So I talked to my nephew tonight and asked what he wanted for his birthday. He said a voodoo doll kit. (He's going to be 13.) So I looked online and found this site, which was very informative (and amusing):
http://www.spellmaker.com/doll.htm

I wonder if someone cast a deluxe revenge spell on me and that's why we lost the roof and I got Crohn's disease and the fun gynecological problem that required surgery last year? Hmm....

Well, I had my doctor's appointment today.
( good news and bad news )

10/7/2008 - Washington, DC

Senator John McCain issued a press release today announcing that he had made an error in his Vice Presidential nomination. The nomination of Sarah Palin was, according to McCain, a "tragic case of mistaken identity". The intended nominee was a woman whose qualifications far exceed those of Governor Palin - actress Tracy Scoggins. McCain, who blames the error on his failing eyesight, said "Well, Palin looks just like her. Anyone would have made the mistake."


Ms. Scoggins was the real choice, says McCain, because of her extensive experience running Earth Alliance Station Babylon 5, which is "home to over a quarter of a million humans and aliens", clearly more than Wasilla, home to "about 5,000 humans and farm animals." Ms. Scoggins' diplomatic and foreign affairs experience hardly needs mention, as she skillfully managed conflicts betweens dozens of alien races, including the betentacled Centauri, which according to McCain "will serve us well in dealing with the terrorists."

Additionally, McCain assures us that Ms. Scoggins is adept at bipartisan issues, but "won't take no crap from anyone. Look at how well she worked so closely with her ex-husband. She didn't try to make him lose his job or nothing!" unlike Governor Palin, who allegedly got her sister's ex-husband fired from his government job.

This reporter went out on the street to see the public's reaction. John Q. Public, 49, said this about this sudden switch in VP candidates. "It don't make no never-mind to me, we get a VPILF either way."

Rules: You answer here in my journal. You post blank in yours.
( meme here )

I almost had an accident on the way to work this morning. I was driving down Hwy 6, which is a high-speed road in the section where I was, and had just started decelerating for the Hwy 6-Clay intersection (my lane was clear, the left lane was backed up) when an SUV pulled between the cars in the left lane to go into the Jack in the Box parking lot and cut right in front of me.

I slammed on the brakes and missed t-boning it by about 6 inches.

Now, you can say there would have been joint fault here - but only a moron wouldn't wait for the fast car in the other lane to either slow down or pass...and if she couldn't see into that lane, she should have inched out from between the cars in the left lane, not sped out.

Glad your morning McFood is more important than your life, dumbass.

If I had some money and gave it to someone, and they squandered it gambling, I'd be a complete moron to give them more. I would simply be enabling their gambling problem, and taking the money away from someone with the sense to spend it wisely.

That is all.

From limbomonkey:

Post info on any Supreme Court decision. I picked these two because someone decided to pull the race card on me the other day when we was discussing illegal immigration.

Brown vs. Board of Education: Called B-S on the idea of "separate but equal" as previously permitted by Plessy vs. Ferguson. Basically determined that having separate facilities for different races was inherently unequal, and resulted in reintegration of schools throughout the American south. I call "yay!" on that B. vs. BOE and "boo!" on P vs. F.

And on a related note, this case involved my alma mater's law school: Bakke vs. Regents of UC: Killed racial quotas in universities. Race can legally be considered, but you can't separate applications from people of different races like you used to. They used to have separate piles of applications from each race, so they'd take the X best whites, X best blacks, etc., instead of taking the top X candidates and maybe using race to break ties here and there. I also call "yay!" on that decision.

I did some research and my bizarre sudden change in medical symptoms is not uncommon for Crohn's patients.
( seriously TMI... you have been warned...if you don't want to hear gory details, don't click the link...seriously...not joking around here... )

I just went to XMRadio.com and see no evidence that this is temporary.
http://www.xmradio.com/onxm/channelpage.xmc?ch=53

Am boggled. I don't mind - it's always nice to have a comfort-music backup plan when all my other stations are playing Come on Eileen, anything by Fleetwood Mac or John Cougar Mellencamp.

But it is odd.. I mean, there is a lot of AC/DC music out there, but is there really enough to support a 24/7 station?

I think I may be coming out of remission. *sigh*

The guy who runs several of the Houston area meetup groups just removed me from the Katy Gamers group because "I haven't been active in the group."

We have gone in the past, it has been awhile, but we usually have the kids on the weekend and sheesh, we did just have a hurricane hit. You'd think he were charged by the number of people the meetup.com emails go out to...

I am more amused than offended, but still...

The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Metallica May
Not Have Jumped The Shark Just Yet
But the Mummy has.

Someone should inform
George Lucas someone stole his
Crappy Dialogue.

Brendan Fraser and
Rachel Weicz had chemistry.
None with this chick though.

Why did anyone
not realize this was quite
a bad idea?

XM Radio channel "Fungus" has (for the time being?) become "AC/DC Radio" - all AC/DC, all the time. I noticed it yesterday on the way home from work and it was still that way on the way in today. Cool.

