Today is the birthday of my very bestest bud, my husband, the love of my life.  If you haven’t already done so, please stop on by and wish him the best!  We’re going out to dinner tonight to a nice restaurant that gives you your age percentage off if you come in on your birthday.  (I probably mentioned that one before.) It should be nice!  Other than that, nothing planned for the day.  (Don’t tell him but I ordered him a little birthday present that should get here on Monday.  Shhh!!!)

Today also opens the floodgates of special occasions that will go until the end of August.  Between now and then, we have fourteen birthdays and/or anniversaries to celebrate!  Sheesh! 

So I’ll be putting up a lot of Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary posts in the coming weeks.  Some of them will even be directed at some of you!

Last night, we were visited by our eldest child and his girlfriend.  They stopped by to borrow our van so that they could move apartments this weekend. 

But they also brought birthday presents for Buzz and me!  Yay!!

One of the things we got is a very cool little book called Bloom’s Bouquet of Imaginary Words by Jeffrey and Carole Bloom.  I will share some with y’all from time to time.

Starting today!

Whinoceros - A large, thick-skinned bitchy mammal.

Heh!

(Title Credit:  Bobby Broom / Clean Sweep / 1981)

I was watching a bit of that show “Clean Sweep” last night.  Now, to be sure, they pick the most unbelievably messy people on the face of earth to organize but I feel like I need a little help from the crew right now.  For my purse.

I would love it someday if I could get away without having to carry a purse.  So I think what I need to do is to start identifying those things that are in my purse and figuring out ways to either live without them or make it so that I don’t have to constantly carry them with me.

The really funny thing is that I almost never have any money with me so what the hell am I carrying around?  Seriously, it’s beginning to give me shoulder problems!  Something must be done!

In the extended entry is my first list of things I carry in my purse.  This is done without actually looking.  Let’s see if I can figure out a way to get away from carrying them with me.  (How do men do this??)

Some obvious ones:

• Wallet (contains credit cards, mostly)
• Date book
• Checkbook
• Comb
• Keys (lots of them)

Let’s review already.  I could get a smaller wallet but I can’t get rid of it completely.  Maybe I’ll buy a billfold to carry in my pocket.  Problem is that I don’t always have pockets - a-ha - that may be the whole issue!  Men almost always have pockets!

But let’s get past that and know that I wear pants with pockets about 99.9999% of the time.  So not too much of a factor.

Date book?  Can’t do anything about that, unless it’s perhaps something electronic and small to keep track of this stuff?  Suggestions?

Checkbook.  Tough.  I like to always have it with me so that I’m not one of those people who has to say, “I’ll give you a check tomorrow”, and then forget to bring it in for three days.  Suggestions?

Comb?  Can’t live without it.  However, I could keep multiples.  I could keep one in the car and one at work.  That takes care of me most of the time.

Keys.  I think I could pare down the keys on my keychain.  I do have quite a few but the bulk is increased by the two remote keyless entry things I have on there for the cars.

Already, I have issues.  How do men do this??

So I was coming back from a walk with my husband and we were walking up the little trail to get back in the building.  He was walking behind me.

He asked, “Have you lost weight?”

Now, how nice is that??

*makes mental note of outfit, vowing to wear it more often*

Scientists:  Humans Cause Global Warming

Just another in my continuing documentation of useless research projects.

(Title Credit:  The T-Bones / 1966)

I love the title song, by the way.  It’s kicky and it reminds me of my childhood!

OK - I had a salad for lunch today.  It was a grilled chicken salad.  It had lettuce, grilled chicken slices, small chunks of cheddar cheese, cucumbers, shredded carrots, and red onions in it.  It had ranch dressing on it.  It was very yummy and it wasn’t huge.

Can you tell me why it is sitting in the pit of my stomach like a brick??  It was a salad.  Mostly lettuce.  I feel like I weigh about 400 pounds.  From a salad.

Some days, I wonder why I try and eat right at all.

