Sunday, Puppy Sunday: Bean-Dip Stalker Edition

I will you to come to me, Bean Dip.

We were meant to be together.

Only I can help you fulfill your destiny, oh smooth and creamy Bean Dip. Those others will never love you as I do. You are the one and only true Bean Dip of my heart, with or without Fritos.

You will be mine!

You must!

My Precious.

Our Lips Are Sealed

The Go-Go's recorded this song in 1981, but I always preferred the Fun Boy Three version which they recorded in 1983. This song was written by GoGo Jane Wiedlen and Terry Hall of FBT and the Specials. Most likely, if you've ever heard Fun Boy Three before, it was on the Bananarama hit "Really Saying Something."

Good googly moogly. Was this really three decades ago? Judging by the hairstyles, uh, that would be a big 10-4, good buddy. We've got a convoy of big big hair only possible with enviro-terror CFC-packing hairsprays, bless 'em. So what if it dates me horribly? This still sounds really good to me. :)

Points to the classy drummer in pearls and platinum pageboy. Fun.

I'll say it as nicely as I am able...

Remember when that crazy man flew an airplane into the IRS building last week?

Yeah: crazy.

No matter what anyone thinks of the IRS, that was a singularly horrible thing to do, and, sadly, one man in the building was killed along with the deranged pilot.

Now the wife of the deceased IRS employee is suing the wife of the dead lunatic pilot. In the lawsuit, widow Valerie Hunter asserts:

“[Sheryl Stack] was threatened enough by Joseph Stack that she took her daughter and stayed at a hotel the night before the plane crash,” the suit says. “[She] owed a duty to exercise reasonable care to avoid a foreseeable risk of injury to others..."

Let's review: the guy was crazy and could have done anything (oh, say, shot up a Luby's, had a field day from a certain bell tower in Austin, marched nude up the Capitol steps-- the possibilities were endless), and his unfortunate wife is accused of being in part responsible for his actions because she removed herself and her child from his presence? Living with the man recently could not have been a picnic, but the poor woman may have thought the worst was over when she finally got away from him. My heart goes out to her, as it looks like there's no end in sight for the bullcorn.

Seriously - I know Mrs. Hunter is grieving, but to lash out at the other widow from the sad affair is sheer dementia con carne. I could understand if she sued the IRS for being the author of maddening degrees of asshattery, but this is beyond the pale. The nicest way I can say it is that Mrs. Hunter must be an absolute intercoursing c-word. Her and the lawyer she rode in on.

I hope they are duly shamed in court, as they should be.

Not that this is funny, but...

shoppers in a Dubai mall were terrified when the wall tank holding back gazillions of gallons of water and [live! nude!] sharks cracked before their very eyes. I think they were silly to worry about that because I think most of them would have drowned in plenty of time before they got et by sharks.
******
In other news, someone remind me why they call them killer whales?

cara mia!

Didn't Morticia and Gomez dance divinely?

I decided the commenter who suggested I purchase shoes to celebrate landing a job was on the right track. Last weekend I got the most adorable pair of Mary Janes with about a 3" sinuously curved heel worthy of a tango dancer. I was tickled to find them at about a quarter of their original retail price. Sweet!

Actually, if you think a pair of shoes would look right in a tango setting, well, it's a safe bet I'd like them. Here's a pair I'm drooling over currently.

Objects on dinner plate may be larger than they appear.

Bayou Renaissance Man and Wing did a quick road tour of neighboring states last week and passed through Texas on the way home. It was great to see them, and though it was gilding the lily, they passed along some steaks from Farm Family which I just had to cook up on Monday night.

As the steaks were thawing, I put them in a ziploc tub in the fridge, and it seemed only fitting that the Hellpups from Hades™ got to join in on the feast. so I let them drink up the juice from the thaw. They did not seem to mind helping with the cleanup.

I made a yummy side dish by toasting some sliced almonds and setting aside, then fried 3 pieces of pepper bacon. I took the bacon out of the skillet and then threw in thinly sliced new potatoes, fresh green beans and a single thinly sliced shallot and a little fresh cracked pepper and salt. Then I tossed it all together with the almonds and chopped up bacon stuff and a mix of romano, asiago and parmesan cheeses and fresh flat Italian parsley. This turned out to be a perfect side for the beef.

By the way, these are full size dinner plates in the classic Spode tradition, so objects on plate may be larger than they appear in photograph. DELICIOUS.

Om nom nom. Thanks so much for thinking of us, FarmMom, FarmDad and FarmGirl. You are the loveliest set of folks, truly! And if you ever have a chance to nom on FarmMom's gravy, don't miss it. My toes are curling just thinking about it.

