Flashback Friday

I did some research in preparation for this week's Flashback Friday, and I have to honestly say that my findings scare me: it was just ten short years ago this month that the number one song on the charts was Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On".   Why, it just seems like yesterday that the syrupy-sappy song was all we heard on the radio.  Anyone that knows me knows that I've always despised that song.  So when I discovered that it was the number one song this week ten years ago, I had to make myself write about it this week. 

Sure, the song was on the soundtrack for one of the biggest grossing movies of all time; but that alone is enough to scare me.  I've never liked Leonardo Decaprio, so I wasn't interested in the least to see the movie.  And I'm probably one of the few people in the country that has never seen "Titanic."  I just couldn't bring myself to watch it.  I know that plot of the movie, and know the story line about the infamous necklace, but from the first time I heard the theme song, I knew that I just could not watch the movie. 

It's not that I'm not romantic or sentimental; on the contrary.  I'm probably one of the most romantic and sentimental people you'll find.  It's just that I hated "My Heart Will Go On" and thus that made me hate the movie, even though I never watched it.  I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is.

Mullet Watch

I had the priviledge of spotting our most recent mullet, and it was seen just earlier this evening.  I had stopped at a local convenient store to get gas, and I ran inside to get a Coke Zero before heading across town.  I was standing in line waiting to pay for my pop when I spotted the mullet across the store at the ATM machine.  It was very long and gray, and I have to say it was one of the most neatly trimmed mullets I've seen since the beginning of Mullet Watch.  The man wearing the mullet had on a plain denim jacket - no NASCAR or motorcycle jacket like the mullets usually wear.  But I'll say it again - it was one of the most well-groomed mullets I've seen.  I almost walked up to the man and complimented him on his mullet grooming, but didn't know how he would take the compliment, so I just paid for my Coke Zero and left.

Mullet count: 6

Way To Go, Susan Lucci

                            

No, you're not seeing double; the picture isn't of two Erica Kanes.  The picture was taken last week at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in New York City at the unveiling of my beloved Susan Lucci's wax figure in the museum.  And  I'm pretty sure that Susan's husband Helmut, seen in the middle of the Susan Lucci sandwich, can tell which is his wife and which is made of wax. 

Madame Tussaud's artists and sculpters did an awesome job on Susan's figure - the wax figure even looks like she's wearing one of Erica Kane's trademark push-up bras.  But they could have done a little more work on the figure's eyes; they're really nothing like Susan Lucci's cat-like eyes.  But all in all, it's an awesome figure, and TWIT would like to congratulate Ms. Lucci on this very prestigious honor.  If any of you, faithful readers, are in New York City and visit Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, please have someone take your picture with the Susan Lucci figure for me.

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Mullet Watch

We've had yet another great mullet sighting this weekend from our #1 mullet spotter, JMc.  Here's his account:

Happy to report a king size mullet at the casa del Wal-Mart Outer Loop.  This mullet makes T.O.’s look like a buzz cut. {Note: T.O. is a co-worker out in our UPS shipping area, and the proud wearer of a very long mullet. We see him every day, so we didn't think it was fair to count him in the official Mullet Watch.  But his is one of the best I've seen.]  It was on a male person,  late 40’s early 50’s, complete with a Harley Davidson motorcycle jacket and cowboy boots.  I secretly envy this guy. The mud flap portion was half way down his back. His woman or “Old Lady” as I’m sure he refers to her,  was wearing a black motorcycle jacket, tight jeans, low cut white top with a bottle blonde puffed up hairdo, tanning salon tan and push-up bra.  She was quite the looker for a mature woman. Yeah baby, Yeah!!

Mullet count: 5

Biggest Loser Update

My weekly unofficial weigh-in was this morning on the official Biggest Loser scales in the HR office, and I'm very happy to report another three pounds are gone.  I was expecting on losing only a pound or two, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw that I lost three. With the retirement lunch on Friday and my breakfast at church Saturday morning, I knew I hadn't lost as much as last week.  For three weeks, I'm at a total of 16 pounds lost since I started walking daily, with the official Biggest Loser loss of 11.4.  I'm thrilled to death, and still in "the zone".  And I'm also happy to report a record 2.8 miles walked today.  Heck, I'm just happy all the way around today!

