weeks back, I said that I had a post to write about the thrills of homeownership. Of course, I never wrote it.

However, due to my new to-do listing, I keep being confronted by the fact that I owe the internets a blog post regarding the big hole in my backyard. I have pictures of it. I have thoughts and angry funny comments stewing in my brain, yet my stubborn side doesn’t want to put it down on paper.

Instead, let’s talk about this to-do list project.

First off, I am a major stress-aholic.

I take on way too many things and then freak out about them.

If my home, life, car, relationship, pets, clothes, backyard, aren’t in tip top shape, I worry about them.

If there is something I can worry about, I will.

I always have things on my mind. Things I MUST COMPLETE NOW OR DIE. Things I MUST CLEAN OR DIE. Things I MUST DO TO SLEEP AT NIGHT OR DIE.

I may be a bit psychotic. (If Not Craig is reading, I would appreciate your silence. K.Thx.Bai.)

I also read a lot of blogs. And some of those blogs frequently mention, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. A book - slash - way of organizing - slash - living by David Allen.

Recently, the stress of buying a home, planning a wedding, having a puppy that likes to destroy furniture, clothing and various cleaning implements all while peeing on my brand new floors 10 times a day, became a bit much for me. I decided to check out the book.

Of course, like any internet addict would do, I also googled “GTD” as it is known by its followers (yea, fo realz, I swear it has a cult following.) and read many, many things about it.

I then began to use one of the most highly recommended applications.

Remember The Milk: this is an online to-do list. You can email to-do’s to the list, you can have daily reminders emailed to you, you can set the tasks to recur on whatever frequency you so desire, you can postpone, you can organize your to-do’s into all sorts of lists. It is an incredibly useful tool.


I began using RTM like mad. Adding all sorts of tasks. Things big like “Plan a wedding” and things small like “Watch Glenn Beck 1/19 on Fox” Important events like changing the air filters in my house and fertilizing the lawn and getting the dog his shots. The ever-critical items like dusting the tops of my kitchen cabinets. I have been adding huge tasks and ridiculous minutiae to my RTM page.

Then, as is my modus operandi, I worried that maybe I wasn’t listing all the things I needed to remember. I thought of a ton of things while driving home from work. What about those tasks?

The point of GTD [for die-hard GTD’ers, I am a newbie, so I will be oversimplifying I am sure (for non-GTD’ers, see it is a cult – I am fearful of being caught and exposed for my lack of GTDing-ness.)] is to get things out of your head and onto a list of action items, any little task, idea, desire, needs to be captured so it is not swimming in your brain, making you panic at the thought of forgetting the thought. So before I even finished the first chapter of GTD, I thought I was going to be a big failure because I wasn’t capturing the items that happened to occur to me when I was over 2.5 feet from a computer (which only occurs during my commute, because I have an illness.)

In order to stop the panic attacks, I searched for something to capture these driving induced to-do’s and I found Reqall. Which may very well be 100x greater than sliced bread AND New Kids on the Block combined.

You call ReQall. And speak, tell them what is worrying you, what amazing task you must accomplish, like “Look for Yoda’s vet records and ensure that she will not die due to being vaccinated 10 days late.” Then Reqall transcribes what you said and emails it to you, so you can add it to your to-do list.

I know I am sounding like such a freak already, but I swear, this is a true story. One night I got home and checked my email to find 10 Reqall messages from myself. Ya’ll, I live 20 miles from my office. I apparently called in tasks every 2 miles.

The super awesome added bonus to Reqall is that if you don’t speak clearly, or have an accent, or a static-y connection, Reqall provides built in entertainment. Apparently, I need to write a blog post on the poll on the arts and remember to take TV dinner store tomorrow.

All in all, this freakish behavior of mine is getting my life organized, my head is feeling less full of stress and garbage and overall worry about ensuring that I check the whirlpool tub's shutoff system three months from now.

