What's Wrong With This Picture?



UPDATE: I realized after posting that I didn't provide any context for this. The ad was in the monthly magazine that my homeowners association puts out. And, to give the teachers their due, I did e-mail the person posting this and the mistake was made by the HOA. Still, sucks to be you, teach.

Free Pumpkin Pies for Thanksgiving!

Stop. Just Stop. Now
Phrases that should be stricken from ever being said again:
It's how I roll
Dass what I'm talkin' 'bout!

There are more but these two cropped up in particularly egregious ways lately. I invite readers to add to the list in comments.

Shameful Admission
For a real logophile, I find that I bump into certain words like roadblocks and, even when I can wrap my mind around the definition, my thought process grinds to a halt until I can process that particular word. An example is the word stochastic. I twig to the idea that it means "random" but what is it that necessitates its use instead of the word 'random?' This comes from a dyed-in-the-wool sesquipedalian as well.
"Quondam" is another one of those words. I should come up with a name for this phenomenon.

Today's Woot
If you need a good flashlight at a good price, today's Woot is a Brinkmann 3-watt LED aluminum flashlight. Think Maglight but apparently withput the beam focus capability. On the other hand, commenters say that the Brinkmann is brighter. $15 straight up including shipping. Can't touch that with a Maglight.
Remember, it's Woot so even if it doesn't sell out, it's only good for today.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Greatest of All Time
By which I mean the incomparable Gene Kelly.
Debbie Reynolds, not so much. Enjoy.

Absolutely Gorgeous
And Mythbuster Kari Byron is pretty cute too. I'd say from the looks of things, there's a little rugrat Mythbuster somewhere in the SoCal area. Pugs of War applauds the reproductive activities of any Mythbuster. Congratulations Kari!
The pic is totally stolen from The Firearm Blog. Click that link and scroll down for context.

Just Say No
"Vote?" Like hell. I'm not going to stand for this nonsense any longer.

Holy Cow!
The Apple "Magic Mouse" arrived today. Two words: A Mazing. Scrolling is like a whole 'nother world and the ability to zoom the screen by holding down the "option" key is just silly. This thing rocks. Hard. Like Metallica trying to prove they're a better band than Anthrax.
UPDATE: There is something of a learning curve in using a new mouse, tweaking the tracking settings for example, but even after this short time of using the new mouse, I have to say - this is brilliant. Guinness scientists must have invented this. Scrolling across the smooth top is going to become the new, albeit pricey, paradigm for mousing.

Another Movie I Won't Be Seeing
George Clooney in "Men Who Smell Like Goats." Or some such. I don't care.

On the other hand, I now live in a properly red state (dammit Jim, I'm a doctor commonwealth not a state!) again. Good news in bad times.

In other news, I put my Thanksgiving pies order (I give them to friends, don't assume!) in and had one of those sublime things for lunch: the Thanksgiving sandwich (roasted turkey breast, stuffing and cranberry sauce on sourdough bread) at my favorite bakery, the Little Apple Pastry Shop in Aldie, Va. If you visit, I'll take you to lunch there. Yes, really. One thing I'm going to have to try is the Thanksgiving pie: a "crust" of stuffing, turkey and veg filling with a mashed potato topping. Looks quite toothsome.
One more thing: One topping pizza. Really? Why bother.

So Busy Yesterday!
I hardly had time to think. I mean, the clocks back an hour and the calendar pages to turn! It was dizzying. I may need a couple of days to recover.

Trippin' With The Snow Lep
Pre-action report: Verizon is offering a "media manager" which streams iPhoto and iTunes to a FiOS DVR. I have a FiOS DVR. I've downloaded the software and later today I will hold my nose and do a tuckflip into the deep end on this one. If this can stream iTunes radio, I may have a solution for listening to my favorite AM station (Mark Levin - THANK ME!) after the signal punks down at twilight.
Technology. It can do amazing things.

Undeserved Grace
I have recently been in the presence of the troubles of those I love. This pains me more than I can say. Then I remember the undeserved grace I received and wonder, how to I ask for blessings to flow to others when I am still greedy for them myself? If any of half a dozen of my friends won the lottery, their troubles could, in the main, be solved. As the Bard says: 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. So how do I get over the impulse to importune God for such blessings for myself? I don't think it's enough to say, "If I win the lottery, I will share my good fortune with those I love." Yes, I'd love to win it but I am too cognizant of the sin of avarice to be happy with myself for so wishing.
Let me instead pray that I can see the way to wishing the blessings of undeserved grace on others. Surely, good things for them are good things for me.

Virtual Machine
Things might get interesting. Using VMWare Fusion, I just installed Windows XP on my iMac. The virtualization takes some getting used to - it's not a little strange to have a window running XP sitting on my desktop as all my other Mac-ish programs are running at the same time. But dang me if it's not a whole heap of fun!

Passing Sentence
And so the condemned man was brought before the King to hear his sentence for it was indeed to be death, swift and sure. Yet the condemned man knew the King, for all his power, all his glory, was a vain and foolish man. So before the sentence could be spoken, he said, "My Lord! Give me a year and I will teach your horse to talk!"
The King, a bit puzzled yet intrigued, granted him that year and, should the condemned man succeed, a pardon to the service of the royal livery.
The jailer, a common man but clever in his days, said to the condemned man as he was being led back to the cells, "You can't teach a horse to talk."
"Ah," replied the condemned man, "But in a year, the King may die. Or I may die. Or the horse may talk."

One Rockin' OS
I disabled the microphone on my iMac. Instead of running Snow Leopard, I wanted to run Def Leopard.
Of course now I have to type with only one arm.

Feetsball Redux
I had the most delicious meal of schadenfreude last night as I watched the Washington Snyders get their asses handed to them by the reasonably competent Philadelphia Eagles. Little Danny Snyder's ego play to own a collection of large men who are probably just like the ones who tormented him on the grade school playground is turning out to be just the fustercluck I expected when he bought the team (and reconsidered when he brought in Steve Spurrier and later Joe Gibbs to coach - I was wrong to reconsider).
There's something kind of epic in a team that opened their play with six straight games wherein their opponent was winless (albeit the first game of the season was against a very good NYG team so it's a bit specious to say that) and managed to 1) "amass" two wins and 2) give two horrible teams (Detroit and KC) what are likely their only wins this year. Epic fail, of course, but still epic.
I'm working on the idea of Li'l Danny's buying of the team as akin to an LBO but I'm not sure I can carry that conceit out. But if I do, you'll be the first to read it here.

Professional Feetsball
OK. Watching the Arizona Cardinals play the New York Giants on the night football show. On the graphic at the bottom of the screen, the teams are identified by the following designations: AZ (natch) and NYG.
Are we not tempted to read that last one as a word since it has two consonants and sometimes vowel? Raaaaacist NFL!

