Love Your Peaches

I just got an order from Love Your Peaches. LOVE it! Janelle, the owner/designer, as a cotton/lycra line that is fabulous! The fabric is a good transitional weight and the designs can be dressed up or down. The cotton/lyrcra stuff allows for good fit & flare styles -- especially good for those who lurve their curves. OH, and the prices are decent, too! Check it out!

Is Anyone Out There?

If so, where the heck are ya? The silence is deafening. Let me know you're there by putting yourself on my map. http://www.frappr.com/catay My friend Bobber sent me info on this a while ago. I wonder if he'll get on the map? Hmmm? Anyway, it's a fun little free program. I hope to see you "out there".

Huge Kudos to Minnesota Pharmacist

Huge kudos to pharmacist Jim Witt of Borg Drug in Ashby, Minnesota! He's not charging the recommended "retail" drug prices. On the news story I heard last night, there are some drugs that the evil drug lords like Merck recommend to have sold at $25 that Witt is charging only $1. Now, if we can only get Walgreens or other national retailers to buy into the less-scam, more ethics philosophy, we'd have a country where elderly and poverty stricken individuals can actually afford to buy medication.

What's the worst thing about Thanksgiving??

Picking the left over turkey meat off the carcass. Icky!! I survived doing it tonight and I have a lovely odor of sage and turkey grease. OH, to add insult to injury, the bird was the fattiest bird I've ever had. Sure, it was a Butterball and by the name of it, it ought to be somewhat rotund, but this was ridiculous. They talk about the "obesity epidemic" in the US. Turns out they were talking about the turkeys getting too fat! Gafigure!

Thanksgiving

There are so many things for which I am thankful -- my family, my friends, my health, my life, a roof over my head, a turkey in my tummy (well, soon to be), my job and coworkers, relatively clean air to breathe, clean running water to keep myself hydrated and clean, etc, etc. I have so much when so many have so few. At times it's so easy to forget the things I DO have and only think about the things I don't have. With the huge natural disasters that have hit so much of the world the past 12 months, I'm so very thankful that I'm still here and able to babble in this blog about the simple things that make life grand. I hope you each of a wonderful Thanksgiving. Count your blessings and hold your loved ones near.

Roadside Giggle

I've seen this sign for several years...well, ever since I first came to Utah anyway. There are fewer and fewer of them now, unfortunately. A sign of the times in this booming development area. Especially ticklish to me is the farmer's most excellent posture. Sure, farmer Joe has had a long hard day in the field, but crap if he's going to slouch while riding the tractor back home! NO WAY! NO HOW! His chiropractor is, understandably, VERY proud.

This Week's Illustration Friday Submission

Overcuted and oversimplified, here is "free". (Click on the photo to the left to see larger, either that or just squint really hard.)

Is overcuted related to executed? Talk amongst yourselves. Click here to see more of my Illustration Friday submissions or click here to see Illustration Friday.

Customer Service

This page is cool! If you ever need to get ahold of a genuine human being at a large company, rather than a message loop, this page may be for you! My trick is usually just never push a button when the message says to push one. You know, pretend you still have a rotary phone number. It usually works like a charm.

<--- Check out my new photos submitted to Istock! Buy 'em if they interest you. ;-) The newest ones are of a Monarch butterfly on chrysanthemums. 'twas a sweet little old butterfly that was quite patient with me. Normally butterflies leave before I even get the camera turned on. In the past couple of months I've made over $30 on the pics on there. Weez profezzionals. :) About half are Ivans and half mine. So far, his beautiful wilderness shots are by far the most popular sellers.

Bodies...the Exhibition

This show brings out the wannabe doctor hidden deep within me. How cool would this be to see? I would be fascinated and grossed out all at once. Apparently there are 22 bodies and assorted other body parts preserved for eternity by embedding polymers into the tissues. Plasti-man! I used to have the set of Visible Man (love that painting of it!) and Visible Woman models where you could take apart the bodies, organ by organ. Way cool, but they fell a bit short. No muscles. No odd pockets of fatty tissue, etc. The "Bodies" show has it all from what I can see. Fascinating!! I doubt the show will ever make it to Utah. Those lucky New Yorkers!

Strength - An Illustration Friday Submission

Here's my submission for this week's Illustration Friday. I got up early and worked on it for just over an hour before I started work. The topic is "Strength".

Nothing is stronger than the odor of really, really, really bad feet. The kind that have been stewing in re-used socks in a sweat drenched sneaker. If you've ever experienced this, you KNOW what I mean. Not only is the smell strong, but the memory lives on long after the smell is gone. Amazing how that works.

You can click the image to see it full size.

Jury Duty

I just stopped over at Fatshadow.com. I read her blog from time to time. She's an excellent writer and has lead an interesting existance. Anyway, on this visit, she talks about her call to jury duty. (insert whine) I never get called to jury duty. Am I the only one that would like to go, but never gets called? Darn it. I'm even a registered voter. Do you think they somehow know that I'd like to serve and that's why they don't call? (end whine) Most people I know that have been called have gone through pretty much the same thing as fatshadow.com's experience, but someday...someday I hope to actually do the active juror gig. Hey, I'd even be making my regular salary (it pays to work for a lawfirm), so I wouldn't mind if it was a 6 month trial. Do you hear me out there? Just call me, I'll be there.

No, I'm not a philatelist...