I haven’t instituted most of the GTD actions, primarily, because I haven’t read more than half the book yet. However, perhaps, the action of reading about organizing my life, has created a calm in me. Simply getting all the craziness out of my head and into a nice little program that I can check at work and at home, at 3:00 AM and 3:00 PM, has helped me chill a bit.

I will keep you posted on how I do with GTD in the future. If I join the cult and if they have a cool handshake or maybe robes. And by saying I will keep you posted, I mean you will never hear me talk about this again.

Houston Music Fetish

I have been trying for some time to sit down and tell ya’ll about my Sunday. It was a most awesomest Sunday. But then I had the most awesomest Monday, which will or will not be featured another day. Now that it is Tuesday, Kaytabug is bugging me to Plurk and I am being stubborn. I won’t do it until I get this wordy and Youtube intensive research project done. Amen. Word to my Mom.

For many a year now, I have gone to the thingy ma bobber that I went to on Sunday. While out and about, I saw a tee that said 1997, so the event has been going on forev-a. Almost as long as I have been out of high school, which is an eternity. There isn’t a wiki page dedicated to the deal, so I can’t say how long exactly. And, um, could we get a wiki page going, because that is the only place I get my facts. Help a girl out.

Every July, Houston’s “alternative” press paper throws this huge event in downtown. At 17,000 clubs, there are 70 billion different bands playing. You pay a pittance to get into all these venues and see all these bands.

They have every genre imaginable playing at these assorted venues. For the diligent sort, here is a long-azz review of the bands that played this year.

Without further adieu, let’s see who I saw:

At 5 P.M., we started off with Brian’s Johnson (We really did start at 4, but we totally did not like the band that was playing at the venue we selected as a gathering point, so let’s just pretend we were late and started at 5. K? Thx.)

Brian’s Johnson is an ACDC cover band that one person in our entourage had seen the night before and declared them “awesome”. I will say they were good. Not freaking amazing, but strongly good, bordering on great. . . . (youtube search break) . . . Apparently, I will not qualify as an ACDC fan, because it appears that someone in ACDC is named Brian Johnson, hence the name, how clever, Fianna had no clue. Moving on.

I couldn't find a video for your listening pleasure. So here is an ACDC video, imagine other guys up there playing, and fewer people, and you are nearly there.



6 PM – Once it was 6, I was rocking with Mighty Orq. The lead singer, Orq, is freaking awesome. He is a nice guy when a mic isn’t in his face, so he gets extra points. I have seen him many times over the past few years, but the first time I saw him was at the Press Awards years ago, and my ass was shown shaking it on the evening news. The next day, one of the partners came into my office first thing in the morning and asked me about it. Yea. . So yea.

I couldn’t find the song I wanted to link to, but if you work with me a bit, you can hear a small portion of it by going here, and then clicking on Carry Me Home. One of his chillax songs. Not booty shaking. The news didn’t show me while this song was on.

It coulda been this song that introduced my shaking azz to the Houston Lawyer's Association.



The Seven O’Clock special, Fondue Monks, is another repeat that I saw at the Press Awards a while back. We later met the lead singer, “Denver” who was very nice and appreciative and maybe a bit drunk.





8 PM – Skyblue 72 rocked. I saw them for the first time a few months back at my beloved Mucky Duck. When I saw the lineup for the Press Show, I only called this band. I let the others decide on who else we saw as long as I got my Skyblue 72. Girl power, Rwwaarrr.



At 9 P.M., nicely soused, we saw another redo, Lonestar Pornstar. I saw them a couple years ago, and then went to them again the next year and lookie here, they are back again. Awesome band. Awesome way to end the night. Bouncing around to some badass rock.


Their brand of music does not translate well to handheld video cameras or cell phone recordings. I found the following video, but it is totally Milli Vanilli'd.



I hope you guys enjoy a bit of this music. I had a wonderful time seeing some great live acts. If you think I have horrible taste, check out this review of the bands and find somebody better and then come back and tell me about it.