Anodyne
Despite my uplifting, or attempts at uplifting, words below, my heart has been heavy since hearing the news. All this morning I've been listening to John "Five for Fighting" Ondrasik's new disc, "Slice" and it's remarkably good to ease the heaviness. I hope you buy it. You'll understand what I mean.

Anonymous Condolences
Sometimes the Internet is not really the right place to put personal wishes and in this case, I'm going to violate that personal bond but hold anonymity to those involved and hope that in making the personal public, I might not do actual violence to those bonds.
A very dear friend of mine called me recently to tell me, in a rather round-about way it turned out, that his younger brother was just found dead. Then, in a sort of grotesque echo of that, the brother's son killed himself. My heart breaks for my friend because I have no doubt that he will internalize both of these deaths with the feeling that someway, somehow he played a role in these sad events. In reality, the brother's death was a long time coming and there's nothing that would have stopped it. That snowball has been rolling down the hill for so long I knew the shattering on impact would be dramatic even if I couldn't have imagined that the real drama would be in the loss of another life.
Leaving the nephew aside for a moment, the loss of this brother was, sadly, not a real loss for humanity. He has been an alcoholic, drug-addicted wastrel essentially all his life, a fair amount of which has been spent in custody. Of course in our world this hasn't stopped him from being married a few times and producing a few children that he hasn't been able to support. I wouldn't bother to consider what left him this way apart from the fact that he grew up in a toxic stew of a broken family with a mother who was no mother at all. What matters about this is for my friend to recognize that he grew up in that same stew and he is doing all right - beautiful wife who loves him deeply, a good son and daughter-in-law who brought a beautiful granddaughter into the family not too long ago, a lovely home in the suburbs. His life is not the perfect image he carries in his mind's eye but it is good, better than he will admit, probably.
When we weep for the dead, we cry for what we lose, that our lives have been stripped of being with someone we will never again hold, talk to, laugh with, gain knowledge from, feel the warmth of. In this case, even though there was hurt in his voice, my friend has not lost anything that was not lost long, long ago. In the last several years his brother has done nothing but make demands. Money, a place to live, even (I am not kidding) organ donation. Again, not ask for, demand as in 'you have it and I want it and you're my brother so you should give it to me.' This was a life that had become a black hole for the physical and emotional resources of a family (my friend's mother and sister, not his family per se) that was dysfunctional at best.
Now as for the nephew, I am at a loss there. I believe the young man (23 years old if I remember correctly) was not long out of jail for attempting to murder his father. Why would one feel the need to take his life after the death of someone he earlier tried and failed to kill? Perhaps the hopelessness of existence opened up before him when he faced the actuality of his father's death. Instead of seeing a blight and a burden on his life lifted, he confronted his life and could only see himself as his father's son which made his going on an impossibility. It takes an almost unimaginable depth of hatred for one's father to lead to suicide when seeing nothing but "I am my father's son" in the mirror. But I imagine, I posit, I do not know. I only met the lad once and were I pressed, I would say he suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome.

Not every life illuminates the world. As sorrowful as the family is, and I don't mean to diminish their sadness, the world will not much miss either of these lives. But I desperately want my friend to understand that the lesson is there for him: You and your sister came out of the same dumpster childhood that broke your brother and then his son. You may not have the life your fondest dreams limn but you have a wonderful one nonetheless. Let him go, hold what you've made of yourself and for yourself dear. And may God bless you. May you and your family find undeserved grace in every day.

More On The Mothership
Talking Apple again folks. Not that there's anything new with that.
Last night I was on the phone with a good friend whose family was a PC family of long-standing. He used to work for the feds and needed a PC for the Citrix VPN software to get him into his government computer system when he worked from home and his wife had started out on PCs which led her to become, essentially, a PC bigot. That, now, is moot. He retired which obviated the necessity of his using a PC so he got a MacBook. That he's a musician only made the choice easier as he explicitly mentioned how great the bundled software, and GarageBand specifically, is.
Now the family has an iMac to the mix and it seems his wife is over her Applephobia. Even his mother in law has migrated from a PC to a Mac. Pretty sure an iMac as well but I can't say that to an absolute certainty.
This is, of course, anecdotal but at the same time, it demonstrates what can happen when Apple has a chance to worm its way (get it- Apple, worm? these are the jokes, folks) into the regular computing expereince of daily users. I'm not opposed to PCs as much as I like my Macs. From what I've heard Windows 7 has done a good job of cleaning up the mess that MS made with Vista. But the experience is still seems to me not as seamless as it is with the Mac platform.
And I've ordered a Magic Mouse from Amazon. I actually save money by ordering from Amazon which has a nominally higher price but doesn't charge me tax. I think it'll be fun to use. I only wish I'd bought Apple stock back in April and doubled my investment through today.
I may have to update this post. I haven't yet been able to really identify the crux of the matter. Anecdotal evidence will do that to you.

Very Possibly Perfect
If you wish to see how a woman can wear her hair extremely short and look just as sexy as ... analogies fail me. First, Morena Baccarin (whom I first saw as "Companion" Inara Serra in Joss Whedon's superb "Serenity") is just a gorgeous woman - as much an iconic "SciFi babe" as Tricia Helfer in "Battlestar Galactica." Secondly, watch the viddy (an ad for ABC's upcoming re-make of "V"). This is how very short hair on a woman should look. I hope the re-make is as good as Ms. Baccarin looks in the ads.

Hole Lee Cow!
New hardware from the Apple Mothership. New iMac (did I buy too soon? of course) and something I just might have to get - a multi-touch capable "Magic Mouse." No more cleaning of a scroll ball ever. Nice. And multi-touch capable! Dang Steve, that rocks.
And a 27 inch iMac with more than 1080p definition? More than HD? Build a TV tuner into that bad boy and ... forget I said that. I didn't say that. You didn't read that.

Self Evident

Ripped From The Pages Of Scientific American
"Stem Cells from Fat Used to Grow Teen's Missing Facial Bones."
Oh. My. God. I am a precious natural resource!
I can provide a nation's worth of the raw material for stem cell production.

Our Narcissist In Chief
President I Won really does seem to believe that "l'etat, c'est moi." I believe I'll call him Leroy Soleil from now on.

Quick Update On The Moccamaster
Decidedly makes better coffee than the very good Mr. Coffee maker which will soon live with friends. And I had to pre-het the water for the Mr. Coffee to make its product as good as it was. No need for that now. Teh noob has a space issue with my scrap of counter between the range and the refrigerator but I'll figure out how to deal with it elegantly. Or at least deal with it.
I love making the coffee into a thermal carafe. I tend to pull the made onto my morning table and knock back my cuppas as I read the paper. The last cup I sipped was just as toasty as the first.
The only thing that restrains my joy is that I have to do some days of sperimenting (Lucy) to adjust the amount of water and amount of coffee to precisely calibrate it to my taste. Not a bad thing to experiment on - good coffee.
Woot!
UPDATE: Not only is the coffee better, but it brews my morning pot o' in about half the time the Mr. Coffee did. And there's no piercing BEEP BEEP BEEP when it's through brewing. I'd say the only thing I lose in changing makers is a timer to start brewing automatically. But two things make that Moot! First, I never used that feature anyway and second, the Moccamaster makers believe that making coffee from fresh water is perferable to leaving a tank of water overnight to get "stale."
I dunno how stale water gets but I generally agree with that interpretation.