...but I did see these at the post office a couple of days ago. How fun! My favorite is Animal. I like the way it looks on an envelope...like he's trying to fight his way out. Although when I say that, I feel like I'm leaving Beaker out of the mix. He's my all time favorite muppet. Hmmm...I wonder what that says about me? There's gotta be a web-based quizlet come psychological inventory based on that.

Hospitalist

(heard about it on NPR (http://www.npr.org/) this morning.) What is it? A physician who's primary job is to attend to patients in the hospital. It's a brilliant idea, methinks. I'm not a huge proponent of a family physician. The idea that the family doctor knows and cares more than a doctor with whom you have just met doesn't really float with me. That may work if you live in a small town and the doctor only has 200 potential clients. In metropolitan areas now, doctors see patients in and out all day long. Aside from the notes that were taken about you the last time you saw him/her, he probably doesn't remember your particular case exactly. Each time, he/she needs to go back over the notes, just as a stranger would. So, that being said, also from a GP's perspective, I would think the idea of a hospitalist to be fabulous. They wouldn't have to try to squeeze in visits during the day to the hospital. Instead, they could get briefed on your condition, update their own charts, etc. All in all, an idea who's time has come.

Too much political fun!

1- Go to Google (http://www.google.com)
2- Type in the word "Failure"
3- Instead of clicking "Google Search," click "I'm Feeling Lucky."
4- Spread the word before the people at Google "fix" it.

Cleaning Floors

I'm not a big fan of floor scrubbing. It's messy, hard on the back/knees depending upon how serious you get about it, and well, I always seem to clean myself into a corner. Maybe if I did it more often I would perfect my technique? Hardly. Anyway, while looking through a list of new techno-gadgets, I came across the SCOOBA. It's like that Roomba robotic vacuum. I never really thought the Roomba was worth the money as I don't mind vacuumin...but Scooba? C'mon! It's freakin' brilliant!

While shopping for Halloween...

While I was shopping for Halloween food stuffs, I came across something REALLY scary: Libby's Potted Meat Food Product. Yes, that's the exact name of the stuff. I wrote it down on my shopping list. Apparently it's cat food for humans. It's inexpensive at just 45cents per can. I guess if I were really hungry, blind and had a horrible cold to block out the flavor, it might be appealing. Has anyone out there tried it?! Please let me know how it was. I can't bring myself to purchase it.

Playing Catch Up

Here are some "catch-up" items that I've been meeting to write 'bout in my blog:

1. Martha Stewart's new daytime TV show. It's on freakin' hour long advertisement. If she's not advertising her own products -- books, k-mart crap, magazines, nighttime-show, she's advertising someone else's product. Martha is a horrible interviewer, too. In one show she had Christina Applegate on to help Martha decorate cupcakes. If I were Christina, I would have slapped her during the "interview". M would ask a question and then as Christina was talking, Martha would ask another or just talk right over her. 'twas pretty dang rude. I used to like Martha's old show. It always had something interesting and it didn't make her seem as much as an snake oil salesman. Maybe the old show was just masking its product tie-ins and I was oblivious to it, but c'mon.

2. Ivan and I hosted our annual Halloween party on Monday. We had a great turn out with guests wearing a lot of fun costumes. I didn't have a ton of extra time to devote to the set up since I was out of town late last week into Saturday, but with Ivan's kids' assistance we were able to get everything done in time. And the stuff I didn't get done, wasn't even missed.

3. Last week marked my 10th anniversary at my job. 10 years! I love my co-workers and my boss, so there really isn't much to complain about except the amount of time that has passed. My job has changed quite a bit over the past 10 years. I started as a system administrator focusing on database and litigation support. What I used to do as my primary job function, I now do as a "backup" to those who do it full-time. My main job function is purely web based...intranet, internet, portal and various play-ins to the aforementioned. Who knew that this was the direction the job would take? If I make it another 10 years, what role will I play? Most of what I do now wasn't even envisioned 10 years ago, so there's no telling what could be going on.

4. I'm sick of the holidays already. Sorry, but to those retailers that are pushing Christmas already, ~Ptoooey.~ I won't be shopping at your store for gifts. I'm sick and tired of people selling crap and attempting to manipulate me. My gifties this year will be simple. I've done this partially for several years, but I think I'm going all homemade this year. The fabric store may get the majority of my moola this year. Lucky them! (OH, and family and friends, be warned! :-) )

More Hidden Hatred

This happened a couple of weeks ago: Ivan and I were down at a guy's house to look at buying something. (Is that too vague? Hehehe. Ok, it was antique bottles...we were buying some bottles that the guy dug years ago.) Anyway, during the price negotiations, the guy reaches over and touches Ivan's chest and says something to the effect of, "Good, no garments. I can trust you." Mormon's who have been "endowed" by the LDS Church wear special undergarments referred to as "garments". Ivan was wearing a heavy shirt, so they're pretty much invisible. So, ummm...what the heck did the guy mean? That all Mormon are not to be trusted? Clearly that's not the case. I know a lot of Mormons now...they're as honest as anyone else. It's crap like that which makes me believe that hidden hatred is alive and well in this country. I have touched on this several times in the blog. Prejudice comes in so many forms these days...racism, sizeism, classism, sexism, faithism, etc, etc. It's soooo pervasive. Have you ever been a victim of it? Most likely, you don't even know. That's what's so discouraging about it. F*ckin' discouraging....