Link Of The Week

If you're anywhere near the age I am, I'm sure you've already got your insurance policies in order and have a will.  Even though we like to think we're invincible, we're not, and we've got to be prepared in for when the inevitable happens.  Now, I'm not anticipating an early departure but in the event that the Lord wants me to go to my heavenly home sooner than I'm anticipating, I've got my things in order. 

I came across a very interesting site this week that falls under this theme.  It's called JustInCaseIDie.  You can sign up, and put together an email that will be sent out if you . . . die.  You have to log in to this site on a regular basis to keep things up to date, and if you don't log in after a certain amount of time, the site will assume you died and will email the messages you left.  Here's what the site says "Enter Justincaseidie.com. in just a few clicks, you can save a message that will only be sent to it's intended recipient if you die. Well...almost. It will actually only be sent if you fail to log back in to the system within the timeframe that you set, we're just sort of assuming that only death would stop you doing this."

Visit http://www.justincaseidie.com and check it out.  Maybe you've wanted to tell off your boss but never had the stones to do it while you're alive.  So you can go in and type in a message to be sent to your boss after you die.  But let me stress this again -- be sure to log back in so the message isn't sent out prematurely before you've gone on to your final destination. 

Biggest Loser Update

With my cold last week getting the best of me, I totally forgot to give an update on the Biggest Loser competition.  This past Monday, I wore the same type of clothes that I wore at the previous Monday's weigh-in so things would be equal and I weighed on the official Biggest Loser scales in the HR department.  I was shocked to see that I had lost 8.4 pounds the previous week.  I owe it largely to my daily walking and veggies with my lunches instead of my beloved Dorito chips and Little Debbie cakes. 

We had a retirement dinner yesterday for one of the guys in the Engineering department, and I knew that I would be eating a bit more than I normally eat at lunch, so in preparation I doubled my daily walking distance and walked at least 2 miles every day this week.  I'm going to try and keep up the 2 miles quota every day.  It's sure helped walking during our two breaks at work, especially since it's been so cold and wet and icy out.  I'm not ashamed to admit that my walk this afternoon down on the floodwall wasn't real fun with the cold and wind, but I was determined and got in my 2 miles before coming home and crashing. 

I promise I'll be more timely on my Biggest Loser reports and will let you know how I did Monday afternoon.  I'll also check in with my three team members and let you know their progress. 

Ice Storm 2008 Review

I'm deviating from the usual Flashback Friday to give you a recap of the past 36 hours while we've coped with the big ice storm.  It started yesterday morning before lunchtime, and kept up pretty much all day long.  At about 10:00, the county schools announced they would start letting schools out, and an hour later, Mayor-For-Life Abramsom asked that all employers start letting their workers leave.  This announcement must not have reached upper management at ZCO because we were there until normal quitting time.  I received a dozen emails, voicemails and text messages from friends yesterday morning saying they were getting to leave work early.  Let me say thank you to them for briefing me. 

There was a break in the freezing rain yesterday evening, and the weatherazzi had our hopes up that the temps would rise during the night and the freezing rain would turn to regular rain.  Wrong.  We woke this morning to a fresh layer of ice on everything.  But yesterday when I got home from work, I had an idea while I was still in the garage.  I rummaged around and found my old golf shoes with the rubber cleats on them and slipped them on and trudged carefully into the house.  And your darned right I wore them to work this morning.  Thank goodness they kept me from falling on the ice and busting my ass. 

Things were still pretty icy this evening - the ground was still covered and there were still some slick spots in parking lots and driveways but at least the roads were cleared.  But we still have one more thing to worry about - we still have ice, and the temperatures and humidity has caused fog, so now we have a fog warning for tonight and tomorrow.  As long as the fog lifts enough for me to see how to get to the courthouse before noon tomorrow so I can get my driver's license, I'll be OK.

Another Thing For Me To Worry About

Warming Could Help Pythons Grow in US

USA Today

Posted: 2008-02-21 15:23:08

 

(Feb. 21) - As climate change warms the nation, giant Burmese pythons could colonize one-third of the USA, from San Francisco across the Southwest, Texas and the South and up north along the Virginia coast, according to U.S. Geological Survey maps released Wednesday.  The pythons can be 20 feet long and 250 pounds. They are highly adaptable to new environments.

