The Big DumpTruck

We get it. Every day, gas his a new high, be it in barrels or at the gas station down the street. It's no longer news, it's more a persistent buzzing in our ears.

Howzabout this: You report when it hits a new LOW instead. That will be something we all want to hear.

Labels: money, News

The post below with the photo of Kitt? It was reposted today on a website with the best domain name I've seen in months. Maybe even centuries.

Thedailyhasselhoff.com.

If any site on the planet is going to link to me, I want it to be a site dedicated to all things Hasselhoff. (You guys know me - you know there is no sarcasm in that statement.) I just need to figure out how to parlay this into even more fame and fortune.

Oh, and for the record, when we saw the car, and we tried to explain what it was and where it was from, we had to use the Spongebob Squarepants movie as a way of explaining who the "Michael" was that the car was talking about. Junior immediately started talking about Hoff's chest hair. (If you haven't seen the S.S. movie - his talking about Hoff's chest hair is not as disturbing as it would be otherwise.)

Labels: famous, happy, link

I was just reading Surviving Grady, and Red was talking about Youk's shiner. He said this happened because of a "warm-up toss from Scenic Lowell that got away".

Scenic Lowell. I am so stealing that. I will have to use that the next time Mike Lowell and I are in Johnny Rockets cleaning up gumballs.

Labels: baseball, Mike Lowell

Is there anything more one needs to say about a hand-made version of Kitt? The lights were on in front and it was talking to us. It sounded like William Daniels, but I don't know if it was. I think it would be funny to load it up with stuff Daniels said on a show other than Knight Rider, like St. Elsewhere and Saved by the Bell...

The Spinners game was great - a very close game that almost went into extra innings but for a lovely sacrifice fly that meant we got to go home before the clouds that threatened us all evening finally broke open. It literally did not start to rain until we got in the car, which made the whole endeavor a complete success.

Labels: car, fun

I was on the Accuweather website just now, looking to see if rain is expected to mar Junior's 2nd playoff baseball game tonight. I happened to scroll down past the important (to me) information and spotted the following table. What struck me as amusing is that they just aren't completely ruling out any of the things in the far right column. It's the first day of summer. And you aren't willing to say there is no chance of heavy snow? That there is minimal chance just because that way if the temperature drops fifty degrees you'll be covered? Good to know.

Labels: funny, weather, websites

I got really excited yesterday when my iTunes music alert told me that Jason Falkner had released a new CD. I love Jason Falkner and his old band Jellyfish. I went running to iTunes to check it out, and its....instrumental versions of Beatles songs.

If I want to listen to Beatles songs, I will listen to the originals. Or the 1970s Sgt. Pepper movie soundtrack, cause I'm one of two people in the universe who liked that movie.

To give Jason some credit, the sample of Norwegian Wood had so much of a Pink Floyd vibe that I'll have to check to see if David Gilmour was somehow involved. However, the next track I sampled, Something, sounded like bad department store Muzak. For those of you locals who have been local for a while, it would have fit perfectly on the speakers at Capital Toy/Capital Warehouse. I know my sister will understand that one...there was just a certain style to the songs they played there, they featured a lot of electric guitar in that old country music style (that I cannot accurately describe but I know it when I hear it.)

I just don't know if I'll be buying it. If it's new age-y and Pink Floyd-y enough, I might. But that second track is killing it for me right now. C'mon Jason. I want more "Feeling No Pain". That was only 4 years ago, dude!

Labels: music, sad

It's everybody's favorite way to spend Thursday afternoon...two truths and a lie! In no particular order:

• I have an endless loop video of the gerbils running on a photo frame in my cubicle.
• I used the last square of toilet paper this morning
• I was given a pyramid paperweight at work yesterday.

Additionally, the following is true: I just took my shoes off because I was wearing kicky little sandals that effectively destroyed the side of my pinky toe. I brought some Keds with me in a bag and I put them on, even though I'm not supposed to wear sneakers at work. I have decided that no matter what happens, I'm not going to leave my cube for the rest of the day so that it won't be an issue.

Labels: fun, quiz

I lost another battle that I didn't know I was in. You know the tune - Jody likes something, and the company that produces it decides to pull it from the market. We've talked about it here before, how food staples like Raspberry Kool-Aid and Primavera flavor Chicken Tonight simmer sauce left a hole in my heart that nothing can replace.

Last night we learned that Chili's is not going to have the Caribbean Chicken Salad on the menu any more. Nor will they have Junior's favorite dish, the basil pasta (which wasn't on the menu under that name but you could order it as a vegetarian entree). The reason? They are cutting out menu items that require them to have an ingredient for just that one dish. (I'm probably explaining this wrong). So the salad is gone because they won't be carrying mandarin oranges, pineapple chunks or honey-lime dressing (used only for that dish), and they are doing away with mozzarella sticks which means they won't need to carry the marinara sauce, which is needed for the basil pasta. Oh, and the onion (blossom, or whatever they call it) will be gone too.

I know they offer pasta on the kids menu, so I'm having a hard time picturing them removing one of the few kid's items, but someone made a decision somewhere. But how hard is it to keep a can/jar of sauce on hand for the kids? Or for the vegetarians, for that matter. Not much else on the menu that doesn't involve meat.

