Ya say it's yer birthday?

Well, Happy Birthday to ya!



My "baby" granddaughter (isn't she gorgeous? She looks just like me...at that age. heh) is TEN today!


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Happy Birthday, Fuzzy-Butt! This one's just for you!


(Snagged from

Nate

...he finds all the good stuff.)

Fifty years later, and it's still timely

I caught

Lil' Abner

on TCM tonight. Gawd...haven't seen it since I was a kid. But I guess I'm mature enough now that I can really appreciate it.

The parallels are striking...doncha think?

Contentment

And other thoughts

I'm warm and snuggly after a hot bubble bath. My belly's full. Our little riverside retreat is a cozy shelter from tonight's cold, drizzly rain.

And my carpet is clean. Well, until one of da boys yaks up a hairball.

That was today's project...hauling the carpet shampooer down from the loft and steaming the worst traffic areas. Which was practically the whole living room/dining room/hall.

Well, actually that was Ziggy's project. But ah helped. As in it was my idea.

He likes it when I think up projects for him. Really. heh
************

We've been half-assedly looking at property to buy. We'd figured that, at this point in our lives, renting was the way to go....until property values started coming back into the area of "semi-realistic". Now we figure that it might be a good idea to buy again. 'Course we'd love to buy this place. And our landlords are positively tickled pink at the thought of selling to us. Unfortunately, their thoughts on home pricing haven't exactly caught up with reality.

We'll see.
*************

I suppose, since this is Thanksgiving eve, I ought to do a whole "what am I thankful for?" thing. It's like...a rule...right? Sooo, without further ado...

I'm thankful for:

1...da Zigster. He's my bestest friend and lover. He gets me when nobody else does. He humors me and indulges me and spoils me rotten.

2...my beautiful daughter and granddaughter...who's gonna be 10 whole years old next week! Good gawd. Ten. It's going by too damn fast.

3...the two lobsters that sacrificed their lovely, 1 pound tails and the cow that donated a couple of it's ribs...along with a nice hunk'o meat...for our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

4...the fact that we can afford to have lobster and prime rib roast...or anything to eat, for that matter. So many people can't.

5...our health. So many people don't have that, either. 'Course, after tomorrow's heart attack, disguised as a Thanksgiving dinner, that might be a moot point.

6...the fact that I have family and friends to be thankful for.

7...Starbuck's coffee, dark chocolate and popcorn.
**************

Whether you're having turkey or sushi...whether you'll be spending Thanksgiving with family and friends or all by your lonesome...Ziggy and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very, very...

Smart, smart guy

Jumping the Shark

“My arm was numb after I slept on it funny and my mom says I’m having a stroke,” says my essentially healthy 34-year-old patient to the nodding approval of his indulgent mother sitting by the bed.

“How long did the numbness last?”

“A couple of minutes…it went away after I straightened my arm.”

“So your arm went to sleep and now it’s better?” I ask.

“I guess so.”

“You know that just walking through that door costs you four hundred bucks?”

“It’s okay,” interjects his mother,”He’s on disability and don’t have to pay a dime.”

And there, in a nutshell, is the problem with American medicine and why the looming government solutions are insane. Don’t you all realize that when a healthy young man can walk into an Emergency Department because his arm fell asleep and be seen by a doctor, a doctor who will dutifully diagnose him with transient paresthesias or compression neuropathy or God forbid initiate an expensive and highly unnecessary work up; when a patient can present with nothing and less than nothing and run through your money with as much concern as I have for swatting a fly…don’t you all realize that when this kind of patient can leave without being arrested for fraud that American medicine has jumped the shark and making it even more accessible at even less cost to a growing population of supremely entitled citizens will result in nothing but an exponential increase in the baseline ridiculousness of it all?

And that, in a nutshell, is exactly why I ran at top speed, away from ER nursing.

This Doc is headed to my blogroll, posthaste.

I am not a twit

Say it like Richard Nixon

This morning, like every morning, I grabbed a cuppa and fired up the computer to read the local paper, a local forum and then right down my blogroll. It's my routine. It's how I roll.

Unfortunately, I've noticed that it takes me a lot less time to do my "routine" in the morning because many of my favorite bloggers no longer post every day. Or even every week. And some seem to have stopped altogether.

That truly breaks my heart.

Aaaanywho...one blogger that I can always look to to have something interesting to say is

Elisson

And today was no exception. He wonders if the

twits are taking over

Sadly, I'm thinking he might be right.

I know I've been guilty of blogging a lot less recently. I'm not sure why...it just seems like I don't have a whole helluva lot of interesting things to say...and even if I did, I'm just not sure anyone even gives a shit about what I have to say anymore.

It is what it is.

But it's not because I'm busy being a twit. I'm not. I don't. Twitter, that is. Don't even have an account. Don't want one. I did fall into the whole Facebook trap and joined up. With the exception of rediscovering a couple of old chums, I fail to see where it's enhanced my life one iota. I don't play any of the "games"...I just don't get into it much at all. I can't remember the last time I checked it out, in fact.

Blogging is my thing.

Blogging...eh...reading blogs...well, most blogs...is like going out to a really good restaurant. It's the whole thing. You take your time. You savor the meal. You soak in the atmosphere. You immerse yourself in the experience. You get to "know" your hosts.

Facebook and Twitter...well...those are the fast-food joints. Every once in a while, you might get something that tastes good, but mostly, it's just...gloppy cheese and greasy french fries.