And Since I'm All Soppy With Nostalgia
I really, really miss Karen Carpenter. I'm not sure that she would have made music for the ages had she not died but I'm willing to bet good money on the idea that her amazing voice would have found material that would be popular and beautiful. I resent being denied the opportunity to know what she would have added to our musical world.

Let's Remember, Shall We?
Ah, those days of yester, the yoredays of our yute. I remember watching the televsioning machine with it's grainy black and white picture. I remember the Herb Alpert music that was used as the "Teaberry Shuffle" in ads to promote Clark's Teaberry gum.
I just ordered some of the Teaberry gum from Amazon.

I delight in the very idea that all the things that filled the nooks and interstices of our past have not gone away. Videos of ads on uToob, the gum itself. I suppose I could get some of those wax "cola bottles" things, the red wax lips that tasted like ... well, nothing natural to be sure. And what aging child can't forget the dusty snort of flavored sugar drained from a "pixie stick" directly down the throat? I imagine I could get those too. If they weren't just revolting to the taste.
There might be a catalog of disgusting sweeties from the past. And things that are so far beyond the pale that today's children would run crying to their school counselors if they were confronted with them. Candy cigarettes. Gum cigars. Now it's all red vines and dentally hygienic gums. Pfeh!

The Coffee Masheen, She Has Arrived
And tomorrow morning, I'm going to be having Kenyan AA as bubbled through the Moccamaster. I like that name. Moccamaster. I am Master of my Mocca!
I'd better stop that. It's starting to sound a little too much like Cornholio.
Are you threatening me? I need mocca for my master!
I'll try to take pictures.

If You Don't Mind Teh Random
Today's Woot is a random five pack of 15 Christmas card boxes. 75 cards for $4.00 plus $5.00 shipping. If you don't mind taking a chance on the cards (and I have no idea who "Marian Heath" is), that'll probably cover your entire card list for not much scratch.
I tend to look over the 50% reduced cards on December 26 to see if any good ones are left. Yes, I am cheap frugal. It's me Scots blood.
Remember - the link is good for today only.

I M F N Nutz
My morning coffee is shortly about to become a whole new experience. Why? The Technivorm Moccamaster KBT-741. Indulgence ranges from transcendent to ugly. In this instance it could very well be both. Of course I've been wanting one of these since "Cook's Illustrated" informed me of its existence. Them recipe-writin' butter-mongers keep doing this to me!
Yeah. It's their fault.

Taking Rash Action
Keep in mind that in my life, the following is "rash action."
My desk has been covered with computers for the last couple of days. I've had a friend's old Dell on which I've been trying to get a decent version of the the Windows OS installed. It has been, to put it mildly, resistant. So i came to the conclusion that I may as well bag that effort. But then I conceived of turning it into a "Hackintosh" instead. Well, I did some internet surfing and after finding the specs of the Dell, and what I'd need to do to turn this caterpillar into a butterfly, I realized that it was absurd. Basically, the only thing I could use would have been the case. Not, I hasten to assure you, an elegant result.
So I am abandoning all efforts with the frackin' Dell. I'll pull the WiFi card and then see if anyone wants it for parts. I will be, finally, glad to be rid of it. There's a point at which one is throwing good time after bad (just as with money but let's not talk politics now) and I've decided to end this black hole into which I've poured too much time already.
So what is the rash action? That's a Mac thing. I've been using a wireless Mighty Mouse for quite a while now. It's a wonderful mouse, the best mouse I've ever used actually. But the little scroll ball atop the oblong ice cream scoop has a really, really bad habit of getting crudded up and it's not like the old under-the-mouse ball. It's not designed to be removed. My "scroll down" (as in moving a web page up to read more) has not been right for, well, I can't put a date on it but, as Staind sez, "It's been a while."
Today the Bluetooth started acting way too flaky for my taste. And two malfunctions lead to one ticked off mouser. Yeah - me. So I opted for rash action. As I learned from my genius brother, if something's broken, you may as well try to fix it. It's not like you can do any more damage and you just might fix it. Though I figured (properly as it turns out) that new batteries might firm up the Bluetooth connection, it was the perfect excuse to rip the mouse open and physically clean the scroll ball.
Rash? Perhaps. But the fact is the mouse is now working better than it has in a long time. It's all back together. The scrolling is not as smooth as new but it works. And there was a disgusting little ball of fluff on one of the scroll shafts. My rash action paid off. I'll now be able to clean this bad boy anytime I want without freaking. So I've got that going for me.
UPDATE: After pulling a couple of things out of the old Dell (the WiFi card which I bought for it when I thought it was going to be used and the DVD drive for a friend whose machine is limited to a CD-ROM drive), I figured I'd see what eBay had to say about the "value" of the box. Pfft. They appear to sell for about $20. I'm not missing a zero, that's -$20.00- Not even worth messin' with.

Grace Notes
Every now and them something comes along that just makes you smile. In this case, I have a low-level e-mail correspondence with a Washington Timesman who recently wrote column on the silly dustup over a picture of model Lizzie Miller. She was called fat because her tummy folded over as she sat in the shot. Well, the fact is, she is a gorgeous woman, an absolute knockout. And her laughing smile in the picture (click the link) is just glorious.
But the grace note for me is that in the e-mail, I got a copy of a picture of all the Glamour magazine "plus sized" models. Such beautiful women! I append the picture here for your enjoyment. I normally wouldn't post a picture of women sans clothes but, as you can see, this is how nude is done with class.

Inspiration...

I was taking my morning medication and noticed this warning label on the pill bottle. It has inspired me to get it tattooed on my body..one guess where this sexy beast is going…

Today's Riddle
What's the difference between ACORN and ENRON?
ENRON didn't donate enough to the Democrats.

There are many other answers in a similar vein. Feel free to add your own.

Aaaand in other news: Why does David Letterman call his production company "Worldwide Pants?"
Because you need pants that size to cover the world's biggest a**hole.

Is It Extortion?
I haven't bothered to drag out my legal dictionary but I was thinking about Roman PoLetterman's situation.

Let's say that I have information about a married man who has maintained a series of inappropriate sexual relationships with women who work under for him. It is information that the person does not want revealed. So I go to said person and say, "I'd like to pitch you a screenplay idea." Whereupon I lay out the situation of which I have proof.
And I go on, "But I need money to produce this movie. Let's say, oh, $2,000,000. If you're willing to invest that amount of money, you can have full script approval. In fact, it will even give you unlimited access to my files for any editing you'd like to do. Of course, you risk losing your entire investment should things go wrong but I think it'd be a great investment for you."