(And let me apologize if this post makes no sense. I know the grammar-ly issue is worse than most of my non-grammar-ious posts. Mama is tired. I have been having lots of fun and my old bones are screaming for sleep.)

I Got My Hair Did!

It started as simply as not feeling comfortable in Oil Field, New Mexico. I didn’t trust my locks to someone whose sister couldn’t serve me a cheeseburger without making me want to cry.

Before last week, the last time I got my hair cut was before moving to BFE, NM, 19 months ago.

Somewhere along the way, I got an idea in my head.

There are 2 organizations (that I am aware of) where I could donate my hair. Locks of Love, the well-known organization that creates wigs for needy children that have suffered hair loss due to a medical condition and Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths program which has partnered up with the American Cancer Society to provide wigs to women with cancer.

The big difference between the two organizations is the length requirements for donated hair. Locks of Love requires 10 inches while Pantene’s requirements are 8 inches.

I am donating my 11” ponytail to Locks of Love.

It may have started with a bit of anger and hatred towards the circumstances of my living situation, but has turned into a wonderful gift to a (presumably) cute little kid.

Now if I could just get used to that stranger in the mirror.

With the Warming Temperatures...

Bamboo Season Begins...



There was more....

Buy yours here or at most pet stores. I swear by it.

My Testimonial

Have I mentioned how difficult New Mexico was? Did I mention how you could try and buy something? You would have money and wish to be parted with it. However, people wouldn’t take it. Be it an hour line at Wal-Mart to unavailability at a doctor’s office until 2011 to a lack of original chicken at KFC. When you left the comfort of your mold-ridden, 1970’s throwback apartment, you (and, of course, I mean me) knew that life was about to be difficult. You were going to have to get angry. And be aggressive. (BE AGGRESSIVE!! BE BE AGGRESSIVE!! Look at my imaginary Herkie!)

You knew you wouldn’t get what you want, when you want it, for the price you wanted it, how you wanted it.

The starkest contrast you can imagine is Mattress Mac.

Jim McIngvale is my hero.

Anyone in the Houston area is now saying ME TOO, ME TOO!

You go to his store. You cannot miss it. There are big signs and lots of lights and it is a huge building.

You walk in, say hi to the 17 people waiting to help you. They offer you a bottle of water. You can shake hands with Mattress Mac himself who is in the store every day despite being a gazillionaire. He answers phones, hands out water bottles, makes store announcements. Despite being 131 years old. (OMG! I just looked it up. He is actually just a year older than my dad. Ok, fine, he isn’t old, but all that crazy jumping in the 80’s TV commercials took their toll. Just saying.)

So..back to the story. You walk in. You are helped immediately. Offered a cold refreshing beverage. And are shown to what you want. Immediately.

There is a chick whose entire job is to walk around the store offering ice cream in a variety of choices. Ice Cream Sandwich? Push Pop? What is your poison? Can you imagine what an amazing job this is? I want her job.

When I was shown this apartment, I, for reals, stood in the stairway that leads into it, and held my hands at my hips and measured how much weight I could gain before I wouldn’t fit up the stairs. It isn’t much.

The stairway…is a problem.

We informed our furniture sales guru about our stairway and the lack of inch-age. He laughed. And we told him we were serious. And he may have frowned. But then…he showed us a couch. And another and another and another and 27 others.

And they would fit. Yes they would!

So we bought some furniture. A lot actually.

We tried to buy a couch in Dallas last year. We really wanted to buy one. We offered cash. We offered extended credit terms. We offered first borns. We wanted to give them a couple grand, but there was no way they would give us a couch without making us wait 3 weeks. We couldn’t buy a floor model. We were told to wait 3 weeks. No other choice. No couches to be had on the same day. They refused to take our money and give us what we wanted.

Gallery Furniture? They have billboards everywhere in Houston simply with the word Today.

Today? Today, you say?

