Random 10 - Roto Rooted

Jesse's Girl - Rick Springfield
I Really Like You - Melissa Etheridge
I Love New York - Madonna
White Shadows - Coldplay
Rocket Queen - Guns N' Roses
Blood And Roses - Pat DiNizio
Jungle Boogie - Kool & The Gang
Train In Vain - The Clash
Mirror In The Bathroom - The English Beat
I Wish You Could Be Me - Korn

Some of you may remember that the spousal unit and I have been trying unsuccessfully to reproduce. I've recently started a fertility workup, and yesterday I had a hysterosalpingogram. Even though I prepped with a Valium (I don't do well at all with medical procedures), I still shrieked like a little girl when that dye went coursing through those teeny weeny tunnels. Thankfully, all appears to be normal.

I know my readers are big Dakota Fanning admirers - did you know she's also a fashion muse? I discovered this recently thumbing through a backissue of Vogue at the salon. It doesn't suprise me that she wen't for it, she's so grown up, but boo on you, Mr. Jacobs.

Awww....

Looky what I have to miss when the spousal unit and I head off to Maine in August for my company meeting:



They're playing the night before at Red Rocks. We'll be on a plane headed east during that show. :( Can't decide which I would rather see more. I luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurv Red Rocks and they'd play a broader set there. But the Fillmore is pretty intimate, and I'd really dig seeing them go funky. Especially with all the fans dressed up.

If you want to go to this one, here's a link to buy tix.

Fun with digits

Here is a math trick so unbelievable that it will stump you.


1. Grab a calculator. (you won't be able to do this one in your head)
2. Key in the first three digits of your phone number (NOT the area code)
3. Multiply by 80
4. Add 1
5. Multiply by 250
6. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number
7. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number again.
8. Subtract 250
9. Divide number by 2

Do you recognize the answer??

Fab Femme Former 5

I think it's time for a list. Name your top 5 female characters from TV shows that are no longer with us. Mine are, in no particular order:

Elaine Benes, Seinfeld - Get OUT!!!! Is any more explanation really necessary?

Miranda Hobbes, Sex and the City - She wasn't the prettiest one (or even second or third), but she had sarcasm to die for and won the Most Improved award hands down for hair and wardrobe through the seasons.

Holly Marshall, Land of the Lost - She had a red-and-white plaid shirt, pigtails, and a pet dinosaur. What more could a little tomboy like me ask for? Watch out, Sleestak!

Valerie Cherish, The Comeback - I never thought anyone could pull off more annoying than Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm and still be funny, but Lisa Kudrow nailed it. Such a shame there was only one season.

Claire Fisher, Six Feet Under - I really loved how Claire kept finding wackier and wackier men (though Jeremy Sisto not as Billy? Yes indeedy!) and finally ended up with the seemingly boring but actually great guy at the end o the series.

2008: Gotham vs. Gotham?

So maybe you heard in the news today that Michael Bloomberg has changed his party affiliation again to none (from Republican, and before that from Democrat)? Wild speculation abounds. Could the next presidential election give us Mayor vs. Mayor (vs. Dem - ignore that part, it's not consequential to this post :-).

Would love to hear from some folks who have lived under both on this one. I've heard both rants and raves about Rudy. From what I see, Mikey's approval ratings are about double Bush's.

My own personal experience only involves working as a consultant for Bloomberg's bajillion dollar company for 9 months after he had already stepped down. Understood his influence was never gone. And on that basis, I'm truly torn as to whether or not I'd don an I Like Mike button.

He had some confounding and sometimes amazingly effective policies at that place. The cafeteria there? Free. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And the food was good. Argument being keep the peons as close to their desk as possible and they will earn you the most money. Given the nature of their business, I say it was brilliant. We could stand some radical changes in that vein in our political system.

Spent a crapload of money for some bizarre projects in the building. A room-sized water feature that was leaky as hell. Plasma flat-screen monitors in every conference room that had the Windows logo burned into their screens from the screensavers. Fingerprint identification for every desktop login. Effective and cool, but very extreme (and there's a backstory to it). That incident resulted in network security locked down so tight it took 10 times the normal effort as a consultant to get anything done. And the work my employer did for them could probably have been done at about 1/4 the cost if Bloomberg's project management were more attentive and discerning.