Two federal agencies - the USGS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - are investigating the range of nine invasive snakes in Florida, concerned about the danger they now pose to endangered species. The agencies are collecting data to aid in the control of these populations.

They examined Burmese pythons first and, based on where they live in Asia, estimated where they might live here. One map shows where the pythons could live today, an area that expands when scientists use global warming models for 2100.

"We were surprised by the map. It was bigger than we thought it was going to be," says Gordon Rodda, zoologist and lead project researcher. "They are moving northward, there's no question."

Burmese pythons were introduced to the USA as part of the pet trade. The first specimens in the wild were discovered in the mid-1990s in the Florida Everglades, released by owners who no longer wanted them, says Skip Snow, a wildlife biologist with the National Parks Service in the Everglades.  By 2003, there was evidence the snakes had established breeding colonies in the wild. Florida began regulating their sale and ownership Jan. 1.

If federal officials had to worry only about Florida, it would be "decades" before the pythons move into otherstates, Rodda says. But people keep dumping pythons they don't want into the wild. "We just learned about some that had been released in Arkansas," he says.

The Burmese python is not poisonous and not considered a danger to humans. Attacks on humans have involved pet owners who mishandle and misfeed the snakes, Snow says. In Florida, they eat bobcats, deer, alligators, raccoons, cats, rats, rabbits, muskrats, possum, mice, ducks, egrets, herons and song birds. They grab with their mouth to anchor the prey, then coil around the animal and crush it to death before eating it whole.

If you see one, don't attempt to engage it. Leave the area, note the location and notify the authorities.

 

As if I didn't already have enough to worry about with the giant frogs in South America, now I have to worry about pythons slithering their way northward from Florida to Kentucky and swallowing us southerners.   And if I happen to see a python, you don't have to worry if I'm going to "engage it" - we will take care of it.  Who's "we", you might ask?  Smith and Wesson and me. 

 

Frog Phobia Update

I'm very happy to report that I did not have any nightmares last night about frogs - devil or otherwise.  In fact, even though I'm still congested from this cold, I slept great last night.  I didn't have to sleep sitting up like I did the night before, either.  I went to bed at my normal time and had very pleasant dreams. 

On a frog phobia related note, I was watching "America's Funniest Videos" Sunday night with The 'Rents, and one of the videos was of a little girl with a teeny tiny bright green frog on her arm.  The kid wasn't scared to death of frogs like I am; instead, she was laughing at it.  She laughed so much that it made the tiny frog jump from her arm onto her father's nose.  If I'd been the girl's father, you would be visiting me up at the funeral home because I'm sure I would have had a heart attack or aneurysm if a frog had jumped on my nose.

Welcome To My Nightmare

Scientists Find Remains of 'Devil Toad'

AP

Posted: 2008-02-18 21:44:01

 

WASHINGTON (Feb. 18) - A frog the size of a bowling ball, with heavy armor and teeth, lived among dinosaurs millions of years ago - intimidating enough that scientists who unearthed its fossils dubbed the beast Beelzebufo, or Devil Toad.  But its size - 10 pounds and 16 inches long - isn't the only curiosity. Researchers discovered the creature's bones in Madagascar. Yet it seems to be a close relative of normal-sized frogs who today live half a world away in South America, challenging assumptions about ancient geography.

The discovery, led by paleontologist David Krause at New York's Stony Brook University, was published Monday by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"This frog, if it has the same habits as its living relatives in South America, was quite voracious," Krause said. "It's even conceivable that it could have taken down some hatchling dinosaurs."

Krause began finding fragments of abnormally large frog bones in Madagascar, off the coast of Africa, in 1993. They dated back to the late Cretaceous period, roughly 70 million years ago, in an area where Krause also was finding dinosaur and crocodile fossils. But only recently did Krause's team assemble enough frog bones to piece together what the creature would have looked like, and weighed.

The largest living frog, the Goliath frog of West Africa, can reach 7 pounds. But Krause teamed with fossil frog experts from University College London to determine that Beelzebufo isn't related to other African frogs.

It seems to be a relative of South American horned frogs, known scientifically as Ceratophrys. Popular as pets, they're sometimes called pacman frogs for their huge mouths.

Like those modern frogs, Beelzebufo had a wide mouth and powerful jaws, plus teeth. Skull bones were extremely thick, with ridges and grooves characteristic of some type of armoror protective shield.

