Oh no she didn't

So, I'm at work and a co-worker of mine comes by and asks me, "Do you think Mary's a dyke?" I respond that it wouldn't surprise me. She has short, doesn't dress overly girly, frequents gentleman clubs and kind of gives off that vibe . Honestly, it doesn't really affect me either way and I could care less. Here's the part that really threw me for a loop though. My co-worker then comments, "I'd just like to know ahead of time, in case there's a blackout." What the hell? What is that supposed to mean? She basically implied that if the lights went out she'd be groped by her co-worker. I responded,
"Why? In case you need her to change the light bulb?"
"No. I'm just concerned."
"You're surrounded by all of these hetereo males and you're not concerned about them?"
"No, the guys don't worry me."
Again, what the hell? Maybe I'm just niave (in many cases I probably am), but most of the stories/cases/anecdotes I've heard involving inappropiate touching involve guys, and of the straight persuasion. But oh no, she's not worried about them. I'm just always so surprised at how ignorant people can be.

Stupid email

I dont' know if you've read this before or not, but I got this at work (this is actually the 2nd time I've received it so far) and it sparked a rant. Here's the email:

WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT TO TURN ON THE TV AND HEAR ANY U.S. PRESIDENT, DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN GIVE THE FOLLOWING SPEECH?

My Fellow Americans: As you all know, the defeat of Iraq regime has been completed.

Since congress does not want to spend any more money on this war, our mission in Iraq is complete.

This morning I gave the order for a complete removal of all American forces from Iraq. This action will be complete within 30 days. It is now to begin the reckoning.

Before me, I have two lists. One list contains the names of countries which have stood by our side during the Iraq conflict. This list is short. The United Kingdom, Spain, Bulgaria, Australia, and Poland are some of the countries listed there.

The other list contains everyone not on the first list. Most of the world's nations are on that list. My press secretary will be distributing copies of both lists later this evening.

Let me start by saying that effective immediately, foreign aid to those nations on List 2 ceases immediately and indefinitely. The money saved during the first year alone will pretty much pay for the costs of the Iraqi war.

The American people are no longer going to pour money into third world Hell-holes and watch those government leaders grow fat on corruption.

Need help with a famine? Wrestling with an epidemic? Call France.

In the future, together with Congress, I will work to redirect this money toward solving the vexing social problems we still have at home. On that note, a word to
terrorist organizations. Screw with us and we will hunt you down and eliminate you and all your friends from the face of the earth.

Thirsting for a gutsy country to terrorize? Try France, or maybe China.

I am ordering the immediate severing of diplomatic relations with France, Germany, and Russia. Thanks for all your help, comrades. We are retiring from NATO as well. Bon chance, mes amis.

I have instructed the Mayor of New York City to begin towing the many UN diplomatic vehicles located in Manhattan with more than two unpaid parking tickets to sites where those vehicles will be stripped, shredded and crushed. I don't care about whatever treaty pertains to this. You creeps have tens of thousands of unpaid tickets. Pay those tickets tomorrow or watch your precious Benzes, Beamers and limos be turned over to some of the finest chop shops in the world!

I love New York.

A special note to our neighbors. Canada is on List 2. Since we are likely to be seeing a lot more of each other, you folks might want to try not pissing us off for a change.

Mexico is also on List 2. President Fox and his entire corrupt government really need an attitude adjustment. I will have a couple extra tank and infantry divisions sitting around. Guess where I am going to put em? Yep, border security. So start doing something with your oil.

Oh, by the way, the United States is abrogating the NAFTA treaty - starting now.

We are tired of the one-way highway. Immediately, we'll be drilling for oil in Alaska - which will take care of this country's oil needs for decades to come. If you're an environmentalist who opposes this decision, I refer you to List 2 above: pick a country and move there. They care.

It is time for America to focus on its own welfare and its own citizens. Some will accuse us of isolationism. I answer them by saying, "darn tootin."