I think it's the whole "be connected to everybody in the whole fucking world and do it faster" syndrome.

I don't want to be connected to everybody in the whole fucking world...and I sure as shit don't want to do anything faster at this particular point in my life.

There are just some things that are better left to be done slowly. Like blogging. And sex.

I'll leave all the "twits" to their greasy paper bags of fast food...I'll just sit here and savor my steak and blogster dinner.

Buuurrrrp!

Oink!

Just a local public service announcement.

The vaccine is here! The vaccine is here!

Peoria City/County Health Department received 10,000 units of H1N1 vaccine today...finally. So, if you're interested in getting the shot, next week's schedule is as follows:

Monday, Nov. 9th 4-7 p.m. at IVC High School in Chillicothe.

Tuesday, Nov. 10th 4–7 p.m. at Woodrow Wilson School in Peoria.

Wednesday, Nov. 11th 9 a.m. - Noon at Expo Gardens in Peoria

Thursday, Nov. 12th 3:45-6:45 p.m. at Illini Bluffs High School in Glasford

Friday, Nov. 13th 1-4 p.m. at the Henry Fire Protection District in Henry

(If you choose to get it Tuesday or Wednesday, you might get yours truly as the vaccinator. Lucky you! heh)



The CDC is recommending that only pregnant women, household contacts and caregivers to infants under 6 months, all people from six months to 24 years old, and those 24–to–65 who are more susceptible to flu complications get the vaccine.

And here are the symptoms, also via the CDC:
Fever, which is usually high, but unlike seasonal flu, is sometimes absent
Cough
Running nose
Sore throat
Body aches
Headache
Chills
Fatigue or tiredness, which can be extreme
Diarrhea and vomiting, sometimes, but more commonly seen than with seasonal flu

Wash your hands! Cover your cough! Stay home if you're sick!

Unfortunately, my grandbaby was diagnosed with it today and is getting started on Tamaflu. Get well soon, honey. I love you!

There's a reason they called it "The Great Depression"

It was depressing as hell.

I caught

The Grapes of Wrath

last night on TCM. Actually, it was a Steinbeck three-fer...East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men.

Anywho, The Grapes of Wrath is one of those movies that I have to watch every time it's on.

Unfortunately, it always leaves me depresseder than hell (Hi, Mary!) and feeling like I need a shower.



I'm not sure why I'm so attached to the movie. I suppose it's because I had parents that were young adults during the Great Depression and they had stories...horror stories really, though not nearly as...well...depressing...as those of the Joad family.

See? Even the family's name was depressing. Joad. It's hard and coarse and harsh-sounding. Just like the circumstances that they lived...if you could call it that...through. I guess that's why Steinbeck won both a Nobel and a Pulitzer for literature.

The movie, depressing as it is, can't hold a candle to the book. At the end of the movie, there's at least a glimmer of...hopefulness. In the book? Not so much.

Aaanyway, every time I watch the movie, I understand a little more. And can relate it a little more to what's happening in our world right now.

Take, f'rinstance...last night, for the first time, I really picked up on the whole underlying "Socialism is Good...Capitalism is Bad" theme that seems to be the movie's "message".

I suppose I didn't really understand it before. But, given the current situation we're in, for the first time, I got it. I finally understand why Socialism looks so attractive to people during tough times...why it flourishes.

Why it's flourishing right now.

And I'm even more depressed because I can't understand why we can't have some kind of...coming together, I guess...of the best points of Socialism and Capitalism. Because there are good things about both perspectives.

My brain hurts. Far, far too much thinking. heh

Six degrees of separation...

...of my newest "favorite things".

I'll start with

Sunsweet Ones

They're prunes...ah...excuse me...dried plums. I'm sure that calling them dried plums is a little more palatable to the general public. Whatever. They're prunes.

They're good for you. They're delicious. They're really handy to stash in your desk at work for a little nosh. They're also damned dangerous. Four or five of those sweet, gooey little blobs of dried fruit is like Drano for your colon.

Try 'em. But be sure to be somewhere close to a bathroom within three or four hours of tryin 'em.

Bathroom. That leads me right into my next favorite thing. My new shower curtain, snagged recently at Tarjay.



The print is really reminiscent of the work of mid-century artist/illustrator,

Charley Harper

I love it. It makes me smile every time I walk into the bathroom. After eating prunes. heh

Which segues right into my third, newest "favorite thing".

Relics

, 3402 NE Adams in Peoria.

I've glanced at the little shop uncounted times on my way to and from work, but never had the opportunity to stop. I read

Miz Peepers'

post about it last night and decided that today was the day.

Love. It. It's cool and funky and just...well...my kinda place.

But what does this little shop have to do with bathrooms and Charley Harper illustrations you might ask?

Well, they have a selection of darling little pendants with Charley Harper-like illustrations of birds and trees.

I didn't get one because I just couldn't decide which one I liked best. But for $12.95, I think maybe I could fit a couple into my budget.

I did scoop up a Gingerbread Cookie (Oooooo!)

Black Crow Candle

They're made locally and they're just about the best-smelling, longest-lasting candle I've ever found.

They had a huge selection of old advertising cards, circa 1940's, from one of the chi-chi, but unfortunately now-defunct downtown department stores, so I grabbed a few of those, as well. I love the simple, clean graphics of them. I think I'll frame 'em and hang 'em in the spare bedroom.



And, for my Starbucks Coffee stash...



So that, dear readers, is how my mind works. From prunes to quaint little shops.

Scary, huh?