Monday, July 11, 2005

late at night

Jon Stewart is Back, My Life is Complete

There was a dearth television to watch while Jon just causually moved into his new studio.  No cares or worries that his loyal audience needed him, well, during every crisis related to this administration.  But, especially during the Rove.  The Rove stuff that so deliciously has them all backed into corners and squeaking out, “No comment.”  I love that, so much.  Plus, I think I have a little tiny crush on Jon Stewart. 

While waiting for Jon to get back, I had to watch that trainwreck of a show, Being Bobby Brown.  More like be a spoiled ass alcoholic drug addict who can’t take responsibility for his own actions.  And Whitney’s just a prize herself.  Do those people EVER spend any time at home?  I feel sorry for the kids, because you know when Bobby & Whitney are off camera, they’re not whispering sweet nothings into each other’s ear.  Okay, so yeah, it’s a car wreck, but I’m going to TiVo through it, to its bitter end.  Luckily, I’m reading more more high-brow books in order to stimulate my mind, indeedy.

This has been just such a wasted entry.  I’d meant to write about politeness and thank yous and how meaningful they are.  The world needs more NICE.  Maybe we can start a NICE program.  Right now, I’m going to bed and thinking about a nice dreams.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

late evening

Whomever Outed Valerie Plame - In Prison

Oh, wouldn’t it be a wonderful world if whomever was responsible for releasing Valerie Plame’s name to the press was held responsible?  Why would anyone think releasing an undercover CIA agent’s name was the right thing to do?  Not only does it endanger the agent, but every single person she has ever worked with, in countries where we need informants.  Why would anyone want to trust any agent after that, when their very life is at stake?  Also, why the heck is Robert Novak, who printed her name, getting a free pass on this?  Okay, it’s bad to give an undercover agent’s name to the press, but isn’t it even worse to publish that name?

Of course, after reading Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy by Lindsay Moran, the quality of the CIA’s work is a bit suspect anyway, but that’s no reason to name them all.  Or, any of them, actually.

Okay, enough about politics.  Let’s talk about us (me and Leigh-Ann) and how so very happy we are the 4th of July is over.  Sure, at 5:23am today, there were some firecrackers and then a few more at dusk, but we’ve safely made it through another year of the terrified German Shepherd…with a little help from 10mg (we upped it last night) of Xanax for her.  That and the Comfort Zone Diffusers seemed to help her a little this year.  She actually was able to enter the back yard for a few minutes at a time.  Any improvement over her trembling and peeing in the house is oh so very welcome.

Okay, on to tv.  Anyone else watch the craptastic Being Bobby Brown on Bravo?  It’s so bizarre that I can’t help but to watch.  Plus, with TiVo zipping through all of the commercials, it’s actually very short.  Leigh-Ann says we’re each allowed one craptastic tv show (hers is “MTV’s The ‘70s House” ), so BBB is mine.  Hey, I’m countering it by reading a book about math geniuses before I go to bed.  That must count (heh, I said count) for something.

Oh wait, one more thing - one of my referrers was from a Google search of “tissue Tito Jackson”, where I’m ranked second.  How great is that?  “Tito, get me a tissue.”

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

late at night

Don’t Pee In The Amazon!

Last night,  Leigh-Ann and I watched a show on Animal Planet called “Eaten Alive”.  It was pretty much terrifying.  It was a whole show about parasites invading people’s bodies, eating their brains, entering their penis (The candirú is attracted to urine, so will swim up the source, if you know what I mean…and it won’t come out), swim under their skin, swim through their colons, some of which are a couple of feet long.  People are pooping these long worms out.  Imagine the horror.  It made me not want to leave my couch.  Well, not that that’s usually a huge problem anyway, but still…

