I'm so proud!

My congressional representative, Dennis Kucinich, declared on national TV lat night that he did, in fact, see a UFO.

What a total nutjob!

Maybe now the idiots on the west side of Cleveland will see this guy for the silly person that he is!

I sincerely hope someone runs against him in the next election! I wouldn’t vote this guy dog catcher! What on Earth is he doing in Congress? And how can he ever be taken as a serious candidate for president? Why isn’t he laughed off the national and local stage? He’s obviously crazy!

That's a good question!!

Question asked by a caller to a local talk-show host:

If an Illegal Alien is an “undocumented worker”, does that make a drug dealer an “unlicensed pharmacist”??

LOL

Good question! Why do we constantly have to deal in euphemisms when it comes to serious, national issues? What dream world do the people who talk this way live in, anyway? It’s not the real world, where the rest of us live.

Giving a serious problem a kinder, gentler name won’t help the problem go away! It only helps avoiding having to deal with it, which, I guess, is the point. If we pretend long enough and hard enough, our magical thinking will make everything better.
Eventually of course, euphemisms take on the original meanings of the terms they replaced. So, what’s the point? Call things by their real names; be accurate in descriptions!

I Hate Snoring!!!

My SO woke me up from a sound sleep Saturday night with his snoring. He was making so much noise both on the in and out breath, it was like trying to sleep with a running lawn mower in the room!

Ok, not that loud but the level of constant noise was the same. I snuck off and tried to sleep in our spare room for a while but I let too much air out of the Select Comfort bed in that room and wound up trying to sleep on the decking. Not too comfy! So, in the end, I went back to my warm, cushy bed and went back to sleep.

I had to kick both cats off the bed before I could lie back down. I had expected that they would come looking for me eventually but I guess the warmth of the electric blanket won out over time snuggling with Mom! Ingrates! They love me only for my body heat!

And I feed them, too.

I suggested to the SO that he go to a doctor and see about reducing the amount of noise he makes while he is asleep. He won’t do so, of course. He won’t go to a doctor when he is in pain! He’s eventually going to end up sleeping in another room, though. I cannot go to work everyday if I can’t get enough sleep!

How selfish does one have to be to continue interrupting someone else’s sleep and never do anything about it?? There’s a sleep clinic around here not too far that I’ve heard about. And his insurance would pay for it! It can’t be a good thing that he stops breathing at night! But he won’t hear about doing anything about this! Gets mad if I mention it!

Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great guy, just goofy about doctors. If I were that way, I’d be DEAD!!

Pity he doesn’t see the point!

Health

I whine a lot here about being tired and not feeling well so I thought I let you know what exactly ails me.

I have dilated, idiopathic cardiomyopathy. Google that last word if you don’t know what it means.

Really scary!!

The term "idiopathic" means that the cause is unknown. No one knows why I have this problem, much less how to fix it.

Basically, this is what you have when you get a heart transplant, making the cure worse than the disease, in my opinion.

Here’s a good explanation:

http://www.cardiomyopathy.org/index.php?id=48

It’s a site from the UK but contains good definitions. Read ‘Ejection Fraction’.

I’ve been told by my doctors that a normal EF is 55 to 70%. Mine is 20%. Last December, when I felt like I was dying, it was <10%. I got a pace maker/defibulator implanted in January (We are the Borg! You will be assimilated!) and my EF has doubled since then. It’s twice what it was but still piss-poor.

As a result of all this, I can no longer do many, many things I enjoy: hiking, camping, dancing, taking a walk, nor many things I didn’t enjoy: house-work, shopping.

So, my house is a mess most of the time. I scrubbed my kitchen floor last weekend and it took ALL DAY!! I’d work for a few minutes, til I got out of breath, then sit for a little while, then work for a few more minutes, then sit some more. And this is with the nice FloorMate my SO bought me last year! I can’t even begin to scrub a floor by hand!

And I work full-time, as well. Some weekends, I don’t get out of bed til almost 11:00am! And my brother gives me a hard time about it, too.