Nearly a century of trying to help folks live a decent life around the world has only earned us the undying enmity of just about everyone on the planet. It is time to eliminate hunger in America. It is time to eliminate homelessness in America. It is time to eliminate World Cup Soccer from America. To the nations on List 1, a final thought. Thanks guys. We owe you and we won't forget.

To the nations on List 2, a final thought: You might want to learn to speak Arabic.

God bless America. Thank you and good night.

If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a soldier.

My answer to this is, No, it would not be great to hear this. In fact, this speech represents all that is wrong with America and to hear this speech come from a President would be a nightmare. Bush isn't even dumb enough to give this speech, or at least his advisors are smart enough to prevent him. Lord knows he probably wants to give this speech. God people, grow some intelligence. Do you really think we could survive if the only countries we dealt with were the UK, Spain, Australia and Poland ("Don't forget Poland"). Where are you going to get your cars, your clothes, your TVs, your computers, hell your energy. Yes there's oil in Alaska, but there's not enough oil in the world to keep us going for decades at the rate we're using it. Oh, and this whole world-hating of the US is a fairly recent thing. After 9/11 we had the most support we've ever experienced; now we barely have any. I wonder why? *cough*Bush*cough* Some days I just can't stand Americans.

Oh, and stop sending this crap to me at work.

Oh wow

Ok, so it's been a while since I posted, but I've been really busy. So has Emily. See, I got another job. So that's a total of 3 for me. Ok, maybe more like 2.5 or maybe just 2 if you added up all of the hours. Anyways I got the assistant manager job at the local movie theater. I'm all in charge of people and money and keys, very scary/exciting. Emily also has 2-3 jobs as well. She's the lead cashier at the local coop, she's helping out at the ArtOrg with children's classes, and doing the occasional babysitting gig. So it looks like a financial situation is starting to turn around. YEA!

Speaking of yea, check out this internet radio station. It freaking rocks. I love most of the songs they play, and just like all the others. Plus they've got cool little movie/TV clips that they play every once in a while as well. Oh, and you can vote on the songs they play, so that after a while all the good songs get played more and all the crappy ones just slowly disappear. And they're listener supported, so if you like donate. (But you probably knew all this already if you listen to them).

Oh, also, Firefox is cool and so is BitTorrent. Again, I'm sure some of you already know. But I'm just spouting off here. Oh, and I've been using Wikipedia a lot more recently and have grown to appreciate it the more I use it.

What else, oh, 2 of my favorite webcomic sites have started up rival guilds on a particular server on World of Warcraft. Now, I've wanted to play this for a while now. It seems to be a really good game. All the webcomics I read rave about it and it's still going strong even after almost a year of being around, which is really good for a MMORPG. The comics are popular enough that basically the whole server is full of fans, which is cool. This is how a MMORPG is supposed to be played. Sure there are a bunch of different guilds, but they are all united under one alliance and work together to some degree. Plus, the chances of running into unhelpful bastard player is drastically reduce. If it weren't for the money and the time (especially the time) I would go out and buy the game just to play on that server. That is, if there was still room on the server/world. (These two are notorious for crashing websites just by placing a link on their posts. Man, can you imagine having that much influence? It's gotta be kinda weird.)

Ah, before I go. I found these t-shirts and thought they were pretty cool. Oh, and if any of them have it, then yes, I do have a wishlist there. I have wishlists all over the internet.

A Few Things

• I saw Batman Begins on the IMAX a few weeks ago. What an awesome movie. Christian Bale is the best Batman by far. Actually, just about everybody in it was awesome: Gary Oldman does a top-notch Gordon, Michael Caine with a superb Alfred, and Liam Neeson was just marvelous. (Katie Holmes did well enough to at least not harm the film, which I feel is the most you can ask of her right now.) But what makes the movie so good is that the movie doesn’t gloss over Bruce Wayne. It’s not just Batman and the guy who dresses up as Batman. They're actually interested in the man behind the mask. Plus, the villains were well fleshed out and not just crazy caricatures of over-the-top evil doers. The color palate used for Gotham was also a nice touch, dark and dirty but realistic. I think the movie made Batman into a more believable character. I hope they continue on with this.
  
