*Big DumpTruck*

Happy Halloween!

Trick or Treat!

Ah! My Eyes!

I was over at Yahoo playing with the themes, and I set it to Halloween. Now I can't change it. Please tell me I won't have to stare at all this orange and black for the rest of my life.

Random Thoughts

Just trying to get them out of my head...

- What would happen if I just left the air conditioner in the window all winter?
- Do I really have time to make pumpkin cake tomorrow?
- Should I wear a costume just to hand out candy? If so, which one?
- Why are Burger King french fries so horrible?

Kix

You know, I really like the Kix with the little fruit shapes. I think maybe they should market these to adults who want sweet cereal but don't want to be on a Cap'n Crunch high all day. Works for me. Only thing it needs is a bit of caffeine. I didn't have any yet, and my head is starting to hurt. I realized my "All Kix" breakfast probably wasn't enough.

Little Big Man

Was sitting here with Mr. Dump being amused by Junior. Some of the things he says just amaze me...they shouldn't come out of a kid that young.

Me: "The next time someone asks you how old you are, you should say "35"."
Junior: "Oh, okay"
Mr. Dump: No, that's not how old you are. How old are you really?"
Junior: "44"

Okay, at this point I had to wipe tears out of my eyes. I wanted to give the kid $10 for being so damned funny.

My NaNoWriMo Blog

This year, instead of cluttering this blog up with all my NaNoWriMo stuff, I started a special blog, just for that. The "Contest" begins on November 1st, so you slackers still have time to sign up. It's not like anyone has an edge, we all start and end at the same time.

Strep, Day 2

He's really acting like normal. I remember getting strep as a kid and wishing I was dead. He's downstairs, singing Christmas carols. He keeps trying to tell me he feels well enough to go visit grandma and grandpa. I told him he's stuck with me until tomorrow. I'm stuck with me too. Of course, the minute you hear that your kid is contagious, you can think of a million things you just HAVE to do outside of the house. Well, I only have to wait another 8 hours before the contagious part is gone, I think. I'll probably keep him home one extra day, just because I don't want to take any chances with the other kids who go to his daycare. I mean, I'd expect the same consideration, right?

Other than that, it's a lovely day, and I think I'll bundle him up and send him outside for a little while. A little fresh air will probably do him good, right?

Oh crap

The Boy (TM) has strep.

Where is my Head?

You know things are bad when you and the the little sick boy are watching an Alvin and the Chipmunks halloween movie I TiVo'd, and you start thinking "God, they really made Dave [Seville] look really hot."

Someone Else's Yahoo

Can someone explain to me why the stories listed on My Yahoo haven't been updated since yesterday? I'm sure there are things occuring in the world. I hate to have to rely on someone else for my news headlines, but I've been waiting ALL MORNING for them to fix this. The most recently updated info is from 4am on 10/27. Ugh.

Let Me Let You In On A Little Secret...

You know all those great weblogs out there with deep and meaningful philosophical musings? Well I find them boring. Can't plow through them. I could agree 100% with everything they say, but dammit, it's not what I'm looking for when I go blog hopping. I want to be entertained. I want to smile. I don't want to plow through 200 words on why the economy is in the toilet because the Federal Reserve blah blah blah bloat. But you know what? Part of me is jealous that I'm not able to provide the world pithy and timely observations about Microsoft or Tyco or any other story the Wall Street Journal lives for. I would like to be that kind of site, where people link to you just because it makes them feel in the know. Instapundit comes to mind. Sites like that. I've been there, I've read some of the stuff, and after a while it all blurs together. Maybe the flaw is with me, that I don't force myself out to find these sites and learn from them. I'm too busy looking for pictures of babies and stories about Wal-Mart adventures. Because I'm shallow. I guess I need to work harder to be good, quality shallow.

Here's the Little Dickens...

I promised a photo of my favorite little clown!

Standard Time

Ahhh, the best day of the year. The only thing missing is someone giving me presents. I just love the first day of Standard Time, what with the free hour of sleep. Mmmmm, good times.

The weather is WAY better than I'd hoped, so the parade should be fun today. I'll take my camera with me and maybe I'll share with you guys.

Googlism

Googlism : is a fun way to kill a few hours. I entered a bunch of stuff...and one of the things I entered was the word "Mookie", which is what I used to call Junior (for those of you who haven't been around since 1997). I figured maybe something about my kid would be in there. Well, there were lots of terms, and I looked for one that sounded like it might refer to something I wrote...and danged if I didn't get it right on the nose! If you do a googlism search for Mookie, about half way down is "mookie is not clinging to my leg" When I went back and entered that into regular Google...there it was!
Funny thing is that one other match that I thought MIGHT have been a match wasn't about my kid, but it WAS on the site of a friend of mine. Small world.

