Category Archives: Personal

February 16, 2009

UPDATE:

TV Network Founder Beheads Wife?

And you think your divorce was bitter? This guy founded a Muslim television network to bridge cultural gaps for Muslims in the United States. He called police to tell them where the body was: at the office. I find this kind of Sharia culture attitude towards women offensive from my cultural perspective. In fact, I find it mind-boggling. So much for steak and blowjob day for you, mister.

Gotta lite?

Gotta lite?


SMOKE ‘EM IF YA GOT ‘EM
My packs of Winston cigarets FORMERLY said “no additives”. It doesn’t say that any more. Neither do other cigarets, like American Spirits. The government made them put chemicals in my smokes. Yeah, that’s right. The government made them put chemicals in my cigarets. So the cigarets will go out. If you don’t keep puffing on them until the end, they just go out and you have this half a cigaret roach stub sitting in the ashtray. It’s so the old duffers like me don’t go to sleep with a cigaret in our hand and burn up the house. Meanwhile, zillions of us who will never burn down any house or bed have been forced to consume additional potential carcinogens and pathogens on top of the already risky product we consume. The Nanny State gone wild! Almost enough to make me a libertarian. Oh, and the tax on each pack increased just in time for the Great Depression. What the hell are we supposed to do for our noir films about this era if everyone stops puffing? Can you even imagine a Beat Generation without cigarets, even if a lot of them actually were clove? If they want millions of us to give up our ciggies, they better legalize pot first. Just sayin’.
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February 15, 2009 (updated)

Looking on

Looking on


VALENTINE’S DAY
I had a lovely Valentine’s day weekend. I ran the gamut of emotions: content, happy, joyful, ecstatic, blissfully asleep. I ignored the troubles of the world and focused on the moment. I cooked a couple of meals, steak and salad Saturday night. I received in abundance validation and emotional fulfillment. Did some interesting things like antique shopping, thrift stores, book stores, coffee. Stress free and full of laughter and intimacies.
By comparison, my blogging buddy Flibbertigibbit vents a bit about Valentine’s and relationships and flirting and that whole boy-girl thing.
MindOverMary posts with passionate kindness and urgent wisdom in a lovely essay that made me admire my sister even more than ever.
Mom-A-Tron, aka RebL, gives us a lesson in green valentines that, I must admit, express a far more true and everlasting valentine than the pink and red crap we seem to favor.
LongRydeHome had a weekend full of trauma (a trip to the ER) and drama (a personal feud gone all bloggy) and despite the fact that MCARP shows up in a great many of her episodes, he has nothing whatsoever to report at 3:40 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
Sweet mystery of life.
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January 30, 2009

A lonely blogger types his fingers to the bone

A lonely blogger types his fingers to the bone


I’m still thawing out and look forward to Friday’s expected high temperature around 60. I don’t have a lot to talk about except that I hope you noticed that I learned to “jump” my posts so that the page loads faster and you can scroll down to previous posts more quickly. You are clicking the “read the rest of the entry” thingy at the end of the posts, aren’t you? In other exciting blog news, I’ll be updating and revising my blogroll at the right — the sites that I link to. I’ve let them get seriously out of date. Before I do that, however, I want to hear from my readers whether they ever use the blogroll at all. Do you ever use my page to jump to another site by hitting one of the links on the right? I suspect many of you do not, for whatever reason. What can I do to be helpful and useful? Do you want links to Google, Yahoo, MSNBC, memeorandum, reddit, Digg, FARK or some other news aggregator? Should my personal blogroll of MCARP, Flibbi, Mary or my daughter be first and foremost? Does anybody care? Am I shouting in the wind to no one?
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January 19, 2009 (updated)

Eating ham & beans to build strength for bashing Bush

Eating ham & beans to build strength for bashing Bush

THE BUSH BASH INAUGURAL BALLZ

Well, dear readers, I’ve reached some conclusions about my Inaugural Ballz party, having been too exhausted to do much else but contemplate my bellybutton since then.
One conclusion I reached quickly: the beans and ham must have been pretty good because six quarts of the stuff and a dozen cornbread muffins plus a 9″ pan of “cake” cornbread was consumed in a relatively short time. I generally like stews and especially beans and ham on the second day even better than freshly cooked, but there were quite simply no leftovers from this effort.

