Let's say I get a job in a casino as a blackjack dealer. Then when I'm put to work I decide that gambling is really against my religion. So I decide I'll deal the cards but won't let the players bet. Against my religion. Should the casino have to honor that? Ridiculous, you say?
Well apparently employees at some stores can decide if women should be allowed to fill their birth control prescriptions and the store will honor that decision. Against their religion they say. Ridiculous, I say.
And so my letter to Target reads:
I'm off again tomorrow for a wonderful 5 days in SF. Well 4 really because I leave there Tuesday. Today I go pick up Debra. Tomorrow she'll take me to the airport. When I get to Oakland I'll pick up Debra's car in the airport parking where she left it and go to Deb's apartment for the weekend. BFD comes into Oakland on Saturday morning. That evening we'll dine with high school friends. Sunday it is off to the Bridge School Concert. Monday morning I take BFD back to the airport and then have lunch with my aunt. And Tuesday I leave the car in the airport parking for Debra and fly home.
Meanwhile Debra and a group of her friends will invade my neighborhood for the weekend. They will spend their time soaking in the hot tub and going to events at Vegoose. Then Tuesday evening Debra will return to Oakland and pick up her car.
And we'll both return to our regular scheduling.
Today I have a hodgepodge of things that have occurred to me and I'll post them as I get a chance. And speaking of jumble, I used to love the jumble puzzles in the paper but now that I read the paper on line I never see the jumble. Maybe I'll try playing them on line.
"White chocolate originates from the cocoa (cacao) plant, but it is not 'chocolate.' According to the FDA, to be called 'chocolate' a product must contain chocolate liquor, which is what gives the bitter intense chocolate flavor (and color) to dark and milk chocolates.
White chocolate contains cocoa butter, milk solids, sugar, lecithin and flavorings (usually including vanilla). Cocoa butter is the fat from cocoa beans, extracted from the cocoa beans during the process of making chocolate and cocoa powder. Cocoa butter has very little 'chocolate' flavor."
As happens on his whim, Scott Adams sent out his Dilbert Newsletter today. As I opened it I thought "Scott Adams really should get with the times and have a blog." And guess what the very second article is about? The new Dilbert Blog.
This reminds me. If you haven't read the book Ella Minnow Pea, you should.
Here are a couple of coincidences for my brother:
1). Yesterday I read on verbatim's blog about a movie called Mad Hot Ballroom. It sounded interesting and so I put it in my queue. Then last night I decided to finally watch No Direction Home which was sent from my queue about 2 weeks ago and I just haven't had time to watch. I started to fast forward thru the previews (I hate previews on my rentals but love them in the theater, how weird is that?) when I noticed the first preview was for Mad Hot Ballroom.
2). Also yesterday I was surfing blogs and took the What Muppet Are You quiz. The quiz said I am Rowlf. It took me a minute to figure out that Rowlf was the brown piano playing dog because having always just heard his name I thought it was Ralph. About an hour later I got an IM from the Millionaire (you can sign up to be part of the ask the audience on IM) and the question was, "What animal is named Rowlf on the Muppets?"
EDITOR: UPDATED TO REFLECT KAT'S COMMENT
This week I am giving myself a Christmas present. I am sending a pre-holiday letter to my friends and family to let them know I am not buying gifts for adult people anymore. I will continue to buy gifts for young people. I love to buy gifts for people under 21. I enjoying buying toys and gifts for kids. For teens I like Gift Cards and money because they like it so much. But otherwise I find the holiday season tremendously stressful, trying to find the right something for everyone. And knowing that they probably could just buy it for themselves with the money they are spending looking for something for me. And I don't really need things anymore. I have way too much stuff in my house as it is. I can't listen to all the music, read all the books or watch all the movies I already own.
So this year I am sending all the money I would normally spend on gifts to a favorite charity (or two). And I'll adopt a couple of children from the Angel Tree to buy toys and clothes for.
I love casseroles. These days people don't make casseroles, instead they stack food up on a plate and charge extra for it. I've always liked combining my food items. When we had mashed potatoes, I mixed my peas into it. When we had pork chops I put applesauce on them. Eggs over easy get cut up and mixed with hash browns before I eat them on my toast. My brother and I invented tuna a la Franco American Spaghetti. I loved chicken pot pie and mom's special cream of mushroom soup with tuna and peas poured over mashed potatoes.
The other day I bought some portobello ravioli and also some Maryland crabcakes and both were just okay. Last night I cooked both and had a ravioli crabcake stack. YUM!! I amazes me how 'just okay' flavors can combine to become delicious. Like sushi. Nori or rice alone don't appeal. I do like a seared tuna alone. But take some tempura shrimp, spicy tuna and cucumber, surround it with rice and nori and add some avocado and I'm in heaven.
A nice series of world series photos. I like #5 best though I also really like any of the photos which include men enthusiactically hugging - something they only seem to do in sporting events. In real life not so much hugging goes on between men. At least not in the U.S.
"But to the degree that we brook no dissent within the Democratic Party, and demand fealty to the one, "true" progressive vision for the country, we risk the very thoughtfulness and openness to new ideas that are required to move this country forward."
- Barack Obama Sept. 2005
I got tired of seeing last Thursday as my most recent post but don't really have much of anything to report. I had a lovely time wine tasting and eating in the bay area. The weather was exceptionally nice and the company was fantastic. I got to eat at one of my favorite SF restaurants where they gave us a big discount because they like Debra. I got to go shopping at Lush which I just love. I got some new shampoo and face mask. I held myself back from buying too much so I'll have money to spend when I go back in two weeks. I came home to ugly weather in LV though it appears to be clearing up now.