Hot Wheels vs. Matchbox...

Okay, I want to state right here and now that Matchbox car sets kick butt compared to the HotWheels equivelant. I have no stake in either, other than that when I or someone else buys one, I have to put it together. I get to see the quality.

I don't know why Hot Wheels keeps putting out crap, but I assume it's because people keep buying it. God Bless Amazon.com, because there were sets I was thinking that maybe might not be as bad as some of the others I've already bought, but danged if every single item listed is three stars or less. I mean, all of them. Some twos and ones. The reviews could be written by the "it falls apart when you touch it" robot. And I've seen this first hand.

The Matchbox stuff, for instance, this construction site set is made of steel compared to the Hot Wheels ones. AND it gets about 4 stars from reviewers. I give that one 4. So what I'm saying is, DON'T buy the Hot Wheels stuff unless it's on clearance. And don't blame me if it's fragile.

New Filenes Makes Me Mad

We have a new Filenes here in town. It opened last week. I haven't been in it because it would just be torture. Nobody goes to a clothing store to browse. But today I needed to go look for something at Toys R Us to finish off Junior's clown costume for Halloween (we're going to a costume parade tomorrow), so we headed down. It was bad enough that I was dealing with a billion people headed for the mall because it's pouring rain. THEN I realized that the Toys R Us parking lot is now the Filene's parking lot. When Bradlees was still there, the parking lot was 2x as big as it is today. Filenes is in the middle of where we used to park. And of course, a billion people are checking it out today. So yes, I'm grumpy. I'd like my parking lot back thank you.

8th Place

Now tell me. Why is it that after blowing it in the Fantasy Baseball league on Yahoo, I signed up not only for the Fantasy Football league but the Fantasy Basketball league too? In the FFL, I'm in 8th place. That's after two weeks of getting ZERO points for my quarterbacks. One week the QB I was playing was worth 0 for his activities, while the guy on the bench would have given me 22 points. Then last week I had to swap them, because my 1st string guy (Fiedler) is out for about 6 weeks with a broken finger. I'm so disgusted that I have crappy quarterbacks. I don't WANNA be last!

Cheat Codes

Am I teaching Junior the wrong things? I mean, am I being a bad mom for finding the cheat codes for games like Spyro so he'll have 99 lives? He's kind of young to be restricted to only 3 lives, y'know?

Whew!

It looks like someone may have hacked into blogger.com. It looks like (so far) the damage was minor. My content is all there, but one of the links points to a hacked page (not mine, on their site). I did immediately

a) Go to my server and change my passwords, and
b) download copies of all my blog files. Worst case, I can rebuild. This just forces me to do that backup to CD that I've been meaning to do all week.

It's Fry Day!

Another day, another happy chance for you to watch me. I put a picture of me over on the right...if you click it, I think it will open the page the way it's supposed to. It may not, I mean, I'm trying as hard as I can. I also turn the camera off once in a while. I also walk away from the computer. Cause, you know, I'm not Crazy Glued to this chair.

In other news...I wonder how the snipers will feel when we set them up on the world's biggest shooting range and let all the residents of the mid-atlantic enter a lottery to see who gets to take shots at them while they run around, helpless. I'm just sayin'.

Experiment Time

I've been trying to get streaming video onto the site (I'll worry about the streaming audio later, thank you) and have set up a page that should work. I said should. It will only work when I have my camera software running, because obviously there can't be streaming video without the camera. Silly.

So
try this to see if you get the proper page.

Hey, I think maybe I did it!

It's Pat!

Added a new site to my blogroll, courtesy a recommendation on Fussy.com. Que Sera Sera is hugely funny, and the people who write comments are too. I dropped on in the entry about her brother trick-or-treating as Richie Tenenbaum. Someone said they'd go as Chas, in a powder-blue jogging suit. I said if I did that, and put on a curly wig, I'd be mistaken for "It's Pat".

Anyway, good site. (Hey, ALL the sites in my blogroll are. I don't just add them to be trendy.)

It has stopped

Thank goodness. It stopped snowing and now it's brightened considerably. I turned off the webcam because I don't think the snow is going to last and I wanted to leave a photo up there. I think I should have turned it off about 10 minutes earlier, which was basically the snow at it's peak, before the melting began. Oh well, I'm sure this winter holds plenty more of this stuff. Remember, my friend from the bench at the Unemployment Office warned me that we'd have an early harsh winter. Remember, him telling me that the spiders were all going into his double-wide earlier than usual this year?