(Title Credit:  Patsy Cline / 1957)

I watched most of “Dead Man Walking” yesterday for the first time.  It was a REALLY good movie!  I have to say that I have not been a fan of Sean Penn in the past but I haven’t really given him a chance ever since the days of him and Madonna.  But, holy crap, he acted the heck out of that character!  I loved that the movie (director?) didn’t allow him to make the character into a misunderstood and deep-down sweetheart of a guy - he wasn’t.  He was a horrible, horrible person who participated in a heinous crime.  But the movie was a great deal about the relationship between Sean Penn’s character and Susan Sarandon’s character but, in the end, it was a movie about Sister Helen.  Susan Sarandon is also a fantastic actor!

I have always said that I don’t care what a singer does or believes in real life as long as I enjoy their music.  I thought that carried over into actors as well but, I found out that I will formulate my opinions based on things I hear in the media - shame on me!  For instance, right now, I can’t even imagine going to see “War of the Worlds” because I’m so disgusted by Tom Cruise.  And I avoided Sean Penn because of his “real life” activities and I’m not always happy with Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins because of their political activities sometimes.

I think I need to re-evaluate and try to separate those things.  It’s not going to help anyone for me to miss an excellent movie because I think one of the actors is a scum bucket.  Although, I guess if EVERYONE boycotted “War of the Worlds”, it might make some impact.  (I happen to think that Tom Cruise is making his own impact on potential employers all by himself.  We’ll see.)

Anyway, I got off topic.  “Dead Man Walking” was a very compelling movie.  It made me sympathetic to every single person.  Which makes it hard to decide what you want to happen.  And makes it a very good movie.

Two years ago, I found out about this event called the Blogathon.  I truly admired every participant’s dedication and committment to that day and decided that I wanted to participate the following year.

I thought about it and came up with a theme for my 48 posts.  They were going to bore everyone to tears, but I was going to be highly entertained while doing the research to create them.

Wouldn’t you know it?  Last year’s Blogathon did not happen.  The event took a year off.  But it’s back this year.

Thing is, it’s starting at 9:00 AM the day after my birthday.  This year, Buzz and I and our two best friends, Bob and Beanne, all have birthdays within 3 weeks of each other.  We normally get together every year to have a consolidated celebration but this year, we all are turning 45.  It’s a pretty momentous occasion!  So we planned a Lost Weekend™.  It will most likely turn out to be a lost overnight, but they are coming over on Friday (my birthday) and we’re all going out to a place that gives you your age percentage off if you come in on your birthday (we’re going there for dinner this Saturday, too, on Buzz’s birthday) and then we’re coming back to our house to drink and carouse and laugh and stay up very late and sleep in the next day, because of the hangovers.  That would not be a good way to start a 24-hour Blogathon, I can tell you!

So I will have to decline this year.  But go take a look at the list of bloggers who have signed up already and see if there aren’t a couple you’d like to sponsor.  I’ll be choosing one or two as soon as I have it narrowed down. 

And, I still have my post themes all picked out for next year!  Let’s just hope it’s on a more convenient day.

(Title Credit:  Loudon Wainwright III / Fame and Wealth / 1983)

Courtesy of my good friend, cjh:

(Title Credit:  Aerosmith / Toys in the Attic / 1975)

We were having a bit of a lazy Saturday this past weekend.  I was sitting at my computer playing Mah Jong, like I do, while Buzz was busy reading blogs.  He had stopped at Broomhilda’s site and was reading a list of ponderables that she had posted last Thursday.  He was reading some of them to me and then said, laughing out loud, that this one was for me:

Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead.
Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow.
Do not walk beside me, either; just leave me the fuck alone.

Yep, I’d guess that about sums me up.

(Title Credit:  Quincy Jones / Back on the Block / 1989)

I have determined that there is nothing in this world that is good for you.  Try as you might, whatever you’re doing for yourself is wrong.  And I’m sure I could find a scientific or “scientific” research paper to prove it.

Even things as innocuous as hand soap.  I stumbled across this site that rates how bad your hand soap is.  I found that my favorite is doing horrible things to me and the environment and all things fuzzy and beautiful!  Or something like that.  Here’s the report, showing my favorite hand soap with a score of 7.3 out of 10 (10 being the worst): 

Skin Deep, from the Environmental Working Group

Now who goes and researches their hand soap before buying, I ask you?  Unless you have some particular sensitivity or own a house with a well where you can’t introduce anti-bacterial agents, no one researches their hand soap.  Why would you?  The research consists of opening it up in the store to see if you like how it smells!

