Come on in!
Hey shut the door.
You weren’t raised in a barn, you know (were you?).
You weren’t raised in a barn, you know (were you?).
Man Eegee’s on Vacation
This is an Unhosted Cafe.
This is an Unhosted Cafe.
Coffee & Tea under the window, platters of treats on every table
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Newspapers are in their regular spot next to the door
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Please recommend (and unrecommend the Cafe/Lounge from earlier)
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May the 4’s be with you
Unlimited refills but you’ve got to get them yourself.
Ummmm, the best coffee! I don’t mind getting it myself at all. I’m just happy to have it all ready when I wake up!
Coffee! I just woke up and found out that the spare can in my pantry was just a dream. Oh Woe.
I shall make do with tea.
At least I made an apple and almond tart for breakfast. Care for a slice?
The problem with impeaching incompetency is would be deciding who not to impeach.
In celebration of Mr. Second Nature finally going back to work after 3 weeks at home I may just have a shot of Bailey’s in my coffee this morning even though it isn’t even 8:30 AM. Having a software engineer underfoot constantly is even more stressful than I could have imagined. I’m going to have to join the Peace Corps when he decides to retire.
And we are all hoping that you are planning some regular employment as the Monday Cafe host — you were great.
Me?…regular employment? Ha hahahahahahahahahahaha. Ha. Surely you jest. This would require me to toss aside many decades of committment phobia.
Not taking the Monday cafe is making a commitment to having to constantly answer kansas as she repeatedly asks you to do it. Just stepping up and taking it on is the line of least resistance.
Wouldn’t it be easier just to get him a laptop and a joystick and a desk in the closet?
That would feel entirely too much like home to him after spending the past 25 years in a cubicle.
Good Morning to everyone.
I’m still trying to get back into my routine after the holidays. We’ve had good weather the last day or so and I have to do the dreaded yard work today. I’ve been putting off rakings up the last leafs and stuff.
I’m waiting on the cofffee now and I’ll think I’ll need it today.
Wishing I was still on vacation –
It finally snowed on New Year’s day….what a wonderful sight after all the mud of Christmas week…
For those that saw the raging muddy water…this one is a little more peaceful!
What a difference a day makes!
That’s a really beautiful picture. I wish we had gotten a little snow down here.
Really nice picture. How close is the creek to your place (I’m guessing close, judging by the tree that’s log that’s been cut up)?
We are up the bank about 100 feet from the creek.
The cut up log is from a tree we lost to bark beetle last year. Next year will be dragging it up the bank and using the log splitter…
Ah close enough to hear the creek — now I am even more jealous as I love to go to sleep to the sound of running water. I only get that when there is has been a huge rain and the sound of the runoff creek in the hollow by the house is loud enough to carry up out of the hollow.
Hi Andi, I’m wondering why you just don’t make yourself a little water feature under your window? A teensy bit of digging, a little liner, a few goldfish, a small pump and voila, tinkling water.
Welcome back. Have you been on vacation?
The bedroom is on the second floor so it would have to better than “little” and more importantly, it would have to be something the dogs didn’t consider a wonderful new toy to tear apart. And even more importantly, I’m too lazy.
Thanks… no vacation, just holiday meltdown. I do have a picture or two to post, but my laptop is down and the pics are on my hubby’s computer. His computer has none of my bookmarks, so it will take me a session or so just to set up. I’m on an old time desktop with a whopping 128k or ram, but it’s working. Without my laptop, I’m lost. I should have it back in a week or so. I missed you guys. I love the little avatars in your sig line, did you just insert an image tag into it? I want one, I want one.
As for tinkling water, I did forget about your dogs. I have a little pond cut into my deck, and it IS quite difficult to keep my friend’s dogs from playing with the goldfish. Laziness is another damn good reason… so get a cd with water sounds. 🙂
katiebird started it (see her comment up at the top) and then Puget4 and I got on the bandwagon.
Yup, it’s just an img tag put in the signature. Only problem is that you can have 160 characters in the signature and it counts every character in the tag. If your url for the img tag is too long, you could go over to http://www.tinyurl.com and let it make you a short one. Or you could upload the picture to http://www.tinypic.com which both stores the image and generates a short url.
