Extra Hot

Just a few more of these to tolerate.

Here is something you may find interesting if you like hot stuff. The Scoville scale.

Never!

I don't know about you guys, but if I did what this bottle said - it would be my death warrant. I would never dream of slapping my mom. She was the mom who could fry you with one look.

This is one reason I never liked The Simpsons TV show. Once I saw how disrespectful they were of their parents, it just turned me off. Is that show still on? Oh yes. 25 seasons. Well, somebody likes it.

Display

I found this photo on another blog. I can't remember where it was located. Looks like places really like to show off their hot sauces. I wonder if there are any err....questionable pictures on their bottles? Can't tell from here.

Yowza

I don't think I would even try this one.

Relief, it says

For the relief of bland foods.  The word "Aspirin"  is derived from acetyl and spirsäure. I always think of a part of one of my favorite movies "The Birdcage" where the house boy gives the diva "pirin" tablets. He scratches off the "as" to make the diva think the pills are something more potent. Of course I am also reminded of (when as children) we would draw out the word....assburn.

Green Hat

Yep. He still has the long beard and hair. Happy St. Patrick's day (yesterday).

Then and now

Perhaps as a young teen? Here is my oldest brother hamming for the camera in some younger by-gone days.

And here is a more recent photo. I guess I will find out today if he still has the beard and long hair. Sometimes he just shaves it all off and starts over.

He turns 70 today. He was born on St. Patrick's day and his name is Patrick. But that is not why. He is named after his great grandfather on our Mother's side. My Mom was raised by her grandparents.

I'll get back to the sauces maybe tomorrow. Or, I may have some shots from our big party today. Hoo Rah!

All natural

The one on the far right is the one I saw at the Unusual Junction. Colon Cleaner. It took me awhile to find a photo on the Internets with a bottle that shows "All Natural". Most of the pictures did not have that. I also chose this one for the one on the far left. That one I did not see at the store. I am sorry that I am having so much fun with these. Only a handful more to go. I promise. Maybe. :)

Hotsy

Being the person that I am, I cannot bring myself to post nekid pictures of folks. I manage the filter for school districts for cryin' out loud. I have a reputation to uphold! Anyhoo - this was not the worst one. I blacked out all the areas that may be deemed inappropriate for general audiences.

I will post a few more hot sauce pictures (decent) but they are from the online sites because my photos were too blurry. As for the absolute worst sauce bottle - you are only going to get a link.

This coffee...

...might make your hair stand on end.

I need a little bit of this about now. I have been getting on average 6 hours of sleep a night since the time change. I hate that. I need more sleep than that. I have my annual presentation at work today. I talk two hours about the appliance I manage. (The filter). I know my subject, but I need to wake up and to be alert. There are still questions I do not know the answers to.

This coffee was located at the same store where I found all the hot sauces. I do have more sauce photos, but my actual images are very blurry so I have taken the liberty to look them up online and downloaded a much cleaner image.

I chuckle at the comments about me hanging around the hot sauce area too long. I must get caught up in what I am doing. I have no idea if people are watching me (hence the creepy lady). My daughter gave up long ago being embarrassed by my antics. Grin.

Hot Five

Maybe it was the colorful display that the bottles created that caught my eye.

The Hottest

They all claim to be "the hottest". The pictures get much worse after this one. Worse as in shaky and blurry. I may post photos from the web site of the manufacturer because they were rather quirky and creative and my shaky hand did not do them justic.

Sigh

Spotted

I had not seen the lady on the other side watching me take pictures. Creepy! The reason I grabbed a shot of this hot sauce was the little package it has tied onto the neck of the bottle. It is a tiny key chain dog. Maybe the bottle is supposed to be a fire hydrant? Beats me.

The bottle to the right is hot and sweet.

Okay, really. That lady is creeping me out.

Liquid Fire

This label boasts Scrumptious Combustion! What do you put hot sauce on? I like it on my eggs though I do not eat it all the time. Mostly I like ketchup on my eggs.

I would add hot sauce to my pork. When I get chili at Wendy's I always get two packages of their hot sauce and add to it.

Hot sauce is something I never gave much thought to until I began making and taking the buffalo chicken dip that is rather popular around here right now. Frank's hot sauce has their version of the recipe on most of their labels. Shredded chicken, hot sauce, ranch or bleu cheese dressing, cream cheese. My recipe calls for shredded cheddar. I do not care for bleu cheese so I always use ranch.