• If you haven't checked out this video of the most realistic zombie game yet, then do so now.
  
• It looks like I’ll be working at the small movie theater in town here as Assistant Manager. It doesn’t pay much and I will only be working like 3 days/nights a week, but every little bit helps. Plus free popcorn, soda, movie tickets, and video rentals. Oh, and it’s a pretty easy low-key job, so very little stress.
  
• I read the article Emily mentioned. Really, I have mixed feelings about it. I fully support the drive to make stores more accountable in regards to selling mature games to kids. I have nothing against the $5,000 fine. I do have a few misgivings though. This is all built upon a mod for the game. In otherwords, some people got together and decided to create a new feature for the game, without Rockstar’s permission. It’s really hard to argue for the fine when you’re basing it on a feature that isn’t even included on the game, and was never intended. Also, why is it that it takes a “sex” mod on GTA to spark all this? Were the nude models for The Sims not graphic enough? I mean, if people want to add nudity and/or sex to their games, they don’t have to start with an M-rated game. I’m also concerned that this will just spark a huge debate (and by debate I mean the screaming contests that our news programs seems to thrive off of) that will just get people pissed off at games/gamers (and gamers pissed off right back at them) and not really accomplishing anything. I guess we’ll just have to see how this goes.
  
• I don’t know if you’ve noticed this or not, but science seems to be melding with religion and magic lately.
  

Not Again

I can't believe this is still an issue. I came across an article while surfing the web about violence in video games. They talking about one in particular, 25 to Life, which is an urban game about gangsters versus cops. The article laments how violent the game is and how you go around shooting cops. Of course, it never mentions that you can also play as the cops, who go around shooting gangsters. Here are few of my favorite parts of the article:

"It's outrageous that a company like this would try to desensitize our children," Lynch said.

I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure their goal is to sell games and make money, not desensitize our children. Which brings up another feature I enjoyed about this article.

"It's like ghetto-ish, I like that," said Bronx seventh-grader Jesus Martinez, 13.
Brooklyn seventh-grader Nashalie Ledesma said she would try the game "just for the fun of it, to see how it is, explore the violence."
"It's just a game," said Ledesma, 12. "It's not like I'm gonna do it in real life. I don't have the guts to do it."

I really don't think the opinions of some preteens needs to be added to this article. They just really don't matter. They don't even matter in the calculation of how many games get sold, at least they shouldn't. This game is rated M for mature, which means it's the equivalent of an R rating. Would you ask a 12 year-old if he thought Apocalypse Now is worth seeing? I hope not.

Also, can we get past the whole shock value thing here. Just because it's pushing the bundaries of decency, doesn't make it a good game (ditto for movies). There are a lot of FPS (first person shooter) games out there, but there's only one Half-Life 2.

On a more positive side: I came across this article. It's all about how scientists have study the effects of gaming on the brain and have discovered that it's actually beneficial.

Gee's studies show that players learn pattern recognition from puzzles and enemies or bosses; they learn system thinking, i.e. they learn how a game is structured, or how an enemy is attacking, or how to solve logic or physical puzzles. They even learn patience.

See, so go let your kids play videogames, just be mindful of what they're playing.

From the Mouths of Jesters

I was reading through my webcomics the other day and came across this one. Now, I'm sure some of you already know about what the comic was talking about, but I didn't. I had to learn about it from a comic strip. How sad is that? You'd think that it would be newsworthy material.