We’ve also been watching Morgan Spurlock’s 30 Days show on FX.  The first episode had Morgan and his fiancee trying to make it by working minimum wage jobs.  It sure makes me appreciate not having to live like that, and wanting to help others who do.  I can’t even imagine the hours, the worrying (okay, I can imagine the worrying - as an independent contractor, I worry about being cheated by companies who go out of business.  We’ve lost many thousands of dollars in the past few years that way), the toll it takes on a relationship.  The first episode was really eye-opening, so we watched tonight’s episode about a guy in his thirties who wanted to get his in-shape body back.  He was put on a program of human growth hormone, testosterone and dozens of herbal supplements.  In addition, he was to change his eating habits and work out with a (hot!) trainer.  I enjoyed the possibility of how this episode could’ve worked, but the shrewish behavior of the guy’s wife ruined it for me.  Even before he started having liver problems, she was getting on his case for spending too much time with the (hot!) trainer.  Too much time?  It was a maximum thirty day project, lady!  Hmmm, wonder if trainer Heather’s perfect body had anything to do with Shrew-y’s behavior.  So, this episode didn’t do much for me.  I would’ve preferred they vetted the subject and his family better.  Next week though, a Christian man is spending 30 days as a Muslim.  Should be interesting.  Of course, not as interesting to me as a future episode with a Christian ex-Marine living with a gay family in San Francisco.  I miss San Francisco, so I always look forward to seeing it on tv.  Plus, I heard the guy loosens up and starts to have a good time.

Okay, moving on to books - You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers.  I have to admit, I wasn’t overly impressed by this one.  I felt like it needed lots of editing to tighten up the story, which ambled aimlessly, often and with great feeling.  I don’t doubt that Dave Eggers is a terrific writer, but I don’t feel this was a terrific book.  Looking at the Amazon reviews, it looks like more people disagree than agree with me, but there are enough who saw the book exactly as how I saw it.  Pretentiously boring.  I thought it was a great story idea, but I was disappointed with the follow-through.

A book I finished last night.  Or to be more accurate, somewhere after three this morning, and then Eli woke us up with her thunderstorm fears.  There was a little lightning and some rumbling, but it wasn’t terrible.  Just terrible enough to require Leigh-Ann leave and sleep on the couch so Eli could be next to her.  We drugged Eli with our first vet-approved dosages of Xanax, but it still doesn’t work that well.  We’ve tried just about everything.  Next, doggie pheromones.  Anyway, I digress.  I read Dry by Augusten Burroughs.  I completely enjoyed the quick read of advertising career, horrible alcoholism, subsequent recovery, subsequent falling off the wagon, then back to recovery.  I appreciate that throughout, he remained an excellent storyteller, yet I was horrified by the hundreds of Dewar’s bottles in his apartment, booze smell oozing through his pores when he went to his advertising job.  Blech.  I guess everyone has to be pretty thankful that Augusten’s childhood didn’t turn him into a deranged serial killer or something.  That was one screwed up family.  So, yeah, I liked Dry a lot and I’m going to order the rest of Augusten Burrough’s books that I haven’t read yet - Sellevision & Magical Thinking.

You know, I think this entry was a bit ambitious for a day of practically no sleep.  Let me know the millions of mistakes I’ve made by morning.  I eagerly await your critiques.  Naw, probably not eagerly.  But I hate leaving out or misspelling words.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

late at night

Waiting To See The Veronica Mars & Amazing Race Finales

Hey, hamsters are no different than people.  They’re parked inside their tv, waiting for one of the best nights of television ever - the finale of the first season of Veronica Mars (if you’re not watching it, you really should) and The Amazing Race 7.  Both shows did not disappoint, so I hope the hamsters were rooting for Uchenna & Joyce, because they seem really nice.  All that great tv and we still have Gilmore Girls and The Daily Show saved for tomorrow.  Yum!

(forgive the lousy image, I took it with my phone at PetsMart)

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

late at night

The Annoying Things List

Life has been full of so many little annoying things that are adding up to become big annoying things.  Let’s just make a list and then try solve them all tomorrow and then pretend like they never happened.  The only trail left behind will be the semi-large money trail.