I can't drink coffee this morning because I get a blood sample taken in two hours. I do drink lots of water. That makes it so much easier for them to take blood. I have unco-operative veins. Water consumption helps plump them up. LOTS of water. This is the six month visit where they analyze my blood for cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL, LDL and sometimes sugar. Fun stuff.

Far-fetched

I can still see her standing in front of the class. My sixth grade English teacher. She was tall and skinny and a brunette. This was her first year teaching. My school district always got the first time teachers because we were a small rural area and did not pay much. There was no industry in my area.

She was the first teacher who did not adore me. This was also the first year that we had more than one teacher. One for math, one for science, one for English... I was perplexed. I could not understand why she did not like me. 

Anyway, I can still see her standing up in front of the class spitting out the word far-fetched. And she did spit it out, between gritted teeth. I think I remember it because it sounded so close to her saying the "f" word. I think we all just sat and stared at her with big round eyes.

That is the word I use to describe today's post. I watched "Tower Heist" the other day and boy was it far-fetched. I liked the movie - overall. The inconsistencies were enormous. If you have seen the movie, you probably know what I am speaking of. If not, I am not going to spoil the movie.

If you have seen it or are never going to watch it, you can go here to see the atrocious far-fetched points of the movie.  http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Weight-Gold-Other-Tower-Heist-Logic-Fails-27750.html

So, I read this and I think "Hey, I didn't mind when Herbie drove around the ledge of a high rise building back in the sixties." (Photo above) That was far-fetched. I just expect more from today's movie makers. For them to use some common sense and get real - put in some effort to how they could have accomplished these things for real. Instead they leave it a mystery.

I should return back to our regularly scheduled program of the hot sauce topic tomorrow. I have a few more pictures to show. I will not show the unsavory one, but I might give you a link to the product so you can see for yourself.  :)

In the Universe!

This one professes to be the hottest sauce in the universe! And it causes a state of ultimate insanity. Sorry for the blurry pic of the product on the left. I am not certain, but I do think they have some of the sauces at the restaurant attached to this store where you can take a taste test. I'll have to be brave the next time I go.

Only ONE

Cheyenne mentioned on my previous post about using a lot less hot sauce since the Mongoose sauce was so costly for so little.  I guess some hot sauce is SO hot, you have to apply it one drop at a time. I would take this label seriously, I guess. I also like the one on the left with flames shooting out of the guys mouth.

And for some odd reason when I have been leaving comments on others blogs, it posts twice. Not certain why this is happening and it does not happen every time. Well, maybe it does. Maybe I need to go back and re-read where I comment. Hah. I will try to determine what is causing this and stop it. How annoying!

Small Packages

What is that old saying? Big things come in small packages. This box in the middle says 2 fluid ounces and was priced $11.95. This is the only one whose price I recall. Certainly, it must pack a wallop.

Classy Lady

Not certain what color this hot sauce is supposed to be. It also looks as if it settled a bit.

Save a Dog

I really liked this one. I did not look to see if any of the proceeds goes to an animal shelter or assist in dog care. Ha! It sure does! I will be purchasing this sauce the next time I go to the Junction.

Buhba

Here we have Buhba's Butt Blaster. It appears that most of the sauces tend to advertise the sauce's after effects more than the taste of the product. This goofy fellow is sitting in an outhouse with smoke coming out of his ears, his eyes bulging out of his head and his tongue hanging out onto the floor. Not an attractive image.

Unusual

There is a small greasy spoon located in the back of a bulk general store that I visit once in a while. I always commented to family and friends on the selection of hot sauces that they carry. This is only one side of the display rack. The other side was almost as full. The day I was there I asked if I could take pictures and I was granted the privilege.

My intent was to show the wide range of selection and a couple of bottles with the "f" word on the label to share a laugh with family. I did not know there were far more "colorful" labels to be seen until I shot a couple of close ups.

I may show some of the individual bottles. Some are funny. Most have the "f" word and there are two that I probably will NOT show. They border on pornographic (and I use the word "border" ambivalently). This is a public place. It has been around for years. The area is NOT blocked off so any innocent child can stumble across the colorful label just as I did. The more risque labels were NOT placed high on the shelf. I think they are about mid-way and can be viewed by almost any age group.