Save Big Bird

For those of you who haven't yet, go here. I guess congress feels that it's not worthwhile to fund public broadcasting anymore. Congress is thinking about cutting funding to NPR and PBS. I guess they can't stand that there are some media outlets out there that they don't have under their control. Oh, and the best part about all of this is that they plan on starting the cuts with commercial-free children's programs. I guess they can't stand that there are some kids out there watching educational shows and not half-hour commercials.
Don't these cuts go against the right to free speech?

Sweetness!!

Ok, I know I'm a dork, and this shouldn't excite so much, but I just got inserted a links section on my blog. Yea! I don't have too much there yet, but I will add some of my favorite sites later. Look over there and check it out.
<-----------------------------------------------------------

Still recovering

I haven’t blogged in a while, I know, but here’s an update now, so that’s something right? Now I can relate more to those web-comic authors who sometimes post late or have “dead artist” days or whatever. Although, most of the really good ones have nothing else to do but work on their comic. And some of them don’t even have posts scheduled everyday. But, I know their whole life isn’t devoted to creating entertainment just for me, they have lives as well. Hell, I don’t even read all of them everyday, if I can’t keep current with just read them, what right do I have to criticize their creation process.

Anyways, a quick note. I was reading a blogpost of sorts and came across this really neat article . It’s about a processing chip that can reconfigure its hardware depending on the particular program that’s running on it. How cool is that?

Last weekend was crazy. My sister graduated from Winston-Salem Academy and there was B-fest (formerly called Blake-fest but I think B-fest would work better considering where it’s headed). The graduation was nice, not too long or drawn out. I think that’s because they kind of break it up and spread it out over Friday and Saturday. There were award ceremonies, art shows, concerts, senior parties and of course the graduation ceremony. It’s a little weird thinking about how old my “little” sister is now. She’s a high school graduate, on her way to college.

B-fest, for those who don’t know, is a gathering of a bunch of my college friends. The first one was done last year because Blake’s father had recently died and he was getting a little depressed. Everyone (ok not everyone, but all those who could) flew/drove/hitchhiked over to Blake’s and hung-out and cheered him up. The first one went over so well that it seems to have been deemed a tradition now. This year it was held in MN, since a few of us live up here (or have family that does). The weekend was filled with drinks, games, dinners, drinks, laughter, games, conversation, and sleepless nights. All-in-all, a great success. It’s good to be reminded that you have some friend’s out there. I know Emily enjoyed it as well. Plus, she was able to cross off many people on her people-I-used-to-be-friends-with-but-now-hate-me” list, which is always a joyous occasion.

I really hate this whole not-having-enough-money problem. I just wish I knew of a way to fix it. I’ve tried consolidating my debt, but I’m so far behind on so many bills that no one wants to touch me, or they say, “Sorry but you have too much debt” or my favorite “We can’t help you, you don’t make enough to cover your debt payments.” Yeah I know, that why I was asking for help. The big problem is that my coping mechanism for problems is to run away and ignore it; unfortunately that only seems to make things worse in this case. But every time I do work on it I feel hopeless and frustrated and depressed. It’s a vicious cycle it is. Lately I’ve been thinking of becoming anorexic, so I can save money by not buying food. Dumb idea huh?

Anyways, I think this problem is going to be taken care of one way or another in the coming months. I’m either going to start making more, or we’ll find a way to work past it, or we’ll file for bankruptcy. I actually found out about it today. It’s not as scary as I originally thought, at least, not until October 17, when the new laws about bankruptcy come into place.

Another inadvertant comic about me

I think this comic displays the recent growth I have gone through. I'd be the blond in the green shirt (only for this particular posting, for those of you who read S*P).

So true

I think the strip sums it all up for me.