If you buy before 10 P.M., you get your couch that day.

We left Gallery at 6 P.M. We went home. Cleaned up the place. Moved the camping chairs out of the way. And a few hours later, a knock on the door.

Professional, well-spoken, furniture delivery men dropped off all the furniture that we had bought just a couple hours earlier. They set everything up super quick. And disappeared like bandits.

This is what happened.

Begin Story:

We bought furniture. It was delivered a couple hours later.

End Story.

Mattress Mac is freaking genius. He offers quality products at a good price. He makes you comfortable in his store. His salespeople are professional, well-spoken, not pushy. He delivers the stuff you bought when you want it. He doesn’t make you wait if you need it right away. He will hold it if you aren’t ready.

He makes the entire buying process simple.

I wish more businesses followed such a simple business model. It really is amazing that I am blown away by his business.

Why is it so unique?

Give the customers what they want. They will come back for more. They will tell their friends and family. They will write blog posts about it.

It truly blows my mind that I am so blown away by this type of service.

Is it really that extraordinary? Why?

You give people what they want, in a friendly manner. The end.

So, tell me about your life? What customer service blew you away? What crappy service made you want to go psycho?

And Jag, if you are still alive, could you find some of the old school footage of Save You Money videos. I think Mac may have put a hit out on whoever had those. They are nowhere to be found on Youtube. This is the best compilation I could find with footage of the jumping.

Fun Monday - Favorite Drug

Ann, I thought I had this topic down. You wanted to hear about a web site that's changed my life. A web site that I can't live without. A web site whose inventor I'd like to see win a McArthur Genius Grant. (Not sure what that is but...a Nobel? I am down.)

I spend so much time online, I should know this one.

However, life changing? There are a ton that I can’t live without. A few are listed on my page to your right.

My first response was Crazy Aunt Purl. Hers was the first site that I really started to worship. That I visited constantly. I clicked to other commenter’s pages, finding some wonderful folks. I cried my eyes out, I spit things onto my screen from laughing so hard. I attended my first book signing in order to stalk Laurie, where I had to nearly run away from her because tears, oh how she can produce tears from me. But girl crush? Laurie is definitely on the Very Top of My List. So CAP is probably the most important web page I am obsessed with.

I found Bev from CAP. She encouraged me to start my own blog. And lookie here! I DID! So she was very important in my innernet progress. (And hey Bev, your FM post produced tears for me. I am SO happy for you!)

I have to give a huge shout out to a long list of personal finance bloggers. Dawn at Frugal for Life, Boston Gal, Single Ma, Madame X, Trent at Simple Dollar, and so many others…so those, plus PfBlogs.org, where I found these great folks. They all were instrumental in me getting out of debt, knowing about and building an emergency fund, high interest savings accounts, 401Ks, and on and on. So thank you for saving me financially!

However, the most life changing site? This whole post was brought to you, not by my incredible memory, but Bloglines. Amazingly, I found this site just a month or so ago. Before, I would check the RSS feed that I had bookmarked, having to scroll over each site that I visited regularly, which of course, since I am a crack addict, I did every 20 minutes. With Bloglines, it pulls the posts that I so desperately wait for all into one easy to use page.

Thanks, Ann. What a great topic! I cannot wait to visit everyone’s faves!! Just what I need….more sites to obsess over…

Is it possible to break the innernets from too much use? If it does break, I am sorry. Really, really sorry, folks.

Merry Christmas!

I alluded to my awesomest Christmas gift ever in an earlier post. My boyfriend gave me, not a Dyson, but an espresso machine!

I heart coffee. A lot. I am Ms. Grumbly Pants without it. I love the smell of it brewing. I enjoy sitting, drinking coffee and reading a book. I also despise Starbucks. Much like my hatred for Wal-Mart and other corporate giants, because I picture our future landscape being a Walmart, next to a Starbucks, next to a McDonald's with Exxon on the corner. Rinse, repeat, over and over. All small business owners being inched out due to these evil entities. But I digress.