Hope you get our laptop back soon. Using other people’s machines is just so disconcerting and, and, and well – icky.
🙂
I lack the dedication to be a true slacker. It’s just too much work. I aim more for targeted indolence.
Good morning from the great state of Tennessee. It is overcast and rainy here. I am up and at ’em this morning for I so far do not have to go in to work. Yea!!! I have made my coffee and am on the second cup and decided to join you all for a few mins here. I have lots of cleaning to attend to today. I have not had one day that I have not had to go in to the hospital in weeks. I have been dong the littlest as possible to get by, so now I have to do double duty to the house.
The cats are up and at ’em too. One of the toms has decided that this year is the year to create more difficulty for the master of the house as he can create. He has decided to lie upon the keyboard or the mouse and pad and as big as he is, he covers both if I would let him. He decided to start grooming while there. He will not take no for an answer to his new years resolution so guess I will have to figure out something to take his mind off disturbing me. I finally pushed the mouse pad over his way and he laid down on it. Maybe he just wanted that…who knows…:o)
I actually had my heat off yesterday and last night! It was so warm here. Rain, and what is new. I am thankful tho, for it is not ice or snow! I was wondering if the buds on the trees wer to be fooled into coming out to see the warm weather..but no, not yet…
I am anxiously awaiting the statement that will be produced today from the Abramahoff (sp) deal/plea today. I hope it give delay a lot to think about. I hope he takes delay down forever! Boy can you imagine the others he will take down to! It seems he was involved in just about everything inside the beltway that can be involved in. He was a busy little bee!!!! :o)
I wish you all a very great day. BTW, if I missed someone in wisheng them a very Happy New Year, this is it!!!!
Will order the book today, since the holidays are over with and everything should be open. I am looking forward to reading it and joining in on discussion. Thank you for the great idea.
Since I am on call and need to get my chores done, I will spend just about 30 minutes here, then have to get busy. Hugs to ya all…and the coffee is great…I do not know what I would do without my coffee….:o) I fear I would be an old bear..
Brenda, I’ll cheering for you to have a complete day off…I’m keeping my fingers crossed that you don’t get called in and can relax at home all day.
My cat Isabelle is luxuriously fat and last night she decided that my bed, and specifically, the place where my legs normally reside on the bed, would be a perfect place to sleep. After being in the fetal position for a while I really needed to stretch my legs and I kept nudging her out of the way with my feet, but it was like trying to move 50 pounds of jello. Her flab just rolled around inside itself and I never did get her to move. So this morning I am ornery from not being able to sleep comfortably, and being too wimpy to actually shove the cat off the bed like a normal person would have done.
I know what ya mean there with the cat at the feet. I suffer from that problem myself. It seems the cats are out to get me one way or the other…;o) I found that if I scoot over in the bed, he just follows right along. so we play foot tag all night long..:o(
Increasingly, cats are losing patience with the inexplicable practice of humans who insist on using their lounging and hygiene couches for their pointless computer activities.
“It’s gotten out of hand,” complained one highly placed cat on condition of anonymity.
“Every time I dare to take a minute to lie down, or lick myself a bit, I can count on my human to choose that very minute to decide to play with my lounging area. It’s not like she doesn’t have her own toys. What about that expensive electric can opener that she could be using to open some cans of Fancy Feast?”
Exactly what they do and think! How did you know!!!! :o) That sceanerio was so cute.
We have a spectacular flame red sunrise here this morning – which means I need to survey the wet yard and check out the sump pumps now….
“Red sky at morning, sailors take warning” so the forecast for more rain later today could be heavy again.
I’ll check in later….have a great morning!
Good luck Sallycat. I know the rain can cause lots of problems. We tend to have flooding with all the rain here. I just sit up high enough that saves me, for the most part. My neighbors are so lucky tho.
take warning.
(Click to enlarge.)
Red sky at night–liberals’ delight!
Plenty of rain heading for Puget Sound in the next hour or two.
Not sure if it’s the flu or just a common garden-variety cold, but still feeling like I’ve been run over by a bus. 🙁
Spouse off to work in about an hour, so need to get him to help me get the bed semi-made (tuck in sheet and blanket — may not worry about putting spread on today). I might at least have the energy to sort through some of the junk in the living room; I can do that while sitting on the sofa at least.
