The Big DumpTruck

Tom DeLay, you big tool, how do you sleep at night?

So,

"It's not a pay raise," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. "It's an adjustment so that they're not losing their purchasing power."

Well heavens to Betsy, can't have them lose their purchasing power. Grandma, looks like you're gonna have to eat cat food an extra couple of days a month - no relief in site for you. Have you considered running for Congress? They make $165,200 a year. They were about to lose their purchasing power, you see...

Thanks for the heads up from Mr. Crunchy.

The new menu should work. If it doesn't, I'll have to fix it later. For now, I just wanted to make sure I didn't blow anything up. Then again, not much I can do about it now that I've saved the changes, eh?

Updated: Minor flaws. Nothing to see here except minor flaws.

Updated: Okay, maybe they weren't minor before. But they should be minor now.

Again: Aw boogers. One of the buttons is wrong. It isn't Interview with Still Life. It's Still Life With Interview. Attention to detail: C-

I was looking at my page stats a few minutes ago, and realized that since I started using that tracking service in 1998, I've had over 200,000 page hits. Actually, it hit 200,000 over the weekend. That's a lot of page hits. I mean, some folks get that many a day. My highest day ever was 2727 hits. I'd like to do that again. I should try to remember what was going on back in May 2002. I'm guessing Linky & Dinky mentioned me. I think the time I was mentioned in the Sunday Newspaper supplement Access Magazine happened prior to 2002. Yup, just double-checked...it was Linky & Dinky.

So anyway, I'm thinking of doing some low level redesign on the site, but I don't necessarily want to do it over the weekend. This weekend is supposed to be barbecues, 24/7. Sun and fun and parties until you bleed A1 sauce and beer. Swimming until you closely resemble one of those California Raisins. That's what you're supposed to do on the Fourth of July weekend.

I don't know that I'll be doing any of that. Mr. Dump just switched to a low fat diet and he's still in the being really good phase and isn't keen on rustling up a mess 'o ribs. Or burgers and dogs. Potato and macaroni salad are right out. You see the problem?

Plus, we've got something coming up that will probably keep us busy this weekend. More on that later this week. (See, now you have to keep coming back. I'm sneaky, huh?)

At CVS, I mean. Maybe they are so busy miss-filling prescriptions that they just don't have time to stock the shelves.

The local paper said a Leominster woman was given double the dose of her thyroid medication. Another local person was one of the 20 or so who have come forward to say they got the wrong medicine or wrong dose.

Personally, I got 'old' medicine from Brooks once and that was the last prescription I brought there. The packaging for the drug said it was past the expiration date. I'm just lucky that it wasn't something you get in a prescription bottle...you have no clue how old that stuff is, I suppose.

The double the dose thing will probably be an issue when drug companies start pushing people to cut pills in half to save money. 30 100mg pills costs the same as 30 200mg pills, but if you cut them in half they last twice as long. But how many people will forget to cut them in half?

We ran out of soap in the shower. Around the house, we use pump bottles of Dial Complete. But in the shower, we use Coast. I think because the commercials claimed it would help us open our eyes in the morning. I have to tell you, after a couple of years of using Coast, it has yet to wake me up. I think that maybe, just maybe, the commercials were exaggerating. A little. Those people would enter the shower half asleep, take one sniff of the lather, and practically prance around the wet tub. A lawsuit waiting to happen, really.

So anyway, we ran out, and I couldn't find any at CVS or Target. Please, do not tell me that they have discontinued Coast. I will be VERY VERY UNHAPPY if yet another of my regular products has been discontinued. We've discussed this before, so I don't need to rant about it again. I will take deep breaths and assume there was a big sale and I just missed out on it and they sold out. So there.

We have this Coast body wash stuff that we bought thinking it would be similar enough to the bar soap that we could use it as a replacement. No. It is very thick - I think it's hard to rinse off. And it has a strong, flowery kind of smell. And for some reason, when I use it, my Secret Solid doesn't work as well as it should. Too much information? Maybe. But there you go, I'm a sharer.

Full disclosure: The Dial company didn't pay me one thin dime to hawk their soap products. Not a single five dollar bill. Can you believe it?