So, I am the proud owner of an espresso machine. And I can make it work! To some, that may seem like such a silly statement, but if you know and love me, then you may understand it a bit better. I can be all thumbs with many things. While I pride myself on being able to figure things out, I also get all stubborn and pissed off and turn my back and write out of the will things that make me stumble a bit. Like my new wireless router. I scorn thee.

There are a good number of espresso machine, coffee makers, pod stabbing and dispensing machineries available. Krups alone has 2,571 types of them. My head spun around when we were out shopping. There are lots of ways to make caffeinated beverages apparently.

I decided on the base model. I don't need to go back to college to figure out how to work a damn coffee maker.

Presenting my new BFF:

This stuff is pretty damn simple. Put some ground coffee or espresso in the little silver thing. Add water to the top, screw the lid on tight. Turn knob to espresso. And wait. Get your milk in a cute metal cup that must be purchased separately. Once you see some espresso coming out... turn the other knob, on the left side of the machine from the picture of a cup to a picture of Old Faithful.

And "froth" the milk. Don't use much milk. It froths a lot. I mean it. Trust me.

Once the milk is hot, turn that knob on the left back to the picture of the cup.
Espresso will pour out and in 30 seconds or less, you are done.

Put the milk on top of the espresso and voila!


My biggest complaint about the new light of my life? It doesn't have automatic shut off. I keep forgetting to turn it off. Whoopie. This thing rocks.

You can steam/froth/heat milk without making espresso as well. What I do is make extra espresso each time. Then just heat up more milk and add it in.

It cleans up pretty easily. I haven't figured out if the metal thing on the side that heats the milk comes off. That is the most difficult thing to clean. Meaning it takes an extra 42 seconds. Whoopie.

Go forth and buy one. Or get someone else to do it for you.

And pick up a Roomba for me while you are out.

Thanks a bunch. You are a dear.

Could You Do Me a Flavor?

I know I don't really have any right to ask any favors right now. I have been complacent in my posting and definitely complacent in my commenting. But could you cut a girl a break and do a little favor?

Watch these guys tonight:



They are really good, see:



And see, I have another favor to ask. Could you watch AND vote. I know, I know. I shouldn't be asking for anything at all, but I swear I will make it up someday....

How Can Monday Come Around Every Day?

Oy vey. I am beat. This has been the longest couple a weeks in a very long time. My last day off was October 28. Which happens to coincide with an amazingly stress-filled week of life changing, zip code amending, copious tear production, and the indescribable thrill of continued living in captivity with the feral cats I call my own. And then, I worked 19 days straight, on average working 10-12 hours each day. This all added up to an overwhelming exhaustion and a hefty paycheck. Thank you very much, Mr. Trial.

We actually received the verdict on Wednesday. However, I am still beaten down. Worn. Exhausted. I hope to catch up with my life 2 weeks from Tuesday. And perhaps in between now and then, buy contact solution and coffee creamer, find warm clothes either in Houston or at my home in The State Adjacent, identify a suitable living situation, and enjoy sweet potatoes and stuffing at some currently unknown locale.

But that can wait. May I tell you my new favoritest chocolate thing-y?

I don’t like chocolate very much. But I am weak and tired. And CVS had chocolate products for 2/$1.00. Now who can resist a deal like that when you are half-brain-dead, half-drunk and have full-on mercury poisoning from noxious amounts of happy hour sushi specials? This is tasty stuff, I swear.

As for getting back to normal, I promise to start posting on a not-so-regular basis with posts full of inane shit and updates on felines that wake me up by licking my face and peeing on the floor.

Calm down!! Really, you are just embarrassing yourself with all that begging.

I am reporting straight from Austin, Texas. I am having a ball. We are little kids in a candy store. We have been stifled for so long in a boring small town with nothing to do and have been released in heaven. Our friends want to smack us each time we say, “hehehe, we’re in Austin” or “God, I love this town”.