Labels: food, restaurants, sad

I bit the inside of my cheek waaaay in the back, like, next to the back molar. It hurts. Every time it heals enough so it doesn't hurt (like, overnight) I eat something and re-bite it. Chewing gum is right out. That was the most painful bite.

I'm sorry, I just thought you'd like to know.

Labels: gumballs, ouch

Junior's Little League team finished the regular season in 2nd place. They had a bye the first round, which is cool, so we didn't have any games yesterday. This morning there was a [very very damp] practice, and their first playoff game will be Tuesday. Because of the strict pitching rules in Little League being twice as strict during playoff games, they let Junior practice pitching this morning on the off chance that they run out of the regular pitchers and have to start plucking people out of the lineup to finish the game. He's thrilled, but I'm thinking that it would not be a good thing if he had to pitch, simply because he's never done it before, and having the pressure of trying to pitch well in a playoff game...well, I'd just rather we not have to dip into that pool without more practice.

Happy Father's Day everyone! Enjoy all the dad-activities you have planned, even if the plan is to not have any activities.

Labels: baseball, junior, kids

I suppose someone has already come up with the idea of mom badges. They would work like girl scout badges - if you do something worthy, you get a badge to wear on your mom-sash. Or perhaps your mom-vest if you've earned a lot of them.

I get to wear the "Dying in the Heat Watching Little League Games badge."

Junior played on Sunday (he had to be at the field at 1:30pm for a batting practice before the game) and on Monday night. Even though it started later, so you'd maybe assume it would be cooler, Monday was definitely the worst of the two games, because at least on Sunday there was a breeze. Man, what a difference a breeze makes! I was seriously starting to feel a bit panicky last night about how overheated I was getting. I was pulling the ice packs out of the little cooler I had and was applying it to my neck and wrists, just to keep things cool.

So I grant myself a mom badge today (it's lovely, it's got bleachers with those wavy heat lines coming off of them with a background picture of a baseball.) Anyone else earn one the past few days?

Labels: baseball, junior, kids, mommy

On a day like this, I'm very very happy I'm not made out of chocolate.

Because I'd melt? No, just because I hate to be covered with ants.

Labels: food, status

And it's a freebie! I have this week's main "free song of the week" over at iTunes stuck in my head. Pretty unusual for me, from the freebies (although there have been some awesome songs provided for free, including Sarah Bareilles). The song is called "Let's Dance to Joy Division" by The Wombats.

I cannot speak for the rest of the CD, but dang, the free song is tap toe-ing!

So ya, that's what I have going on today. A song stuck in my head.

And you?

Labels: itunes, music

This is a hilarious article that takes Hillary's past approach to the primaries and applies it to basketball.

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/06/03/a-sports-parable.aspx

Enjoy.

Labels: funny, politics

Just in time for Big Papi to go on the DL for a month or two, Junior decided to name the little boys Manny and Papi. Or Manny and David, which sounds funnier to me. To keep the "Z" thing going (Izzy, Suzy) I may call the little guys by their last names. I think it's nice to have a theme.

Speaking of Junior, yesterday he told me that at school he read my blog about the pudding skin. Do you know what this means? DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS? I've been writing this darned thing for so long that my kid is now a reader? Holy cow, that freaked me out. Now I have to make sure I remember that my 10 year old might decide to pull up my site at school and share with his teacher and friends (*waves to his teacher and friends*)

Now I'll get in trouble if I talk about him. Well, I've always tried to be nice, I'll just have to be nicer now.

As if that's even possible.

Yours truly,
Miss Mary Sunshine

Labels: blogs, gerbils, holy_crap, junior

Sheesh!

The names of these two have not be finalized yet. We have tried a couple of names out on them, and one kind of stuck, but that left the other nameless. The larger of the two (the one on the left) was referred to as "Big Papi" for most of yesterday afternoon. The thing is, if his brother gets bigger, will the name need to change?

To go with Big Papi we tried out other names of Red Sox players (current roster) and I was pushing for Ellsbury because I thought that would be a cute gerbil name, but I don't think anyone else agreed. I obviously would have wanted Mike Lowell, but I don't want another pet named Mike (RIP Mike the Fish). Maybe we could call him Pawsox...that would be a pretty cute name for a little guy with paws, don't you think?

I do want to give a shout out to the breeder who sold us these two. She's amazing...she had us up to her house so we could learn more about gerbils, she checked out Suzy (who is doing SO much better now that we know how to handle her properly, and oh my GOD, she and Junior are now just best pals. I'm so jealous!) and we got to hold and play with boys and girls, and while I went up there to get the two girls she had on her website, I fell in love with the two boys because they were trying to get my attention to take them out of the tank. (The one on the left...I think because he saw me as his ticket out. He's much more prone to trying to run off my shoulder than his brother.)

So anyway, if you are thinking about getting a little pet, I cannot recommend Donna highly enough, nor can I saw enough great things about how fun gerbils have turned out to be. Izzy was a wonderful little pet, but she slept all day and didn't really do much of anything. These guys are a riot!

Labels: gerbils, pets