Now, on a very basic level, the blackmail is obvious. But if it's presented in such a way, can it legally avoid the definition of extortion? If so, there's no crime. I need to dig out the law books and double check.

RiOlympics
I may have to do some deconstruction of the Peter Allen viddy I posted below which, I hasten to add, was also posted by mega-blogger Ann Althouse. So I'm in good company. Albeit .25% more gay.
But what I'm keeping in mind is how wonderful it is that Rio de Janeiro got the 'limpics. I have just one crucial thought about this decision: Consider the "atmosphere" visuals that will be broadcast along with the games themselves. Would you rather see pictures of people in the "Windy City" or images of bronzed Cariocas on the beach at Ipanema? Tall and tan and lean and lovely ....

A Brief Thought On Chrysler
Joe Sherlock today has piece on the situation at the littlest of the Big Three automakers with the heart of the matter nicely pulled together: "I was pessimistic about Chrysler's survival when it first filed for that bizarre banana-republic bankruptcy, which I now refer to as Obamaruptcy. And the subsequent shotgun marriage to Fiat - a nuptial which only made sense after a lot of drinking or a severe head injury."
First of all, "Obamaruptcy:" heh! It doesn't roll smoothly off the tongue but it is now an essential truism. So, full marks for the neologism.
But it's the meat of the post that intrigues me. I can offer no great insight into the car biz, especially in comparison to Joe who just knows his stuff. But an image, an idea struck me in reading the post. Both Chrysler and Fiat are like two falling-down drunks and the only way two drunks can support each other is if they're falling into each other from opposite directions. Unfortunately for us, Fiat and Chrysler are falling in the same direction with the only difference being the rate of drop.
As Joe said, the American taxpayer will never see his or her money that went into the "rescue" ever again. All to pay back Obama's union backers for their political support. Shameful.

A Word On Pedophile Rapist Roman Polanski
Don't worry: I won't get into an extensive who-shot-John exposition of all the ugly facts surrounding what the vile Polish director did in his violation of a 13 year-old girl. You can find that all over the blogosphere. I want to address an aspect of the case that rose at dinner last night with my boon companions the Wilmingtonians (recently the Yuman Beings).
I can't say that I know this for a fact but it was alleged in our conversation that Polanski had visited Switzerland before and was not arrested on those instances. Which led to the question of why was he arrested now? My response, based on nothing but an interior synthesis of the news is that the Swiss are reacting to the Obama administration's pursuit of "tax avoiders" by going after Swiss banking giant UBS.
It only makes sense that the Swiss government, whose hand was essentially forced by the US government, to break bank secrecy laws that have been in place for decades and have been a particular source of business for the "Gnomes of Zurich" would have good reason to decide: "If the American government insists on an absolute standard of the letter of the law, then we have no choice but to act on this outstanding warrant that has been in effect of the last several decades."

I'm not saying I have any proof but the reasoning fits the fact pattern rather precisely as I see it. And I can't blame the Swiss in the least. I hope they continue this idea and make sure that Americans in Switzerland are scrupulously law-abiding. It's not like the US is going to be providing capital for the banks now that the Obama economy is failing at full steam and the avaricious tax men continue to make trouble internationally.
If anyone else has a different interpretation, I'd be happy, no, delighted to hear it.

It's Sporty!

I'm now officially .25% more gay for having posted that.

More New TV Watching
I liked the new Fox show "Glee" from it's early premiere and tonight they brought in the incredibly talented singer and comic actress, and now Emmy winner, Christin Chenoweth. I didn't much care for her before she appeared in "Pushing Daisies" (loved! that show) but she's become a power on the tube. Home run hitter. Da bomb. It would be a very good idea if they kept her around for a few episodes.
Her character might wear thin but I could watch and listen to her belt out some absolute show-stoppers. And "Glee" has put together some serious production numbers. More Christin please.
Hmm. Looks like a single episode guest shot. Too bad.

Just sitting here thinking about the ‘Facts of Life” and humming..“You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the facts of life... “
(A group of girls attending a boarding school experience the joys and the trials of adolescence under the guiding hand of housemother Edna Garrett.)

My Favorite.. Mindy Cohn-(Natalie)

Was Jo a Lesbian? I always thought her mocking Blair was because of her secret pent up lesbian heat rising when she was near. I think that Blair was totally straight, but maybe enjoyed the fact that Jo was turned on by her. Blair was the hottest, though.

Does anyone remember the episode when one of their schoolmates died of a weed overdose, while the girls made "Feel Better" Fudge?

(hmmmm…“Feel Better” Fudge has helped me through many of life's challenges: death of pets, being sodomized, and that whole enema accident).

Some of my favorite dialogue from the show:
Mrs. Edna Ann Garrett: [Mrs. Garrett is giving the girls their mail] And the rest is for Natalie. Tootie Ramsey: *All* of those?
Blair Warner: Natalie... have you been writing to prisoners again?

All for now..the nurse is coming....

The Restaurant Coupon Update Brief
I just got around to printing the coupons I ordered from Restaurant.com. Stupidly, I was expecting them to be mailed to me. I'll post more about how it works. As little as I paid for these, I'm not in love with the restrictions. But $2 for $25 is a deal. I shouldn't complain. Too loudly.
And as long as I'm on about restaurants and , earlier, TV, I watched last night's "Hell's Kitchen." Sweet holy Escoffier! I wouldn't eat in a restaurant run by any of the contestants. One, who goes by the name Tennille, just frickin' shouts every word she says. Shut up. SHUT UP! Good sweating God, at least turn the volume knob down from 11. And she lives in the NoVa area. Uck.

Following up on reported Al-Qaeda and Taliban sightings in BlogDog's neighborhood....
Predator Drone mission from Claude Moore Park, Sterling Virginia...

So far.... 4 Kabob and a 2 Curry Restaraunt's identified...search continues.....

Oh Bother!
First, I owe my co-blogger a note of contrition as the Geelong Cats took the Grand Final from St. Kilda and blew right through Collingwood to get there. (mumble, mumble, you sunuva, mumble)
Secondly, I caught a little of the new season on TV last night which led me to think about Julianna Margulies who is starring in a show called "The Good Wife." (capsule review: Elliot Spitzer, phone home) I am nonplussed. Everything about her should be right in my personal hotness assessment: exotic eyes, raven tresses and yet she just makes me shudder. There's something predatory and vulpine about her that turns me away. It may be from my first exposure to her as the PITA nurse on "ER." So even with the great Chris Noth starring, I'm not going to watch that one.
Don't even ask about "NCIS: Los Angeles." Alphabet police set up shop in SoCal. Actually, I may have to do a deconstruction of that one, with a gratuitous reference to the lab geek chick on the original since the Enigmatic Misanthrope has the steamin' undies for her.