I've been maintaining this website for almost 10 years now. Not once in that whole time has anyone offered me $5 for hawk a product on my site, as was mentioned in an article in the Globe. Where is my $5?

Sure, I have Google ads that I'm not allowed to talk about (but I can tell you that I have yet to see any $$ from those) and the Amazon.com referrals have dropped so much in recent years that I haven't made the threshold to get a payment since Christmas. So ya, when I signed up for a referrer link in case anybody else wanted to try their hand at selling stock photography, because if I can get an extra penny, why not.

But darn if nobody's offered me five bucks. Or the 8 figures John Daley mentions of a friend's site in his take on this. Sheesh. And last year, when I said I'd rename the blog after whatever company was willing to put a pool in my backyard or build me a garage? No takers. Not one. Now I'm all depressed. Thanks a lot, Boston Globe.

Here is Jody's Top Three Tips for Dealing with Yucky Hot Humid Weather.

1. Eat a lot of popcicles. Humidity bad, popcicles good.
2. Hand your son a high-powered water gun. Chase each other in the back yard. This has the added bonus of letting you pound on your kid mercilessly all in the name of good clean fun.
3. Sit very, very still. Arrange for someone else to fan you.

I did two of the three this weekend. I can tell you that Toys R Us has a package with two water guns in it for only $8, and we had a total blast. He's got better aim than he used to have, the little bugger. But it felt REALLY good.

Now the boys are playing a baseball game on the GameCube (MVP Baseball 2005), and they are seeing how many out-of-control plays they can make. As in, they've got the catchers literally running all over the field and making all the plays themselves. Jason Veritek keeps tagging out guys running between 2nd and third. One double play took about 5 minutes to complete.

Oh, and another thing is that I set myself up as a seller of stock photos on Shutterstock.com. If someone downloads one of my images, I get 20 cents. And the way they are set up is for $140, a user can download 750 images a month, encouraging people to download stuff even if they don't actually specifically need an image, just because they can. I know someone who signed up last week and has had two of her images downloaded already. Anyway, you own the rights to your images, and you can sell them simultaneously elsewhere. shutterstock just acts like a consignment shop. And if you are more a designer, you can also upload clip-art, backgrounds, and other vector graphics.

So, thinking you'd like in? Use me as a referral so I can get an extra penny or two, wouldja?

Crap, it's going to be 98 on Saturday. And I don't know if the party we're going to is going to be inside or outside. If it's outside Mr. Dump will last exactly 10 minutes.

Ugh.

I was going to post something for the amusement of some of my long-time readers, and then I started to wonder if I actually have any of those any more? I know a few folks who do drop by from time to time, but I don't think they are regular readers. So then I'd have to explain everything to you. Okay, so I'll do it anyway. Turns out it isn't the first time I've revived this classic Dump feature.

Lord of the Dance Update
Michael Flatley, everyone's favorite Lord of the Dance, is back with a new show called Celtic Tiger. It's apparently about the history of Ireland. According to the LotD himself, he hired a "young lad" from a Welsh rugby team to help him train, and he's been dancing 12-16 hours a day for the past 20 weeks or so, to get in shape and prepare for this show.

12-16 hours a day of dancing? I can't think of anything I'd like to do for 12 hours a day, except for maybe sleep. I wonder what you have to eat to keep the right level of calories for that type of activity? I imagine his grocery bill is fairly high.

I had to tweak the template (well, I didn't have to, but I accidently blew it away and I didn't have a backup copy, so let's just pretend that I wanted to update the look and feel of Interview with Still Life, shall we?)

Today's interview is with McDonald's New Fruit and Walnut Salad

So the big news around here is that there was that a young deer somehow ended up in a convenience store in downtown Fitchburg. This is a fairy urban area, as downtowns go. I know there are areas of trees up the street some, but I don't know how big they are or how dense it is. Does it qualify as "woods"? The parts of the city immediately surrounding downtown are more residential. Maybe there are woods up behind the old high school. (Sally, are you checking in? You work down there at the Art Museum, what's the general consensus on where he came from? Out by Burbank Hospital?)

Mom Deer: Fluffy, I need to you run an errand for me.