We have:
Partied on Sixth Street
Ate at Kerbey Lane at 3 A.M.
Spent an entire afternoon and evening at Hula Hut.
Watched fireworks from Hula Hut’s deck.
Partied on Sixth and then Fifth Street.
Drank to excess with a Canadian.
Walked the strip.
Shopped at the Apple store on campus and at the Co-op.
Ate at What-a-burger.
Watched Transformers.
Geeked out together on a twin-sized bed with our respective laptops.
Got bit by 3,347 mosquitos.
Got a job (back home).

Still on the agenda is:
Eat at Shady Grove.
Obtain tee from Shady Grove.
Party on Fourth through Sixth Street.
Perhaps check out Barton Springs.
Thrifting.
Live music at some point.
Sleep in more days.
Take more photos.

Suck in all the culture possible. And hey, we love this town. Hehehehe . . . we are in Austin.

And I have a J.O.B.

Free Stuff is Cool

In my personal finance journeys, I started requesting samples on a regular basis. I love free stuff and trying new products is great! I can't say that I buy the product because I get a free sample. I am still a cheapskate and buy generic on most goods, but it sure is nice that Dove, Tide, Revlon and others send ya free stuff to pamper yourself!

My favorite sites are:

Absurdly Cool Freebie Finder

Fat Wallet Forums

Free Stuff Times

Saving Advice dot Com

I just stepped out of the shower after using Dove's new Cherry Blossom & Almond Scent Body Wash. MMMMMM..wonderful stuff. But way too expensive for me to actually buy. Samples are so nice.

Look at my stash:



I try to use my samples shortly after receiving them, but these have been tucked away in cabinets and forgotten. And sometimes you just have too many travel deodorants to use all at once. Point being, this is just what has been collecting, I have received 10x this much stuff!

I try to go through the websites once a week and sign up for all samples I WILL USE! I don't sign up for something unless it will actually be useful to me. Except for that one time I ordered saddle soap. I don't know what happened there!

I recommend you get a junk email address via Yahoo or Hotmail for submitting on the forms. You will get lots of emails from the companies, no point in junking up your primary account. The requirements for each offer vary, but usually you submit your address, email address, maybe answer a couple questions and the product is on its way.

Go forth and get free stuff, folks!

Austin City Limits

According to PBS' website, ACL is shown across the world. Is this true? Please comment, I really wanna know about where you are at. I have lived in Texas since I discovered the wonderful world that is Austin City Limits. I was thrilled when I discovered that in Near Texas, New Mexico, they show it. However, I bet I am watching the PBS that is broadcast from Texas...so anyhoo.

As my ridiculous number of music loving posts show, I love music. There is nothing else that is so relaxing and thrilling all rolled into one big goopy ball of love than a live show. My absolute best time ever would be at a show. The test for my dates is exposure to a live show.

I was lucky enough to catch the last bit of tonight's ACL, Alejandro Escovedo.

It was just a matter of time before I posted about Alejandro. His music is just .....i can't even begin to think of words suitable. It goes from being jazzy, upbeat, funny to soul bearing, tormenting, tear wrenching. On Rosalie, talking of joining his love after death. Five Hearts Breaking, about divorce and the breaking of not only the couple's hearts, but the children's as well. And then sweet and tear wrenching on Your Wedding Day.

His website has a different song on each of the various pages. They start without warning for you work lurkers. The discography page has one of my favorite songs, Crooked Frame.

I am watching/listening to the ACL show from his MySpace page. Check it out. And if you decide early in that it just isn't your thing, please listen up until the instrumental part of the first song. Then think again. (There are just 2 songs on the clip).

I love the violins and the upright bass thingies or whatever they are. You know, I did drop out of my flute playing career about 6 weeks into 5th grade. I just don't know these things. I just know what I like and Alejandro is on that list.

