Don’t ask me why but I was reading the translated text of the Rosetta Stone today.  Now, I’ve been told on more than one occasion that my writing is too wordy, but, geez Louise!  I’m downright succinct when compared to the dude who wrote this - and this isn’t even the whole sentence!

It has seemed fitting to the priests of all the temples of Egypt, as to the honours which are due to King Ptolemy, living forever, the Manifest God whose excellence is fine, in the temples, and those which are due to the Father-loving Gods, who brought him into being, and those which are due to the Beneficent Gods, who brought into being those who brought him into being, and those which are due to the Brother-and-Sister Gods, who brought into being those who brought them into being, and those which are due to the Saviour Gods, the ancestors of his ancestors, to increase them; and that a statue should be set up for King Ptolemy, living forever, the Manifest God whose excellence is fine - which should be called ‘Ptolemy who has protected the Bright Land’, the meaning of which is ‘Ptolemy who has preserved Egypt’ - together with a statue for the local god, giving him a scimitar of victory, in each temple, in the public part of the temple, they being made in the manner of Egyptian work;

See?  Now I don’t seem so damn verbose, do I?

Things that make me turn into a sideways-faced straight-mouthed emoticon:

1.  When I accidentally spray hair spray onto the hair on my arms.

2.  When the first thing that I write down in the morning results in me having a big ink mark on my hand.

3.  When the coffee that was just poured into the travel mug looks like it might be soap-bubbly from the mug being hand-washed.  And there isn’t enough coffee left to get another cup and you’re already late for work and there’s no time to make another pot and you didn’t get much sleep the night before and you could really use a cup of coffee!  *gasp*

:-|

Our insurance agent is coming over tonight to discuss life insurance with us.  There’s going to be a medical form to fill out and then we will have to go get blood and urine tests done.  I don’t know what to expect.

My blood work has not been the best.  But I don’t know how this works.  If I am not 100% completely healthy and within recommended guidelines, will I be utterly rejected without hope of appeal?  Can I try again in a year?  Or am I out of the club forever, destined to potentially strap my family with huge expenses upon my demise?

I was already rejected from a small amount of life insurance by a less-than-famous life insurance company, simply because I am taking blood pressure medicine.  I am taking a low dose and my blood pressure is regularly in the 120/65 range.  Wouldn’t you think that it would be a problem if I had high blood pressure and I wasn’t taking medicine?

I don’t know.  I’m very nervous and feel like, if my own personal insurance agent rejects us, we’re doomed.

I am at a loss.  Once in a while, I abandon my favorite beverage of water in favor of something with a little more flavor - iced tea.  But I don’t want iced tea with any sort of sweetener in it - plain old tea over ice will be fine, thankyouverymuch.  Lemon with that?  Yes, that will be grand.  I can get this at just about any restaurant.  When I order iced tea, they usually bring me a glass with a lemon slice (why don’t they use something you can actually squeeze into the beverage, like a wedge and not a slice??) and then I am left on my own to sweeten or not.  I always choose not.

Switch scenes.  I’m standing in front of the bottled beverages at a convenience store or a grocery store or at the cafeteria at work.  There is no such thing as “unsweetened” (or “nonsweetened” for my ex-husband, to be precise) to be found.  There are raspberry, lemon, peach, green, and white teas (all sweetened with sugar or corn syrup or whatever), there are un-lemoned teas, sweetened only, and there are teas sweetened with alternative sweeteners, but, for the life of me, I cannot find such a thing as regular tea (with or without lemon, doesn’t matter) without sweetener of any sort in a convenient “to go” package. 

Does ANYONE know why that is?  Is it hard to keep unsweetened iced tea preserved?  Or does it not taste good if it’s been bottled?  ‘Cause I can generally go over to the soda fountain at a convenience store and at the cafeteria at work and pour unsweetened iced tea into a cup.  So it’s not like they’re morally against the concept or something.  I just can’t figure out why I can’t get me some unsweetened iced tea in a bottle to take with me. 

P.S.  I’m SURE Buzz is completely tired of me talking about this.  I rant about it every time I stand in front of the bottled beverages.  It just baffles me!

Uh-oh.  Do you think my Excite page is being intercepted?  Here’s my fortune for today:

Stop surfing the Web and get to work!

Yikes!

*stops surfing the Web and gets to work*

I was listening to NPR on the way to work this morning.  My commute is all of 8 minutes on a bad day, so my entire ride consisted of one story.  I didn’t even get to hear the end of it.

But I was surprised at its content.

The Phillies.

Turns out, they’re approaching their 10,000th loss in their history.  This is a record not just in their history - it’s the most losses in the history of professional sports.  But, you know, they’ve been around since 1883.  That adds up to something like 3 trillion games played so, I say, 10,000 losses is not so bad!  They’re just an old team, no?