Crazy Busy

Man, my days have been busy. It’s crazy. Right now I have a full time job, a part time business, night classes, and a TV show editing project. That doesn’t even include any outings with friends or family, household chores, or trying to help plan for the wedding. Now do you see what I mean when I say I’m busy? I think this is just to make up for all that time I spent goofing off while growing up. Actually, I’m very thankful for having gone to Carleton, because it helped me learn about dealing with having to do so much. That’s one thing I noticed about Carleton: most people are very busy, and not with just classes. Those do take up a lot of time, but people have other obligations as well: jobs, clubs, parties, sports, etc. So while I do wish I was able to get more done, I don’t usually feel too frustrated or stressed out. Actually, I think the fact that I’m actually doing things and that our situation is improving has helped in that regard.

So Emily starting working at this little motel in Northfield. She got paid, like yesterday. It wasn’t much but it’s a HUGE help. She can’t understand the people she works for though. We could totally run that place better. If we had the money we would have loved to buy the place off of them and fix it up and get it working right. We’d fix up the front, repair some of their repairs, and replace the Laundromat with a decent pizza place. Actually, we have a lot of plans of things we would do or fix up in Northfield. It’s just right now we don’t really have the means to do such things. We will someday, just not right now.

At Agriliance, my full-time job, my boss, Nancy, seems to really like me and is thinking of hiring me. She’s left some not so subtle hints. It’s actually kind of exciting. I’d be paid more, get some benefits, and work in an environment I don’t despise. Cool, huh?

Oh, here’s something that’ll surprise a bunch of you. I cancelled our TV cable. I can no longer watch TV shows, unless I rent them. How crazy is that? Did you ever think that a day would come when I would give up TV? I bet you didn’t. Honestly, I don’t miss it too much. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it would be nice to sit back and watch some shows, especially the Inferno, and Good Eats. But most of the time I’m not even home long enough to really watch anything before going to bed. Although, sometimes I would like to be a little less busy, so I could relax a little more and spend more time with Emily. I figure this crazy busy-ness is only temporary though, so I’m not too worried.

Fire it up!

How could you not want to see this? I think I'm going to see it, like, at least twice. It just exudes awesome and kick-ass. Man, I can't wait.

I've Been thinking

At work, there's this guy I hang out and joke around with. His name is Kegan. He is currently going to school to develop his film skills. He has an Uncle out in LA who is in a production company. They do commercials and music videos and such. In fact, Kegan's heading down there this weekend to help film some American Idol spots/music videos. I get along with Kegan pretty well, and have helped him some on his school projects. Just today I was reading over a film proposal of his that he had to write for a class. It wasn't too bad, but it came off a little campy and heavy-handed. I brought up some points about how to make it more subtle that he seemed to like. The thing is, when I was reading over it and making suggestions, I was kinda excited. I've been really thinking that maybe I should think about moving into such a field. It's something I enjoy doing and that I'm good at (or at least that's what I've started thinking). Personally, I think I would be a great sounding board. Someone you could go to to bounce ideas off of and help solidify your ideas. I think I'm really good at taking an idea or theme or something and building upon it and growing it and developing it. The creating it part I'm not so sure about. But once there's something there, whoa baby. Really, I'm torn. I get really excited when I think about helping families and all that I can accomplish in Primerica. But I also get really excited when I think about working on a film and helping and doing that process. I mean, what do I do? I'm so conflicted. Is it even possible to do both? . . . . . . . I think so; I could get something going with Primerica. Build up a business there and then sell my agent number and live off my investments. Then I could start a career in film. But I always think it's ridiculous, the people who build up their base shop and then leave, just when they're really starting to reap their hard earned benefits. I mean, for investment accounts, you get paid on those for as long as the account is active. How could you give that up?

Food for Thought

I haven’t posted in a while, so I’ll try and post something today. Not sure what exactly I’ll post, but it’ll be something. Hmmmm. . . . . .well, my back has gotten better. It still feels a little sore achy, but all in all not that bad.

I saw Super Size Me last night. It wasn’t that bad. It certainly confirmed my belief that highly processed food and fast food restaurants are horrible for you. The funny thing was before he started he was in excellent health and got a check-up from 3 different doctors and asked them what they thought would happen to him if he went on this McDonald’s binge. They all said that he’d gain some weight and his fat count would go up some. Near the end there, they were like, “you’ve got to stop. You’re killing yourself.” It was crazy.