You can find the place  yourself. Here is their link:

http://www.theunusualjunction.com/ 

Located next to this dress shop:

http://www.universebridalandprom.com/ 

Another comical aspect to this story is the fact that they push the deli products that they sell as "Amish" cheese and meats. I just wonder if any innocent unsuspecting Amish person browsed the hot sauces and were like "WTF?" You know  -  just wondering.

For the record I have never seen any Amish in the place.

Apropos

I usually call my episode the Migraine Monkey, so how appropriate that I find this picture on the Internets. I have had one since Saturday morning. I told myself "Get moving, Peruby. You have company coming in at 4. You have birthday balloons and the big cookie to pick up. You have a big family get together at seven."

Nothing. My personal favorite expression is:  "I felt like a limp dish cloth."  My Mom always liked the thin dish cloths when we washed dishes. You could fit them into glasses, etc. I washed many dishes in my day and when finished I wrung out the dish cloth and set it on the sink to dry. It looked rather pathetic all wet and skimpy.

That is pretty much how I feel when I have a migraine. No strength whatsoever. Totally washed out.

The medicine worked enough to get me through the events of the week-end. By yesterday afternoon I was down. Sitting and could not do much. My company left (they are family and my sister is so wonderful, she tries to wait on me hand and foot).

I went to bed late. I notice when I have a migraine I put things off as long as I can. You would thing falling into bed is easy, but I have a lot of prep work. So I went to bed later than I should have. Not good. Dogs have to be taken out. My daughter was wonderful and massaged my head for me, the pain abated; but as soon as I stepped outside in the frosty air - bang. That headache hit me like a semi. Son of a bitch! I should have taken more medicine but I was stubborn. I went to bed. Each time I woke up, yep -still there. This morning I knew. I needed more Imitrex.

I took an imitrex, two advil and posted at work that I would be in late today. I rested my eyes. It is bearable now, but I can never think straight or move very quickly. I must take things slow. It affects my balance, my thinking. Friends would laugh at me when I talked during a migraine. They called it my verbal dyslexia. Words come out all wrong.

One thing I notice when I am "getting" a migraine is what I call "running away from it."  I move very quickly. I rush and do things so fast. It is so I do not focus on what is coming. You can feel a migraine coming sometimes a mile away and when  I get the feeling I am scrambling around. It is a symptom of migraine, yet but I always consider it my "running away" from it. Trying to avoid the inevitable.

The medicine is working. My limbs are weak. I will take a very hot shower. That helps the medicine. Move slow. Breathe. Take it easy. Work will wait. Sip coffee. So relieved the nausea is gone.

Countdown

Yesterday she posted on her facebook - 14 days ♥. Wah! Somebody's keeping a countdown and it is not me. I want the time to stop, slow down. Sigh. All little birdies must leave the nest. My daughter is taking steps to an adventure. I encourge her to go. I had wanderlust when I was twenty. I want her to experience the world, to do things - go places. See how other people live. Learn, see, watch, grow. My stomach hurts.

Settled Down

I was never a BIG fan of Hank,Jr. Even less so after I saw him make an ass of himself when he berated his crew in concert. One song phrase does pass through my mind quite often. "All my rowdy friends have settled down."  How lonely one must be out there in the bar trying to get loud and drunk with the younger set. Leave it to the younger set. I have settled down. I despise the bar scene. The lights, the noise. Back then (the smoke). I do not miss it one iota.

The photo above is from a set my nephews did. One nephew sings, the other controls the audio mix. They get a gig every once in a while. The singing nephew is mixing it up with two different bands these days. They don't practice much. They just get out there and howl. I have not heard them. Photo courtesy of nephew 1977.

I can still remember the day I first heard my nephew sing. (not with a band, just himself). I almost fell off of my chair. I just wish he would sing words one could understand instead of the screaming and howling. But that is what they want these days I guess.

Watched "Immortals" with the daughter. Her choice of movie, not mine. I fell asleep during the movie. I am thinking I need more sleep. Seems like I am falling asleep during a lot of movies. You cannot tell much in the movie but Cavill is one handsome dude. From what I read, somebody wanted him to act the Edward role in the Twilight series. (I am NOT a Twilight fan). The thought of watching the series makes me cringe. I am not certain if it is the vampire thing or the fact I think it is insipid.

