15 December 2006

Not joking

My friend Jim said his father would yell at him when he was a kid and would run out of the house: "Go ahead, leave the door open! That way the whole world can get warm!"

As I sit here enjoying a 65 degree winter evening, I'm starting to think that Mr. Low was right.

I am still collecting employment stories over at True Employee Confessions. Also any links would be appreciated. You can email confessions to snackishblogATyahoo.com

13 December 2006

Brain dead

This time of year is sloooooow at work. We will get hammered in January and the fun won't stop til July or so, but right now we are all busy polishing paper clips and drawing murals on the whiteboard. I know, it's rough, but it pays the bills.

While I am daydreaming at work, I always have these great blog post ideas. What about those idiot drivers? How messed up is Christianity today? And why does Katie Couric photograph like she has been dipped in wax? Yes, fabulous blogging possibilities race through my head.

But I don't write them down because work is PC and home is Mac and they still, despite everything, don't work and play well together. I can create a PC word doc at work and come home and I have to fix every single punctuation mark so it won't look like some weird alien language. And inevitably I miss one and have to go back again and again and by the time I am done fixing my 200 word diatribe on people who don't use turn signals, it is 9 pm and the dog is still waiting to be walked.

So I come home and think "What was it that I was going to write about?" and you get this instead.

Poor you.

True Employee Confessions is off to a slow start. Please email your confessions to snackisblogATyahoo.com. Someone mentioned that I should get the new blog its own email but yikes, I have at least 7 email addresses that I neglect on a regular basis. I don't know how many more I can handle.

Oh, yeah, there is Linkateria, too. Good stuff like this 15-second video of a sneezing Panda that I have only watched about 10 times now.

12 December 2006

ROFL Award December goes to...

When Mommy Off the Record invited me to participate in December's ROFL Awards, I knew immediately who I would nominate.

Jonniker makes me ROFL almost every day. I think she is a hilarious genius. She is insightful, and smart, and a great writer. And did I mention hilarious?

But this post, previously featured on Linkateria made me laugh so hard that I hurt my ribs. It made me laugh so hard the dog became concerned about me, got up from her doggy bed and came close to me and stared, hard, as if she were considering how she could dial 911 with no opposable thumbs to flip my phone open with.

Jonniker is one blog that is worth going way back in the archives and reading. At least go back to the point where you can learn what the phrase "Jimmy doesn't have asthma" means, because I am going to be using it in virtually every conversation from now on - that's how brilliant I think she is.

PLUS - new goodness over at True Employee Confessions. I am also soliciting confessions at snackishblogATyahoo.com

11 December 2006

File under "Moral Outrage"

Away from Chile, where both opponents and supporters of the former leader gathered on the streets, reaction to Gen Pinochet’s death was generally muted. Margaret Thatcher, the former UK prime minister and firm supporter of the general, was reported to be “deeply saddened” by his death.

From Wikipedia: It is not known exactly how many people were killed by government and military forces during the 17 years that he was in power, but estimates give 3,000 deaths (Rettig Report), at least 30,000 tortured (Valech Report) and several thousands exilees. The latter were chased all over the world in the frame of Operation Condor, a cooperation plan between the various intelligence agencies of South American countries, assisted by a US communication base in Panama.

"Deeply saddened." I wonder if Mrs. Thatcher was deeply saddened by any of the killing and torture that Pinochet did. Or was that just business as usual for the old gal?

As my nephew Lyal said when he was a little guy and completely beside himself with disgust: "It makes me stink!"

New stuff up at Linkateria AND our first confession at True Employee Confessions.

10 December 2006

Life on the farm

It was a stellar day. The weather turned rainy and grey shortly after church, so Goldie and I stayed warm and cozy in the house.

I finished a freelance article and did some housework. Made roasted turnips and ate them all (I am a weird vegetarian, I know). Made a pot of beans. Watched a DVD. Talked on the phone. Saw my Dad.

In other words, perfect.

In other news, my little banana tree of last year has turned into a vertiable banana farm. I have five fine bunches of bananas hanging down above the dark purple flowers:
Banana Flower Feb 2 06
For some reason, this makes me strangely proud.

The only problem with those strange-looking flowers is that they are not hollow like normal flowers, but solid and very, very heavy.

I have learned from watching them that the big "petals" (which I suppose are technically bracts if you are a botany nerd) flip up to reveal a row of tiny flowers at the end of banana-shaped stalks. Hummingbirds and bees come to drink at the flowers, which drip with sweet sap.

Eventually the purple bracts fall off and there is a row of bananas there that keep getting larger and larger. The remaining flower hangs below the green bananas.

The flowers hang down at head level and one would think they would be easy to avoid getting bonked with, given how large and colorful they are.

Wrong. Only about 100 times so far.
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