In Brief
Spent all Friday on Kent Island at this year's first day of the Paul Reed Smith "Experience." I'm hurting in the joints today for the walking around and with the rain today, I didn't think it worth going again today as the Guitar Nazi and I hit all the highlights. By pure accident I wore a shirt that was the same color as those worn by the event staff. I did not try to skeeve my way into anything on that basis. I'm better than that.
I have to mention one of the staff though. There was a young lady taking pictures for PRS and she had the most incredible smile I've seen in quite a while. Absolutely dazzling. She was on the wrong side of the camera.
UPDATE: Reuters wrote an article about the Experience.

The Yuman Beings were here for a couple of days, leaving this morning, on their way to their new lives in Wilmington, Delaware. There's something about having house guests who not only take care of themselves, but did a bunch of things I needed done while I was away. And they crept away in the early morning today without making even enough noise for me to know they were awake! That's some kinda sneakin, I tell ya what.

And lastly, I found something I hadn't had at Costco the other day: white nectarines. Absolutely delicious. Smooth skinned, with the taste of white peaches but sweeter. I'm going to get some more and see what I get out of sorbet-ing them. Could be a winner.

I Knew A Woman...
When I was in college, I knew a woman who had very particular taste in men. She most liked manly men like coal diggers and then military men of a particular rank. In effect she majored in miners and minored in majors.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Furious And Funny
Kathy Shaidle is on the blogroll as "Five Feet of Fury" which is an every day read for me. I've had the treat of watching her speech in regard to the Canadian "Human Rights Commission" via the Vdare blog. I referred to her as "damnably cute" when I first 'rolled her (blogrolled her - watch it!) and my assessment stands. But what gets added to the mix in the video below is how truly funny she can be about a serious subject. I'd have her speak to any group for which I needed a speaker. In a heartbeat. But see for yourself:

Human Rights Commissions: Useful or Obsolete? Part 1: Intro & Kathy Shaidle from josephinejosephine on Vimeo.

I Figured It Out
I think I finally cracked Victoria's Secret: She's kind of a slut.

New Favorite Thing in iTunes
The "Genius" playlist. If you click on a particular song, which I'll do as the entirety of my music is on "shuffle," the "genius" will select songs that go along with it for a 25 song playlist. Of course you can modify the song count and you have to let Apple access your iTunes info so it can apply whatever algorithm those clever dicks have cobbled up to your music library. I was reluctant at first to do so as I do like my privacy but I ended up accepting Apple's protestation of respect for the individual's personal info.
In comments, give me a song and if I have it, I'll generate a playlist and list the songs in a later post if you'd like a sample. I'm grooving to Donal Fagen's "Snowbound" right now after listening to Paul Simon, The Pretenders, Joni Mitchell, Joe Jackson. All generated off Fagen's "It's What I Do" from "Morph the Cat."

Kanye West Doesn't Care About White People
See for yourself: Dammit man!
I should slap the fishsticks right outta your mouth!

Today's Poll Question
Which would you rather have - henchmen or minions?
Additional credit for explaining your choice.

A Little Of The Rock n Roll
A little of the Burlyque. One of my aficions: The Fratellis with "Chelsea Dagger." There is much to like. Girls being all sexy girly, a dove grey top hat (!) and a sweet white Telecaster (curiously marked with the name of the song - does this mean it's specially tuned?) These are the questions that linger. Yep, they're all kinds of lingery.

9/11
The blogosphere is rife with people remembering the carnage that evil brought to our lives eight years ago. I will remember always and will hold the knowledge of evil in my heart until it stops its beating. But I'll say no more today. Travel the internet today and read the words of those who wish to express their pain, remembrance and resolve. God bless them all. And God damn the evil.

I Loves Me Some Bamboo
I just added a couple of new pillows to the inventory of the Arx. I had the hideous revelation that two of the pillows I've had on the bed are really no more than half a pillow's worth of feathers. I was even using a folded up mattress pad to bulk up the pillow stack. Absurd. So I stuffed one of the half pillows into the pillowcase of the other half pillow and got the mattress pad the hell off the head of the bed.
Of course all this is driven by my good, good friends at Amazon.com who have become quite expert at separating me from my gelt. They offered a two-pillow set of gel-filled pillows at a price I could not pass up. Gel filled? I hear you say. Yes, so it seems. They feel no different from other, non-down filled pillows I've had in the past. I'll see how they hold up over time. Probably better than down-filled ones when it comes time to launder them.
It's laundry that concerns me of course. There may be a pillow in my house that has not seen the inside of my washing machine but I doubt it. Pillows are truly remarkable collectors of facial oil yellowing. Epic collectors. Even though they can be cleaned, it behooves one (your assignment is use "behooves" in conversation on Friday) to put pillows first in "protectors" and then into pillow cases. So, what does this have to do with bamboo?
I shopped my local Bed, Bath & Beyond (over priced but a really, really great place to shop for the kitchenly-inclined and use the coupons!) for protectors and cases. I found that pillowcases made of bamboo fabric were on sale. I know bamboo is used to make fabric but now I get to put the grassy cloth to the acid test. Oh yeah, they are green. I'm all about the green.

Git Yo Grub On (Cheap Eats Redux)
If you recall my post about gift certificates from Restaurant.com, the sale on the certificates is even better: 90% off through Saturday. (found via Dealhack.com.) That means $25 certificates for a single buck. Worth a flier if you ask me.

Grace Notes
First, darling of the blogosphere and very close personal friend of the BlogDog Rachel Lucas has a nice long post up today about England, food and cultural differences. Well worth the reading. And the "close personal friend thing?" She said I could say that.
Closer to home - As long as I've lived here in Arx Solitudinis, I have been plagued by a street lamp that manages to shine through my bedroom window directly onto my face. I've been a "curtains must be drawn" sleeper for a while now which I do not prefer to be. I can sleep crazy in the full light of the moon but a sodium light on my sleeping face sucks for air.
Well, the lamp has been out now for about a week and I'm loving it. My curtains are open, there is some ambient artificial light but nothing bothersome in that. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that no one will ask that the one out be fixed and that the powers that be don't notice.
It may be a small thing but it makes a difference.