I will be out of computer range for much of the next 4 days. I will be here and here and sometimes here. If I get time I'll go here. And Sunday night I'm pretty sure I'll be here. Mostly I'll be enjoying myself and not working. YAY!
These people are fighting over their son's dead body. I do understand that lots of people attach significance to dead bodies. I don't understand going to court but if I were the judge I would give them two choices.
1. Cremate the body and split the ashes.
2. Pay to have the body transferred every year or every 6 months or every N period and share the expense.
The conference was not bad, especially considering it wasn't really a conference targeted to my area. I was just sent so we didn't waste the fee. There was some good information about IT Governance, the new hip direction for Information Technology. It's all about running IT like a business. My favorite session was the one with the presenter who was asking us a question about IT and wondered if any of us wanted to phantom a guess. Later he told us the system at his company had been jury rigged. I kept waiting for him to tell us it was a mute point.
The main event was last night's Elton John concert. I don't know that I would ever pay for this concert but I had a good seat and Elton did all his standards so it was certainly entertaining. Most songs were accompanied by sometimes interesting and sometimes perplexing images projected behind the stage. A lot ot them were pictures of the young Elton which contributed to my thinking that Elton has become Elvisized. He also looked a bit like a chubby penguin.
I never really got the point of all the inflatable items used throughout the performance. There was one song that included blow up bananas, cherries, legs, lipstick, hot dog and ice cream cone. As well as a pair of giant breasts suspended over the right side of the audience. Judging from those breasts, the Coliseum was pretty cold last night. At the end of the song the items were all quickly deflated and folded up by stage hands. All except the breasts which were left sagging as if some 50 foot woman had aged right in front of us.
The funniest part of the concert for me was when Elton signaled for the guests to come up on stage. There were guards to make sure only people in the first 3 or 4 rows came up. Once people figured out they really would be allowed to go UP ON STAGE WITH ELTON, they rushed up. Remember this concert was mostly sold out to a bunch of geeks so when these people got up on stage and began wiggling and hopping around with no sense of rhythm at all dancing to the music it was pretty pathetic.
I'm attending the convention for the first part of this week. We bought software from them and so various people were assigned to go to the convention. Friday one of them called me and said she couldn't come to LV and asked if I wanted to take her place. I'm not all that interested in the software but some of the sessions on business practices look interesting. Besides there is a lot of good food and even and Elton John concert included. So today I headed over to Caesars Palace and registered. Whenever I go to one of the strip resorts I realize all over again how very huge our casino hotels are. I walked and walked and walked. Which made up for all the good food they fed us tonight. Our evening reception was at Pure. The food was good, the music was loud and the drinks were free. There were woman in short shorts dancing on pedestals. The best part was the roof bar with a view of the strip. It was all very hip. But the attendees were not very hip. I'm sure this crowd was quite a contrast to the normal clientel.
Last year the Nevada legislature raised our fees and taxes considerably and then later decided there was a giant surplus. After much discussion accompanied by the fear that the constituency would boot them out of office, they decided to give some of the money back. The final result was that everyone who paid automobile registration fees in 2004 will receive a rebate. The checks are at the post office and will be distributed this Saturday. There is a fear that thieves will steal the money out of our mailboxes so the checks will be delivered on a day when most people are home. I can just picture all the people on my block outside waiting for the mail carrier this Saturday morning.
My check will be for $255. If you registered your car in Nevada in 2004 and just can't wait to find out how much your check will be for look here.
Harriet Miers isn't the first nominee to the Supreme Court without prior judicial experience (see chart at the bottom of the page) but it seems to be upsetting people. Especially Republicans. So that is making Democrats (like my Senator Reid) think Harriet is a good choice. I, being the Mel Gibson character in my movie, think it is one big conspiracy. The Republicans are acting all upset and then when Miers gets anointed they'll be giving high fives for having fooled the Dems.
Happy Birthday to my favorite niece! 16 years old today. I know it is cliche to say but I can't believe she is 16. I remember clearly when I learned I would be an aunt. I was so excited. And what a cool niece she has turned out to be. She is fun and smart and pretty. It's been great knowing her for the past 16 years and I look forward to the next 16.
Cheryl and I went to the annual Art In The Park show up in Boulder City. Lots and lots of people means parking far away and shuttling over to the event. The bus was air conditioned so that was good. The parking staff definitely was not trained by Disney as we parked and walked by hundreds of open parking spots to get to the shuttle. The heat and the crowds wore us out so we left after about an hour and a half but we saw almost all the booths. Saw, not visited. We probably visited 15 booths. I think I'm burnt out on art fairs. First of all, I already have too much STUFF and don't need to buy more. And second, I see the same things over and over. There isn't a whole lot of originality at this event. Candles, soap, wooden toys, etc. Booth after booth. The fine art section is better but nothing really spoke to me.
And really I was there for the hookers. I discovered the earrings years ago at the Art in the Park show and I've been buying them ever since. This year I took back one earring that was missing its mate and Barbara sold me the match. And I had another "extra" earring due to a previous replacement when I thought I'd lost an earring and then found it after I replaced it . So instead of getting a match and having identical pairs, she gave me a nice discount on a new pair. I'm quite happy with my purchases.
These earrings are the greatest - no posts or clips. They are comfortable and attractive. People are always commenting on them. And asking if I had my ear pierced in the middle. OW! NO! I think I have 7 pairs now. I say think because I can't find one of my favorites. If I don't find it by next October, it will be back to the park to look for Hookers again.