I always joke that XM Boneyard is the "All Ozzy, all the time" channel since every third song or so is either Ozzy or Black Sabbath. But they didn't LITERALLY do that the way Fungus did.

Luckily, I am quite fond of AC/DC.

In less silly news, d'bee has the sniffles and I feel a little woozy. I hope we aren't REALLY getting sick...

Conventional wisdom is that Metallica jumped the shark many years ago (St. Anger really isn't very good, much of Load and Reload is meh), but I *really* like their new album, Death Magnetic. Its sound hearkens back to their thrash metal sound from the "And Justice For All" days and earlier. I'm not spending unnecessary money right now so I won't buy it yet, but I was pleasantly surprised when I heard "The Day that Never Comes" on XM this morning and so I listened to the song blurbs at iTunes.

It doesn't jump to the very top of my favorite-Metallica-songs list but it is a worthy contribution that I would purchase if not saving my pennies.

Congratulations doodlebee on your THIRD Employee of the Month award!

Hmm, I wonder what I should give you as a prize. *thinks of the box of EOTM sitting in the living room, but knows he would prefer that 72" TV we can't afford...*

But seriously, congratulations! Getting your employer to recognize your contribution and not take you for granted is a good thing :)

Dear Anye's Brain,

Staying up half the night worrying is not going to help resolve things faster. Please exercise your right as a brain to shut down for 8.5 hours per night to allow the vessel that surrounds you to get sufficient rest to function properly the next day. While reading is an entertaining pasttime, I should not have to feed you books to distract you from things that can wait til the next day.

If you don't stop keeping me up at night, I may have to resort to Serious Measures to turn you off. You have been warned.

Sincerely,
Me

In my benefits packet for work came a flyer on "estimated income tax + social security" rate.

Here are the brackets listed: (single, the married list is very similar)
up to 10,300: 17.65%
10301-33,960: 22.65%
33,961-79,725: 32.65%
79,726-102,000: 35.65%
102,001-166,500: 29.45%
166,501-359,650: 34.45%
359,651+: 36.45%

WTF. Why does someone in the 79k-102k bracket pay 6% MORE tax than everyone who makes more than them, until said single person is making 359k a year? Why do people making 33,961 (a pretty small amount) pay a higher percentage than people making over 100k? That is F'd UP!!!!

No matter what your feelings on flat tax vs. increased tax rates with income, there is no good reason to charge people in the middle a HIGHER PERCENTAGE than people who make more.

Either charge everyone the same percentage or charge the rich more. Don't charge the poor and middle class more. That's deplorable.

Worked at home today to wait for various hurricane-related appointments. Didn't sleep well last night, for no particular reason, so am feeling the effects today.

Am having cravings, but am trying to save money. Am very tired from not sleeping well, so don't feel like cooking the things that would substitute well for the cravings. Although, on my to-do list is to try a recipe for Rigatoni Campagnolo that I found online (this is my favorite dish from George's Pastaria, my favorite Italian place in Houston). Since my attempts to reverse engineer the dish were not successful I looked online and now have some ideas. I thought yogurt might have been the secret to the "tangy" taste but it may actually be wine, based on the recipe I found.

Would love to GO to George's, but a) saving money and b) they probably don't even have power and c) doodlebee won't be home from work until 7:30 or 8ish probably.

Too lazy to cook? Sounds like I'm back to normal :) Although for the most part I have been cooking a lot lately (and giving J stuff to grill too). I have discovered that Randalls and HEB often have a "discount meat" section for stuff that is about to hit its sell-by date, and some really great bargains can be found. I may have already mentioned the $1.80 ribeyes we ate a couple weeks ago... they kicked ass!

Safeway/Randalls brand jerk marinade + discount chicken = great meal.

Now I'm hungry. Oof.

Purse pics are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21054581@N03/

It's done and I love it!

Yesterday, nothing bad happened!

It was still busy, full day at work, followed by contractor coming over to do some followup on the kids' bath. I think we ate dinner around 8pm and I got to start relaxing around 9pm. But, NOTHING BAD HAPPENED!

In other news, before the storm I had finished all the knitting for my new purse, I just have to crochet a buttonloop and sew on the button, then I can start using it. I need to take pics of it to post at Ravelry when I get home.

J is going to see the kids tonight so I will be all alone. I am going to try to wipe down the furniture a bit (get the insulation and plaster off) and then play videogames. NORMALCY!

USAA will likely cover all but the $250 deductible of my damaged "stuff" (not house, that's on J's homeowner's policy). But I have to wait awhile for an adjuster, they are assigning them based on severity of claim and mine is not very severe (since it is only the personal property and not the house). I am going to go shopping this weekend though to replace the bathmats and some clothes that were damaged (fiberglass on clothes = write off), and will save the receipts. Everything else needs to wait til the house is fixed anyway so there isn't a big rush. I do wish we'd gotten the new bedding out before the ceiling fell. It was a clearance item so I don't know if I will find the same set again (the Laughlin plaid I posted a pic of last week or so.) Le sigh.

But, I am looking forward to a relaxing evening.