Well, he was right. I mean, if this counts as early and harsh.

How I Started My Day

Ya, that's right. No fall for us. We went straight for the brutality of winter.



I have the webcam on the main Dump (live if you're reading this on Wednesday morning) pointed out the window of my living room. It's a real "you are there" experience.

I Don't Get It

How can someone shoot all these people and not get caught [yet]? It's enough to make you scream. Every day I thank God I don't live in the area where he's shooting, but I have friends and family down there, and until October 2, there was nothing unusual about the towns they chose to live in. I mean, it could just as easily be here. And I think of all the places where I am outside, and all the places Jr. is outside (way more than me, thanks to his daycare provider) and it's enough to make me build a bunker in the back yard.

I just noticed "Today's Weather in Hell" is Seventies Variety Shows with a picture of Cher and a black Michael Jackson. Do we all get the same image every day, or is it random. I don't know that I've tested it.

I can't wait until someone out there blogrolls me. When they do, their site will show up at the bottom of my page. I resisted blogrolling for a while, because I didn't want to farm out any more content (I like owning it all...having it all on my own server). But this tool is very cool, and now I have a tab added to my browser that just lists my favorite sites and whether or not they've been updated recently. Isn't the web fantastic?

Chat stuff

I know you all enjoy the ability to leave comments, seeing as I just get SO many, but I saw over on Jodiverse.com that you could draw a picture and chat with other users, and I said "Wow, all the Jodys should have that." So I went and got my own art thingy. You can draw. You can chat...up to 5 people at a time unless someone wants to pay to register the software ($59.00)

Dang it!

Looks like those weren't the guys. What did I say, huh? Huh? Boy, if you're going to blow it, do it in a big flashy way, complete with full CNN coverage.

Oh, and I accidently put on the ripped pants this morning. I need to toss them, not wash them and re-wear them.

Grocery Psychic

Me: I need to run to the store to pick up a few things to last until I get my unemployment check on Wednesday.
Her: Do you need to borrow some money?
Me: [Thinking about what I need to buy...bananas, deli meat, bread, milk, etc.] I don't think so, it shouldn't be more than $20.
Her: Oh you need more than $20!
...later....
Grocery total, without even trying: $20.08

I'm the grocery psychic!

CNN

I have to tell you, this is the first time I've been sitting at home when some big news thing has happened, and it's just freaky to be able to watch CNN instead of waiting for the wire services and the CNN site to update. It's so silly, I'm so used to just relying on the web for my news, that even after I got the email that someone had been arrested, it didn't occur to me to put the television on until one of my friends said she was watching. Duh! The television!

Of course now I'm getting a little tired of listening to the talking heads speculate about stuff. Live pictures of an Exxon station. I mean if this turns out to be nothing (which I actually don't believe will happen...I think this person was involved somehow) then CNN gave a LOT of advertising time to Exxon.

Oh, and people, buy a digital camera. Let's not rely on a Poloroid camera to take pictures of breaking news outside your car dealership. (But it was interesting to see the CNN cameraman trying to get a good shot of a blurry Poloroid photo. "Okay, that blob over there is a policeman..."

Okay, I've gotta turn this off for a while and get some work done.

Okay, I fixed it

One of the new links I added to my blogroll today is yet another Jodi [sic] on the internet. I'll have to check her passport, but I think she's from some other major city on the east coast. Now if she wanders back over here, she'll see that I fixed the name of her blog as it appears in my list. Sheesh. Some people and their petty demands for accuracy.

Gotta Go Enjoy The Sun

I wish it wasn't so windy. It's just a gorgeous sunny day, with those nice puffy white clouds on blue blue blue sky. And the wind is enough to drive you back inside. I hate that...it's bad enough that there aren't many "warm" days left, but to have the wind bully its way in to take a Sunday away is just unforgivable.

I was going to suggest to Jr. that we head out to the playground, but those tend to be pretty open. Lucky for us he enjoys our swingset, which is within spitting distance of the nice warm house, and also has trees blocking at least a little of the wind.

Oh, and before I forget, Congrats to JPL for his soccer team's undefeated season! Woo hoo!

Jonah

Finally! Jonah finally arrived at my local theater, a mere two weeks after it opened "nationally". It was a very very cute movie, well done, with awesome animation, and great music. I personally loved the story but I can see that some people not interested in seeing a Bible story animated for the big screen might avoid it. I think they'll be missing out, but that's not my problem.