BECAUSE I SAID SO

BECAUSE I SAID SO


The Bush Bashing itself had a kind of “magical” effect on the participants, it seems. Everyone noted how satisfying and refreshing it felt to unload on the Worst. President. Ever. As much as I dislike violence for any reason at any time, firing off a 20-shot clip of BBs from a CO2 pistol seemed to bring a sense of closure to the past 8 years. Continue reading

January 16, 2009

I READ THE NEWS TODAY, OH BOY

The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema

A psychotherapist analyzes Hitchcock and David Lynch.

Dead Cats in a Bag

More proof that Salvadore Dali was a photorealist, NOT a surrealist.

Bushies Burrow into Bureaucracy

Bush incompetence gets Civil Service protections

TODAY’S THOUGHT

Stop trying to control.
Let go of fixed plans and concepts,
And the world will govern itself.

Stephen Mitchell translation of Tao te Ching
No. 57

GRANDCHILD CUTENESS ALERT

GK sews on a Daisy patch wearing rose colored glasses
image-1380

GK sews on a Daisy patch wearing rose colored glasses


My daughter has a whole series of pictures of my grand-daughter, GK, in her post today over on Mom-A-Tron
The two of them take on a project that involves sewing patches on Daisy uniform shirts and putting an orange (?) stitch into the hat she’s wearing. Why she’s wearing rose colored glasses is a mystery, but I find them quite becoming. Fetching, even. If I’ve done this correctly, you can click on the picture of GK and some kind of internet computer magic stuff will happen. Or not. Continue reading

January 10, 2009

MOM-A-TRON BEETS HER FATHER

Mom-A-Tron

Mom-A-Tron


Just when I think I’m getting the hang of this 21st Century technology, somebody comes along and really gives me some perspective about how much there is. Today, Mom-A-Tron has a power point presentation she made herself — about beets of all things — and put to music and presents on her blog as a video. Damn. Pretty impressive, I must say. I personally loathe beets in all forms and fashions, but she seems to have acquired a fondness for them that escapes me.

EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUT THE WEATHER, BUT NOBODY DOES ANYTHING ABOUT IT

BECAUSE I SAID SO!

BECAUSE I SAID SO!


What a fine example of Oklahoma weather! It was top-down, sunny and in the mid-70s this afternoon and not long after dark, the wind was out of the North and it was freezing. I guess I should be grateful for any January day in which I can have the top down, and I am, believe me I am. Nevertheless this back and forth under a full moon is messing with my mammal midbrain and warm bloodedness.
Had a plenty good time at Paseo this afternoon with a good fraction of the usual suspects and we had India food from the buffet at 50th and May and I have the predictable aftereffects of curry to prove it.
We missed MCARP when we had the name of the artist playing on the Musak right on the tip of our tongue, but couldn’t quite place him/her and we just KNEW he’d have the cut on his iPod/iPhone playlists. Oh, well.
By the way, the line: “Everybody talks about the weather … .” That’s by Oklahoma’s own Will Rogers, who had a lot to say about our weather. I suppose it’s always been like this.

SINATRA SPEAKS

A cool cat with blue eyes.  Call him Sinatra

A cool cat with blue eyes. Call him Sinatra


Muffy, you are such a naughty girl. Such language! I know what you mean because this full moon is making me a little quirky, too. Today, I got my head stuck in one of the heating vents and if I had been like that when he got home! That wasn’t the only thing. I was up in my tree, minding my own business, when this bluejay I’ve been chasing for two years lands on the same limb I’m on about 2 feet away! I couldn’t believe it! He said: “Boo!” and flashed away and by the time I was springing at him, my back feet fell off the branch and I was hanging on for dear life. Muffy! That was SO embarrassing. So, I acted like I meant to do that and just continued to climb back down the tree. Memsahib and her Thugee would never let me forget it if they had been there. So, tomorrow, I’ve decided to practice murderous pounces from perches on the living room furniture. I’ve already put all three of my mouses there. I hear wet food! Bye!

I READ THE NEWS TODAY, OH BOY!

Belgians Know How to Take Sick Days

Confess to Barkeep, then Priest, Finally at AA

Women Really CAN smell desperation!