I scoffed at the Immortals movie when I pointed out to my daughter that I did not feel they should have such nice, feathered (or razored) haircuts - the men. The movie is fantasy/fiction I know but some of the other men had horrible, ugly hair. I do not think anybody or anything can make Rourke uglier than he is. He is the epitome of ugly - but he does it very well.

Close call

Well, the picture probably tells it all, eh? Along with the title of the post tells you I was close but I did not get a spray. Neither did my dogs - thank God! Throughout the month of February I have experienced the very strong odor of skunk spray when I take the dogs out. Ugh, is always my reaction. My reaction to the smell, for sure; but mostly my fear of my dogs getting it.

While out this morning, the boxer became tangled around a bush. It was dark out. I sighed and said "Oh, Slade!" I unbuckled the leash and he pranced up to me a couple of times but when he realized I was not going to re-buckle him he danced off into the little empty lot where I take he and Sable to do their business.

I stand in the alley near some bushes (I do not want neighbors to think for one second that I may be a lurker). I tend to stare at the stars or watch my dogs wander through the little lot. I can only imagine somebody looking out their window at 4 or 5 a.m. and see me standing in the alley with no dog. 

Anyway, while standing there I heard a rustle off to my left. My first thought was that the neighbor had let their dog out (fenced in yard). She always runs up to me to the corner of her yard hoping for a treat that I sometimes carry for her. No dog.

I saw a movement and I immediately backed up two steps. I saw the flash of white on black. Skunk! My movement startled him/her and he retreated back into the high weeds in  a flash. I was in the alley and the fenced in  yard was between me and the critter, but now my dogs would have to walk past that same spot to get to me.

I called them (not loud because it IS pre-dawn). Whistle, call, call. The boxer came galloping to me. Just before he got to me he pivoted when he caught a scent of something. "NO!" I hissed. He stopped in his tracks and came right to me and I quickly buckled his leash.

Sable is another matter. I love that dog. I give her medicine daily for her arthritic joints. I called and called her in my best whisper panic voice. She knew it was urgent and she waddled to me as fast as she could. She did not hesitate. We beat a hasty retreat back to the house to safety.

Whew. My range to walk my dogs is gettting smaller and smaller. Pretty soon I won't even be able to go off my back porch. Skunks. Ew!

Licking his chops

Chong wants to know - what's for dinner?

Love. Sigh.

Cool, tall, dark, rich, full-bodied, sweet...I think I am in love with this wine.  :)

Going here today

IX Center.

Can you repeat that, please?

True Story.

At my job, most of you know I work with keeping p0rn0gr@phy out of the schools.

One day I was working at a school far, far away with their Network guy, a co-worker of mine and a technician on the telephone who represented the filter company.

We had to make changes and then test the filter over and over again.

Each time we would make a change, we tested to ensure the filter was still blocking properly.

Since we know that p0rn is an absolute no-no, the filter company devised two test pages that come back blocked with the reason being p0rn0gr@phy so that schools can test without actually attempting to go to an unsavory sight - and get a nasty surprise.

Well, we used the first test page and all worked okay - the filter was working.

We made another change and tested the filter using the 2nd test page. Still good.

We made another change and instead of going in and clearing out the browser's cache which can be time consuming, the tech on the phone suggested I type in p!ayb0y.com.  I did and it came up blocked. The filter was still working.

We made another change, and to test the filter I chose p!aygir!.com.  You know, being a girl and all. It came up blocked - filter was still working.

We made another change, and the network guy at the school suggested we test with $ex.com. Still blocked.

We made another change and my co-worker said to test with hust!er.com.  Still blocked. All was good.

We made another change and there was a pause. The tech on the telephone said "I'm all out of suggestions."

Nobody else said anything and I recalled a site a friend had asked me to look into. She had caught her step son on a p0rn page and wanted me to look and see how much he could see before the site made him use a credit card. The answer was plenty.

Anyway, I blurted out the site's name - pinkp0rn!

There was an awkward silence. The tech on the telephone said "What?"

I got uncomfortable. Did I look and sound like some kind of pervert?  Had I said too much?

Before I could say anything in my defense, the tech on the telephone asked "Pig p0rn?"

Yeah. We didn't get much done after that.