Those things I just mentioned? They scare me. They speak of impracticality, braggadocio, and fiscal wantonness. After Bush, who spends budgets like Paris Hilton shops/snorts blow/blows poles/whines, I think we could use a little restraint in the pocketbook, not to mention sensibility and humility.

What say you?

Cross your fingers and toes

I entered a contest over at Manolo's shoe blog. Prize is my forever addiction (as opposed to Chelene's fix of the day, milkshakes) - a pair of shoes!

Here's my entry. Honest criticism is appreciated if you feel like indulging your inner Tim Gunn. I wanted to stand out from the other entries and I think I've done that. Think I maybe should have included some sort of hair accessory though.

Wish me luck!

The epitome of cute

On Saturday we went to dinner with the spousal unit's mother, sister, and her family. We went to one of the best Mexican places in Albuquerque to get our chile fix. The kids had travelled that day and were 2 hours ahead on East Coast time. Between that and lots of chocolate milk before dinner, they didn't stand a chance.

[Land of] Enchantment Road Trip Random 10

You Don't Treat Me No Good - Sonia Dada
Personality Goes A Long Way - Jackson & Travolta, Pulp Fiction
Step Into Christmas - Elton John
All My Life - Foo Fighters
Your Heart Is an Empty Room - Death Cab For Cutie
Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle - Nirvana
Walkin' After Midnight - Patsy Cline
How Deep Is Your Love - Bee Gees
Come Together - The Beatles
Kate - Ben Folds Five

Seems that Cat's Beatles tune on his list triggered one of my all-time Fab Four (as well as Foo) favorite ditties on my own. Thanks, Cat.

Family health issues send us back to NM tomorrow. The spousal unit is between contracts and will be gone for 2 weeks. I'll be there until Wednesday when I return home to Colorful Colorado. It will be good to see loved ones, but I'll be working while I'm there, so it's not really time off and I'm sure I'll be glad to get back home.

Just a drop

This is the view out of my hotel room. Check out Sarah Ashlee's post for the inspiration for the photo.

Back home mañana. Sasha Woo is home! Delights and disturbances to report. Soon, I promise. Now, I must sleep.

Do you shave their legs too?

Today I flew to Columbus for work. In the airport in Denver I was in line in the loo behind a woman. According to the embroidery on her tote, her name was Rebekah. Rebakah had her two sons in the ladies' room with her. They appeared to be about 9 and 6 years old. This started the cogs in my head a-turnin'. Isn't that just a bit too old to be taking your male child into the women's restroom? The eldest one, not necessarily the 6 year old. Isn't it reasonable for Rebekah to either send the elder son into the mens'room alone or to trust him to take his brother in with him? And does the fact that it's an airport make a difference?

I thought of my own nephew. Can't imagine he'd be OK with going into the ladies' room with his mom now at 8 years old.

Of course, my brain also used this anecdote to feed my theory that we are coddling our children far too much now. Not preparing them for adulthood. Not the most glaring example of the problem by far, but I do believe it to be true.

Friday's Random 10

Paperback Writer - The Beatles
Right Where It Belongs - Nine Inch Nails
Suffer The Little Children/Hell Is For Children - Pat Benatar
Believe Me Natalie - The Killers
I am the Highway - Audioslave
Ceremony - New Order
Vivaldi: Violin Concerto In G Minor, Op. 12/1, RV 317 - Zina Schiff, Dalia Atla; Israel Philharmonic
Hope - Toad The Wet Sprocket
No Sleep Till Brooklyn - The Beastie Boys
Witchy Woman - The Eagles

No U2 this time, but some NIN and Beasties to make up for it. Join the fun, post yours here.

While Tanya's screaming in pain and Cat is gardening and biking and Chelene is drinking and shopping and dozing this weekend, I'll be chillin' in the mountains. It's a blog-free zone, so I hope you all enjoy your weekend.

$crew All$tate

Does anybody keep up with their insurance costs? I wish I had the time. Especially now.

