Hello Happy Pitbulls

Buttscratcher, Rushmore Style...

Don't know what it is, but for some reason, I get the Family Guy all of a sudden.  Never really watched the show before, but now that it's in syndication and available at almost every hour of the day, I've gotten a taste and like it.  This is an homage to the famous Buttscratcher scene....

Happy Festivus! From the Rest of Us

Today, December 23rd is Festivus, the holiday for the rest of us.  Located in time between the Winter Solstice and Christmas, Festivus is the fabulous fictional holiday invented by fictional character Frank Costanza (but actually attributed to the father of one of the show's writers, according to this web site.

So today, be sure to dance around your unadorned Festivus pole, eat some Festivus Ben & Jerry's  and stay warm.  After all, it is winter already!

Another Reason to Stick with South Park: It's so current!

Farewell Flower

This weekend on Meerkat Manor, we were saddened to see the end of the episode where Flower, the dominant female of the Whiskers family of meerkats, died. She was trying to save her little meerkat pups from getting attacked by a poisonous snake, and she received a fatal bit.

Her obituary is here: Gone, but not forgotten.

It's hard for me to believe that after all that little pack of meerdoggies have been through that this is how Flowers reign as queen of their pack ends.

Pink Floyd is on, and the house is clean(er)

I woke up this morning thinking we should really take a road trip and just get away from our house and thinking about work and all that, but what I decided to so is so much better. We got the vacuum and the cleaning supplies out and started really cleaning the house.  Seriously, it had been a while.  The dog hair dust bunnies had gotten so big that we almost had to start taken them out for walks.

Even better, VH1 Classic was running shows about Pink Floyd all day. First we watched a show about Syd Barrett going crazy, then we saw a show about David Gilmour going on tour, and finally, The Wall.

What's so funny about the Wall being on is that just yesterday, our young student from work was telling me about being traumatized by seeing the scene from the Wall where the schoolchildren are marching into the meat grinder. He's 20.  The movie came out when I was in 8th grade, so -- that was before he was born.  Here I am reminiscing about how great the movie is (and bragging that I own it) and he's looking at my like I'm a crazy old lady.  At least he knows who to come to in the office about blogging and iPods, so I can't be that old or crazy.

Another reason to love my husband

I left for work this morning at 6:45 and got home around 9 tonight. I don't care what anyone says, that's a long-ass day. When I got home, my dinner was ready, but that's not the reason to love Mike. The best part was that without ANY prodding from me, he was watching So You Think You Can Dance on TV. How cool is that? Of course he was flipping between that and a documentary on the Enola Gay, so it's extra culture for me and my man!

I haven't been sleeping, either due to stress or medication or all of the above, so now I am on my day 2 experiment with Ambien.  Last night I was convinced it wasn't working, but I think I was having dreams about not being able to sleep.  I'm pretty sure I didn't get in my car in the middle of the night.

Mid-Season Mandatory Series Update

If you've been reading a while you know I have some tendencies towards couch potato. Since my husband is anti-TiVo, my life has been run by my TV schedule to a certain degree. With the start of the new (and final!) Sopranos season while we were in Mexico, another show got added to the list.  Some come and go, but this is what I'm watching these days:

• Sunday: Sopranos, Entourage (if I'm not watching the news while blogging
• Monday: 24
• Tuesday: House, sometimes American Idol, but I don't care that much this year for some reason
• Wednesday: Free night!
• Thursday: Grey's Anatomy
• Friday: Free night!
• Saturday: Free night!

So -- I have 3 free nights now. I use those for blogging, reading blogs, bill paying, or just spending time with Mike while he flips channels every 10 minutes. And now that it's summer time, I can almost always find a good baseball game to watch.

And speaking of baseball -- the Red Sox swept the Yankees!  How do you like them apples, Johnny Damon???

Under the Weather

I've been feeling a little less myself than usual this week.  Starting Wednesday it started to go downhill fast.  Sore throat, headache and a super crabby bug up my ass.  Since then I haven't done any running or walking until today.  I got on the treadmill and ran a couple of miles, just to get back in the groove.  Tomorrow is the group training in Sacramento (where the mountain lions roam) and we're supposed to do 1 hour 45 minutes (7-8 miles - according to the training plan).

Since I'm feeling less than 100%, I'm thinking about sleeping in and doing that time on the treadmill in front of the TV, rather than out in the great outdoors.

But for now, we're flipping back and forth between two fabulous films -- A Fistful of Dollars and Planet of the Apes.  How perfect is that for a low-key weekend?

Watchin' Oprah

It's been pretty quiet over in the land of the Happy Pitbulls lately.  Lots of work, and the cooties have finally caught up with me.  I came home early from work today, but still had a bunch of stuff to do, so I worked from home for most of the day.  I did one of my meetings by telephone this afternoon, after which everyone forgot I was on the phone and all started to leave without saying anything.  That was a little weird.  I did manage to delete or file about 200 emails which was long overdue.  I also drafted a presentation that I have to do in a couple of weeks, which takes some pressure off. 

My head feels like it's going to explode, but I wanted to contribute something to the blog.  So -- I caught the last few minutes of Oprah learning how to parallel park a Lexus.

From the news, things of interest.

• Barry Bonds is starting to piss me off. At some point, I have a draft post where I really say how I feel, but Mike thinks I should wait until everything shakes out.  But he's buggin' me, a formerly loyal fan.
• This poor dog got his tongue stuck in a shredder!  That just makes me nauseous thinking about it.  Even my dogs are too smart for that.
• Harry Potter is getting in shape.
• Joe Biden is a wiener.  And another one of those closeted racists.

My Brush with Fame and My TV Dilemma

Today our big boss took all the managers out to lunch at former Sacramento Kings star Chris Webber's new restaurant, Center Court.  Since most of us are rushing from meeting to meeting and usually grab a quick lunch to eat at our desks, it was nice to get out of the office for a bit of an extended lunch.  Of course we had an agenda -- we had 6 leftover agenda items from our managers meeting to finish up, so I dutifully facilitated (it was my week and I promised an action-packed, extra-fun agenda!).

But I digress -- Charles Barkley was there are lunch.  Well, not with us, but at a table in near view.  We spent a couple of minutes discussing whether it was him or not, but then decided it was him.  I guess he's in town to be a commentator for the Kings vs. Lakers game tonight.

So, for my TV dilemma, when 24 starts on January 14, what will happen on Monday nights when Heroes and 24 come on at the same time?  What will I do?  I have no TiVo!  Must I download one show and watch the other?  What a crisis!