The name comes from the Greek word for devil, Beelzebub, and Latin for toad, bufo (pronounced boo-foe).

The family link raises a paleontology puzzle: Standard theory for how the continents drifted apart show what is now Madagascar would have been long separated by ocean from South America during Beelzebufo's time. And frogs can't survive long in salt water, Krause noted.

He contends the giant frog provides evidence for competing theories that some bridge still connected the land masses that late in time, perhaps via an Antarctica that was much warmer than today.

I could not breathe when I read that the Devil Frog weighed 10 pounds and had teeth.  To give us better perspective on it's size, the article I read showed a drawing of the Devil Frog compared to a normal frog and a pencil. I originally posted the picture at the beginning of this entry, but after saving the entry and looking at the picture, it freaked me out so much I had to go back and delete it.  If I don't have a nightmare after reading this, then I think I'll be cured of my phobia of frogs forever. 

My Newest Toy

                  

My contract with Verizon is up in a couple of weeks, and for the past month I've been researching and shopping for my new cell phone.  I'm on the "new in two" plan, so every two years when my contract is up, I'm eligible for a great deal on a new phone.  If the phone is less than $50, I get it free.  If it's more than $50, I get $50 off.  You can't beat a deal like that.  I read and researched, and finally decided that the very cool LG enV phone.  My RazR was ok, but I got tired of ordering new caller ID screens from eBay every other month because they cracked almost every time you even looked at the caller ID display.

I got a great deal on the phone - it was on sale for a Valentine's Day special for $129, and I got the $50 off for the "new in two" deal plus an additional $50 rebate.  So I got a heck of a deal.  Of course, Damon the Verizon CSR tried his hardest to get me to pay an additional $49.99 for the accessory pack, but after doing some quick math in my head I figured I could get everything in their accessory pack for about $20 on eBay.  I also changed my plan to include unlimited texting so I can take full advantage of the [small] QWERTY keyboard on the new phone, which you can see in the above picture.  Just close it up when you're finished texting and it's a normal cell phone.

Another cool feature the enV has is the SD card.  I can download my phone numbers, photos, and ringtones and in two years when I get a new phone, just pop the SD card into the new phone and I won't have to spend an evening rearranging and reprogramming phone numbers and names like I've done tonight.  It also has a 2.0 mega pixel camera - which is a considerably better than my first digital camera.  It even has a zoom on it, and a lens cover, too; at least I won't have to worry about scratching that on the phone. 

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Link Of The Week

I've been under the weather the past few days, and have felt like I'd been run over by one of the dump trucks that had been driving past The Compound back in the spring.  I'm doing better today and expect to be back to in action in a day or two.  During my illness, a co-worker and faithful reader sent me an email with a link to a very interesting site.  Since I've been in bed for the past 2 days I haven't felt like doing much on the computer so this week's Link of the Week is courtesy of a faithful reader who said they'd like to remain anonymous.  But I know who you are, and you rock for sending this and helping me out.

Did you know that your office chair (granted, if it has wheels) will travel about eight miles in a year?  I didn't know that, either.  But thanks to Strange-Facts, we all know it.  Visit http://www.strange-facts.com and you can find all kinds of (yep, you guessed it) strange facts. 

Saturday Joke Time

Sally was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona, when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road.  As the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo woman if she would like a ride.  After a bit of small talk, the Navajo woman noticed a brown bag on the seat next to Sally.

"What in bag?" asked the Navajo woman.
                                                                                                                                  Sally looked down at the brown bag and said, "It's a bottle of wine. I got it for my husband."
                                                                                                                                             The Navajo woman was silent for a moment then,  speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder said, "Good trade."

Flashback Friday

It's been an interesting week watching and observing how people have weathered the snowstorm that hit Monday night.  The past couple of days we've seen countless people fall on the ice, no matter how hard they were trying to walk through the frozen tundra.  One thing still amazes me -- the fact that people will be out walking in the ankle-deep snow in tennis shoes. 