Personally, I'm just sorry that my least favorite Veggie, Archibald, was the "star" but truly he did share the screen with Larry enough to make up for it. Plus, his travelling buddy Khalil stole the whole movie. In the car on the way home the 3 kids (11, 10, and 4) were quoting a LOT of his lines. Hell, the 4-year-old quoted a whole section of the movie...I didn't think he normally memorized dialog until he had seen something at least twice, but there you go. If you saw the movie, he did Jonah's speech when Khalil snacks on the tree....


Anyway, it's definitely worth a look, and I was happy to see quite a few families in the theater... not a bad afternoon, given that we only had to pay the matinee rate. And boy, am I glad I already own the soundtrack...we've listened to it like 4 times since 6pm yesterday.

Computer-Generated Animal Abuse

Boy, the way those Rhinocs smack the little panda bears around in Spyro 3 is just criminal. Of course, you know I'm kidding and I only wrote that to see what turns up in the google searches a week or so from now.

But they do smack them around. I think the funniest one is when they are dressed up like hockey players and they slap-shot the ice skating Panda. She has a North Dakota accent, for the record.

Ya, can you tell we're still playing Spyro 24/7? Right now Junior keeps asking me to do stuff for him because "it's too hard." I've realized he's just being lazy about it, and doesn't want to make more than 3-4 attempts before giving up. The new mantra is "If it's too hard then you'd better turn it off. Either that or just keep practicing."

Pants

I found a pair of jeans on the shelf in my closet and thought to myself "Oh my gosh, look, a gift from heaven above! I didn't know these were here! So I'm wearing them today. Super!

I remember why they were on the shelf. That hole on my upper thigh makes these some less than choice for public consumption. I think I can keep wearing them until I need to go back out of the house again. I hope I can remember.

Gosh I'm Proud!

I'm the #1 hit on google for "peeeeeeee".

What People are Shopping For These Days

This CD is the number one link people click on from my site to jump over to Amazon. Since October 1st, 27 people have clicked on it to pop over there. I think that says something nice about society.

Which reminds me...I've started updating the Christmas Music Page for the 2002 season. Looks like America's got a Christmas album...so I'm already picking out the stuff I'll "need" for this season!

Thursday Stuff

I can't believe it's already Thursday. Next thing you know you'll be telling me tomorrow is Friday. Okay, pre-weekend thoughts.

Sopranos. According to the previews, Tony goes to see the Annabella Sciorra character. I hope it's just a dream because she's a nutjob. And I don't want to watch them doing you-know-what again. As for Carmella and Furio...well, I think that's a bad move. Sure, I'd love a shot at Furio myself, but why would Carmella risk it? And Furio is very loyal...what is he thinking? Um, so that's the Sopranos update. I may go to the AppleFest at Mount Wachusett this weekend. Of course, I may not.

The sixty-nine cent package of Shaws english muffins is pretty good. Sure, the Thomases have a little more oomph in the nook and cranny department, but they are too close in quality for me to buy the more expensive ones. I mean, sixty-nine cents a package, people! My problem is to try to convince myself that I don't want peanut butter on them. Because I do...I just don't want to have a "peanut butter headache" the next day or the day after. I swear, if it was instantaneous, it would be so much easier to just avoid peanut butter. But I love it. LOVE IT. And the headache doesn't come until a day or two later, so it's like it's going to happen to a different person.

You know, if they still made Seldane, this wouldn't be a problem. That allergy medication was the best BEST stuff ever invented. Totally solved all my allergy woes, with no drowsiness. I suggested it to a friend and he agreed with me - this stuff was Heaven-sent. Then they pulled it from the market because it was causing some people big problems. I think kidney damage, but I don't remember. So they had to play with the ingredients, and it was never ever the same. And there's nothing else as good out there. *sniff*

Here, There and Everywhere

Okay, so to balance the severe lack of people visiting the blog (where the heck is everyone?) there are a lot more people than normal visiting the main dump. And from the referrer logs, I don't see anything that indicates we were linked from a big popular site. Cause I'm still waiting for Wil Wheaton to notice me. I know Adam Curry has to be vaguely aware of my site because his sister links to my site. But he hasn't. Neither has James Lileks, and he's my hero. Well, back when he used to ego surf (entering your own name in the search engines) he did send me an email to tell me that I'd spelled his name wrong on my page. I wrote "Lilek's" instead of Lileks'. Hey, maybe he only ego surfs for misspellings. Could be.