Most people don’t ‘get’ it. Fortunately for me, my kids and my SO do and don’t expect me to be able to do things ‘normal’ people can do. I can’t even take a shower as often as I would like! I take 1 a week because it exhausts me so.

And I get NO exersize, so I’m overweight as well. Not something I’m pleased about, believe me! And the beta-blockers I’m on make me gain more weight. Lose-lose-lose. Everything except weight! L

If you’ve ever read Little Women, what I have is what killed Beth. It took her years to die after scarlet fever damaged her heart. That would have been me if not for modern medicine.

Midges and Baseball

Hey, Chamberlain:

Midges don’t bite!!

They may look like mosquitoes but they don’t act like them. Worst you’re going to get from midge swarms is a creepy-crawly sensation.

I guess they don’t have insects in New York, do they? Never had to contend with pests living there, huh?

Whiney buncha a-holes! Blaming their loss on some poor, little bugs!

:-)

Gee, does this make us the Israelites and the Yankees Pharaohs’ Egypt?? If so, then don’t we have 6 more plagues to go?

Boston, brace yourselves!! :-D

I hate commercials!

So many of them assume I’m an idiot and talk down to me in a particularly annoying manner. The really annoying ones I make a point to never buy those products! If I’m such an idiot then I’m too stupid to buy their junk!

Sugardale hotdogs has a really annoying commercial on the radio during the Indians’ games. The one woman is fretting over how many hot dogs to buy for their upcoming get together. Her friend assumes she worried about not having enough because her husband ate some large number during the last Dollar Dog night. That would even be sensible, given what a pig the husband is but, No! She’s worried about having too many! She never knows what to do with the left-overs.

Sugardale to the rescue: they have a re-closable package. Whew!

Apparently, no one at their ad agency has heard of Zip-Lock bags. That’s what I keep hot dogs in, anyway. I buy them by the 5 pound package at Sam’s Club and hope for left-overs!

The Ford commercials are also especially annoying. “Have you driven a Ford?!?” they yell at me both from my TV and my radio. Yes, twice a day, thank you. Stop yelling at me!!

I’m glad they didn’t start this ad campaign while I was looking for a car! I would really have had a problem buying my little Focus. I love my little high-mileage econo-box. (Rush Limbaugh reference)

It’s really a fun, cute little car. Exactly what I wanted to replace the huge pregnant-roller-skate of a minivan. Fun to drive, easy to park, quick and zippy.

I know I’m not in the advertisers demographic for most of the shows I watch. The only shows I watch live are sports: baseball and football. I’m not interested in buying a car and I don’t drink beer so most of the ads aren’t aimed at me. Especially football. Those advertisers really assume that their entire audience is male!! And they all drink beer and are in the market for a new car.

And have Erectile Dysfunction! :-) Definitely not aimed at me!

Just like most of my junk email. Either for drugs I don’t need, pump-and-dump stock tips or offers to enhance body-parts I don’t have. Some of those are really funny! Obviously written by a non-English-speaker with a whatever/English phrase book. And none too clear on the concept of what they’re trying to say in English!! LOL!!!

Self-Employment

I’d love to be my own boss!! I’ve worked from home several times and actually end up working more hours, just the hours are of my choice. I’m not really good for much before 9:00 and yet they insist on having me at my desk at 8:00, where I mostly just sit and stare into space, trying to wake up. In the long run, you get more work out of me if you let me set my own hours. But, then, I suppose that’s true for most people.

Two years ago, I tried to start my own business. I make jewelry: www.treasuresbynora.com. I did craft shows that entire year. I still owe money on my credit card from that little venture. And have thousands of beads in a really nice bead case I bought. At least I didn’t pay retail for any of that stuff. Since then, silver prices have gone through the roof!!