Man, when I am in Houston for a couple months, that work business is really gonna get in the way of me catching up on shows.

P.S. This is from a post on his Myspace. I LOVE Castanets, K you may know it, I had it as the song on my page for awhile. Funny. I wonder if W likes Thrill Kill?

Cult rocker Alejandro Escovedo ended a self-imposed live ban on his song Castanets yesterday, two years after it emerged the track was on President George W. Bush's iPod playlist. Escovedo was astounded when it was revealed that the American leader had Castanets saved as a favorite on his iPod player in April 2005.

Despite his opposition to the Bush administration, Escovedo finally decided to perform Castanets at the Stagecoach festival in California on Sunday. He told a cheering crowd, "This is a song I fell out of favor with after it ended up on George W. Bush's iPod top 10 list.

"What sort of bad karma is that for that to happen to me. Anyway, he (Bush) is on his way out, so here it is."

Idiocracy

A while back, we rented the movie, Idiocracy. I recommend it. I recommend that it be shown in our classrooms. I recommend that college courses be created about it. I believe that we should get rid of the various tests required to graduate high school and require an intellectual study of this movie instead.

The idea of Idiocracy is that far off in the future, Bubba has sired lots of kids, Bubba, Jr. sired lots of kids, and Bubba, III, sired even more. So in a couple hundred years, Bubba’s family tree is the largest branching tree in the world. On the other hand, Matthew (or James or Not Bubba) has delayed having children, his and his wife’s careers are very important, and they need to wait a few more years to start. They don’t have the resources just yet, but in a couple of years, they will start a family. And splat. Not Bubba dies. Eleanor, his wife, is now in her 40’s, childless and without a husband. Their family tree is non-existent. This continues on across society. And in approximately 2500, a WWF-esque President is in power. Carls, Jr. sponsors Congress. And society is well, royally retarded.

Ah well…. Now I look at Youtube…here ya go.



Here is the trailer.




After watching this movie, I was shocked that it had no presence in the box office. I don’t recall ever seeing commercials promoting it.

The concept behind the movie is what I have been worried about for years. Too many idiots reproducing, too few intelligent people throwing out offspring. Too many bad parents continuing to reproduce, while those people that would be excellent parents, either delay it, have a single child or don’t have children at all, thereby reducing the number of offspring born to intelligent folk.

For many years, while dating men just above Clevon’s level, I thought that I shouldn’t have children at all in this society that is quickly degenerating into chaos and stupidity. Now, dating a chess playing, Magna Cum Laude intellectual, not a beer-guzzling Nascar fan, I feel that I need to have a multitude of spawn to counteract the effects of the Clevon’s in the world.

And while I am at it, put this in your pipe and smoke it.


And this is why I am fearful of the continuing rise of Wally World.

Say Anything

After typing in my last post how I love songs that make me learn the little intricate portions of the songs, I went and found the song that really made me think about that...In Your Eyes, from Say Anything.

Oh, Lloyd....



Here is another of my favorite scenes, at the graduation party, Lili Taylor (Corey) is going to play all 63 songs she wrote about her cheating ex, Joe, who came to the party with Mimi - Chynna Phillips! It doesn't include "Joe lies.....when he cries.....when he cries....."



This is the version I have on my Ipod, I know every second of this song by heart, including all the extra stuff after the 7 minute point. I wail it out along with the song, including Jean Claude's keyboards and Papa Wemba's monkey noises,


This weekend, we were laying around being lazy post-wisdom tooth removal. The male portion of this household had the remote and just happened to flip on to Say Anything. Without a word, he put the remote down. Grabbed my hand during the breakup scenes and at the end with the jail scene, where I still cry. I love that man!!

I Heart Neko Case

I was reading a blog this morning that I linked to off CAP. She mentioned Neko Case. I heart Neko Case. I only have her latest CD, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. I have listened to it over and over and over. I laughed at myself while watching the following clips....once they ended, I started up with the lyrics for the following song,. . . I have the CD memorized so thoroughly. I love musicians that are able to do that to me....that I know the offhand comments, the weird noises, whatever...that I know each second of a CD....love it, love it, love it!