I should do that. But I don't think I'd find anything.

Step Back In Time

The server that my site lives on bit the dust today, according to my ISP. This was just lovely news. No website, no email...I hear it might have actually been BOUNCING which freaking thrills me to no end. So just now, at 10:45, it looks like they've restored a backup....FROM OCTOBER 2ND!!!!! Are you telling me that's the most recent stuff you've got? Allow me to be thrilled. It's a damned good thing that my stuff is all secretly stored in underground caverns covered with fake plants. I think I can regenerate the missing stuff...I'll have to look in my archives to see if anything was dated after October 3rd. Oh, and for the record, re-receiving two days worth of spam from October 2 and 3rd was a real treat.

More from the land of stink

Uh oh. The other sour milk smell is gone. I almost replaced it with something worse. Let me just say that if you buy deli meats, don't leave them in the bag under the paper towels. They really do belong in the fridge. Man, I hate that I just wasted that meat and cheese. I'm just so angry with myself!

Additionally, I can't get rid of all these stinking banana bugs. You know what I mean, the little tiny flies you sometimes get when your bananas get too ripe? Well I can't get rid of them. Do I just have to not buy bananas for a week or two? Why should Junior suffer? But I've run out of ideas. I can't keep the bananas in a container, can I? They'll ripen too fast. I swear, I'm just going to lose it.

p.s. Sorry that the site has been unavailable this afternoon and evening. Apparently there was some really big boo-boo on the server where my site is hosted.

hardy har har

Finally back after having lunch with two ex-coworkers today. Oh man, I forgot how much we used to laugh together at work! It really does make me sad, to think about how much I adored that job, and how terrible it was when they laid me off. I wish I still there, but I'd want all my old co-workers to still be there. I know that won't happen - couldn't happen - so I suppose maybe I don't wish I was still there.

Anyway, we have to do that more often.

My Yahoo! for JodyL127

The Banana Site has a link to the main Dump on it. Back in 1997 I talked about a banana I had eaten, and the sticker that was on it. I feel a part of a larger something with that link. I'm guessing if I talk about Dole Bananas here, and discuss how many of them my son has eaten since the day he was born (at least one each day for the past 3 or so years) he could be their poster boy.

I have bought more bananas than I care to count. And I've almost got it down now, how to buy them (how many, what color and when) so that we never waste any or have to make banana bread. Sure, I'm feeling cocky, but at least I'm a very efficient banana-buyer. And for the record, Shaws bananas are 100x better than Victory bananas...I think the Victory ones are often frozen before I buy them, because they turn odd colors MUCH faster. And their bananas seem to have more bruises. So Shaws it is.

Yesss! *high five*

At quarter of seven (while I was safely snuggled under the covers) I heard a truck pick up my recyclables. I am the man! Er, the woman! When I hopped out of bed a little later, I glanced out the window and saw at least two houses that didn't have their rubbish out. Hmmmmm. (tee hee!) And that truck was early because I assume it was just flying around on its route without needing to do too much stopping.

But by 8:45, when I added a little more to my barrel and dragged up the recycle bin, I saw at least 3 houses now had barrels or bags out. So either they heard the truck this morning or they saw my empty recycle bin on the side of the road. There. At least I didn't screw up. Today. I can't vouch for tomorrow.

Sure, They're Laughing Now...

I realized that today is Sunday and tomorrow is Monday, which means I needed to do trash. I was not a happy camper, as it's pouring rain and dark out. I crossed my fingers that it's a trash holiday, but according to the piece of paper with the trash calendar on it, no such luck. So I grabbed the recyclables (cause, you know, it's my luck that it's not just a simple trash night, it's both) and the trash and went out to deal with it all. Ah, lovely wet weather we're having today. So I drag the barrel to the end of the drive while pushing the recycle bin with my foot, and I look around - nobody else in sight has their's out yet.

That means they are looking at each other's drive, and saying "Well, if XYZ doesn't have it out, I won't put mine out." And they'll see mine out and laugh at me. But when they have to store their trash for a whole extra week, who will be laughing? This happened in this neighborhood before, for the record. The trash guys just flew through the neighborhood driving past all the houses, and they made an assumption about Chez Dump. I took great pleasure in watching them have to back up when they realized the we were on the ball. Maybe after tomorrow I will be the unofficial "house to watch". That'd be cool. I actually watch a house up the street sort of across from our road. An older couple lives there and they are always right on target with holidays, and whether or not it's recycle day. Well HE didn't have his out. But maybe it was in a dark back and I just couldn't see it. I just feel confident that I'm right about this. Wish me luck.