He also brought up how the poor diets are infiltrating the schools. He went to this one elementary (maybe it was middle) school where the kids get to pick and choose their lunch. A bunch of kids would just buy fries or potato chips. One kid bought like three bags of chips, a Gatorade, and a candy bar. The worker there was defending the company saying “Most of these kids bring there lunch and just buy the chips or fries to supplement their meals.” (Ok, I’m pretty sure that I added ‘supplement’ but whatever). He then checked out the cafeteria and found the girl you bought all the chips. The “lunch” she brought from home was a can of soda. How sad is that.

Oh, and after it was all over, they calculated that he had consumed about 30 lbs of sugar. 30 LBS!! That’s over 1 lb a day. No wonder you would gain weight. They had this one guy who was getting a gastric by-pass who drank like 2 gallons of soda everyday. That’s just not right. If I drank that much I’d be parked on the can.

One of my favorite parts was an add-on for the DVD. They took some of the sandwiches and fries from McDonalds and placed them in glass jars. They did the same with a real burger and fries. (Everything had their own jar). And just checked on them from time to time. The real food got moldy and gross within the first week; a few of the McDonald’s sandwiches looked no different. They kept showing the changes over the next few weeks. The grossest thing was that after 10 weeks, all the sandwiches were moldy and gooey and nasty. The McDonald’s fries however looked like they were a few days old. There was no mold, no gooeyness, nothing. They just looked a little stale and dried out. The fries got thrown by accident after that, so we’ll never know how long it would take before they started breaking down on their own. That’s just not natural. Whatever those fries are made of, it’s not food, that’s for sure.

Ouch!

Last Sunday I injured my back. It was not fun. I mean I knew it wasn’t fun before, just by watching what Emily goes through. She has hurt her back on a few occasions now. But yeah, not fun. It hurts to move, like at all. Like you roll a little bit and pain shoots through you. I’ve gotten better since then, or maybe have become more accustomed to the pain. No, I think I have gotten some what better at least. You’re probably wondering how I hurt it. Well, we’ve been letting Tricksy outside from time to time lately. She seems to really like it. We just do yard work or talk while we keep an eye on her. Sometimes we use a leash. Lately we’ve been thinking of getting a zip line or a long extendo leash for her (she likes to sprint across the yard. Hmmm, maybe we could just get an invisible fence. Anyways, it was time to go in and she didn’t want to go in so I had to chase under trees and around the yard. When I finally caught her, I picked her up and stood up and my back went all wonky. But I hear it doesn’t take much to hurt a back.

I spent the rest of Sunday on my back as well as Monday. I went back into work feeling better on Tuesday. It is now Wednesday and it still hurts. I’m a little worried because it hurts a little more than it did on Tuesday, probably due to the fact that I didn’t really give it any rest yesterday. I went to work and then went to a Primerica training meeting on variable annuities. Am I going to live the rest of my life with this problem? I hope not but it seems like probably.

I’m not supposed to have back problems. I’m 23 for crying out loud. I’ve barely even had my quarter-life crisis yet. What the hell? Ok, so fine, maybe I have been a bit stressed out lately, and I haven’t been exercising at all, and my diet has only recently started getting better, and I’ve been crazy busy. But that shouldn’t have mattered right?

So. . .How's it going?

Ok, so today I learned/re-learned that it actually helps to work on your problems. See, I've been practicing the "run and hide" technique of dealing with problems. This hasn't worked out so well. In fact, I'm starting to think that it has actually made things worse. Crazy, huh? But now I sort of came to realize that not only does facing and dealing with your problems help to overcome them, but it can also make you feel better as well. I mean, the problems are still there, and I still worry and freak-out about them, but for some reason it doesn't seem as bad as before.