Rescue Team

I mentioned a few weeks back that I was stuck in traffic on the Interstate for over an hour. That was the morning that I had not eaten anything and drank way too much coffee and wondered what the heck I was going to do if I had to wait very much longer. When I heard the firetruck coming up, I had my phone camera ready to snap a shot.

The ambulance a few minutes before this one was being driven by my S-I-L. Of course she did not know I was in traffic until I texted my brother.

Reel Time:

A movie I watched a couple of months ago: "A Lonely Place to Die".  I had not heard of any of the actors. It has some startling scenes in it that just make you jump right out of your chair. It does have some blood - mostly suspense.

A group of mountain climbers stumble upon a girl that is buried underground. A pipe had been inserted for her to breath and they heard her cries for help. She was foreign and they could not communicate with her. They felt that they needed to get her back to safety - a town that was quite a ways off. They quickly realized that whoever buried the girl there was keeping her for a ransom or something and they wanted the girl back and they were prepared to kill each and every one of the climbers to do it.

A lot of outdoor scenery and shots. A lot of action in the outdoors. A ton of surprise and suspense.

Okay in my book. Not fantastic but I'd watch it again. As long as I could remember where the startling places were so that I did not jump out of my skin all over again.

I talk to socks and I pet pillows

Okay. This photo was lifted off the Internets. I "googled" socks and pillows and found this. Not at all related to my post but the picture made me go "What the heck?"  The story behind this picture is about a lady who liked to bury her feet in her pillows to keep them warm. So, she just found a way to put socks into a pillow. Ooooo-kay!

Now, on to my post. I DO talk to socks. I DO pet pillows. Not out of sheer insanity. When you have as many pets as I do and you are a migraine sufferer - you may find yourself doing this too. I do not turn many lights on in the wee hours of the morning because of photo sensitivity. It hurts. It causes headaches. Most of the time I find my way through the house in the dark.

As I pass by a cat sleeping on the arm of a chair, I will reach out and give it a soft pet as I go by. Well, sometimes in the wee hours of the morning (or even in the evening) I will reach out to give a soft pet to....yep. A pillow. Rats!

The other day I left my bedroom door open and as I walked in to do something, I saw (what I thought was) a cat's tail peeking out behind my door, and snapped "Get OUT of my room!"  The black sock did not budge. It just looked up at me and seemed to say "Make me."

Yep. There you have it. A snapshot for you of life in my zoo.

Oops

I was supposed to pick my daughter up at the airport last night. She called and said that the person who booked the flight did not realize it was for Tuesday the 14th. She was already at the airport, had gone through security, her ride had left.

Yep. It has been THAT kind of a week.

Repercussion

We've all done it I suppose. Come to a point where you are so fed up you let someone have it with both barrels. I did this at work. Not to a co-worker. An application I work with and the company that manufactures it. Sigh. I was totally fed up.

Now, come the repercussions. They are falling over themselves trying to fix something - anything. I have to work with an engineer today from their organization. He will try to "fix" things for me. Whatever. I was so angry on Friday I was spitting nails.

Today the anger has dissipated. Today I am just numb. I will try to get my dander back up so that my mind is sharp and I can work with him to resolve the issue. It takes so much darn energy!

A Moose

Once in a while when I sit in my TV chair to watch a show or a movie, a cat will sit up by my head on the back of the chair. Usually there is one on the right arm of the chair and another on the left arm. 

When Moose sits up on the back of my chair, she smacks me in the head with her tail. Constantly. Besides being a heavy tail and the "whack" feeling, she creates a pretty cold breeze with her fluffy tail.

Not really sure if she is mad, perturbed or just trying to get my goat. One thing is for certain. She makes her presence known.

Do you have any pets that "talk" to you?

Where bananas come from

Big bananas have little bananas, see?

Operation Spring Breeze

I use Secret deodorant in the "Spring Breeze" scent. I hope I can still use it after I have watched the movie "Sarah's Key."  The young girl in the film (Sarah) kept hold of this key during the round-up because she needed desperately to get back to her home in Paris and retrieve what she had left locked in a hidden closet there.

I am thinking the smell of the breeze was not so great after the French police round-up of 1942 (code named Operation Spring Breeze) imprisoned several hundred thousand victims in that arena with no fresh air. It had a glass top for crying out loud. It was July. They kept them there for five days before moving them on to internment (concentration) camps.