Minor Changes

Moving around some of my regular links. I may play with some other stuff too, now that this is a .php page. Maybe I should finish the "learn PHP in 24 Hours" book I still haven't finished.

Also, what smells? I need to do some investigation, because something over here where I'm sitting smells like sour milk. Because Junior will be 5 in January, I know it's not spit-up on my shirt.

Fantasy Football Standings

My team is in 4th place, and that's really only because everyone else had a bad week last week. Looking at my competition, I'd say we're pretty evenly matched this week.

I think the base of knowlege I'm missing is to look at a player, and the real-life opponent of the play and say "well, this QB does poorly when they play team X so maybe I'll put in my backup QB." Either that or too much thought will put me in the toilet for my second fantasy league this year.

The Reviews Are In

Okay, last night Junior and I rented Toy Story 2 for the Playstation. After our delightful experience playing Spiro 3: The Year of the Dragon all week. Spyro was the first game that Junior and I actually sat down to play together (by that I mean taking turns with the controller, and pointing each other to stuff to check out; it's only a 1-player game).

Toy Story 2's graphics aren't that great...in fact I keep seeing flaws in the graphics (places where you can see things that you shouldn't see...flickering, etc.). But the worst part (given that when you rent from Blockbuster you don't get the little booklet) was just not being able to figure out how to do stuff. And when we think we've figured it out, it's just wayyyy too hard for either of us to do it. I mean, I can't win the race against RC. Now you don't get a 2nd chance to race against him like you do in Spyro. He goes into an endless spin. Do you mean to tell me that I have to restart the game for a 2nd chance? Ridiculous. I'm glad I only rented it instead of buying it.

Tis Almost the Season

Junior and I noticed that the new Filenes (which isn't open yet) is putting up all their Christmas decorations in anticipation of their opening. I don't think I'm ready for that yet.

I was over at Amazon (cause I visit daily, okay? I don't BUY anything) and found my first Christmas movie purchase-to-be:


It's not available until November so I have time to save up... Right?

Spyro Forever

Oh man, day, what, 8 of playing Spyro 3? My poor fingers will never be the same...

I need to put a review on Amazon about how it's a great game for the whole family, including 4-year-olds, as long as you keep the cheat code list handy so you can get 99 lives...

The Stupid Store: Yank My Finger Keychain

I have always dreamed of a one-stop-shopping site for all my stupid needs. Now I've found it. The Stupid Store: Yank My Finger Keychain is a must for everyone on your holiday list. It is time to start shopping for Christmas, right?

Found 'em!

Turtle Transit Company created the turtle and the rhino cars. That link will take you to a page with links to pictures of both. I had seen a photo of the Monster.com monster car, and they did that too. Very cool, and they have an office up here in the Fitchburg area. I wonder if they're hiring? I don't know what for, but I'd just like to say that I'm somehow involved with the company who invented the turtle car.
(Photo linked-to from Turtletransit.com...please at least click on the link to go see their other work, or pictures of the process of making the rhino).

Already?

I can't believe it's already Friday again. I'm pretty sure it should only be Wednesday. I guess that means I should pop some checks in the mail that I forgot to mail already this week. I'm a baaaad girl.

In other news...no other news. I did see a car yesterday that looked like a rhino. I think I mentioned here before about a car that looked like a turtle. I thought I took pictures of it, but maybe I didn't. Well, I think it's the same company, but this one is a rhino. The entire minivan (I assume) has been covered with something akin to plaster, painted gray. And then they stuck a rhino head on the front - it's got ears and a horn. I am going to try to remember what the company was called, to see if they have photos of the vehicles on the web already.

aha!

I see you little monkeys have all found the comments buttons!

If You Link To Me

If you like to my blog, can you change the link to reflect my new index page?
http://www.bigdumptruck.com/blog/index.php

There is a redirect on the old page, it's just that my referral report will be screwy if people don't change it.

I also changed all the archives to monthly, now that the blog has been online for a whole year. Woo hoo!

blah blah blah job search blah blah blah

My eyes are going to fall out from staring at the screen. I think it's time to stand up and move my limbs a bit...maybe if it's dry out I'll mow the front lawn. Or go sit on the couch and watch all the stuff I've recorded on the TiVo for the past week that I haven't gotten to yet.