TODAY’S THOUGHT

Those who know don’t talk
Those who talk don’t know

Stephen Mitchell translation of Tao te Ching
No. 56

January 5, 2009

Mom-A-Tron

Mom-A-Tron

RebL’s blog covers the tongue like a bad hangover fuzz today and had me laughing all the way to Einstein’s goofing off for the lens. Blogblah is sorta kinda taking Sunday off, so go over to Mom-A-Tron to look for better than her old man can do. As a reward, I also post a LEGO video for RebL to show her obsessed son and leave it up to her what the heck the video is about and who the heck Michael Jackson was.

Today’s Thought

Who can find a good woman?
She is precious beyond all things.
Prov. 31:10

January 4, 2009

SATURDAY WAS A TOP DOWN DAY FOR BLOGBLAH

Are you gonna be my drop top girl?  It's a top down day

Are you gonna be my drop top girl? It's a top down day

I have beaucoups things to do to get ready for Monday and I’m working to get my calendars and contact lists all sync’d up and blah blah blah, but when it is 73 degrees Farenheit on January 3 in Oklahoma, there’s no way I could stay inside and pound away on the computer. Nor could I do anything else. I just had to get outside. Now, I know how Sinatra feels when he’s sitting on the window sill yelling at me to let him out NOW.

73 Degrees!

73 Degrees!


I dressed and got in the car and pulled it into the driveway and pulled down the ragtop and away I went on a little Saturday afternoon adventure when there was football on the television and everything (I don’t give a rat’s patoot about the NFL, so there it is). Perhaps you live in Tucson or in Charleston and don’t think it was REALLY 73 in Oklahoma City, so I even took a picture of the thermometer in the dash:
Since I didn’t really have anything to do or anyplace to go nor much money to do it with, I thought I’d just kind of drive around and see what was up and if anyone else was out on the streets looking for something to do or having found something to do or planning something to do.
Evil Empire Starbucks

Evil Empire Starbucks


The first place I went was the Evil Empire Starbucks since that was the closest place I could think of with outside seating.
However, there was not a soul around who I recognized among the sparse customers. I suppose the Nichols Hills people are all out of town at the lake or going to some bowl game or coming home from some bowl game or maybe they’re just skiing, but there wasn’t anything to keep me at 63d and Western and I didn’t even buy a cuppa there.
Red Cup?

Red Cup?


So, it was off to the Red Cup.
Yes, I know it’s called the Red Cup, but the identical white cup of coffee on the red counter you see in that picture is what I actually got. Along with a long note from Kurt the self-confessed bad businessman about how the menu is going to be curtailed and an equally long whine about his tiny digs and all the excuses for not serving his customers.
Lexi at Red Cup

Lexi at Red Cup


Good thing I don’t go to the Red Cup for the food or even for the coffee. What I do go to the Red Cup for is to see friends, which I had not found at the Evil Empire Starbucks. Sure enough, the first person I saw was old friend rarely seen these days, Lexi.
I have no idea why she was holding that rat in her lap, but she claimed it was a dog and who am I to argue when she’s there with her boyfriend and I want her to speak to me after she realizes her horrible error without me. She says she’s “good”, but we all know better depending on how she meant that.
Skip at Red Cup

Skip at Red Cup


Not two feet away from Lexi was the intrepid Skip, talking to Lars on the phone. He says he’s having a triune brain brainstorm session Sunday about 3:30 p.m. at Galileo’s and depending on the weather and how I’m feeling I just might go. Later, I saw Skip at Sauced! as well as the cup, but you don’t get two pictures and mentions that easily. Well, I guess you do.
Sauced! bike rack

Sauced! bike rack


Next on my list was, of course, Sauced! with it’s large patio outside and its clientele of young artist types and Paseo dug-ins and just the normal neighborhood folks. Here’s the famous Sauced! bike rack with several bikes installed because those bike folks seem to flock to Ed’s Place.

One of the people I saw at Sauced was fellow blogger and fabulous artist/architect/sculptor, Larry P, who runs the pop*modern blog, where I found the “THOUGHT FOR THE DAY”. Larry quotes a construction foreman as saying:
“I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.”
my oh my but ain’t that the truth!

pop*modern

pop*modern


Larry P was incognito at Sauced!, thinking about a beer and maybe not a beer but a thousand other things, but I took his picture so maybe you could recognize him if you saw him in one of those grainy black and white videos from a convenience store robbery or maybe a Scorcese film.