If You Like Cilantro
You might like the following recipe. If you don't like it, and the bifurcation between those who like and those who don't seems to be a real bright line (as they say in the law biz), you will not like:

Buttermilk Coleslaw with Green Onions and Cilantro (serves 4)

If you are planning to serve the coleslaw immediately, rinse the salted cabbage in a large bowl of ice water, drain it in a colander, pick out any ice cubes, then pat the cabbage dry before dressing. Ingredients

1	pound cabbage (about 1/2 medium head), red or green, shredded fine (6 cups)
	table salt
1	medium carrot , shredded on box grater
1/2	cup buttermilk
2	tablespoons mayonnaise
2	tablespoons sour cream
1	small shallot , minced (about 2 tablespoons)
1	tablespoon minced fresh cilantro leaves
1	teaspoon lime juice
1/2	teaspoon granulated sugar
2	scallions , sliced thin
1/8	teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions

1. 1. Toss shredded cabbage and 1 teaspoon salt in colander or large mesh strainer set over medium bowl. Let stand until cabbage wilts, at least 1 hour or up to 4 hours. Rinse cabbage under cold running water. Press, but do not squeeze, to drain; pat dry with paper towels. Place wilted cabbage and carrot in large bowl.
   

2. 2. Stir buttermilk, mayonnaise, sour cream, shallot, cilantro, lime juice, sugar, scallions, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper together in small bowl. Pour dressing over cabbage and toss to combine; refrigerate until chilled, about 30 minutes. (Coleslaw can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.)

I made this last night and I loved it.

Good Morning!

Self Knowledge
I am extremely lactose intolerant.
I don't have any deleterious physical effects; I am just totally unwilling to put up with its shenanigans.

ALSO: I've long thought the "flowering teas" in a clear glass pot were particularly attractive and since Amazon saw fit to put one up for sale, I bit the bullet. Pretty, no?
I hope it tastes good.

There's really not
much need for fright,
as long as you outrun the light.

So just to be safe,
always run up the stairs.-Sean Moore

What lurks at the "bottom of the stairs"?
You know that creepy feeling and "back of your neck" reaction you get after turning off the basement light and running like hell up the stairs?.. Well.. last night my cats knocked over their bag of "Friskies" and a shelf, the resulting crash led me down the basement stairs to investigate...OMG!! raccoon??squirrel??..Nosferatu??...the weirdest thing..is..that..I.. don't ..
HAVE A BASEMENT!!!
AAAAAAAH!!!

Silly little EM, he was always putting things in his mouth without knowing what they would do. He was forever changing sizes and yet never really seemed to learn his lesson.

The Mexican Lion....

A mechanic in New Mexico got fed up with criminals breaking into his garage and stealing his tools, so he put the word out that he'd acquired a new sort of watchdog: A Mexican lion. Apparently it worked. Crooks who tried to break in saw his lion from a distance and quickly abandoned their plans.Whether the story's true, I don't know...But it's still hilarious.

Happy Birthday!
My boon companion UnkaMika has flipped the personal calendar today. And it's a date I can never remember so it's a good thing he sent an e-mail! Hope you have fun, fun, fun until the sun goes down and then have some more.
UnkaRic

Git Yo Grub On (Free Food Edition)
Whatchu doin on Labor Day? Thas right - this Monday? Whyn't you git you bad se'f over to the Chik-Fil-A an git you a free yardbird sammich? Alls you got to do is (an I quote from the flier they handed me) "wear your sports team logo to Chik-fil-A from 10:30 to close, and get a FREE Chick-fil-A Orginal Chicken Sandwich."
Now, I don't think you have to be there at 10:30 and stay all day. I'm betting that you just go over there with the logo of your team of choice (I think I have a Duke logo cap somewhere) and they should cough up (ew! sorry for the choice of words) some of their signature grub. Bun, hunka hunka fried chickie and some pickles. Deal.

I Wonder...
With new brands of skwerls popping up, I wonder if the frog I found in the backyard this morning might be the harbinger of something.

A Measure Of Our Friendship
Sort of a parenthetical note to a phone conversation between the Enigmatic Misanthrope and me tonight: Our call dissolved into laughter after I repeatedly stopped him from speaking by shouting louder and louder into the receiver, "Shut up bitch!"

Ya kinda had to be there but believe me, it was plenty funny.

New species of squirrel spotted in attic.
We’re going to need a bigger Havahart trap.
Animalia-Chordata-Mammalia-Carnivora-Felidae-Panthera-pardus-sciurus carolinensis

It's September Fools Day!
Ha ha! You've been punk'd! there's no such thing as September Fools Day!

Actually, it's a good, good day - Joe Sherlock is back in the blogging chair and the weather in the NoVa is lovely, lovely, lovely. Cool overnight, into the low 60s and a high projected at about 80º. Three weeks away but autumn, my favorite time of the year, is making its way here.

Though it's not particularly a September thing, I'd like to take note of my friend Linda's acquisition of a new-to-her 2009 Mustang in place of her aging RAV-4. I turned out to be the by-phone confidant and consultant on the purchase so I look forward to seeing the beast in real life. I sure hope she continues to like it as much as she does now since she's a long-term vehicle type. The RAV was about a 9 year car and her prior (a Corolla if I remember correctly) was a 14 year ride. I'm that way about the automobile too - I figure my Y2K Outback is going another 8 years at least.

Y'all have a good day, OK?

Do You Eat Out?
Watch it! I mean do you patronize restaurants? If so, you might want to look at Restaurant.com for some deals on meals. The gig is that you buy "gift certificates" which come with some restrictions - notably that you can only use (I'll take as an example a sushi restaurant in my neighborhood - Aoba Sushi) say, a $25 certificate when you spend $35. And the certificate itself costs $10. So you would be getting a discount of $15 which is still a good deal.
Here's the reason for the post today - if you buy yourself some certificates today (the last day of the offer) and enter the code "TASTE" in the coupon code box, you get an 80% discount on the certificates. Thus a $25 certificate (priced at $10) would cost you $2 making the projected $35 meal cost you a total of $12. Deal. I ordered a few for a local place to which I have not been yet so I get to try it out for not a helluva a lot of money.
You can sort restaurants by zip code and I'd like to point out to my co-blogger the Enigmatic misanthrope that his favorite hangout, the Backdoor Bar and Grill offers certificates. Enh? Enh?

This Is The Day The Lord Made
God bless us, each and every one. I am praying for more people than I ever have in my life and my prayer is always for grace.

I deserve approbation though for not acknowledging the natal anniversary of Lycurgus, AKA Phillymon. Happy belated birthday brother! I have been turning over a suitable gift for you since finding that what I wanted to give you was sold out. And I'll make it public prior to my assembling and shipping - a big box of Japanese foods that will take you back to your childhood. Dried squid, dried bonito for katsuobushui, yokan (if it ships and I think it does), furikake, fukujinzuke. I hope you'll like what I cobble together.

And in other news, the phormer Philly Boys, now the Yumans are coming back, back I say! to the East Coast. It looks as though Wilmington, DE (just a snip off Philly all told) will be the new site of the Boys. So it looks like I'll be having more houseguests in September. And thank goodness I don't have to deal with 3000 miles and desert heat to visit them. Oy. I don't care it's a dry heat. What am I a scorpion I should live in the desert?