The job search thing is just so much fun...you have a list of sites bookmarked, and then you visit them one-by-one. If you're lucky, there are new postings. If you're not lucky, you're sitting there trying to figure out if that one year of physics you took in high school could maybe qualify you as having a science background.

Ideally, I'd get work doing THIS. You know, blogging. Or creative writing. I sadly came to the conclusion that no ad agencies are going to hire me because I'm too old, and I didn't go to school for advertising. But see, I'm a natural, and I've got marketing people who will back me up on this. I have a good head for this stuff...plus I've done some self-study. But still, I'm not 22, and I don't live in New York City. So I guess that means I'm going to have to look for something else.

I hope you don't mind my job hunt whining. Well, of course, tough cookies if you do, but this is the personal blog. I won't include this depressing junk in the main Dump. This space is reserved for "What Jody's Doing Right Now."

Okay, off to update the BirchBark website. I noticed the PO Box number was wrong on the home page. I actually don't understand, because I'd fixed that once already. Plus yesterday I had to spend some of my pennies to renew the danged thing. $35 and the only thing I've EVER received is junk mail. Oh well, at least now I don't have to re-do my business cards, etc.

Fun Link of the Day

I'm having a ball using this to make up new products. The The Prior-Art-O-Matic - it's fun!

Oh Brother

Apparently the Wall Street Journal has Outed Spongebob Squarepants. They said he's a gay cultural icon. That he's hugely popular with gays. Well he's hugely popular with straights too. Why does he have to be either? Sure, I've watched some episodes and thought it myself, but like the whole Tinky Winky thing, I don't care. Why make a big deal out of it?

Well, I guess it's a slow news day, what with all the sniper shootings, falling stock market and terrorist worries. Gotta write about whether or not a cartoon character is gay.

p.s. There seems to be something funky going on with the blog today...it lists all the content twice. I have NO idea what' going on but I'll look into it. Fixed.

Hot Water Wedding Blues

Okay, you're going to have to trust me on this...go read this great blog entry on the Hot Water site.

Would You Like Meatloaf With That?

Friend of the Dump Kim C. let me know that her town is home to a new McDonald's(r) with the Diner Inside (TM). (Boy, that rolls right off the tongue. Why not McDiner?)

After reading the press release about it, I'm just sitting here wondering if I'd want that. I actually don't like "eating in" at McD's anyway, and 95% of the time get the food to go. So they put a red phone on the table and that's how you order...do you suppose someone actually answers, or is it a push-button deal? What if everyone tries to order at the same time, would you get a busy signal?

I'd like to try this just to say I did. Unfortunately, the chances of me going to Kentucky any time soon as slim. I mean, I went there once, so I already crossed it off the list. If Kim actually goes and orders the meatloaf, she's under strick orders to take a few pictures of the setup. And the food.

McD's Stuff

I'm sad. They took my double cheeseburger off the dollar menu. That stinks, I liked feeling I was getting a delightful deal every time I filled my veins with grease. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

That reminds me, what's the deal with Burger King selling tacos? Has anyone had them?

Dump, There It Is

I told you I was going to update the Big DumpTruck! today. Told you.

Hello Kids!

It's Monday in these parts, and that means...um....well, I did do two loads of laundry so far. Oh, and I'm updating the Big DumpTruck (main page) so you'll all have that to look forward to. (There's a whole topic I'm going to cover that's related to the laundry too! The excitement never ends.)

The kids rented the movie Big Fat Liar, and I got to watch it with them. GREAT movie. I really enjoyed it, which is saying something when you're talking about a movie geared to 12-year-olds.

Turn off your computer and go play!

Why on earth are you inside reading this? It's beautiful out there! Go get some fresh air!

We went apple picking and I have an apple crisp (#2) in the oven. As soon as it's done, we're headed out to the playground. Or maybe just out to the back yard.

I'm very sad...we went to Marshall Farm again, so we could ride the fire engine hay ride. The guy riding on the back confirmed what the moon walk guy said a few weeks ago, that they're going to sell the farm at the end of the season. I'm so depressed. I LOVE that place, especially the store. I wonder if maybe they'll just sell the orchard where they do pick-your-own and keep the side of the street where the they have a few trees and the big barn store. But will people bother to go up there for a cup of coffee and a piece of apple pie if there isn't any apple pie? Bummer. Bummer.

Still on my mind

I'm still thinking about the sapphire ring from Wednesday.

WCIIF?

That's my version of TGIF...I call it "Who Cares If It's Friday?"