The United States had internment (or rather, an early form of concentration) camps. Can you figure out when? There was a round up of victims in the U.S. long before Europe decided to "reduce the Jewish population".

In a few days I will come back to the comments and let you know when the U.S. had this type of camp and what it was in the closet that Sarah so desperately needed to get back to. If you already know the answers, go ahead and post them in the comments. I won't mind a bit.

What would you think?

 

I met some family for dinner last evening. Back in the early 90's I lived with my brother. He was divorced but he had his two children often. I grew very attached to them. The youngest turned 25 yesterday. His sister - 30 in April. Sigh. I do not get to see them as often as I would like to.

The rain was relentless. I was in a foreign area. It was dark. I could not see anything. There was fog. I got lost. My daughter still has my GPS even though she got her own for Christmas. Grrr! I never use my phone for finding places.

Anyway! I was late. There was a huge accident right before I arrived that blocked my way. I turned left while the policeman was digging in his trunk. He had traffic stopped coming the other way and they did not know where to go - and I was not waiting any longer.  This was a huge intersection and there were about ten firetrucks and emergency vehicles. Chaos. I just wanted the hell out of there. Sheesh! What a mess the night was. 

I arrived at the upscale restaurant. I had been there before in 2006. Someone else drove, and it had been daylight when we arrived.

The above photo was on the menu. It was not me ordering this. The girl was young. From Pakistan. She was a friend of my nephew. She was expecting a grilled cheese sandwich! It was not until I looked at the menu again that I saw "two fabulous soups". LOL!

 

This is what was brought to the table. Oh my gosh, it was funny. She was so confused. She sent it back and ordered something else. She said she cannot stand nacho cheese dip or anything like that.She does like a grilled cheese SANDWICH, though. Can you eat cheese like this? No bread - no crackers - no chips. The waiter said she should have tried it. It was delicious. I don't know.  I told her it looked a little bit like squash soup. I guess it was cheese soup. It looked cool, though - so I snapped a picture.

It was a delightful evening - regardless of the horrible weather.

Insert loud shrill sound here.

Well. Sigh. You know I love a good comedy. I like to laugh. I also like to learn. I like to be informed. Now, what I do with that information can change my life or way of thinking.

War is ugly. Reality is ugly. Mostly I use movies to escape. Sitting at a desk or in a wiring closet with my hands elbow-deep inside the guts of technology can be somewhat boring and tedious.

Movies can take me away.

I hate movies that make me want to vomit. But, I need to be informed.

This movie informs as well as makes you sick.

I would hope it disturbs you, even if you do not have a daughter.

Whistles are meant to get somebody's attention. A loud, shrill sound.

The Whistleblower.

K Bolkovac.

Not a very nice company.

Kathryn.

Ben also blew the whistle before K.

You can read for yourself. You may want to skip it and remain oblivious. It's like you know it is out there but you don't have the time, resources or energy to do anything about it. That's okay. I'm not certain I am going to do anything, yet. I am not positive what I can do. Yet. I need to absorb. I need to buck up. I need to be stronger than I am right now. It scares me. It bothers me.

The Internet is great. I can start right here at home.

In Ohio.   The state that I live in.   Right here.   In my own backyard.

A little sunshine

Here is a little bit of sunshine to hold you over until I get back into the habit of blogging. This is one of my great/grand nephews.

We did get the snow. Friday night. Big beautiful white fluffy stuff that was quite light to shovel. It was heavy and wet by  yesterday and mostly gone this morning. And here comes the rain.

Sigh, I guess we need it.

I will finally wish for snow. It is SO ugly outside. This photo is from last year. January is plodding along. It has been a wet and messy one. I don't know if I want snow (because of the shoveling), but the dogs do like to run and play in it and that always lifts my spirits. 

I especially like the snows that cancel school. For some reason that makes me feel all warm and cozy inside. To stay home on a "school day". I always feel like cooking a nice thick soup or a big meal and making the house all warm and cozy and smelling good. Sigh. I'm not sure we will use ANY snow days this year. The powers that be will probably go back to "we only need 3 calamity days" again.

The rain yesterday caused a lot of aches in my arms and wrists yesterday. Mostly on the right side. For some reason I did not want to take any Advil (I take so much), so I spent all day rubbing my wrist and upper arm. Then the winds came. I was half afraid to take the smaller dogs outside. They are quite funny, though. Cheech took off after a plastic bag that was blowing down the alley. He must have thought it was some strange and dangerous critter. I laughed and told him to "Get it, Cheech! Get it!" He gets all excited and jumps towards it but is never brave enough to actually go right up to it. The boxer? He's clueless.