I was jarred into doing so when I received a letter from my mortgage company saying that unless we made up our escrow shortage, our payments would be going up about $150 per month. Perplexed at the cause of such a shortage, I started going over the details of the account and discovered that our homeowner's insurance went up by 50% this year.

We had a claim in December. Our golf clubs were stolen out of our garage. But 50%? Nuh uh.

I called our agent, who sounded just as appalled as I was on the phone. He hung up to do some research and when he called back, explained that we were being assessed a claim surcharge. Yes, you read that right. And the surcharge was to remain on our account for 3 years. I tried to get our agent to explain to me why we in fact had insurance and shouldn't just be putting money aside to cover our own claims, and he came up with no good answer.

So I put it to him straight. Fix this or we walk. He called me out, saying that we'd get high rates elsewhere because we'd had 2 claims in 3 years.

Knowing an agent's game, I checked around. The first place that came to mind was the company with the commercials that have inspired a sitcom. And what do you know - the rate I was quoted was, drumroll please.................. 25% lower than my rate with All$tate before the surcharge! I was sold.

This prompted me to check into auto insurance rates as well. Thanks to Costco, we're now saving 50% and we even get towing and rental car coverage, which All$tate was not giving us.

I'm waiting to cancel with the extortionists until I get my policy paperwork in the mail. I'm anticipating that phone call like a night of good sex. :)

Moral of the story: never stay complacent when it comes to insurance companies. They'll screw you any way they can.

Tony Soprano for President

The spousal unit recently did some research into the history of La Cosa Nostra in Colorado. Apparently, 2 brothers named Sam and Pete Carlino are the founders of Italian organized crime in the state.

Spousal unit used to work for someone who has confirmed that he is related to these men.

Said former employer is also a leaf in the family tree of Tom Tancredo. You know him, he's the one-issue (anti-immigration) Republican candidate for president.

Is there any connection between the Carlinos and Tancredo? I couldn't find one. But it's delicious to ponder, isn't it? And look at the pictures - don't they look related (humor my by ignoring the fact that it's actually James Gandolfini, who is not a mobster but an upstanding and successful actor)?

Also amazingly ironic is that a politician whose statuse is owed partly to his own culture's backround in US immigration could be so anti Mexican immigrant.

Now I understand...

Why religion is so widespread. Why so many adults find God. I think it's to help them cope with the fact that we human beings do such fucked up shit to each other. On a daily basis. To those we love as well as strangers.

It's not my approach, but I can totally appreciate it.

Notes on Some Movies

Now that we've hit the summer primetime skids, the spousal unit and I are blazing through our Netflix queue. The past 2 nights, we've watched Notes on a Scandal and Babel.

I have yet to watch The Queen, so I can't say how Judi Dench's performance in Notes stacked up Oscarwise to Helen Mirren. But there's something to be said about Dame Dench when Cate Blanchett's affair with a 15 year old isn't the creepiest aspect of the movie.

Babel made it a Blanchett twofer, though Cate graces the screen for far less time than in Notes. This was a film of bad decisions and tragic outcomes. I wanted to wring Gael Garcia Bernal's character's sexy neck. The film was beautifully made, and the cinematography, score, and storylines kept me riveted. I found this film to be far superior to Crash, which followed the same interwoven storyline format.

So far I've seen two of the 3 films from the much-touted "3 Amigos" filmmakers - Babel and Children of Men. I only hope that Pan's Labyrinth is more positive than the first two, both of which left me feeling quite depressed. Even eye candy like Brad Pitt, Bernal, and Clive Owen in Children weren't enough for me to overcome the feeling of despair imparted by the respective plots.

Long Overdue - Food Meme

My friend Tanya tagged me for this post eons ago and I've been mindblowingly busy so I haven't done it. But now that Sarah Ashlee's tagged me too, I guess I'd better get on it.

The rules:

1. Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you. Include the city/state and country that you are in.

Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Olivia (London, England)
ML (Utah, USA)
Lotus (Toronto, Canada)
tanabata (Saitama, Japan)
Andi (Dallas [ish], Texas, USA)
Todd (Lousiville, Kentucky, USA)
miss kendra (Los Angeles, California, USA)
Jiggs Casey (Berkeley, California, USA)
Tits McGee (New England, USA)
Joe (NE Tennessee, USA)
10K Monkeys (Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA)
Big Stupid Tommy (Athens, Tennessee, USA)
Newscoma (Weakley County, Tennessee, USA)
Finnspace (Springfield, Tennessee, USA)
LeBlanc (Lewisburg, Tennessee, USA)
I Am DisHeartened by My Jetta (Nashville, TN, USA)
Tanya Espanya(Toronto, ON, CA)

2. List out your top five favorite places to eat at your location.

I have sadly not been to many of these places lately. Need to get out more.

Carmine's on Penn - Family style Italian, fun neighborhood, a Denver institution.

Lime - Trendy, inexpensive Mexican in Lower Downtown that outshines most of the sad excuses for Mexican food here. Love the homemade tequila shot they give you alongside their sinful flour tortilla chips and salsa.

Jerusalem - Some of the best falafel I've had anywhere. Eternally busy dive near DU.

Jax- Cozy fish house with locations in LoDo and Boulder. Freshest seafood in town.

Flagstaff House - Go here when someone else is paying or it's a super special occasion. Fine dining with knockout views from Flagstaff Mountain in Boulder.

I also have to give honorable mentions to Sushi Den, The Med, Dozens (I love breakfast!), and Jack N Grill for when I miss New Mexican food.

And because I'm lame, I'm not tagging anyone. But feel free to consider yourself tagged if you've read this and you want to extend the chain.

Tidbits

Stopped at the training school yesterday to drop off Sasha's heartworm pill. Couldn't see her as they didn't want to distract from training. But word is she's sit/stay and heel on command now, and working on up/down, inside/outside, and return to heel. It's going to be very cool to get her back trained. The log had a comment that she bolted after a rabbit one day while training on return to heel. So it's nice to hear that she's having a little fun there too.

Not much of a holiday this weekend. Working on getting the house ready to put on the market. We've had a sump pump put in and the bugger is running every 15 minutes. I think we're literally collecting the entire neighborhood's runoff. Can't wait until that's someone else's problem.

I do get to plant some purty flowers in containers. Running off now to go buy them.

Hope you are all enjoying your holiday!

And if you have to fly through Atlanta, beware the men's bathrooms.

Hi Mom!

So I think the day spent introducing Mom to email and internet basics was a success.

We'll see. I've pointed her to my blog. If she mentions this post, I'll know she made it here successfully.

So...hi Mom. Love ya!!!

Columbus was beautiful today. Couldn't ask for nicer weather. Too bad my client is such a pain in the ass.

Random 10

Only The Good Die Young - Billy Joel
Smiling Up The Frown - Agents Of Good Roots
No More Words - Berlin
It's On - Korn
Deserve It - Madonna
Starlight - Muse
Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley
The Union Forever - The White Stripes
The Vampires Of New York - Marcy Playground
Burning Dog - Sugar Ray

A nice list, if I do say so myself.

I just can't seem to slow down. Tonight we're running to Costco and picking up the house because it's the only free time we have.

Tomorrow - yard work, driving range, haircut, laundry.

Sunday - off to my mom's to try to help her figure out her computer. I'll try to blog for you from then.

Pictures from Florida are on their way. Back to Columbus for work next week.

Peace out.

Incarcerated

On Tuesday, just a day after returning from our wedding trip in Florida, we dropped Sasha off at a 4 week board and train obedience program. I know it's going to do great things for her, but the spousal unit and I miss her immensely already. The house is so quiet now! Ripley, on the other hand, is thrilled to be back on top of the petting and attention totem pole. This is the closest they've ever been to buddy buddy.

Poor Roscoe has a stufffed up, snotty nose. He had a swollen bump on one side so we suspect that snapping at yellowjackets may have paid off in an unexpected way for him. At first it was just noisy breathing (I dubbed him Dog Vader), but then it progressed to sneezing and flying mucus. Fun stuff. Good thing Benadryl works for dogs too.

And to leave you with some fun....you think driving in Manhattan or downtown San Francisco is bad? Check this out.