Fluffy: Aw mom! I don't wanna!

Mom Deer: Fluffy, no back talk! Now you run to the convenience store and get me a pack of Pall Malls and some 2% milk. This instant!

All things being equal, I'd rather have a deer in a convenience store than an alligator in the pond behind a Pontiac dealership, like they did in Auburn.

The 50 degree days are behind us now, and this week looks lovely. Even if it were raining and snowing and windy and hot and humid, it would be a lovely week in the eyes of a certain seven-year-old who has his last day of first grade on Thursday. Ugh. I own a second grader. I won't get into the whole weepy "where is my baby!" rant that you all know I can do so well. He's grown so much in the past year, physically and mentally. I just can't say enough nice things about him, but hey, you'll dismiss that as a mom's ravings.

Last Friday he came with me to my Aunt's wake, and he was a perfect gentleman. Shook hands with all the new people he met, answered their questions, and didn't whine too much when we stayed there until 7pm. He was rewarded with a trip to UNO's for pasta. Today he got his certificate and medal for reading over 120 books (at home) this school year, which grandma and grandpa were able to attend in my place. I was happy to hear that a lot of the kids reached this goal. I love knowing that there are a lot of little readers out there.

So tonight is the next to the last baseball game of the season. I love that he plays, but it is just too hard for me to be involved as an assistant coach - not when I work out of town. I am looking forward the being done the last game, which is too bad, because it is fun. We'll just keep the gloves in the car and play whenever we get a chance.

Okay, enough of that, then. Anybody got some pie they could share?

p.s. If you can help the Stratton Players in their quest to find 2 size-42 bowling shirts, can you drop me an email? They need them for a play they're producing this summer.

Happy father's day, dads! Hope you enjoy the ties!

You know what? Yesterday turned out to be just a really not great day, so today is sort of my do-over. And you know what? I don't want to do anything. Do that count? We were supposed to go out and run errands this morning, and now it's 12:15pm and I haven't done much of anything, and I'm proud of it. Darn it.

Baseball practice this afternoon is the only thing we have to do. I think if we didn't have that, I'd probably head to Target, but now I don't have enough time, because I hate being rushed in Target. I'm sorry, but I'm a browser. I love just looking at everything.

Junior gave us a choice, we can either go to Bertuccis or Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. First off, he doesn't get to give us choices. Second, it will be a cold day in hell...

Tried the Mandarin Orange Poland Spring sparkling water. Not horrid. I'd have it again. The issue is, it smell like orange soda, which I adore, but it tastes like flavored bubbling water, which I also adore, but isn't the same as a big can of Orange Crush, y'know. So that means I like them all, except for lemon, because it smells too much like dish detergent.

Oh, and when did this obsession start? It was a slow start last fall when I decided to try to cut out soda from my diet (I'm down about 90% in soda consumption, but I reserve the right to keep some Barqs in the fridge.) Then we went on the whirlwind Disney trip in October, and on the concierge level, they had big bottles of Perrier. And when I asked for some to take back to the room one night, they handed me a whole big bottle. I have not been the same since.

The Maxima turned 100,000 miles this morning. That's 700,000 in dog miles.

Following up on yesterday's bacon topic...

I noticed in the ad panel that I'm not supposed to mention that someone is selling plans for building your own straw bale house. So like the three little pigs, you could live in a house made of straw. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I actually went to the site because I was having a hard time picturing what they meant, and I'm still not sure. They talk about how it's fire safe. But how can a straw house be fire safe? And they also talk about how the air in your house will be better because it's filtered through the straw, but then the pictures show that the straw isn't even exposed, so how is that possible? Only if you don't put up real walls? Can you have this kind of house if you have allergies? I would think it's kind of dusty.

I can imagine I'd go through the massive trouble of building one of these things, and then all God's woodland creatures would show up and start nibbling on my foundation. That's all I'd need. So anyway, if I had a lot of land and a bunch of money to just throw away, I'd try to build something out of straw bales, because, hey, I'm a curious person. (Very curious. Like, I want to know what happened to the cement mixer that's in the junkyard on route 70 in Lancaster. The mixer part looks fine but the cab is completely crushed down from the top. It looks like something was dropped on it) Maybe I could build junior a clubhouse. Or kill two birds with one stone, and build my 3 season room out of straw bales! Ya! Except it wouldn't have any windows so it wouldn't really be as functional as a sunroom, but we could use it as storage for Junior's books! Oh, imagine the possibilities!