When I was a kid, even if there was a dusting of snow on the ground, I couldn't get out of the house without wearing my snow shoes.  The other kids in my neighborhood were the same way; we all trudged about in the snow in our snow boots.  And if it was rainy or just wet outside, we'd have to tug and pull and pull the rubber boots on over our regular shoes; that was even worse.  But we wore them because we were made to. We might have fussed at first when we were attempting to put them on, but we knew that we couldn't go outside without them, so we went along with it.  We didn't have the different colors or styles that they have today; instead of Hello Kitty snow boots, I had dark gray ones.  And my rubber over-the-shoes boots were dark gray, too.  You  might have come across the occasional kid that had the yellow rubber boots, but that was rare.

I don't think I passed one person this week waiting at a bus stop that had on snow boots - they were all wearing tennis shoes.  And these weren't just kids - I'm talking about mostly adults. I can count on one hand the number of adults that I work with that wore snow boots/shoes to work this week.  We all had to trudge through, over and on the frozen tundra to get to the office building. I don't know about anyone else, but I can't stand for my feet to be wet or cold or even worse, both.  That's why I still wear rubber boots or my insulated snow shoes.  I guess people just don't care or don't want to take the time to dig the rubber boots out of the closet.

My iPod Top Twenty Playlist For February

1.   Paralyzer - Finger Eleven
2.   Can't Get You Out Of My Head - Kylie Minogue
3.   Call Me - Blondie
4.   One - U2
5.   Taking Chances - Celine Dion
6.   How You Remind Me - Nickelback
7.   Smoothe - Rob Thomas
8.   Train Train - Blackfoot
9.   Barracuda - Heart
10. Anyway - Martina McBride
11. Simply The Best - Tina Turner
12. Black Horse And The Cherry Tree - K.T. Tunstall
13. When You Love Someone Like That - Reba McEntire and LeeAnn Rimes
14.  Because Of You - Reba McEntire and Kelly Clarkson
15.  Miss Independant - Kelly Clarkson
16.  Girls Lie Too - Terri Clark
17.  Nobody Wants To Be Lonely - Ricky Martin and Christina Aguilara
18.  On My Own - Michael McDonald and Patti LaBelle
19.  If You Want To Get To Heaven - Ozark Mountain Daredevils
20.  Juicy - Better Then Ezra

They Don't Keep Going, And Going, And Going

Yesterday was one of the strangest days I've had in a long time.  It had nothing to do with the snow and ice, and it had nothing to do with the fact that I'm coming down with a cold.  It was strange because I had to replace batteries in seven different things.  No, I am not exagerating.  And they were all AA batteries, too.

The day started out with me having to put new batteries in the digital camera so I could take a picture of Dad using the snow blower for the first time.  Next came my small MP3 player that I only use when I walk.  It was dead so I had to replace the batteries so I could jam with my tunes while doing my daily mile.  Before leaving for work, I had to put new batteries in my mini Mag Lite so Dad could use it to check out something on the snowblower.  Once I got home from work yesterday evening, it started all over again.  I had to replace the batteries in the cordless mouse and cordless keyboard at the computer desk.  And last but certainly not least, I had to replace the batteries in the cable TV remote and the VCR remote. 

Each of those seven items took two AA batteries, so you can do the math and come up with a total of fourteen batteries that were used yesterday.  That's a lot of batteries.  But thank goodness we buy them in a twenty-pack so we always have plenty of AA batteries on hand.  Good thing, huh?

And on a totally unrelated note, in addition to the battery replacement yesterday, Dad had to replace two burned out light bulbs.  They just don't make these things to last anymore, do they?

Winter Storm 2008

                 

It took three long snow-less years, but this morning we finally got to use our new snowblower.  As I mentioned yesterday the snow started at rush hour yesterday afternoon and continued till after midnight, when we were hit with a few hours worth of freezing rain.  All in all, at The Compound we had 4 inches of snow and 1 inch of ice on top. 

Dad went out yesterday morning and plugged in the snowblower and tested its electric start.  It fired right up.  We were armed with two 5-gallon cans of gas just in case we had to fire up the generator, which I will add is two years old and is still in virgin condition.  Dad got the snowblower out at about 6:30 this morning and less than a half an hour, he had our long driveway cleared.  He said it would have gone quicker if he hadn't had the inch of ice on top, but the Troybilt chopped it up and plowed on through with no problem.  He said that it practically blew by itself; all he had to do was guide it and turn the blower when he got to the end of the path.  It was three years in the making, but the family is tickled to death that he finally got to use the snowblower. 