It's a rainy yucky day out (see, I TOLD you it was going to keep getting worse) and we basically stayed in all day. Junior wanted to go out on his swingset but then we realized it's just misting and yucky and he agreed to wait until this weekend when it clears up. Now that he knows how to pump and swing by himself, he's in heaven with his swingset. Thank goodness! I was hoping to get some use out of it.

So we watched Peter Pan, so Cartoon Network, played computer games, made pretzels from scratch, and I made apple crisp. The pretzels had been on my to-do list for a while. I thought it would be a good project because it's cooking AND it's artsy. Well, he liked putting the ingredients in the bowl, but thought the kneading was yucky. Then he got bored with the creative part and basically made 3 snakes. I did two circles, two regular pretzel shapes, and an M. They taste okay...not so much like pretzels, more like, well, bread. But on the biscuity side. Edible, sure, but they're no Auntie Anne's.

The apple crisp is my friend Beth's recipe. Well, her aunt's. This house smells FANTASTIC. I don't want to cook anything else, because it will ruin the smell. Mmmmm. Baking apples and cinnamon. It would be nice to have someone to spend Friday night with who would actually appreciate homemade pretzels and apple crisp. I'm just sayin'.

Grass Pollen

I wonder if yesterday was the last 80+ degree day of the year. I think it might have been, and I did enjoy it appropriately. After cruising job websites for 3 hours or so, I joined Junior out on the swingset. He had his standard-issue rubber piece-as-seat swing hanging on chains, and I had my "Air Chair" hanging on the other side. I can't believe I forgot to put this puppy up before this week. It's a sort of sling-chair that I guess was invented to hang under airplane wings, or something like that. (I believe I've written about this before, but I won't let that stop me.

So I grabbed the library book I'm reading, Mermaids on the Moon" (excellent novel), and joined Junior outside. Then I mowed the back lawn, because it was very very very long. Then I rested in the air chair for another 30 minutes or so after mowing. The air chair has a cup holder (of course) so my bottle of water was rights within easy reach.

Today it's drizzly and about 20 degrees colder than it was yesterday. The difference is startling. And knowing that today is more typical for the rest of the year than yesterday is just sad.

Real window shopping stinks

You know how I tell you that I like to window shop at Amazon.com? Well I don't like to window shop in real life. I had to go to the mall for something today, and once my errand was done, I took my time walking back to the car. I cut through Belden Jewelers and just glanced in the ring cases, as I'm just browsing for a sapphire ring. Wouldn't you know it, I saw one I really really liked and it was only $149. Of course, that's $149 I don't. I wish it had been $1,499, then it wouldn't be tempting at ALL. Of course, I was looking at the lab-made stones, so I knew the price would be better.

I wish it was already Christmas, and that someone was shopping for me. I'd send them down to the mall asap. Oh, and they could add-on the really awesome sapphire bracelet that was a mere $799. Or hell, just mail me the money and I'll get it myself. *wink*

Hey, Thanks Everyone!

I just saw the final numbers for my Q3 Amazon Associate account and it looks like I made a whole 47.49 this quarter! That's awesome stuff, given that the amount of money I pay to run the Big DumpTruck website recently doubled (well THAT'S not a pleasant surprise!). Silly me, I forgot to make a lot of money during the dot.com boom, and even though I've been running the site since 1996, I've never made any profit. Not a dime. But I guess it's a less expensive hobby than, say, world travel.

So kids, now that it's getting time for holiday shopping, stop by the blog or the main dump before you head over to Amazon, Click on the Amazon Link, and you'll be helping me. Oh, and if you want to buy a fifty dollar book or something, drop me a line and I'll build you a custom link so I'll get a little extra. Thanks. You're all swell.

Countdown to Jonah

With a complete lack of anything else meaningful to do I am in prep mode for the release of Jonah this weekend. I suspect that I'm too excited and it will have to disappoint me. I'm willing to risk it.

I found a copy of the soundtrack to Jonah on sale and picked it up. Oh my gosh, what fun! There were some people complaining on Amazon that the songs aren't all done by the Veggie gang, but I have to tell you, my two favorite songs on the soundtrack are done by real contemporary Christian rock/pop bands. Now My CC collection begins and ends with Michael W. Smith, but I'm not averse to expanding my horizons. Either way, the song "In the Belly of the Whale" by the Newsboys should be on every radio station's playlist in a few weeks. That is an AWESOME song. Great writing, great production, I just love it.

Okay, enough about that. I need to start thumbing through a book I bought on web-based training. I know that writing blog entries is more fun, but that's actually career-building stuff.