Craft shows are a good way to work very hard, be out in the weather all day and not make very much money. People don’t seem to go to shows to actually buy anything. If it’s a festival of some kind, they’re there for the festival, not to acquire things. If it’s a Christmas gift show, chances are that there are 25 other jewelers there, some of whom are flouting the rules and reselling junk they imported from China. Fair competition is one thing but I can’t compete with China! People who put together shows and have 25 jewelers are doing everyone concerned a huge disfavor. No one will sell much, and when they don’t enforce their jury rules, those of us who actually made our own wares will leave angry and never do that show again. There are several shows on my Never Do Again list because of this. Promoters need to have a balance of types of venders and to go by their own rules. If the show is juried and all vendors are supposed to sell stuff hand-made by them, imported junk from China shouldn’t be allowed!!!

Unfortunately, most shows don’t seem to realize that by allowing imported junk, they are undermining their credibility with both their vendors and the buying public. Back when I used to go to craft shows as a buyer, not a seller, I hated it when I’d get there, pay the admission price and discover that, even though the show had been billed as all hand-made, most of the stuff was imported junk. Those shows I never attended again. Even shows I attended again, I avoided those vendors as unreliable. Putting out imported junk out like they made it! Like I couldn’t tell the difference! Liars!!

It was dishonest, which was my real problem with it. What else were they lying about?? Once you break trust with someone, it’s very hard to reestablish it!

Maybe I’ll do some more shows next year. Only problem with that is that I gave my van that I transport my tent and 8’ table in to my daughter. The new SUV cant’ accommodate the 8’ table. My SO offered to buy me a folding 8’ table when he wanted this particular SUV so I may take him up on his offer. He also works very hard when we do a show. He’s in charge of “Logistics”: moving heavy objects, setting up the tent, setting up the table, etc. Due to my poor health, I really can’t help him much. I can grab one side of the tent and pull but I can’t snap the locks into place; I’m simply not strong enough. So, he does most of the physical labor by himself. I arrange jewelry on the displays after everything is set up. He even helps me with that! I really couldn’t do it without him!

I’ve done a few indoor shows where they provided a table and all I had to do was set up my displays by myself, especially in the beginning, but now I wouldn’t dream of doing show without him. He’s also good company, giving me someone to talk to when the crowds are thin. He has the most biting observations on shows and the people who attend them! Really funny!

Our usual after-show drink at dinner is a Pina Colada. Red Lobster makes the best ones! Give it a try sometime! :-)

The Birds

When I got up this morning, the back yard was covered in Starlings. There are two 60 foot maples at the rear of the yard. They were crowded with black birds.

And that many birds make an incredible amount of NOISE!!!

My neighbor has a ringer on the outside of his house that alerts him, and the entire neighborhood, when his phone rings. They got a call and a large majority of the birds took off, yelling and screeching. What a racket!

The remainder hung around for another 15 minutes or so before finally joining the rest of the flock down the block. I can still hear them!

The cats weren’t too interested. I watched the birds more than they did. Cookie just wanted to be petted and Klein licked himself, again. I wonder what he’s allergic to??

Cookie is allergic to corn. Try and find a cat food without corn in it! ALL the major brands, including the expensive ones, have corn in them. And she will scratch and chew herself bloody if she eats any of them.

I found some at Pets Mart that she seems to tolerate OK. It’s $18.99 for 12lbs, though. Purina is $8.99 for 25lbs! So, this stuff is very expensive. I’ve looked online and everything she might be able to eat is even more expensive. After the Pet-Food-from-China-is-killing-our-pets-scare, I considered making my own, but I really don’t have the energy. I barely have the wherewithal to cook for us every day!! I can’t see adding cooking cat food to my list of chores as well!!

There are some great pet foods out there but most of the cat food seems to have fish in them. Fish makes my cats puke! They do enough of that as it is! I sent away for some samples and they loved it but then they puked all over the house for the next week so I won’t be doing that!! Too bad. It was very healthy and didn’t use any ingredients from China.

Just fish for puking…

Yech!

Cats

My cats think I’m crazy!

They’re probably right. After all, who gets up at the crack of dawn to go sit in an office all day to earn money for cat food (and other things!) and who gets to stay home and sleep all day?? If life were fair, it would be the other way around!