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An Exciting Day At Work

This was a very exciting day at work for two reasons - first of all, the place a-buzz with talk of the big snowstorm that hit just as we were getting ready to leave work.  All day long we kept vigilant watch on Dopplar radar at various websites to track the storm.  We were as excited and antsy as the school kids were, but let me tell you they have a way better chance of a snow day tomorrow than we will at work.  As I type this, they're calling for 6-8 inches of snow here in the 'Ville, with up to half an inch of ice on top of that.  Lovely.  It was already getting slick when I made the trip home from work.  And let me be the first to say that BMW sedans, no matter how big and heavy they are, were not made for snow and slick roads.  My normal 15 minute trip home took an hour, but I made it safe and sound.   We're hoping that the ice stays away so we can finally be able to fire up the snowblower that we've waited three winters to use. 

The second reason the office and plant was giddy with excitement was that today marks the start of the ZCO Biggest Loser contest.  We've got teams of four people competing, and the team that losest the most weight in 8 weeks gets a pretty hefty cash prize.  The Biggest Loser individually also gets a $200 gift card to a sporting goods store.  My team, aptly named The Four Losers, are all stoked and ready.  I'm especially pumped up - last Saturday I started doing my daily walk, and as of today, I'm very proud to say I've lost 5 pounds since the daily walk started.  Unfortunately, that won't count toward our Biggest Loser contest, but I'm thrilled nonetheless.  The next weigh-in is four weeks from today.  I'll keep you posted on my team's progress.

Link Of The Week

Like me, I know you get lots of emails throughout the year asking you to visit one of the breast cancer awareness sites and click every day so those that can't afford can get mammograms.  I can't think of a better thing to do, and TWIT has recommended it in previous years.  This week, I found another worthwhile site where you can click for a good cause.  In fact, you can click for multiple causes.  The main site is to raise funds for food for animal shelters, but at the top of the page are links to other sites where you can click and help them out.  Visit http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com and help them and other worthy organizations out.  Every click will provide .6 bowls of food to an animal rescue shelter.  Please forward the link to your work email so you can save it to favorites there and be sure to click every morning when you get to work.

Another Sign Of The Apocolypse

It's almost 5:30 as I type this, and the Rents and I left the house shortly after 10:00 this morning to go over to the VFW post to help get things ready for our special cancer research fundraiser bingo. We worked almost non-stop all day long.  I took a half hour break at around noon and went out and walked around the parking lot 7 times so I could get in my mile walk, but other than that and taking a few minutes to eat, we were hopping.  I called the bingo so the regular bingo caller, who is the Auxiliary's cancer program chairwoman, could work the floor and oversee the operation.  I reluctantly agreed to call bingo for her, but after the disasterous cancer program bingo back in October, I told her that if there was the least bit of drama from the WT players yelling at me for making a mistake, I was walking out. 

So, I went there to the post this morning with expections that there would be drama; at our post, there's always drama.  As I've mentioned before, they make everything a drama. But today was a first -- there was no drama at the bingo.  None.  No, that wasn't a typo - I did say that there was no drama at the bingo.  The players all behaved, and they didn't get all crazy like they usually do when there's free food involved.  I only made one slight error (I put the #41 ball in the hole for #42) but noone even yelled at me for it; one player sitting close to the bingo machine just simply pointed it out.  And best all, there was no drama among the workers.  We were anticipating a brawl between the regular bingo caller and another Auxiliary member over a donated cake, but they both kept their distance and to my knowledge they didn't even speak to each other.  Yes, this is definitely another sign of the Apocolypse.

Flashback Friday

                  

You probably don't know this about me, but I have a thing for glasses and coffee cups. It started when I was a little girl, and just kept on through the years.  The more bizarre and one-of-a-kind, the better.  Currently, my favorite glass at home is one with Twinkie The Kid on it.  It's worn and faded from almost daily use, but I just love it.  As for my coffee cups, during the week day mornings as I'm getting ready for work I drink my coffee in a cup from a collection of china coffee cups.  On the weekends, I usually drink my coffee from my Elvis Presley "Thank You, Thank You Very Much" cup. 