I just bought a boat. I can't wait to have sex on "The Angry Clam". That's what I named it.

Sectual Deviates
Snake handlers: A cult of poisonality.

"The work will begin anew, the hope will rise again, and the dream lives on."

Kennedy Death Day
The celebrations will commence shortly. Idiots can celebrate his life. Thinking people can celebrate his death. The runt of the litter outlived all the others. Highly unusual.
As the old, old saying goes: Good riddance to bad rubbish.
UPDATE: I was turning over in my mind my line above about the runt of the litter when I had the revelation. This was the Kennedy that was not worth killing. Of course the people of Massachusetts hold him in awe which says more about them than about him. It's really time for the Kennedy mythos to die.

Ow! Ow! Bloody Buggering Ow!
Gouty right great toe today. Not the worst I've had but it makes walking painful and I'm peeved as I'm not eating a gout inducing diet right now. Unless metabolizing my own fat would be gout-inducing. Now that would suck like a black hole: lose weight and hurt like a smashed Smurf while doing so.
Oh bother.

More Adventures In The Kitchen
OK folks - this one's dead easy. Chocolate syrup. I made it with Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder which is all I had to hand. Heh heh heh! "All" I had to hand was Hershey's Special Dark. I used it to make some chocolate milk this evening and all I can say is "Oh my. This is quite tasty." Consider it a more adult version of chocolate milk, made so I daresay by the use of that particular cocoa powder. I'd like to take this opportunity to suggest that you take about ten minutes out of your busy day and make some of this.
Now, the rule is that if you start with something, it must be altered before it is left behind. It is a basic rule of cooking: I've effed with the basic recipe so it's mine! Damn your eyes! What to do, then, with chocolate syrup? let me toss out a few softballs for y'all to bat back at me. Trade the sugar for Splenda and find something to give it the body that would then be lacking. Gelatin? Cornstarch? I'm inclined toward gelatin as the amount of cornstarch needed to thicken a batch of syrup would not be enough to provide enough mass, whereas the gelatin might.
I might have to get some vanilla ice cream to try the old "pour it over" trick. Kind of a classic, doncha think?

A Snip On Footy
I appear to have been prescient in warning the cat fancying Enigmatic Misanthrope that the Geelong Cats, despite their sterling record, were not the best bet for the AFL Premiership. To wit, a quote from Rohan Connolly in Oz's The Age:

Just a few weeks ago, the AFL premiership seemed a race in two between St Kilda and Geelong. Now, a week out from the finals, the flag could be anyone's.

When the Saints and Cats clashed in round 14, both were undefeated. But Geelong has lost four of its past eight games. Yesterday, St Kilda, after having strung 19 consecutive wins together, lost its second in a row, this time by five points to North Melbourne.

St Kilda and Geelong will still finish the home-and-away season next week in the top two spots on the AFL ladder. But coming hard are Collingwood, which yesterday against Sydney won the 12th of its past 13 matches, and the Western Bulldogs, who beat the Cats on Friday night.

Go Magpies!

"Hi, Enigmatic Misanthrope Here”.
Just when you thought everything that could be invented, has been, we can still surprise you! Here’s an ass paper that would make Madame Curie’s “onion ring” burn.

“That’s the Power of 9-ply Glow in the Dark Toilet Roll!”

That’s right folks, 9-ply!!

Imagine never having a messy breakthrough in the dark ever again!

Now you’ll always be able to find the toilet paper, even in the dark, with this new Glow in the Dark Toilet Paper! Perfect for power cuts, this groovy glowing stool scraper means that if you don’t want to wake anyone up in your household by turning on the light, it’ll cast its green glow over your bathroom, so you can find your way around.

"Order right now and we'll double the value and include a free case of cute SpongeBob SquarePants colostomy bags"; "Here's how to order" ...

**EM Note**
Luminescence is accomplished with radium-infused cotton fibers. 12 micrograms radium per 9 ply sheet. Results of long term use may include: Hypertrophic-megacolon prolapse, Godzilla-hemorrhoiditis, Yam bag rot, asshole fallout-itis, blindness, coma and death.

I Can See Clearly Now
I was planning on doing a little posting yesterday but after being toasted on Sunday, I was flying blind yesterday. My eyes were just a mess all day long - it's as if they were simultaneously too dry and producing gunk at the same time. I was needing lots of light to read and it was just so much more comfortable to keep the orbs closed. (shrugs) Today is all right. I might actually get something done for a change.
And my lesbian girlfriend is in town so we'll probably get together for lunch or something like that. And if you don't get the phrase: she is on the other team but she's a sweetheart and we have been incredible friends almost from the moment we met. She's a Floridian so our chances to share time are limited.
UPDATE: Quite a lovely time, really. We wound up having diner at the Sweetwater Tavern, one of my favorite local haunts. I had "Tex-Mex Eggrolls" for starters (two words: yuh um!) and though I was tempted for a moment by the prime rib, I knew I couldn't do any more than a burger. I opted for sweet potato fries for the first time and I must say they are a vastly preferable choice to the regular fries or even the delicious mashed version Sweetwater serves - more fully flavored, crisp exterior fry on a substantial starchy core. Nice. My companion chose a salmon dish which had flash fried yucca strips. To be honest, on looking at them, I thought it was a pita chip of some kind but the skin down the side showed that it wasn't. Even after tasting a bite I didn't identify it as yucca. Which is not entirely a bad thing.
But the best part of the whole evening was the catching up. I believe that is the way it should be with friends.

Whew!
Sunday is a day of rest. Thank God for that because Saturday was a day of huge party on the green with dear friends and people I've never met in Sharpsburg Maryland. I didn't get home til 3:00 am and I've been toasted all day. But it was a wonderful time.
By the way, the feeling you get when you find out you weren't invited to someone's party is called "shindignation."

Blogging should ramp up starting tomorrow. "Should," I said.

Woodstock 40th Aniversary

Here is arguably one of the top 5 performances at Woodstock.




The video proves that John Belushi wasn't making it up when he parodied Joe Cocker on Saturday Night Live.

The other 4 top performances, according to Pete Fornatale, author of "Back to the Garden: The Story of Woodstock" were Richie Havens, Santana, Jimi Hendrix, and Sly and the Family Stone.




http://www.amazon.com/Back-Garden-Woodstock-Pete-Fornatale/dp/1416591192/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250199214&sr=1-1

Is It Just Me?
Or does the pronunciation of the name "Albert Pujols" make anyone else want to laugh?

Dogged Days of Summer
It's turned nasty hot in the last couple of days and I'm delightfully tired after hosting for several days. Lois is the kind of house guest anyone would want - my guest room is cleaner then when she arrived. (goalloprah) Girl, if you're that good a guest, you can stay at my crib any ol' time!(/goalloprah)
Also the week looks busy with a ship load (you thought I was going say something different, didn't you? yeah, I knew ya did) of quotidian things to do and my adopted family in Western Maryland is having one of their massive field parties this Saturday. Fun, fun, fun and there's no T-bird for daddy to take away.
So expect more blogging next week from me. Maybe the EM and Paul can pick up a few more days of fun 'n' games and viddies.