Speaking of fellow bloggers, I also saw LongRydeHome in all her beauty at Sauced! She was talking to some guys and she introduced me and all, but I wasn’t paying attention and I don’t know who they are. I wish I’d read her blog post for Saturday and had known she started out having a pretty hard day and what sounds like a good cry.

longrydehome

longrydehome


In the event, I figured she was working her mojo with the big, handsome guys whose names I don’t know and I drifted over to another table.
Christopher at Sauced

Christopher at Sauced


At the next table, I found a couple of friends chatting, Christopher and Andre.
I am very jealous of Christopher because he speaks foreign languages, has an absolutely gorgeous woman in his life and has and does travel the world. He even has a steady paycheck, which is a rarity in Blogblah world.
Andre at Sauced

Andre at Sauced


Andre, one of the cooler parts of a warm day, was deep into some kind of conversation around the table when I barged in, but it’s always great to see him. We talked about how dangerous a place it is between your ears sometimes.
BECAUSE I SAID SO, THAT'S WHY!!!

BECAUSE I SAID SO, THAT'S WHY!!!


For example, I thought this blog was going to be a good idea and a monster was created. Far too often I find myself in wonder at how good an idea it seemed at the time and how not-so-good it turned out.
Other than the schemes and dreams, though, there’s also a guy in my head at the head of the committee that doesn’t seem to like me very much and is yelling about what an imperfect screw up I am.
I blog to make him shut up.

AN INVITATION

Worst Ever

Worst Ever


Last, but not least, there will be an Inaugural Ballz celebration at my house on Jan. 17, the Saturday before Obama is sworn into office. It’s BYOB since I don’t drink, but there will be food, poker playing and a finale you won’t want to miss — the burning in effigy of the current Worst. President. Ever. Before that, we’re going to throw shoes and shoot BBs at the life-sized image I’ve had ever since Oz scared the hell out of me one April Fool’s Day a couple years back. Think 7:30-ish.

What I did on my hiatus

THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Gangleader, a.k.a. Soartstar

Gangleader, a.k.a. Soartstar

On New Year’s Eve, the gangland mastermind pictured here held a party at her house in beautiful Edgemere for the purpose of strong-arming me for the grand total sum of $9.00 in American money. Great food was served along with champagne and the conversation was relaxed and easy, as if among friends. Only later did I realize this was merely a ruse to get into my purse. She was aided and abetted by other gangsters that include:

Gary Got Bucks B, known miscreant and card sharp

Gary Got Bucks B, known miscreant and card sharp

She was Lynne Morin when I bagged groceries for her father and now she's an elusive criminal figure that lives on a rural estate

She was Lynne Morin when I bagged groceries for her father and now she's an elusive criminal figure that lives on a rural estate

Tall Ed, notorious in certain circles for taking your money as well as your girlfriend, he's been known to be armed and dangerous.

Tall Ed, notorious in certain circles for taking your money as well as your girlfriend, he's been known to be armed and dangerous.

Unknown willowy blonde who dislikes Scatology

Unknown willowy blonde who dislikes Scatology

George the Greek, has houses and cars and no visible means of support; works in tandem with willowy blondes

George the Greek, has houses and cars and no visible means of support; works in tandem with willowy blondes

GOING BOWLING

The Ultimate Webmaster has a fast pipe and whipped me through the technology paces on his mothership of Apple products but couldn't manage a Pokes' victory

The Ultimate Webmaster has a fast pipe and whipped me through the technology paces on his mothership of Apple products but couldn't manage a Pokes' victory


On Dec. 30, I went up to Stillwater to see the Ultimate Webmaster to work on the blog and some other tech issues I have integrating my new i-Phone with my laptop and desktop. It was a business trip and I’m taking it off my taxes, I don’t care what anyone says. We actually worked. We did. Really.

It was good to see Tom and Brenda in Stillwater; I would have preferred a bowl win on top, but it's OSU after all.

It was good to see Tom and Brenda in Stillwater; I would have preferred a bowl win on top, but it's OSU after all.

In between, however, we stopped to watch the Oklahoma State University cowboys get their asses handed to them by ducks from Oregon. Joining in the Poke Choke “Wait Until Next Year” celebration were two old and cherished friends from parts nearby.

