Happy Halloween!

From the spidery witch

and the devil dog

Taking prophylactics (sorta) seriously....

Tee hee...

She's Alive!

Wish we could say the same for the Rockies. Touché, Red Sox, you are truly the better team.

I'm making my way down recovery road. Doc found a bunch of polyps in addition to my adhesions so a complete D&C was performed to get everything the heck outta Dodge. Pain hasn't been too terrible - no Vicodin at all today.

Halloween costume turned out well. I was happy with the dress, though not with the size of its wearer. Pictures to follow.

The south of the Slave

And not the slaves of the south. Check out the pictures on my Jefferson Davis link on the previous post. How many black folks do you think Confederate Memorial Day draws?

But I digress.

We're talking about my south end.

Tomorrow I go in for outpatient surgery. In the screening process for IVF the doctor found a uterine adhesion - a small piece of scar tissue connecting my uterine walls. They need to remove it before we can go forward with IVF.

I'm told it's an easy procedure, and that I'll be pain-free by Saturday. I sure hope so, because we have Halloween plans. I sewed myself a costume, and it turned out much better than those horrible pants. Pictures are forthcoming.

But if I'm not pain-free, I'm armed with Vicodin.

The south of the nation

I'm sorely overdue in posting about my trip to Miss Sippy last week.

First, Biloxi. Had dinner one evening at the Beau Rivage. World class casino. If you find yourself in the south and itching for a taste of Vegas, I suggest you stay here. The restaurant prices were also Vegas' equal. Yowza.

Next, Katrina. Her impact was still painfully obvious. Along the stretch of highway between Gulfport and Biloxi (the road where my celeb doppelganger Jayne Mansfield met her untimely death) where historic mansions used to sit across from the ocean, there's now...nothing. The debris has been cleaned up, so it just looks deserted. There was a motel which had been wiped out whose sign was still intact. Eerie. Jefferson Davis' summer home was completely demolished. Never fear though, my dear Confederates, for there's a society rebuilding it.

My colleagues told stories of the basement where we held our meetings. How it had been a biohazard and cleaned out by guys in hazmat suits because it was full of ribeyes, dog food, and chicken parts. Yum!

And now that your appetite is whetted, let's talk about the food. My research proved that the seafood was fine, so I indulged. It was delicious. Shrimp, snapper, lump crabmeat - all very fresh and very tasty.

The lunches during the meetings, however, were another matter. Whoever the caterer was had a formula. That formula was:

Meal = (Meat + MashedPotatoes)*BrownGravy + Vegetable + Roll.

Day 1: Chicken breast & mashed potatoes with brown gravy, green beans, roll
Day 2: Salisbury steak & mashed potatoes with brown gravy, butter beans, roll
Day 3: Shredded beef & mashed potatoes with brown gravy, corn, roll

I'm a fan of comfort food in moderation, and I even like butter beans. But I was dying for a salad when I got home.

My celeb doppelgangers

Check this out. I did it a few years ago with several different pictures and consistently got Scarlett Johanssen back as my best match. I guess the extra years and pounds killed the resemblance. Dammit!



Watch out Tom Cruise - I just may be able to pose as your wife (though why I'd subject myself to that I can't imagine).

UPDATE: Stupid template cuts off the pic of Jayne Mansfield on the right.

You want to put what where?

I think I've mentioned this before, and I know some of you have blogged posts to support my theory.

I think that travelling brings out the rude in people.

Here's the latest installment.

Yesterday, lunchtime, Memphis airport. I took advantage of the time and place to grab a little Memphis-style BBQ for lunch during my layover. Many other travellers had the same idea, so the Blue Note Cafe was hoppin'.

Smoking or non, queried the hostess. I replied with my stock "first available," and was escorted into the bar. I ordered and dove happily into The Other Boleyn Girl (Scarlett Johanssen, Natalie Portman, and Eric Bana to star in the screen adaptation? Can't fucking wait) while I waited for my turkey-smothered-in-heaven sandwich to arrive.

That's the odd thing about smoking bars in airport. They attract smokers. In droves.

I peer around me as I dig into my sandwich. A suprising number of people in the bar are like me, eating but not pursuing lung cancer. The ones who are puffing away seem to be pretty mellow about it.