I had some bacon this morning (in a "sunshine sandwich") and I'd do it again, darn it!

For those of you keeping track, I also switched my water order from raspberry-lime Poland Spring Sparkling water (aka "bubble water") to just lime. I'm all raspberry-limed out. I still don't like the lemon, and I can't remember how I feel about the orange. If I didn't have so many of the bottles at home available to bring in, I'd probably try one in the cafeteria.

I organized Junior's bookcase last night; it had become a huge messy pile of junk. I know I there are probably quite a few that I could pull off that bookcase and store somewhere else, but I need to find the "somewhere else" first. I don't want to get rid of them, but I don't want to put them out on display, either. If I ever got the spare room cleaned up, I could put a bookcase in there for his extras and my own. I cleaned up that room once this year, so much so that you could actually walk around in it, but it's back to being a complete mess. I think it's time to start throwing things out again. And find a new home for our luggage. It's times like this that I dislike living in a cape, because you are in the attic when you're on the second floor, so there's no attic storage. Boo, Hiss. This was only supposed to be our "starter house" anyway. Tomorrow, we'll have been in it for 11 years. Not really a "starter house" if you never move out of it, huh?

Our 12th anniversary was last month, and we got our official gift over the weekend at my favorite favorite favorite gallery in Rockport. (A quick backstory - I've always loved the work of this photographer. I have longed for some of his pieces for 10 or more years, but for a long time, buying stuff to hang on the walls was just not in our budget. But I still knew I wanted some of his stuff. And then my brother-in-law went and bought some of his pieces for my sister! Wait, he is MY favorite photographer! Anyhoo...after 10 years of going to his gallery and leaving empty-handed, my time had come! We found a piece that we both loved, and while we couldn't get the largest version they had, we did get the next size down.

To see it, got to the Andrew Borsari Gallery website and click the landscape link. Our photo is on page 3 of 6, and it's the one called Green Fields (Three Hills). It was taken in California this past February, and you have to trust me that this little picture doesn't do it justice. The two trees are the only things on these three rolling hills, and the cloud and the shadows and...and...I love it.

I think if my contract gets renewed here (right now, things are kind of iffy because of some roles being moved, which is a problem) I'm going to buy another one. The only problem will be decided which one.

I freaked out Junior but good last night, and it made me laugh. I am still smiling about it, because it was just such a mom thing to do.

We attended a birthday party at the bowling alley (sport of kings, much beloved by the elementary school set). Prior to the party, the birthday boy told the kids in his class that his parents were putting $200 electronic devices in the goodie bags. I explained to Junior he was probably saying that to try to achieve perfect party attendance, that I know his parents and like any parent, they would rather spend the $$ on their own kids, not someone else's.

I was apparently right, as the goodie bags were of the more traditional "candy, gum, pencil and yo-yo" variety. Which is cool, because he really likes yo-yos, so he quickly got over his initial "what, no PSP?" disappointment.

When he was done bowling he took off the rental shoes and handed me his socks so he could put his flipflops back on. I stuck the socks in the goodie bag to carrying them. And then I forgot to take them out. So later, when he was ready to investigate his goodie bag loot, he screamed "AHHH! I GOT DIRTY SOCKS IN MY GOODIE BAG!"

Was it wrong of me to laugh as hard as I did, before I told him they were his socks?

Yesterday (Saturday) we spent the day in Rockport with Uncles Crank and Ron. We sort of chose Rockport thinking that it might be cooler on the coast. Okay, hoping it would be cooler on the coast. It unfortunately was not cooler on the coast. There wasn't even a breeze. Many quarts of sweat were lost yesterday.

We rented a minivan so that we'd be able to fit all 7 people in one vehicle. I have to pass along the advice that if you want a decent minivan from a company you've heard of, plan for the rental early. Don't wait until the last minute. We had a 2001 Windstar and the air conditioning could have used a recharge or something. It wasn't the best ride I've ever had, especially when we were used to our old Sienna.