Back in a bit…
:o)..I know what you mean. I had that crud and had to work with it. It isnt funny! My daughter finally had to get on antibiotics for hers. She was left with a huge sinus infection and drainage. Please take good care. It can come back and in greater punch. Hugs…get lots of vit c and d…
I’ve been on a mental walkabout these last few weeks. I want to wish everyone a happy new year. Even though I don’t make new year’s resolutions, it is a good time for new beginnings. I’m going to renew my acquaintance with my saggy muscles… a few friends and I have plans to start doing yoga together. I loved how yoga made me feel when I was doing it regularly.
I’m also working on my political cartoons again and may begin to post soon.
I must say, I really missed you all.
Bad news… I’m baaaaack.
Now I know why it felt like someone was missing! Welcome back, and I know what you mean about reacquainting yourself with your muscles. I do circuit training 3 times a week (when I’m good) with weight machines and I love feeling strong. It helps me walk and sit straighter, have more energy, sleep better, etc.
Hi, SN… It’s just a little over 2 years since I quit smoking and the extra pounds are catching up to me. Sounds like your circuit training is just the thing for you. Feeling strong is a wonderful feeling. I once tried hand weights to get rid of arm flab and ended up screwing up my shoulder. Yoga is safer for me. Besides, after looking at family photos I’ve decided that the arm flab is probably heredity anyway. 😉
Hi Nag, I was just looking at your pic on VB and wondering where you were as you have not been heard from for awhile….glad to see you are back and do stop by the village and say hi too.
Happy New Year to you.
Sorry to have to ask, but can you please go to Daily Kos and reccommend a diary there called:
DEUS EX MACHINA (Deconstructing John Yoo)
You see, I am on the warpath against this UC Berkeley Law Professor who is the Torture Memo author…. things scroll by so fast over there, that I’m afraid it might not get read.
Thanks, and make mine an extra strong cup of coffee, please.
a link would help those of us who happen to be on dialup today…
DEUS EX MACHINA (Deconstructing John Yoo)
It “croaked” over at DK. Once I titled it “The Most Dangerous Mind in America” it started to pick up, but not enough to prevent it going over the cliff. From now on I will put Latin, or better still Greek, in all my diary titles. That’ll teach me!
Aw shit !! My next attack on John C. Yoo will take weeks to prepare. I’ve got about 450 pages of the “Docs of Yoo” to go through.
Within the next few months I should be in Sacramento, CA…. closer to Yoo territory to wage my ongoing battle with the evil genius behind the Worst President of All Time.
Onwards!
I’ll get you, Yoo !
Sorry about the diary. I love your frog, however.
It’s been a really nice vacation. I got to visit my family in Louisiana and spend a nice chunk of time with them.
I just got back into town late Sunday night. I spent my last day off in a pleasant buzz of business: I called and caught up with some of the other local Democrats, and I met a very nice woman through Dailykos who came over to my place so that we could make IMPEACH signs. Several of us are planning an action in Northern Virginia on Sunday, January 8th, as part of Kagro X’s Guerilla Activism project. Then, I went to my local Democratic Committee’s book club meeting.
The pace doesn’t seem to slow down either: after work tonight, Governor-Elect Tim Kaine is going to be in my area for a town hall meeting on transportation, so I’m going to that. My housemates, who I’ve missed very much, will arrive back home tonight also.
And then Thursday evening is the reorganization meeting for the county’s Democratic committee, which I may have talked my new sign-making friend into joining.
Busy times, good times. I’m glad to be home – I’m glad to have friends – I’m glad to have a purpose. This year will be better than last year. I feel it.
Happy New Year everyone!
to hear a report on the town hall — transportation is a major topic of interest in this household…
Will do. The format was simple: Tim Kaine made some opening comments, then gave the floor to Gerry Connally, the chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to make some comments about the local situation. Then, there was about an hour of questions/comments from the audience.
Much concern centered on the relationship between development and transportation infrastructure, and the limitations on local government because of a court decision in Albemarle county that said that a local government can only turn down a re-zoning for a development if the proposed roads WITHIN the development are inadequate… but not because there is inadequate capacity outside the development to support the new residents it would add. Tim is open to legislation to correct this issue and to give local governments more power in these decisions (and also stated that there are sometimes tools they do have available that they do not use to the fullest).