As a kid, my favorite cup was the awesome Nesafe world globe cup.  It was very heavy and thick, and I would drink my hot chocolate or hot tea out it.  Looking back, I'm pretty sure that Mom and Grandma gave me the cup because it was so durable and heavy and wouldn't break easily if I dropped it.  We just had one of these cups at home, but a friend of ours, Geneva, had a complete set.  Whenever Mom and Dad would go up there to visit, she would serve them coffee out of one of the world globe cups, and would pour Pepsi in one of them for me, too.  When I was little, we would often go down to Geneva and her husband Chuck's small house at Nolin Lake.  Darned if she didn't have a set of the world globe mugs there, too. 

Mom and I have had a bad week in regards to breaking cups and glasses; maybe I should get us a set of these heavy cups. 

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The Year Of Trying New Things

After work and doing my walk this evening, I headed out about 25 miles away to my Sunday School teacher's house for week 4 in a 12 week study on the book of Daniel.  Each week, she graciously puts out a spread for us - 2 or 3 different coffees, a couple of different teas, and just about every Coke product they manufacture, and last but not least, food.  She has cheeses, crackers, nuts, pretzels, chips and salsa, veggies and dip, and usually either meatballs in sauce or little cocktail wieners.  I looked at the very pretty veggie tray only to discover there were no bell peppers on it.  Now, if you know me, you know that bell peppers are about the only raw vegetable I will eat on a veggie tray.  I've done better, though, and will now eat the occasional grape or cherry tomato.  I started to move on to the fruit tray when something on the veggie tray caught my eye:  sugar snap peas in the pod.  I've seen Rachel Ray and other "Food Network" cooks use them in veggie trays, so I thought I'd be adventurous and try one.  I'm here to tell you I could have taken the hole tray of them and sat over in the corner and eaten every one.  I'm hooked.  I know, I know - they're not all that low calorie if you eat them with dip, but I figure they're healthier for you than eating chips with dip.  I'm even going to stop at the grocery store before work tomorrow and buy some for my lunch.  Stay tuned - you never can tell what I'll try next.

Y2K, Part 2

It's been a strange week for me, faithful readers.  It has nothing to do with the severe storms and tornados that we had last night in our area; it has to do with our new computer system at work.  This Monday was our "go live" date for switching over to the new system.  We were expecting everything to crash just like we thought things would with Y2K, but we were wrong; Monday was as anticlimactic as you can get. 

Things went eerily smoothe all day Monday.  The new system didn't come to a crashing halt when everybody was logged on; it didn't even hiccup, as we like to call it.  In fact, we experienced more problems today than we did Monday.  I guess that's probably because we were gingerly clicking on first one screen and then another on Monday, and by today we were boldly clicking and weren't as afraid as were were the first of the week.  Other than a few issues that need to be resolved, I can't really say that we've had what would constitute a real "show stopper" problem. 

Our department was as ready as we could be; we'd come in early every morning since the first week of October for training, and when we left work this past Friday afternoon, we were finished with our dress rehearsals and were ready to start the show. It was almost amusing -- the same co-workers that gave us a hard time for the past few months because we were coming in an hour early every morning for training were the same co-workers that were calling us yesterday and today asking for help.   

There ARE Cops Around When You Need Them

On Saturday, I restarted my daily walk down on the floodwall.  I've made it through a mile each day, and if I can make it through what I endured on yesterday's walk, I can walk through anything.  I parked the Blazer and started up the paved walkway going to the top of the hill.  Off to my right in an open area of the park were three large 4-wheel drive trucks slinging mud and making gigantic ruts in about 2 feet of mud.  Coming down the walkway I met a man in a suit who was holding up his pant legs, and he muttered something about it being muddy.  I just smiled and carefully continued my walk, lest I slip in the mud and fall.  The man also said that they called the metro government office and they said they could come there to film a commercial.  Whatever.  

As I continued walking up to the floodwall, one of those trucks decided to cross over and drive down the walkway.  In order to keep from getting run over by the monster truck, I hopped off of the walkway into ankle-deep mud and water.  Don't think I wasn't pissed. As soon as I got to the top of the floodwall, I got my phone out of my pocket and immediately called the police and reported the trucks damaging the park.  I continued my walk and when I turned to make the trek back, I could see and hear the police cars coming down to the parking lot.  When I got a closer look, I saw not one but four of them.  Needless to say I was surprised that they came that quick; I was even more surprised that they took my call seriously and came to check things out.