1.  Took the car in on Friday for various checks and problems.  Mostly, at first, I needed a smog check to get the car registered.  But then, the oil change light went on.  Then, right afterwards, something started leaking.  Then, immediately thereafter, the air conditioning no longer had cold air.  Being in Las Vegas, that’s a problem.  So, back to Friday.  The dealer said we could probably have the car back to you on Saturday.  I figure, one night without the car, that shouldn’t be a problem.  If it’s two, then I can still deal.  So, I get a call early Saturday morning.  Five hundred things are wrong with the car, but my warranty at least covers the air.  That’ll be $762, please.  Fine, whatever, it needs to be done.  They hope to have the car back to me later.  No one ever calls back.  I call…and they close at 1p.  And lovely, they’re closed on Sundays.  So, that means Monday.  Right?  Right!?  I call Monday afternoon and find out that the replacement condenser they ordered was cracked.  Also, they don’t have a loaner.  We’re running out of food, we’re tired of pizza, Cricket needs her fancy shot for her knee, Phoenix needs a pill refill.  I need a car.  I think I’m being fairly reasonable considering I was told maybe Saturday.  So, for sure this morning.  This morning, right?  Okay, I don’t even hear back from him this morning.  I call this afternoon.  He says we’ve finished everything but the smog.  I said, “Cool, the smog is quick, right?”  He tells me, “Usually, but I’m having trouble with our smog check machine.”  Ugh.  Geez.  Anyway, I finally get the car back at around 4p.  When I’m paying, the nice shuttle driver man comes to the cashier with me to get the key, so he can bring the car up.  The evil cashier woman gets all snotty and says, “Wait, we need to see if the credit card will go through.”  She acts like the guy committed some major crime.  My car has been there for four days, I always bring my car there, I bought the car there, they know where I live…and I’m suddenly not going to be able to pay and steal my car back from them?  Well, golly, the card is good and the nice man brings me my car, but he notices the “Engine Needs Servicing” light is on.  No one reset the computer.  So, I have to wait for that.  Now that I’ve ranted about the evilness of the dealer, I can say…my brakes don’t squeal, my air conditioning is cold and they’ve washed the car, which it really needed.

2.  I come home and look at the smog check certificate.  Last year I tried to register my car online, after the smog cert had been sent electronincally to the DMV.  I find out, the DMV has my VIN wrong and they expect me to come into the DMV (in person! the DMV!) to renew my registration.  A nice woman in Carson City finally calls me back and tells me that she took care of it.  I am eternally grateful and renew online.  What does this year’s smog cert say?  Yes, indeedy, it says the VIN doesn’t match and I have to bring the smog cert into the DMV.  Gah!  How could it have been fixed last year and be wrong again this year!?  The incorrect VIN that they had wasn’t even possible for a real VIN because apparently the letters match the make of the car.  I have a GM car, so the letter has to be a G in the VIN.  I think it was a 3 or something last year.  I just checked my registration and my smog cert, and the number matches.  Grrr.  I am NOT going to the DMV and wait three hours in line to take care of this.

3.  I refinanced my house.  Everything went well.  I was happy.  Then, I get a letter two weeks ago from the county telling me that I haven’t paid my property taxes and that they’re going to publish my name in the newspaper (and they’ve already charged me a penalty) if I don’t pay by May 4th.  I check all of my refinancing paperwork.  The title company’s papers say that my taxes are paid until August.  I contact them.  They tell me that my original mortgage company said that they’d already paid my taxes and to send the money to them, instead of the county.  No one knows where the money is.  It’s been over two weeks and no one at the original mortgage company has solved this mess.  The title company says that they keep calling the mortgage company and people don’t call back.  In the meantime, either I have to pay again or figure out how to get someone to actually do some work and figure out where the money went.