Tinkering

Tinker, Tailor,

Soldier, Sailor,

Rich Man, Poor Man,

Beggar Man, Thief.

Somebody shoot me if I ever have to sit through another showing of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy".

I'm still here

Just floating around in a bubble. This looks like I am drunk, but I have not imbibed for some time. And I certainly did not get inebriated when I did.

I guess my only excuse is laziness. I have been busy at work but not so much at home. Sigh. Not certain what I have been doing. Regardless, the time certainly did slip away from me.

Not much to report. No movies. The boxer took a hissy fit for a couple of days and kept running off from me. He must have had a grudge against me about something. We got a bit of snow and the dogs are loving it. I do not care for shoveling the stuff, but I am glad to see a change from the rain.

Since blogger is determined to let me know that "hissy" is not spelled correctly, I had to go and look up the phrase. I read that it may have derived from the word hysterical or it may be that the one having the fit hisses. That made me smile.

Where did she go?

There once was a lady who wrapped gifts like this. Where did she go?

Some big discussions in technology in educ@tion today. BY0T (Bring your 0wn technology). Symbols placed on purpose to thwart search engines. Do you have children/grandchildren in sch00l? Almost every child over the age of fourteen (perhaps younger) has a cellular phone. Most have a "smart" phone.

It is true that the sch00l network can block them from access, but most have G3/G4 for connecting. What do you do then? Most of us know that we do not need wireless to gain access to e-mail with our phones. How do tea@chers handle this in the cl@ssr00m? It is kind of a mixed bag right now. You have some who sit back and say "I don't worry about it. They signed an AUP (acceptable user p0licy)."  Does that really cover it, though? Others are fraught with worry. Some are creating an entirely new AUP just to cover the new technology.

Then there are devices such as my n00k. It is small enough (even with the case) to fit in my purse. Most of the schools are issuing netb00ks to $tudents to use. Much cheaper than iPads.

And why does my manager keep posting his "cel phone" number when he is out of the office? It is not a celluloid device. It is a cellular device! Cel is a short name for celluloid. Sigh. Oh, dear. I think I am getting cranky. Time to find my pillow.

Wait! I watched War Horse. Very good. My daughter watched it with me, she said the book went into much more detail and emotions that were not captured in the film.  Did you like the book/movie Black Beauty? The book War Horse is told from the point of view of the horse. (Not certain the entire book is, though). I liked the movie. I did not need tissues.

Educated Idiots

This article speaks for itself. You can have an education, but you can still be an idiot.

Movies:

50/50 - I really liked this one. Except for Rogen. I do not like Rogen. In anything. Oh, crap. I have to take that back. He did the voice of Paul. I liked Paul. Grrrr.

Yikes!

I think this photo was taken at the zoo gift shop in Pittsburgh back in '07. Not certain. Oh, that is my daughter in that snake's mouth. 

Speaking of teeth. We were, weren't we? I had a molar pulled Thursday. I have not had a tooth extraction since the late 70's when I had my wisdom teeth pulled out. In the chair. That's right sissies. No nitrous oxide for us back in those days. The dentist used a C-clamp and pliers. My mouth remained swollen as if I had a wad of chewing tobacco in there for a week.

I was a bit nervous with not knowing what to expect. Psshh! It was nothing! Two things bothered me. The first was the sound as they pulled it out. Talk about fingernails on a chalkboard. Grrr! And about three hours later was the intense itching as the Novocaine wore off. That did not last long and I barely needed Advil. I took it more as a precaution than as a pain reliever. I had no pain to speak of.

I am a tad bit worried about the sinus cavity that the tooth root was close to. The dentist told me not to blow my nose for two days. Okay. The dental instructions said not to swish for two days. Can I brush?! How can you brush without swishing a bit of water around up there?

Eh, I made it through. Other than that "weird" empty feeling - things are fine. It is healing quickly and I am hoping that this resolves a lot of (what I hope were related to this tooth) problems over the past years. That upper right region of my sinus/gums/ear has had it's share of misery.