/rant

On to diets.  I have been reading about various diets, ‘cause that’s sort of an obsession a hobby of mine.  I have determined that if you are overweight and have high cholesterol and diabetes and an overactive bladder, you are not allowed to eat anything.  Nothing at all. 

Or maybe some cardboard.  But that’s it.  And it can’t be bleached cardboard ‘cause then you’re introducing dioxins into your system.

With all of these things around us that will kill us or maim our future generations and with all of the restrictions placed on us for our own good, it’s a wonder we are able to function on a daily basis.  I’d expect us all to be living under a rock, cowering in fear by now. 

But then you can’t do that, can you?  You might get bitten by a West Nile Virus-ridden mosquito or a Lyme-disease-infected tick.

Hey, it’s Cassie-B’s birthday today! 

*Kermit the Frog YAYYYYY!!!*

Happy Birthday to the bestest ma-in-law a girl could have!

(Title Credit:  Bob James / Lucky Seven / 1979)

First of all, thanks to everyone who left a comment yesterday.  That was fun!!

Secondly, as it is somewhere around 4:00 AM again today and here I sit, I thought I’d share an observance that I made.  Just remember - delirium sets in pretty quickly in the sleep-deprived!

I was watching “People Will Talk” with Cary Grant on AMC.  The co-star of that movie is Jeanne Crain (my mother used to talk about her when I was a child but I always thought it was a man, baby!  I don’t know why...) As I watched Jeanne Crain on the screen, I thought she looked awfully familiar and then I figured out why.

Here’s a picture of Jeanne Crain and one of Eunice Gayson as Sylvia Trench in Dr. No (click to enlarge):

Similar, right?  And yet, not the same!

(Title Credit:  Moody Blues / Sur La Mer / 1988)

OK, now, I can hear you breathing - I know you’re out there!  ROLL CALL!!

If you happen to stop by my site today, drop a comment to say ‘Hi’, won’t you?  Come on - join the roll call!

(Title Credit:  Skeeter Davis / Closest Thing to Love / 1969)

Yeah, um, it’s 4:00 AM.  I’ve been up for an hour and a half.  I have to start getting ready for work in another hour and a half.  I should be sleeping, no?

I woke up to pee.  No big deal.  But then I couldn’t get back to sleep and I was doing my normal “get to sleep” meditaty-like things.  And then I thought of the animals I saw outside.  And then I thought of the animal I saw inside.  And then I thought of the animal sounds that Buzz heard in the basement tonight.  And then it was all over.

I had to get up to find out if the animals I saw outside were moles or voles or some sort of twisted mutant mouse (they are voles).  And then I wondered about whether or not I should call the exterminator to come pick up their sticky trap (which is full of some furry thing in the basement) so that I know whether we’ve got mice or voles in the house (I decided that I will call them today).  ‘Cause now I can’t stop thinking about Buzz hearing animal sounds under the steps in the basement tonight and I’m freaked the heck out!

So here I sit in the dark office, reading about how voles don’t normally come inside houses and they don’t breed indoors.  That’s a relief, anyway, but still.  I have two cats.  I should not have furry critters in my house, unless they are caged and intentionally brought in!  Do I feel really skeeved right about now and just a wee bit nervous to be putting my bare feet down on the floor?  Don’t get me wrong - I love rodents - just not unexpected and uninvited ones!

Yeah, and then while I was all tense about the home invasion, a bright light flashed in the office window.  So I peeked out the window to see if someone was peeking back in at me and suddenly the whole sky erupted with a huge blast of thunder.  It was lightning, I realize, and not some dumbass intruder looking to see what I’m doing at 4:00 AM when I should be sleeping!

Ramble, ramble, ramble.  I think I’ll go watch Animal Planet or something for a while.  Maybe get the coffee started.  Who knows? 

Have a good day!