And then the psycho smoker strikes.

I pick up my sandwich for another mouth-watering bite. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a man heading intently for my table. Is he going to refill my soft drink? But no, as he closes in he thrusts his weapon past the glass. What was the weapon, you may ask? His ash-dangling cigarette. He deposits said ash into the sparkling clean ashtray on my table. As I was taking a bite of my food.

Now, the spousal unit sucks on the despised cancer sticks. I am never idle in chastizing him for tossing butts carelessly about. But even he knows that this is just not done.

A few minutes later, the guy makes another lap. Apparently he hasn't ordered anything - he's just found a place to wander around while catching a drag. As he passes my table, the guy at the table behind me notices me watching Ashomatic and asks me, "Did he do it again?" Aha! So I'm not being unnecessarily indignant!

I'm so thankful I never picked up that habit. Look what it can make you do!

Pants post

So as my city gets caught up in baseball postseason fever, I've only just noticed that most of the players are now wearing long pants. What gives? I feel like Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own - "There's no long pants in baseball!"

Seriously though, baseball is all about showing your socks. There's a reason there's no Boston Red Trousers or Chicago White Shirts. I'm ok with keeping the short pants and losing the stirrups - I wore those stirrups as a kid and they're not the most comfortable things. but it's a cardinal sin that so many players are now hiding their socks.

And deviating from pants a bit, I also must say that the Rockies' sleeveless jerseys with T-Shirts underneath look pretty ghetto. What's next, wifebeaters?

On to more pants. Yoga pants.

I recently purchased a few new pairs and wore one for the first time on Wednesday. Super comfy, great material, wonderful coral color. The problem? They show sweat worse than anything. I'm going to a new class in a heeated (not Bikram-hot) room, and by the end of class I looked like I pissed myself.

Southbound

News flash:

Next week I'm headed to Gulfport, MS for work. I'm tickled that I'll be staying at a hotel/casino while I'm there. Nothing like a game of poker to take the edge off an endless day of requirements gathering!

I'm looking forward to checking out this area of the country. I wonder how visible the impact of Katrina will still be. I do know that some of the users for the software system we'll be developing are housed in the company's "Katrina Village". That doesn't sound particularly pleasant.

Another concern is the seafood. I've heard horror stories of how Katrina polluted the Gulf's catch. I'll have to do some research, but I may be limiting myself to land creatures while I'm there.

Hopefully, some interesting pictures will be taken for blog fodder.

Also going to have to remember to use the local pronunciation - Miss Sippy.

Cat, you should giggle at this. I told my hairdresser I was going to Mississippi and she asked if I'd get a glimpse of the collapsed bridge. Snort. I guess geography requirements are minimal at beauty school. Really - is there any state-monikered river that stays within the confines of its namesake? I don't know of any.

Random 10 Cop Out

OK, I really really really want to be creative. But I've been bleedin' busy. So I'm bowing to the cat and posting 10 from the workday's iTunes party shuffle. Here ya go:

1. Soundtrack To Mary - Soul Coughing
2. Acrobat - U2
3. Sex-O-Matic Venus Freak - Macy Gray
4. Love Me Do - The Beatles
5. Smile - Lily Allen
6. Tchaikovsky: Serenade For Strings In C, Op. 48 - Waltz - Peter Wohlert; Berlin Chamber Orchestra
7. Runaway - Del Shannon
8. Country Death Song - Violent Femmes
9. Hands Up - Black Eyed Peas
10. Blue Savannah - Erasure

Nice to see some different faces pop up among the usual suspects.

Doggie U

Last night, after 4 long months of group obedience classes, Sasha finally got her off-leash obedience diploma. I was such a proud doggie mom!

There is, of course, a caveat. Classes were starting to get really large. We got unlimited classes as part of our board-and-train deal, but I know not all who attended group classes had the same arrangement. I have a sneaking suspicion they wanted to graduate her to make room for more "paying" customers.

That being said, she did really well. It was only the fourth time we'd tested her off-leash, and the first two times she ran like a banshee partway through. This time I stood yards away from her while she lied down and stayed. Other dogs caused chaos. Horses penned nearby piqued her interest. And still she stayed.

Wish we'd done the same with the other dogs. I think Roscoe would have graduated very quickly.