Emily and I were at Target tonight looking for a sweatshirt (hoodies if you must know). Oddly enough, there weren't that many there. There were like 3, and they were on the clearance rack. Since when did the sweatshirt season end? I mean spring is just starting here, and it still gets damn cold at night here. Hell, it almost always gets cold at night here in Minnesota. We used to go to Jacobsen's here in town (before they closed) and they always had sweatshirts available. I guess we were spoiled.

For those curious, work is going good (at Agriliance, the order-taking-for-farmers job). I seem to be impressing my supervisor, like every day. I guess they just don't know what a great catch they have. And the funny thing is, I can tell I'm becoming more responsible at work. I know that may seem hard to believe, but I used to just want to goof off all the time at work. Now, not so much. I still joke around with my colleagues and don't take it too seriously, but I actually attempt to get my work done as well. We got this new guy (Kevin) at work who was supposed to be taking over my area, but on Tuesday Kegan (a cool co-worker of mine) lost his voice and couldn't come into work, so I had to take over his area as well as mine (Kevin was just starting his training). I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself. After that they decided to have Kevin take over Kegan's area and to let me continuing handling my area. I think this is great. I didn't want to give up my area anyways. I'm just started getting the hang of the area and I've built some report with managers I order for. Between you and me, part of me hopes the new guy doesn't do so well and they just hire me on full-time. Actually, I just hope they hire me on full-time regardless of who remains. I mean, I'm awesome, why wouldn't they want to hire me?

Ruminations

I figured out at work today that I’ve been alive for 9,037 days already. I’ve been alive for close to a quarter of my life already. That’s a scary concept. It’s crazy how the time flies. The days can go by so slowly but the years fly by so fast. If you want to do something, or make something, or be something, you really have to start now. Those are 9,037 days I won’t ever get back. I’ll never get a chance to redo them. What’s done is done. Wow.

It’s weird because part of me feels, “Be young, this is the only chance you’ll get.” But another part of me is all, “Get to work. It’ll all be over before you know and it’s better to start early then try to catch up.” What a conflicting mindset. Maybe I’ll figure out a way to satisfy both sides. It’s not like they’re directly opposing viewpoints.

Oh, so in case any of you were wondering, we got the cats some de-worming medicine and we were able to get it down their gullets. It seems to be helping. They’re all getting a little fatter, especially Tricksy. They’re even behaving a little better, in fact, the other day I saw Tricksy finish her food and just sit and wait for the other cats to finish, instead of smacking them out of the way. I was so proud; I gave her a little extra bit of food. So I’m very happy about that. Although, I did catch Oscar trying to go into the cabinets to get at some cookies the other day. Oh well, I guess we take our victories where we can.

Calling all guests

Many of you know that Emily and I are getting married (if not, well, now you do). We don't exactly have the best address book, in fact it's kind of old and pieced together. So if you would like to get an invitation to our wedding in the summer, or know someone who might, please send me your/their name and address. Now, this isn't a guarantee that an invite will be sent, but if we have your address on record it certainly makes it easier for us to send one. If nothing else, I'll add you to the Christmas/holiday card list. Thanks.

Ewwww, Gross

One of our cats has tapeworms. We’re not sure which, but we think it’s Tricksie, since always desperate for food. We know one of our cats has tapeworms because one of them puked a tapeworm up on the windowsill in the office. We just saw it laying there yesterday. And yes, we’re sure it’s a tapeworm, Emily did extensive research into the problem. Here’s the thing though, after doing such extensive research, Emily’s hypochondria is kicking in and she’s freaking out that she might have worms as well. I really doubt that she does, but she told me that she had worms once before when she was a kid, so she has more real-life experience to draw upon than I do. Unfortunately, she’s got me a little paranoid now too. My stomach grumbles and I think “Is that because I have worms?” even though I know it’s like 20 minutes before lunch. Hopefully when the cats are cured they won’t be so desperate for food. That’d be nice.