CHRISTMAS WITH THE GRANDKIDS

My daughter and her family came to Oklahoma for the holiday from Tucson and they all but brought Christmas with them because the grandchildren are six and eight years old and that’s the perfect age for the wonder of Christmas. We got to do a little of that at my house on Christmas Eve when Santa pulled off a technological stunt to bring his surprises from Arizona right into my living room while the grownups prepared to bring Christmas cheer to a family of five that were in dire need of assistance (thank you Kristi and Robin at Mayflower Congregation).

GK, my younger grandchild, got a Nintendo DS, much to her surprise after leaving a secret message to Santa in Ariz.

GK, my younger grandchild, got a Nintendo DS, much to her surprise after leaving a secret message to Santa in Ariz.

My grandson Parrish got Bakugan stuff from Santa

My grandson Parrish got Bakugan stuff from Santa

Although my son in law brought his family to Oklahoma this year as a result of the bad health of one of his brothers, I was glad because I got to see them all. In fact, I got more of them this year than I usually do and I was very thankful and grateful to my daughter and her husband for making those arrangements. They have Christmas Eve with me before going with Rebecca’s mom to midnight mass at the Episcopal Church and then they toddle down to Mom’s house for Christmas morning when I get to see them again.

Mom-A-Tron home for Christmas

Mom-A-Tron home for Christmas

This reminds me of how proud I am of my daughter who has the blogging fever like her father. While their homepage has been on the blogroll at right for some time now, she also has her own blog: Mom-A-Tron and I visit it often because she’s so funny and eco-serious.

HAS IT BEEN SINCE THANKSGIVING?

Mom cooked a holiday dinner for us

Mom cooked a holiday dinner for us

My mother had a quiet Thanksgiving dinner of Cornish hens rather than turkey for a couple of her friends and for me and my sister, Susan, who also lives here in town. I took a full plate of food to a shut-in some of you know as MCARP, who I believe was afflicted with the dreaded fuzzy blanket and i-Phone fever at the time.

My sister Susan came out of hiding to have holiday dinner on Thanksgiving with Mom, Mom's buddies and me.

My sister Susan came out of hiding to have holiday dinner on Thanksgiving with Mom, Mom's buddies and me.

Sister Susan seemed more relaxed and happy than I’ve seen her in a long while and she chatted during the holiday meal with humor and intelligence. I can only guess the meds have kicked in for her just like for her siblings. We made it through the meal and afterwards without firing weapons at anyone, including Mom and her friends. I’m sure Mom was giving thanks for that as well. For myself, I was giving thanks that Obama was elected despite the votes of these former Hillaryistas and the entire red army of votes in every single county in this misbegotten state.

NOTICE

Please adjust your contact lists appropriately: I will no longer receive email at my old msn address; my new email address is [email protected] .

AN INVITATION

Last, but not least, there will be an Inaugural Ballz celebration at my house on Jan. 17, the Saturday before Obama is sworn into office. It’s BYOB since I don’t drink, but there will be food, poker playing and a finale you won’t want to miss — the burning in effigy of the current Worst. President. Ever. Before that, we’re going to throw shoes and shoot BBs at the life-sized image I’ve had ever since Oz scared the hell out of me one April Fool’s Day a couple years back. I may take a shot or two with the BB gun at Oz now that I think of it, but likely not. Think 7:30-ish and you can come and go as you please.

Blogblah

Blogging Buddies

MCARP’s Three Fourty A.M.

Swimming in Love

Swimming in Love

MCARP has a new “infatuation”, a teen crush that he’s all hush-hush about because it’s about him and not the anonymous her. Of course, he also has a dream about drowning that wakes him up. Calling Sigmond, Calling Dr. Freud.

Getting Loopt on Technoerotica

Flibbertigibbit
I follow her on Twitter and I read her blog and I’m one of the boys she’s left behind (I’m L2 in fact), but now we’ve all been left behind by her love for her new 3G phone fueled by raises and bonuses in the oil and gas business.

MindOverMary with LongRydeHome

MindOverMary with LongRydeHome

Longrydehome

KO starts the year very perky and then goes to Eureka Springs, Ark., spontaneously and gets elliptical again talking about the joys of being in a new town where no one knows your name.

MindOverMary

Baby sister does the holidays with panache: one drunk girlfriend falls face first off a barstool at their favorite watering hole and her son in law gets in a barroom brawl over the unwanted advances of an endangered pipsqueak towards his wife, sister and motherinlaw at the same bar. Only Mary could make this sound like a fun time and make me laugh about it.