Here are a couple of shots showing why 15 billion people (and us) chose to go to Rockport yesterday.

I keep forgetting to tell you guys about something I saw that made me laugh like a madwoman. So now that I've remembered, I'll tell you!

About a week ago we were driving on Route 12 in Leominster, past a car wash. All the lovely car owners were getting the pollen, etc. off their cars, vacuuming them out, etc. There was a big shiny clean SUV parked by the vacuums...with a pigeon walking around on the roof. I don't know, maybe I'm evil, but that just set me off and I laughed for the next mile or two. I wish I'd had my camera, because boy, there are days when I feel like that SUV owner.

Let's see, not much else. I applied for an Accuweather thingy so that I can put their weather report right on my site (over on the right somewhere, I suppose) so that I don't have to always go to their site right away. As for Sunday's forecast, Accuweather.com says 86 (but it will feel like 92) and Yahoo/Weather.com says 87. Just to keep you up-to-date.

Oh, and we picked strawberry #2 last night. I didn't get any. There are two more just about ready, and one of them has my name on it.

I'm trying to make plans for the next few days, and I'm not happy with the weather. 88 and humid today? Fantastic. Great. I have another baseball game to attend, that should be pleasant.

The one that is killing me is Sunday: last night Yahoo's weather said it was going to be 97 and humid. See, that's the kind of weather that makes me want to mail myself to Alaska. But now Accuweather says 89, and Yahoo (pulled from the Weather.com, I believe) says 82. That's a 15 degree drop in the forecast in only 12 hours. And lets face it, 82 sounds a LOT better than 89, doesn't it? So do I pick Yahoo's forecast and hope for 82, or Accuweather? Or do I not forget that last night the number 97 was being thrown around?

I guess no matter what, I'm wearing shorts Sunday, so hide all the small children and wear protective eye gear for the glare.

This is not in response to any particular blog meme going around (you know I try to stay away from those. I also try to stay away from calling my site a blog; a blog is just one aspect of my site.) I just decided to try to come up with a list of my favorite summer songs. These can be songs that have summer involved in the lyrics, title, or maybe were released in the summer. Basically, the guideline for this list is "does the song remind me of summer" and "do I like the song for that reason". Very objective, no?

So here goes. I know you'll all feel free to toss in your own two cents via the comments. I reserve the right to steal stuff from your lists and add them to mine.

• Sunglasses at Night
• Black Cars
• Anything from the Loggins and Messina Full Sail album, for example, Junkanoo Holiday
• Smooth (Santana)
• Fascination (okay, this is probably only applicable to me, I'm sure. It dates to the summer I worked at Whalom and they had a game called Fascination)
• Let 'Em In (ditto. Whenever I hear this song I am transported back to my neighbor's back yard and swimming in their pool)
• Copacobana (we used to choreograph this song in my parent's screenhouse)
• Afternoon Delight (Girl Scout camp, one of the older girls in my tent LOVED this song)
• Summer Breeze (actually, anything by Seals and Crofts. Funnily, if you click on the Full Sail link above, the Amazon site lists other items purchased by people who bought Full Sail, and Seals and Crofts Greatest Hits is listed.)
• Hot Hot Hot
• Anything on the Kenny Loggins Leap of Faith cd
• Anything on History: America's Greatest Hits, for instance, Ventura Highway
• Nights on Broadway (Bee Gees. Dang, now I need to go get that on iTunes)
• Philadelphia Freedom (reminds me of eating maple walnut ice cream at MB's house)

Ready to read Joan's interview with the Magic Bullet food processor? It's now posted in Still Life with Interview.

Coming up: Interview with McDonald's Fruit & Walnut salad, which I just sent off to the Daily Probe today. Watch for it later this week or next week.

Well, what a weekend! 90 yesterday, high 80s the day before...thank God my sister has a pool, that's all I have to say. There has been no change in Junior's love for her swimming pool, and he spent most of the weekend submerged. Saturday was my nephews birthday party, so now they are both 7. A very cool age to be, by the way.