This is for my friends Bob Cooney and Glenn Eliot.






The harmonies remain spot-on after 30 years, and their lyrics reflect upon themselves. In sum, they are artists. Please forgive the rusty musicianship. Their story is too sweet and too long to transcribe via blogger.

Here are the best lyrics:

"I got everything I want
I can't help it if I don't

Baby, don't you worry about me.

I've been hiding out on the highway,
riding down the road

Baby, don't you worry about me."


Hope you enjoy!

Just Too Cool


The promised picture of the title page. Again, this was made possible by Amy Alkon whose time and attention I had no claim on in any way. So I'll remain in devotion to her for any amount of time I can imagine. As I mentioned previously, she has a book coming out which available for pre-order from Amazon, "I See Rude People: One Woman's Battle to Beat Some Manners into Impolite Society" (link goes to Amy's Amazon Mall - why not get it through her portal and let her reap a few more pence from the deal, eh?) I can definitely say that it'll be worth the read. I read her blog just about every day and her columns when I can stomach the idiocy of the world as it's spinning now. But what remains is Amy's good, common sense. I'm not saying I don't differ with her on somethings (I keep my belief in God, she's not going to go along with that) but in the living of daily life, the girl's got it goin' on - smart and sharp which I'm sure will inform the book's writing. Plus she gets to hang with Dr. Helen. I'm jealous. Jealous but not bitter, look at the nice thing she did for me!

A Day Late
Dang it! I've been busy enough to be offline for a good portion of the last couple of days which led me to miss Joe Sherlock's birthday. Yesterday the esteemed Joe turned 66 - it's a Route, it's birthday, it's two, two things in one! Joe notes his genetic heritage argues in favor of his mortality but I, for one, am damned grateful that he's managed to skirt the boneyard and become a real online friend. Joe, you have a belated birthday tipple or, for that matter, a birthday dinner, waiting for you in Northern Virginia should you be coming this way. Happy Birthday and may there be many, many more.
And, should there be any doubt about my tagging this post with "mitzvah," I consider Joe a blessing. So there.

EM's Hobby Corner
Making Dioramas is a wonderful hobby that can exhibit an extraordinary wide range of creativity. You can make a diorama of almost any scene your mind can imagine.

Workin' Here Boss
This is one of those parenthetical posts - stuff that I dig that probably matters not a whit to anyone else. But I post anyway. Pbbblllttt!
A friend of mine has/had an external hard drive that went south. Opening it up seems the thing to do but the case was remarkably monolithic. At least in appearance. I did a little online research which seemed to indicate that there were clips that could be loosened with a long blade slipped down inside the case. I passed that info on. I was wrong. I really needed to see the darn thing, hold it in my moist and delicate hands. Well, I got the thing delivered to me.
I've got to say, there was some kinda main force applied to the back cover of the drive - it was all bent outta shape. But still attached. What caught my eye, though, was a little sticker on the bottom that said something on the order of "removing this sticker voids warranty." Why would that be? I mused. Followed immediately by the realization that the warranty wasn't really the problem.
So I scraped the sticker off to reveal a pair of little screw heads. Aha! indeed. Unscrewing them allowed the guts of the drive to slide right out, easy peasy. Whereupon I proceeded to take down the internals to component parts which importantly consisted of two 500GB Seagate drives.
I then ordered a couple of external drive enclosures and have tried one drive in one new enclosure but it booted neither on my iMac, nor on my friend's PC. The idea was, of course, to rescue the data on the drive/s and then set them up as a couple of external drives as needed. But my enthusiasm for the project obscured my gathering basic background info. To wit: the original problem was actually that the power supply would not plug in properly. The drive had a four-pin socket and I saw that the problem (which I could have solved before removing anything) was that one of the pins had been pushed out of position and stopped the plug from seating. I gingerly tried to move the pin to its full upright and seat back position but it had been wiggled enough that it just broke off at that point.
Sigh.
What do I do, what do I do? Go to the maker's website of course and after spending an inordinate amount of time peering at the power supplies they offer, finding what I truly believe is the right one. So, harking back to the post title, what have I been doing this afternoon? Reassembling a naked hard drive so that when I get the power supply, I can boot this sucker up and get at all the good bits. And bytes. Workin' here boss. Makin' more work for myself than I really should but, hey. Workin' here, boss.

I Give Thanks In This World Too
Shortly I'll be posting a picture of the title page of my copy of Elmore Leonard's new book "Road Dogs" which I'm currently reading. Actually "devouring" would be a better term. The book has been reviewed by better critics than I and raved over, not to mention having a full four stars of Amazon reader reviews so I won't go into all the details though I will say everything you've ever heard about Leonard's writing is absolutely spot on: the story rockets off the pad on page one and the dialogue is crackling.
But the excellence of the book is not the point of the post. The point is to give a huge shout out to Advice Goddess Amy Alkon who was instrumental in my getting the book autographed. In fact the book link above goes to Amy's Amazon mall which is a very good way to order not just the book but other Amazonia as she gets a spiff in the process. I don't think it's quite right to go into all the process of how I ended up getting the signed book but it was through Amy and her man Gregg's good graces that I now have this wonderful thing (I am stupid crazy for autographed books as long as they're autographed to me). So I hereby publicly say that Amy is more than an Advice Goddess, she is a Manolo-esque Superfantastic Person. And I'll say the same about Gregg despite my direct interactions being solely with Amy. Thank you, thank you, thank you both.
Plus this also gives me a moment to say what a wonderful thing the internet is. It's through the blog and blogrolling that I first e-mailed Amy and she, despite her pressing schedule (she does way cool things - way cooler than the stuff I dither around with), has always been great about returning e-mails. It's fascinating. I got to know Jake Armerding by first hearing his music on a steaming online radio station. This wide whirl of a web has brought all sorts of wonderful things into my life and my gratitude for them, the music, the people, the friendships, the caring that I've experienced can not be properly expressed.
Keep an eye peeled in the next couple of days for the picture (yes, it will show my real first name) and one more deep bow in Amy's direction when that post is thumbtacked to the blogosphere. And hey! Amy has a book coming out in October. Buy it dang ye!

I Was Going To Post-Mortem TdF
But Rich Karlgaard beat me to it. He calls it "leadership lessons" but it's a very astute take on what happened and what's going to happen. I have no doubt that Alberto Contador is the best cyclist in the world today but he's kind of a dick. No question he was screwed out of the previous year's win but he's not going to win as many as Lance if he treats his team like dirt. Oh well. Read Karlgaard's piece and next year will certainly be interesting.