4.  We had our electrical panel upgraded.  The electricians were supposed to come back the next day and install extra outlets in the garage.  They never showed up again.  They never called.  Oddly enough, they never asked for payment either.  They did leave a hole in the wall on the outside of the house that needs to be repaired by stucco guys.  It’s a very small job.  After many phone calls, only one company returned the call and came out to give an estimate.  $1000.  Uh, no.  That’s a ridiculous amount.  Still, NO ONE else will come out and even look at it.  Looks like we’re going to have to attempt it ourselves.  Why don’t businesses ever call back?  Don’t advertise if you don’t want the work.  Really, it’s just that simple.

5.  I bought my parents a TiVo and a three month TiVo service gift certificate for their birthdays.  I get an email from TiVo saying that if my parents don’t start their service by April 30th, I won’t qualify for the $100 rebate for their TiVo.  My parents are currently selling the family homestead (you know that, I know) in California, so they can’t be here until next month.  Why, if I bought a gift certificate must the service be started by a certain time?  The service is already paid for, so why does it matter when it’s started?  So, they’ve made us waste a whole month of service (granted, it’s only $12.95, but it’s the principle of the thing), just to qualify by some arbritrary date.  It’s stupid.  When I’ve solved the tax problem and the DMV problem, they’re getting a lovely letter from me.  I admit, I LOVE TiVo, but this is one of the silliest policies I’ve ever encountered.

6.  We had our lawn ripped out today to put in desert landscaping.  That’s a good thing.  We’ll get a large rebate ($600+) from the water authority, we’ll save on water and our lawn has always looked horrible, no matter how hard we tried to take care of it.  So, that’s all pretty much good.  We also needed more reject sand for the back yard, for the dogs.  We can’t afford to have that landscaped (just the sprinker system is 1k), but the dogs have been getting sore elbows from laying on the cement that is a Las Vegas back yard without extra sand brought in.  The new sand that we got isn’t the same as the old sand.  This stuff is almost like Dodger dirt (red clay) and, well, fluffy.  What a mess.  All in all, not a huge problem in the grand scheme of things, but just another little thing that’s annoying…red dirt everywhere.  Maybe the summer sun will bleach it out.

7.  My new mortgage company sold my loan to GMAC.  I just got the notice on Saturday, the payment is due on the first.  I go to the GMAC website and I’m thrilled to find out they have online payments.  That always simplifies things.  Also, they have the excelerated payment program, where I pay every two weeks and get extra payments in.  So, yay, looks good.  I go to sign up for my account Sunday night - I get this message, “We are unable to process your registration at this time. Please try again later.”  I try again “later”, still the same problem.  I send an email to them.  So far, I haven’t heard back and I still get that error message.  For most people, no big deal, they write checks all the time.  I never write checks.  Frankly, since I’m online so much, I’ve basically forgotten how to write anything except my signature.  My nice printing has turned into a scrawl.  Regardless, whatever, I don’t like to write checks.  I like those immediate online payments.  Normally, no big deal.  This week, on top of everything else, supremely annoying.  Ha, you may be tired of my ranting and it may seem like overkill, but this will help me remember all of the tedious little tasks I have to do.  Funny, they all seem to involve fairly large sums of money…none of it coming back to me, except for the TiVo rebate.

Let’s talk about something good.  The Amazing Race tonight.  That was good.  Not eating pizza again, also good.  Veronica Mars still on the TiVo waiting to be watched - excellent.  A Million Little Pieces by James Frey - reading it now and really really liking it.  I’ve never read a story about someone so completely damaged by drugs and alcohol, but it’s enthralling and oddly uplifting.  I mean really, if he can stay clean (and I guess he has for ten years by now), then I should be able to do pretty much anything.  I’ve never had a substance abuse problem and I never will, but I do have motivation issues.  If someone so screwed up can become an author, then almost anyone can do anything.  Perhaps even get Washington Mutual to figure out where they sent my property tax money?