(If you are keeping score here....my favorite artists tend to be redheads....I bet they are lefties, too!)

Hiney is a Tingling

First it was Crazy Aunt Purl...now here goes Pioneer Woman, becoming all famous and making me think I may lose 2 of my favorite bloggers to the masses. Check out Ree's photography. It is amazing. I am headed off to take pictures of possibly alpaca, and um...the sky. She, however, is very talented. And had to get up much earlier than I. So give her some love. And plead with both Laurie and her not to leave us bloggie junkies. We need the fix.

Where I Discuss Cat Puke

I don't have kids. I am pretty scared of having children since I worry about my feline kids so much. I have a constant fear that something will happen to them. In particular, one of my main fears is that Yoda will suffer from an esophageal separation resulting in death. (I am pretty sure this is an actual cat affliction. In my mind, at least.) She pukes. A lot.

Last spring when I was really fearful of finding her dead in the middle of a pile of regurgitated cat food and fur, I went in search of something to, once and for all, solve this dilemma.

I had tried everything. I brushed her with various cat brushes. I gave her special hairball eliminating treats. Fed her the Indoor Cat Chow. I held her down and put Vaseline on her nose. And ended up with it all over me. I was at a loss. But I had to keep trying because I would get so upset over the possibility of her yakking to death.

And look what I found:


I also found 3 other brushes and bought them all....but they can be found at a Goodwill near you. And this brush is the topic.
Because it is amazing.
And I love it.

I went home. Locked the cats in the bathroom with me and brushed away. Brushed and brushed and brushed. Until I had 2 big handfuls of condensed cat hair, red eyes, itchy nose and the cats each had multiple bald spots. Yep.

I have been brushing Yoda religiously for 3 days now. I only today thought about sharing this great item with you, my imaginary readers, or these pictures would have double the amount of cat fur.

Yoda: "I love you, Bamboo"


Yoda: "Mine."


Exhausted from the vigorous brushing and enthusiastic purring

Nice tile, huh? This is the most modern apartment complex in town. Check that.

What - A - Burger

For those outside of the South, I am sorry. Why, you ask? Whataburger.

Whataburger is only in the South. I originally thought it was a Texas only restaurant, until I performed my thorough research for this post. Whataburger has franchises from Arizona to Florida, although Texas is definitely their stronghold. I didn't know until now that they had a couple in my state. I always thought crossing the Texas border was the only way to get a fix.

The burgers are similar to Sonic, but better. Their fries are mmm....maybe closest to McDonald's but better. Their chicken strip dinners are equal to none. However, my favoritest item on their menu? TAQUITOS!! (Or breakfast burritos to those Yankees present!)

During my party-ing days, I was turned on to the glorious nature of taquitos at 3 AM. Now that I actually get them during daytime hours, they are every bit as delish.

As I have mentioned the male portion of my household works some ridiculous hours. He was out the door at 4 AM today. So when we moved out here, in order to properly be housewife-y, I wanted to ensure he received a good breakfast. After all, it is the most important meal of the day. My solution:



Taquitos!!

I made 15 today, in order to stock the freezer. 2 minutes in the microwave and a perfect breakfast is in hand. Yum.

This weekend, I also was able to obtain an item I have been looking for:



My FIL used to go to Whataburger years ago with his mother, chatting and drinking coffee. Out of Whataburger's nickel coffee mugs. I saw some at a Trade Days event in February, but did not get them because I wasn't sure if they would sell on Ebay. I told my man about them and he flipped! He wanted them for his dad. So, when I went back to that event this weekend, all I really wanted were these mugs. I didn't think they would still have them, but I was wrong! I have been told that Whataburger still fills the mugs for a nickel. I think I am going to win some points when his birthday rolls around...