Another huge issue was public transportation, and this focused (unfortunately in my mind) mostly on metro-rail. I think we need to dramatically increase bus capacity as well. But Tim’s commitment to metro, at the least, is there. One woman spoke about her son who lives out in Centerville and, apart from rush hour on weekdays, is completely housebound because he is disabled and that’s the only time public transit is available to him. Tim admitted this is an issue of resources being stretched thin and put it on the local government to a degree but I like to think he’d try to add funding there as part of a comprehensive transportation plan.
One other thing that got a couple of mentions was civility and greater enforcement of traffic violations especially obnoxious sorts. Tim mentioned a proposal of increasing the fee to renew a driver’s license based on how many points you have. I have real reservations about this as it could disproportionately penalize low-income people. In fact the one criticism I would have is that much of what was discussed was not really discussed with a mind to the needs of low income people. But that’s Fairfax County for you.
And at the end I went up to greet Tim and got my hug, for helping out with the campaign. So it was a good evening. 🙂
STEP RIGHT UP AND GET YER FREE GOOGLE G-MAIL ACCOUNTS
I have 90 of them to give away if you are interested.
Just send an email to me at
shirlstars@gmail.com
And say, I want one of them gmail things. . .and I will send the invite right out to you.
Don’t be shy. Always nice to have an extra email account around for certain things, eh?
Happy New Year!
Shirl
I was wondering who hogged all the gmail accounts!
How are you doing, Shirl? I miss your colorful sense of humor around here.
Hey, I’m doing fine! It is nice to be missed. I’ve been in a whirl of cleaning and sorting and while I’m in the mood for it I intend to keep at it. So not doing so much on the computer right now.
Miss you all and love ya,
Shirl
Hope it goes through — my email client (Entourage) has been acting screwy lately. I’m going to have some stern words with the Micro$oft reps next week at MacWorld SF — though I shouldn’t complain, got the program free at last year’s MacWorld anyway…
Spent most of the day asleep, which seems to have done a good job…still achy, but not quite as bad. Trying to figure out what I’m up to tackling around here…
Invite should be in your INbox right now, Cali.
I have a few words you can share with the MS Reps. . .but I am not so sure you can use them out in public like that. Don’t get me started. I think it is just so infuriating that we all get to PAY$$$$$ to be used as MS beta testers. They never put out a completed program that isn’t full of crap, bugs, glitches and incompatible with so many other things we all use!!
Never mind. . .Bless Billy’s little heart. . .
I either need to go meditate now or have a drink.
Love ya Cali,
S
Only Micro$oft programs I have on the Mac are Office 2004, Window$ Media Player and IE…IE will soon be deleted as Micro$oft no longer supporting it for the Mac anyway (plus Firefox and Safari work just fine). I love the Entourage interface (much better than Apple’s own Mail, especially for multiple email accounts), and Office overall works well (if a bit bloated) — I’ve probably just got some corrupted files I need to dig out. If all fails, I’ll uninstall and reinstall after MacWorld, especially if there’s a new version available.
Thank you AGAIN!!! 🙂
<tasteful smooch>
Tasteful smooch?! Oh, go on…plant a big one on her!
Happy Birthday, Puget4!
Happy Birthday Puget 4!!!
Are you 30 now, too? 🙂
Have a wonderful birthday Puget4!
with lots of presents and delicious treats! 🙂
A very happy birthday to you Puget4. Remember the more you spit on your cake the more you get to keep for yourself.
Happy Birthday Puget4!!!!
Best wishes on the completion of another journey ’round the sun. Hope you’ve had a wonderful day!
Thank you one and all!!! What a nice surprise, plus a bouquet of carnations (dark red, my favorite)and a hand written birthday card from Gooserock. It’s been years since I’ve gotten a handwritten card. 2006 is really going to be a great year. It already is!
Yes, I’m at least 30….a couple times. I’m counting on at least another 30 trips around the sun….inertia is wonderful.
Gee…I even got the special Happy Birthday Banner from AndiF. Muchas Gracias! And I’ve been spitting ALL OVER the cake!!