It's dank and dreary this morning...the temperature is about 30 degrees colder right now than it was yesterday afternoon. I guess that kind of helps with the going back to work and school stuff. At dinner last night everyone was saying they didn't want to head back to reality today.

Looking at this weeks weather, it only makes sense that Junior has a baseball game scheduled for the yuckiest day of the week. Could he have it today when it won't hit 70? NoooOOoooo. We'll wait until tomorrow when it's 85 and muggy. That's perfect. Well, to be fair, some of the weather websites show a nicer week than others. I'll go with those, given a choice, and his game later in the week might not be so bad. Only a couple of weeks left, and I can't say I'll miss it. It's just really hard to be involved in something where he has to be there for 5 when you work for a living. It's not like I can get to work any earlier than I do - I have to wait until the bus picks him up. So that means doing a little extra work at home after the game or on other days of the week to make up time. Fun!

Other than that...someone remind me to catch up on laundry, 'kay?

I think it's pollen-y outside today. My face is starting to hurt. You know, that cheekbone pressure everyone knows and loves? I just took some Tylenol Sinus so don't be surprised if I fall face-first dead asleep on my keyboard. I warned you.

The sinus facial pressure also triggered one of those muscle twitch things that I usually get in my eyelid, only this time it's on my cheek. I can't begin to describe to you how annoying this is. It's like Chinese water torture, actually. I assume whatever's causing the pressure in my sinuses is pressing on something vital.

I think the only upside to this is that I probably look like a crazy person, with my cheek all twitchy. I'm glad I don't have any meetings today because you know that everyone in the room would just be staring at my face. I really don't need that.

The other thing is that my hair smelled like that of a fry cook this morning. I was stuck working in the snack booth at the Little League field last night, and they cook fries, fried dough, chicken fingers and the like in the hot oil. Eventually, I reeked of it. After I got out of the shower and got dressed, I realized my hair still smelled like food. Enough that I actually wondered if I forgot to shampoo. Ick ick ick. So I went for the stronger-smelling shampoo (the kind that smells like bum except I still have a bottle of the pre-bum formula) and washed it again. It still smells a little bit, but I put it up with a hair clip so I can't smell it anymore. So I'm the twitchy-faced person who smells like ballpark chicken fingers. Mmmm.

Looks like the sale of Whalom Park (1893-2000) will now officially go through, given that the ongoing suits that were holding it up were just settled. According to the Sentinel, the sale will be finalized by 2006. There is a hint in one of the articles that they might have to knock down what's there because it's a fire hazard. I think I may have to go back and take some more pictures from across the street, etc.

The developer has also said that he wants to try to keep some of the buildings to have a sort of amusement park feel. If I pay 500k for a condo, I probably don't want a fried-dough booth next door. Just a thought.

I guess it's really the end then. Stories are available (for now) at the Sentinel.
Possible Condos May Keep Whalom Theme
Whalom Park Sale Can Go Forward

This sucks.

I added a new blog to my blogroll this morning (Commuterrant) but it isn't showing up because it's below the threshhold of recently updated blogs that I've set. Meaning I only show the n most recently updated. So it's possible that you are on my list, but don't show up because you don't ping blogrolling. So don't come crying to me about it. And don't expect me to go and do it for you. Here's a link to the page. Go. Do it.

I was just reading a news story about more houses in California sliding down the sides of mountains. I have to tell you, I feel for those people. I can't imagine (and wish never to, knock wood) know what it's like to watch your home be destroyed like that. To lose everything you've worked for. To have your view screwed up. This is just one more reason I'm glad I live on this side of the Continental Divide. My house isn't sliding anywhere any time soon. Additionally, we're much smarter and prettier than people living in other states. And we don't have as much ear hair.

So what is it with California's sliding house problem? I know, it's probably been discussed to death in the mainstream media. It's all about mudslides. Lots of rain turns into lots of mud and the mud has nothing to hold it up, so down it comes, taking everything else with it. Can we all assume that if you're going to build a house in California, no matter how much money you have, you should avoid building on the side of a hill? Maybe you can buy the land on the hill and just put a Winnebego on the property. Then when the rains come, you can just drive your house somewhere else.