But, who said life was fair? I don’t even like that word. It’s the ultimate whine from spoiled children who aren’t getting their way; “No fair!” I always asked them to explain their frame of reference, not letting them get away with simply stating that they wanted their way in something. Why was their way better than mine? Explain yourself!! Who says?

Anyway, back to the cats…

Cookie and Klein (named by children, is case you couldn’t tell!), get a can of cat food every night before I go to bed. As a result, Cookie won’t let me out of her sight unless and until they are fed. I’ve gone to bed early a couple of time without feeding them and she’s never forgotten it, nor forgiven me. So, if I leave the kitchen, she follows me. If I go upstairs, she follows me and gives me that “Mommy doesn’t love me anymore” look until I go back downstairs. Or she panics and tries to block me from going up the stairs. Of course, I’m probably just going to get something and step right over her. A 12 lb. cat just isn’t capable of physically blocking my path to any great degree. Or I step on her, resulting in much yelling and hurt looks and apologies from me, even though it was her that got in my way.

So, any place I go in my house in the evenings after dinner requires a 2 cat entourage, just to make sure that I don’t get away without feeding them their treat. They also can’t figure out why I don’t feed them earlier. I do, sometimes. My SO hate the smell of the food (we call it “Stinky Stuff”!) so he has to have gone down to the Family Room for the remainder of the evening after dinner before they get fed. So, they follow me around, giving me the ‘evil eye’ and meowing because I haven’t fed them, yet. So, they think I’m crazy because I do things other than feed them.

Cookie has a fairly accurate clock in her tummy; although it tends to run faster the closer it gets to feeding time. They get fed at 10:00PM, more or less, so I call it her 10:00 Tummy. She has also been known to wake me up in the morning if I should fall back asleep after the alarm goes off. She gets up on the bed and meows in my face to wake me up.

Wonderful way to start the day! A face-full of cat-breath! But my “4-footed alarm clock” has come in handy a few times! Some days, I can sleep through anything! Except a 12 lb. cat standing on me, yelling in my face. That usually gets my attention!! And then I’m only a few minutes late for work instead of the hours that it would be if it were up to me. Not a good way to stay employed! Bosses like you there when they want you there.

In addition, I think my cats think I spend all day in the garage. Well, after all, I go into that room in the morning and come out of it in the evenings. They never really try to get out there. I suspect it smells nasty to them: I park my car in my garage. Cars smell nasty to me; I can’t imagine they smell nice to cats: gasoline, oil, various fluids and all that plastic. Plus, when I had to have my very old and very sick put to sleep this summer, Cissy went into the garage and never came back out! I think they noticed. Klein seems almost afraid of it!

This is all to the good, as far an I’m concerned. The last thing I need to do when I’m on my way to work is play Chase-the-Kitty out in the garage! Cissy did that once and I had to wash her feet as she got into some oil leaked onto the floor by an old car I used to have. She didn’t like that one little bit!! Gave me that hurt look for days!

I used to trim her nails when they got too sharp. She was a very good sport about it and never fought me. Although, she would often leave to go and wash her feet to make sure she still had all her toes, carefully licking them one at a time. You could imagine the monolog in her head: Onnnnnne… Yep, this one’s still here. Twooooooooo…..Yup, the next one’s here, too. Threeeeee……….Yup, this one’s OK as well.

Well, if cats could think in English, that is!!

Play-offs!!!

We’re going to the Playoffs!!

Not quite the best record in baseball but we didn’t miss it by much!

I actually won the opportunity to buy post-season game tickets and have a ticket if there is a 3rd game here in Cleveland. Games 1 and 2 are here, games 3 and 4 in New York and Game 5, if needed, is back here. Much as I would like it to not need 5 games, I really want to go to a post-season game!

And tickets for the next round are much more expensive!!

So, here’s hopin’ I get to go! And that the Indians do well against the Yankees. (Damned Yankees!!) (Still one of my favorite movies!)