Thanks for everything, Mom, and happy birthday.

I love you.

Dogs who ate owner are up for adoption

Blowfuzzy von Sassy sent me this link in December to the story where a pet owner committed suicide, leaving behind pugs Harry and Sally, and the poor puppies was hongry when no one noticed for a couple weeks, so they ate what edible thing was available.

Said BFvS: yea, I want the one who has tasted human flesh, right

Uh, quite.
*snerk*

dry skin remedy from Shibui

Let me start off by saying Shibui is a small company in Dallas co-founded by a friend of mine. She doesn't give free product to me and didn't ask me to advertise this.

Shibui makes a body butter bar that is fantastic for dry skin. It's in a container like a deodorant stick, but is shea butter and is sooooo good for your skin. The one I use has a very light scent of lemon grass and this one is lavender.

I've been searching for the perfect moisturizer for absolute yonks, and this is the only one that has seemed to not simply coat my skin with a greasy film, but actually makes my skin moist and softer. Yays!

Maybe you're a freak of nature and not suffering dry skin in all the heated air we enjoy indoors in a winter like this one, but if you're like me, you'll love this stuff. Srsly.

this weekend in Dallas County...

Went to Dallas County this weekend. First part was a trip through Dallas, specifically through Lakewood, and then on to see my folks. I was astonished how everyone had been having a lot of tree work done, apparently. There were lots of tree bits on the parkway in front of pretty much every house, and in some cases yards looked naked where only the stumps remained of what had been massive trees. It wasn't until I got to my folks' house that I realized these trees had massive limbs break off with the weight of the one foot of snow they got a little over a week ago.

In the picture, you can see the piles of trees on either side of the street. Huge piles. Some sections of the street were crowded by the branches on both sides. Eerie.

Sunday, Puppy Sunday: post of puppehs past...

Wow! I have to look at these every so often to remember when they were both still babies.

Awwww! I admit I'm biased, but they were amazingly cute puppies. These were taken in Fall 2008. Chuy was about 2-3 months old, and Praline about 6 months, or so...

B-Movie Saturday

I saw Frankenhooker in Dallas at the Inwood Theatre hosted by JoeBob Briggs. I laughed and laughed. Even the voiceover on the trailer seems impossibly cheap and seedy.

Good times.




After his girlfriend is tragically killed in a lawnmower accident leaving only her head behind, a budding young scientist harvests body parts from hookers to bring his girlfriend back to life. Some assembly required.

One that satisfies my artistic needs...

Or not.

Or just healthcare needs.

This coming Monday will mark my first day as official employee of Big Corporation. March 1 I'll have health insurance coverage with no preExisting waiting period. And vacation days. Paid. And sick leave. Paid. *giddy*

This must be a mark of sashaying into middle age-- I give a crap about the healthcare benefit. Then again, I am an habitual pneumonia-getter, so the medical coverage definitely rates...

Funny thing was I was mistaken about when I went on break Thursday morning. Thought I'd left at 9:50, but I'd actually left at 9:45. So I was back at my cube, goofing off and my boss called me and said "You've been on break for 19 minutes. I need to see you in my office. Immediately."

Liqui-poo. Seriously. I could have soiled myself right there. She never gets mad at me and today she sounded really pissed. Crap! I got over there and she told me the temp service wouldn't be employing me any more because the company was hiring me permanently. In a scene which was actually much less rife with cliche and gooey sentiment than you'd imagine, there were tears and hugs.

She told me that she finally was at liberty to tell me that people all over the building (especially some of the folks in quality) were demanding that she find a way to get me hired. She said they were all saying "we can't let her go!"

I didn't tell you at the time, but there were a couple tiny issues (resolved in my favor) that happened at the worst possible moment-- when they were considering bringing the temps in as permanent employees. I was still on a probationary program (along with the others), but they offered jobs to all of those people at the end of October. Since November, I've been the only temp in customer service at the company, and I've just been trying to fly under the radar and not call attention to myself, in case they should decide to let me go. The irony was that most of the quality hiccups of mine were overturned, and I made it off of the probationary program around the beginning of the year with very high marks, and I know that some of the people they'd hired were on the probationary program well after I'd gotten off of it. One of life's little ironies, I suppose.

Anyway, the good news is that things feel much more secure in the employment arena, and that's a nice feeling. I've earned this.

floating cannonball

Wow.

Isn't it supposed to be unhealthy to breathe air in a room with open containers of mercury, though?