I like baseball now.  I used to think it was the.most.boring.game on TV.  I thought it was slow and good for inducing nap time.  But now I like it.  Maybe I’ve slowed down (well, I know that’s true), but I don’t think that’s it.  Like any other sport, once you start to watch it, you begin to know the players and learn the nuances of the game.  And, gradually, you come to crave it.  Yep, I crave the baseball.  I’ll stay up late and watch when they go into extra innings.  If I’ve missed the end of the game and I wake up at 3:30 in the morning, I’ll watch the end of the replay.  I like it.

Let’s see now.  Sportswise, I think I’ve got the year covered.  Always something to watch.  Football starts in September and goes through January.  NASCAR starts up in early February and goes through November.  Hockey starts in October and goes through June (although, when the Flyers are eliminated - notice I said “when” and not “if” - I stop watching).  And now I have baseball, which starts in April and goes through September. 

The nice thing is that I have more local favorites than I used to.  My favorite hockey team is the Philadelphia Flyers.  My favorite baseball team is the Philadelphia Phillies.  NASCAR doesn’t require a local favorite from me because I don’t think there are any Philadelphia boys in the race, so I’m free to choose Matt Kenseth, who is from Wisconsin.  And, yes, my favorite football team is still - and will forever be - the Dallas Cowboys.  But look - two Philadelphia teams have made it to my list of favorites!  That’s got to be worth something, yes?

Now.  Sing along with me…

Take me out to the ball game
Take me out to the crowd
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks
I don’t care if I ever get back
And it’s root, root, root
for the PHILLIES
If they don’t win, well, what’s new? it’s a shame
Cause it’s one, two, three strikes
You’re out
At the old ball game.

I went through my Blogroll today and updated it.  I deleted some, sadly, who are no longer blogging - or I don’t know where to find them.

So, if you happen to stop by and see that your link is missing from my Blogroll, please let me know!  It is not from spite that I neglect...just ignorance!  Promise!

Today is our middle son’s birthday.

Happy birthday, Jesse!

We’ll see him and other family members tomorrow at a gathering at Bahama Breeze.  Should be fun!

Come on, now.  This is potentially the biggest day of these students’ lives so far and the school is punishing them for something they didn’t do?

School officials refuse to hand over diplomas

They want the kids to track down who amongst the 2000 spectators cheered when their names were called?  Are you kidding me??  Who is running this school - the grown-up kids who were never popular when they went to school?  What sort of message is this sending to these kids about how an adult is supposed to act?  Absolutely stupid.

Tonight I stopped at the grocery store after work.  I had just a few items to pick up, including some NyQuil and DayQuil for poor Buzz, who is currently suffering with the earliest summer cold on record.

The cashier was daydreaming when I approached her line and jumped in startlement (what’s the word for that??) when I dropped my bags of squash and peppers on the conveyor belt.  She must have been no more that 16 years old.  As she proceeded to scan all my items, she stopped at the bottle of DayQuil and said,

“Um, you know, I have to know what your birth date is for you to buy this.”

I laughed and told her she must be kidding.  My birthday?  Are you trying to tell me that you could mistake me for someone too young to purchase cold medicine?  She told me that she had to do this because “kids are getting high on it”.  I told her it’s been a really long time since I was a kid but she insisted.

I told her my birthday was in August and I told her the year.  She said, “Um, that’s what?” and I said, “That makes me 46.”

To which she replied, “No, August is what month?”

I smacked her and told her she was grounded for the week.

If you read my last post, you’ll know that I invented a drink.  But I didn’t know what to call it. 

Well, I have decided.  It will be called…

Imperial Temple

Why?  Well, because I am the Empress (there’s the Imperial part) and the drink has its roots in Shirley Temple’s Evil Twin (there’s the Temple part).  There you have it.

Now, I should think about having another one at some point that isn’t after I had already had three other drinks. 

OK, I think I invented a drink.  I’ve searched the interwebs and can’t find any recipes that use these ingredients so I think this is mine.

It’s a martini and its roots are in my version of Shirley Temple’s Evil Twin.  But that drink just wasn’t doing it for me.  So I played around with it and eventually came up with this:

Fill a shaker with ice.  Add three shots of good vodka, one shot of Bombay Sapphire, two shots of cherry brandy and a splash of grenadine.  Shake quickly and strain into a martini glass.  Garnish with three maraschino cherries (stems removed) on a pick.

That’s it.  Have you ever heard of a drink like that?  I don’t want to be stepping on anyone’s toes, ya know.  I think it’s mine, so I ought to name it.  Only I have NO idea what to call it.  Suggestions?