I made my way back down the walkway to the parking lot, and as I was wading through the mud I saw a young officer taking pictures of the crime scene.  I asked him "Who do I send my dry cleaning bill to?" He looked very serious and said "That's what we're trying to determine, ma'am."  I trudged on to the Blazer, and was fussing to myself as I fished out a roll of paper towels from the back of the Blazer to try and get some mud off of my shoes and pant legs before I got inside.  Another officer came over and asked me if I saw the trucks in the field and I told him I most certainly did; I even spoke up and told him I was the one that called 911 about it.  He asked if I would give a statement, and I told him the sordid details about the monster truck drivingdown the walkway and forcing me to get in ankle deep mud.  I also said in my official statement that this part of the county can't have anything nice without the punks coming and tearing it up.  He agreed with me and said they sure tore this up. 

As I pulled out of the parking lot, the one younger officer was still taking pictures of the crime scene; I don't think they take as many on an episode of "CSI" as this guy did.  But at least they have photographic proof that those punks were defacing our public park property.  I was glad that one of the trucks got stuck.  And I would have been even happier if the man in the suit had fallen down in the mud. 

Favorite Super Bowl Commercial

If you've been a long-time faithful reader of TWIT, then you know that ever since the inception of TWIT, on the Monday following the Super Bowl I have posted my top ten favorite commercials shown during the Super Bowl.  Unfortunately, just as the Patriots' winning streak stopped last night, my streak of top ten favorite Super Bowl commercials stopped, too.  Faithful readers, after watching last night's commercials, I would have been hard pressed to even come up with a top three. I thought they were all lame except for one; and that commercial gets the distinction of TWIT's Favorite Super Bowl Commercial. The award goes to our dear friends at Budweiser for their awesome commercial that showed the Dalmation dog training the Clydedale horse. 

Even the folks at Career Builder had lame commercials - they could have at least had one commercial featuring the very popular chimpanzees.  And while we're at it, Bud Light should have brought back Cedric the Entertainer for another awesome commercial.  But no.  Maybe next year.

At first I thought maybe it was just me; I had a lot on my mind last night, and I thought that maybe I didn't pay full attention to the commercials like I should have.  But after talking with co-workers this morning, most people felt the same way.  So now I don't feel so bad.

Link Of The Week

I remember well the spring of 1983 - it was the year that I bought my Atari game system.  I thought I was all that - playing Pac Man and Donkey Kong in the living room on my big 19 inch color TV.  I truthfully say that I didn't sit in front of the TV with the joy stick for hours on end like the kids do today; I was in college and really didn't have all that much time to play the game.  But I became the Pac Man in my circle of friends. 

I found a cool website this week that lets me relive my Pac Man queendom glory days.  The site is aptly called Old Fun Games.  You can play Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders to name just a few old school games.  Visit http://www.oldfungames.com and relive your Asteroids glory days. 

Happy Ground Hog Day

I'm not sure where to start with the official Ground Hog Day report, faithful readers.  It just depends on which ground hog you talk to.  Punxsutawney Phil, from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, did not see his shadow.  Yet, the pictures we saw on TV showed him being yanked from his home and being held up in the air by some man in a tuxedo and top hat.  Phil went back into his hole, indicating 6 more weeks of winter.  Well, if I'd been dragged out of my home like he was, I would have ran back in there, too. 

Big Boy, the official ground hog at The Compound, did not see his shadow, and the legend has it that winter is over.  But don't get excited yet; Big Boy didn't see his shadow only because he didn't come out of his hole today.  And I believe he didn't come out of his hole because he knew that Dad was waiting for him with the shotgun. 

To sum up Ground Hog Day 2008, I guess we'll just have to poke our heads out of our homes, and see if we run back in or see our shadows.  Personally, I'd like to have my one big snow before spring gets here.  Until then or 80 degree weather, I think I'll stay inside of my hole, too.

Flashback Friday

                                              

Track Listing:

1. Brand New Me 

2. Point Me In The Direction Of Albuquerque  

3. Banadala  

4. I Really Want To Know You 

5. Only A Moment Ago  

6. I Can Feel Your Heartbeat  

7. I'm On The Road  

8. To Be Lovers  

9. Somebody Wants To Love You  

10. I Think I Love You  

11. Singing My Song