On top of all that, Nature gave me a rare glimps at a +13 tide this morning….at a time when I was awake to see it. I was going to explain what a +13′ tide is but I find I’m unable to, so just take it from me….it’s rare for here. Really cool.
Thanks again all of you great folks. I really appreciate the good wishes!
Have a great birthday and a great year.
I just gotta win that lottery. Back home from work finally. Since this is selfserve I’m getting myself a gin and tonic from the vending machine and paying with 4s to everyone. How was everyone else’s day?
And he didn’t even need to win the lottery.
Who says that the dog days are tough to survive?
What a life! Where are the books and the chocolates?
He’s listening to an audio book.
Chocolate is bad for dogs but slacker dogs prefer cheese anyway, especially when they have the ones with fingers trained to bring it over to them on the couch so that they don’t have to get up.
Of course, an audio book. What was I thinking? And I guess cheese is the doggie version of chocolate.
And you’re wrong — he DID win the lottery, he adopted you as his his human.
‘Evening, all! Just stepping in to say hello. Thankfully, phone service & power have returned after last night’s heavy snowstorm (& I do mean ‘heavy snow’). I’d guess that there’s now almost a foot of snow on the ground here, with most of it well compacted. The scene is truly quite pretty.
Hope everyone’s begun the year ‘on the good foot’.
The Abramoff case should be quite interesting as it unfolds, bless his charred little heart.
If you can get out the door tomorrow, I hope you will give you camera a workout and us some delightful photos.
Does the cat have snowshoes?
No snowshoes for the cats, but they can swim 😉
I’ll definitely take the camera out for a walk tomorrow, now that I can empty my card. We may see another pretty snowfall, too.
That will give me something to look forward to — especially if you get one of the cats swimming.
Interestingly enough, my mother cat — formerly Supreme Queen of the Woods — hasn’t had the slightest interest in going out since she gave birth this fall.
The little one, of course, is perfectly happy wreaking havoc indoors 😉
Evening folks. First day to school and the kiddies seemed a little lethargic. I hope their energy pick sup a little.
I have sympathy for them. I couldn’t work up any great levels of enthusiasm either.
Their lack of energy rubbed off on me until lunch. Of course, I wasn’t really ready to be back yet.
You work from home, right? That must be even harder on the days that enthusiasm is missing.
The advantage of working at home is that you can always rearrange your hours. As long as the work gets done, no one cares when you do it.
Lethargic — yes, I sympathize with them. Hope you weren’t too tough on them.
Mid-term year are next week. We started reviewing. We are also doing small writing exercises all week. I’ve only just really started reading their writing. Oh, we need some work!
I remember I was so happy when I got to college and exams were finished before Christmas. It’s really hard to come back for exams. No wonder they are lethargic. But give them a night of rest — they’ll be back to their old selves by tomorrow!
and I have really big mixed feelings. Wish they could just stay home but God am I glad they are leaving the house tomorrow. Had a discussion with spouse today and thought about it all on a much deeper level. He was worried because I spend all of my “friendship” time here. It started out as a mixture of things. #1 was disabled child at home and nobody to talk to about my own feelings of betrayal concerning the Iraq War and being a military spouse. You guys will never know how much you have all played in my healing. Then there was Crawford and just throwing down my martyr cape and going to confront. That was mind blowing. I’m still digesting it all…..that the military isn’t alone in this as they face the lies and abuse and that there are beautiful people all over this country who will just get in the car and get on the plane and CONFRONT THE BASTARDS. It has been tough and it has all been uphill but damn there are amazing people that I share this country with. #2 thing though is that I can’t think of any other time in my life where carefully choosing my friends will ever be this important. When I thought about Iraq it looked like Vietnam……everybody here has played a part in shutting down this bullshit and now leaving Iraq is on the table. How many soldiers and Iraqis have you all saved? We will never know, all we know is that if the confrontation hadn’t started when it did we would be in a draft right now and more invested than ever before and more reasons to try to make it right as the body counts rose. Now we have Alito. Tomorrow the kids go back to school and I feel like I am staring down the barrel at something just as awful as Iraq and we can shut it down before it even begins. The fight feels just as enormous though and a press that wants little or nothing to do with us or give us voice……thank you God for the internet and for all of you! Lovin you all tonight! Signing off for Bed!