*Big DumpTruck*

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.