The finger is healing. The tooth (or, rather gum) is healing. My body must be in some kind of "what the hell is happening to us" mode. It must be working overtime healing my wounds.  That is a lot of stuff going on in the body. I think I need to rest all week-end and take it easy and let my body heal. Movies are waiting. Also hovering  ominously close is :   Angry Birds - yes...dammit! I have become slightly addicted. I keep picking the Nook up and playing "ONE.MORE.LEVEL."!!!  OMG! There is a web site titled "one more level". Oh, God. Don't go there.

I requested and received one of these for Christmas. Drat. I just realized I got a silver one. I love this blue. It works just like it says. I did knock it over on my desk and I have to admit a little drop of coffee did appear on the desk, but not like the usual splash or flood of coffee. Yes, I spill my coffee a lot. I knock things over on my desk a lot because I am not organized and I heap things onto my desk and after this many years I doubt that I am going to change.

The other day I had this coffee mug with me returning from a doctor appointment out of town. It was full of luke warm coffee since it was after my appointment. I had an early one so I had not eaten anything and the coffee went down pretty well. I texted my daughter (before leaving the doctor) to meet me for breakfast. She agreed.

I passed an exit and it was a good 8 to ten miles until the next one when BAM! Traffic stopped on the interstate. Both lanes. Ah, I figured. An accident. I had seen one on the way to the doctor and I figured the roads were slippery because of some snowfall.

I placed the car in park and looked around. Ugly scenery. Ugly trucks all around me. A GMC in front of me, a huge Ford in back of me. A huge semi on the right side of me. Sigh.

I texted my daughter that I was stopped in traffic and "may" be late.

I played music. I sang. I looked down. Hmm... there is some coffee left, I think. I took a big swig. Not hot, but it tasted fine. I took another. Something solid entered my mouth and went down with the coffee before I had a chance to think.

I about threw up. WTF was THAT!??

I gagged. I coughed. I think I may have spit. I rolled my window down and dumped what was left of the coffee out.

The only thing I can deduce is that perhaps some creamer clogged in the cup's lid. It is a massive lid with just little tiny openings so that it is spill proof. I am supposed to rinse the lid out thoroughly after each use. Well, who has time for that? I am starting to get sick as I type this. And, guess what? I AM drinking coffee. Not out of that mug, though. That is a "to go " mug and I am sitting at home on the computer.

I recovered. I sat in that traffic one hour and fifteen minutes. I want to tell you sitting there on an empty stomach, drinking all that coffee....well, you know. I REALLY had to pee. What in the hell was I going to do? I was getting uncomfortable. I saw two people take their dogs out. Who are all these people driving around at ten o'clock on a week day morning with their dogs? Wow.

What do the people do who sit in traffic for over four to five hours? I guess you just get out, go over the guard rail and into the bushes. Typing this makes me have to pee.

The accident itself was not too bad - injury wise. One person with minor injuries. I am not completely certain why it took so long for them to clear the two lane road. A semi was involved, perhaps he was turned sideways. I saw the van that the semi hit from behind. Smashed his rear end ALL the way up TO the front seat. It looked to be a working van (Not a family van) so it was just equipment that got smashed in the back. It looked horrible.

My sister-in-law was on the scene. She told me later a dog ran out in front of one of the vehicles. Of course I asked about the dog but they were unclear. She thinks it ran on. I told her I think she was the one ambulance that almost hit me. Emergency vehicles had to drive the berm to get around traffic and get to the scene. She laughed and said she did hit the mirror of one truck, but you have to keep going. Tough luck Mr. Truck driver.

I counted at least seven state highway patrol vehicles that passed by on the berm. Two ambulances, one fire truck and one ODOT truck. I told the people at work that vehicle probably had to pick up the dog. They were horrified. I said "Well, a state patrolman isn't going to put the dog in his trunk."  This was before my SIL told me the dog had run on because they didn't see any dog. Maybe she just said that to make me feel better.

When traffic moved I was able to take the next exit and stop in at a Fast Food place and use their restroom. It was 11:30 by this time and I grabbed some food to go and went straight to the office. I missed brunch with my daughter.

My Mom had so many little sayings over the years. Sitting there in that traffic jam brings back one she always said that was a favorite of mine. In the manner of pondering how much easier it is for a guy to go to the bathroom outside than a girl, she would say,  "Handy thing to have on a picnic!" I love you Mom.