So. Work was fun. And by "fun" I mean never ending insanity by the end of which i was firmly convinced that my mind would be irrevocably gone. Happily it wasn't, but that might have made what followed more pleasant.

Got home. We've been hearing critters in the walls, found mouse poops in the basement. Live trap was unsuccessful. Cleaning up a bit down there, found a dead mouse. Dead mouse had been nibbled on. Ew. Disposed of dead mouse, went to go upstairs, found a live mouse drinking at the floor drain. Relocated live trap to near live mouse. Finished getting socks from the basement. Wne to go upstairs again. Was about to turn off lights, saw live mouse scurrying about. Hit live mouse with broom. Stunned him. Whisked him into dustpan. Carried dustpan upstairs, across the road, and tossed mouse into field. Felt very guilty. Mouse was very tiny, you see. Looked very confused. Also, stunned.

Walked to the wine bar in town to meet coworkers. Had two glasses of wine. Still feeling guilty.

I'm sorry, mousie.

I've got lunch in mah belleh, I've got 4 cheese ravioli in the fridge waiting to be boiled and coated with pesto for dinner, I've got pork chops marinating in Jerk sauce to be grilled tomorrow (weather permitting), I've got a new bottle of Appleton V/X rum on the counter for later, I've got some library books that I have to get through, and I've got 29 days until I fly to Florida.

Things are okay right now. :)

"Freude schöner Gottermeepen?"

It's bad enough that there's a feral cat that's taken to hanging around my backyard. I don't really like cats at the best of times...and feral cats are one of the reasons the Wisconsin songbird population is declining. Cats are like the NRA hunters that want semiautomatic weapons...it's not enough to know that they can kill something, they have to demonstrate it by completely decimating it. And then leaving it sit. And then going out and demonstrating again. They kill for sport, one of the few creatures besides man that does.

So I'm already perturbed that the cat's hanging around. the fact that it's accompanied by two feral kittens is just a further irritation. Cuz now i can't quietly loathe the critter and try to chase it away without feeling guilty.

Oh, and momma cat's a tabby, one baby is a bengal or tortoiseshell or something and one is a calico. Momma cat is a tramp, to boot!

So in conclusion...if you absolutely must let your house cats outside for some reason, you had better make damned sure they've been fixed already! We don't need more little baby kitties growing up thinking it's cool to pounce on 38 sparrows in one day and rip the heads off of each one. That's what we have fledgeling serial killers for.

We just booked everything today. I'll be there from August 18th through the 26th.

WOOOO!

Yes another entry...I thought of this the other day, and it thoroughly depressed me.

I remember sitting in 5th grade, perusing my "Weekly Reader" and reading about global warming and climate change, and even then thinking "This is kind of a big deal!"

I was 8 in 5th grade. I'm now 28.

What have we done in the last 20 years?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Frye?

Yeah. That's what I thought. Glad we've accomplished so much to mitigate or ameliorate or at least TRY TO FUCKING DO SOMETHING INSTEAD OF FIRST PRETENDING IT DIDN'T EXIST AND THEN PRETENDING IT WAS TOO LATE TO ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING about this issue in the last two decades.

Chris' Friday Random 10

Concierto de Aranjuez, Pt. 1 [Alternate Take] - Miles Davis/Gil Evans
Hapa Haole - Tiki King
17 and 21 (reprise) - George Gershwin
Bleeding All Over the Place - Randy Newman and Bonnie Raitt
Nosy Neighbor - The Ditty Bops
Honey Child - Royal Crown Revue
Before I Drive Away - Michael Hearst
My Tane - Arthur Lyman
Dr. Pill - Clint Mansell/Kronos Quartet
Bare Bones - Mark Mothersbaugh

Because someone else on my f-list did this meme, and because like her I also haven't had the best week (though not as craptastical as hers from the sound of it)...I needs me some warm fuzzies.

One little compliment can make you feel amazing. So give me a compliment, anything in the entire world, even that my shoelaces are nifty. Put this in your journal. And once you get some comments, put that entry in a memory or tag and when you are feeling down, just go to that entry and this will remind that you're not so bad in other people's eyes after all.

So now here is another installment of "Words Chris Likes To Say For No Good Reason"

"Lickspittle"
"Tatterdemalion"
"Euphonium"
"Sarcoidosis"
"Ersatz"
"Umpteen"
"Numinous"
"Insipid"
"Chiasmus"
"Syllogism"
"Rhum Barbancourt"
"Psychosomatic"
"Pyroclastic"
"Nuanced"

I returned to the gym for the first time in months. I did an hour on the elliptical.

Ow. But it's a good ow. I think.

I just made the perfect classic gin martini.

You're gonna need a digital scale, though. Man, I watch WAY too much Alton Brown.

In a cocktail shaker with ice combine
63 grams (or cc's, since we're measuring liquid. assume 1:1 ratio for water to booze for this drink) of gin
9 grams of extra dry vermouth
13 grams of Stirrings™ Blood Orange Bitters

Shake until shaker frosts, pour into a chilled glass.

Quite nice. Especially with tales of Old Hollywood on the DVD player.

I've decided that I really like movies about the Halcyon Days of Hollywood, especially meta-films about that period: LA Confidential, Hollywoodland, even, god help me, The Rocketeer.

I'm certain this says something about me, but I've no idea what.

on a whim today I decided to shave off my mustache and return to just a goatee. I haven't actually had just the goatee since before I started shaving my head. For reasons unknown to modern logic, mom feels that just the goatee makes me look "evil" (and the shaved head doesn't?) but she's out of town, so who cares what she thinks?

I like it. Of course, I'd probably like it more if I lost some weight from my face. Dammit, i really have to get back on a gym schedule. I've been so lax, and I feel fat (and not very sassy).

Samsung or somebody just announced that they've managed to make a pretty cheap 128 GB solid state memory chip...think this could be destined for a higher capacity iPod touch in the not-too-distant future?

I'm going to need at bare minimum a 64 GB iPod touch on the market before I can seriously entertain buying one...and even then I'd have to pare down what music's stored on it. And I'm one of those freaks that enjoys having my entire collection with me.

Has anybody seen a copy of "The Movies" for Mac for less than $50? Preferably less than $40? I played the demo tonight, and it seems really cool, but not $50 cool.

Anyway, if you've seen it, could you let me know? Thanks!

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. "Unless we can pretend it helps stop the scary terrists or gets my buddies at the telcos off the hook, or just cuz I sez so. Heh heh heh heh! -Dubya"

This is why we normally keep the Constitution in a climate controlled vault, but apparently it was Crayoning Time, and Georgie Boy was feelin' a bit prickly because he missed his nap (he had a few too many at Cookies and Juice time and couldn't sleep) and, well, it was the only paper handy. Cheney had ordered everything else shredded, you see.

And you, Obama, you're on my shit list right now, too. Don't think I'm not mad at you!

it's worth pointing out that Jesse Helms kicked the bucket, a man who's idea of progress was to take two giant steps backwards while plugging his ears and singing "Dixie" at the top of his lungs.

Good riddance to bad rubbish, I says.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.



The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,



When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with
another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and
equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.



We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
--That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to
institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely
to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate
that Governments long established should not be changed for light and
transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that
mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than
to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off
such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future
security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and
such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former
Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain
is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct
object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To
prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.





He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should
be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend
to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of
Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and
formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records,
for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his
measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause
others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of
Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise;
the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of
invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that
purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing
to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the
conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of
Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to
our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to
their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders
which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring
Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging
its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument
for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to
compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with
circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most
barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas
to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their
friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured
to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian
Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction
of all ages, sexes and conditions.





In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress
in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered
only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by
every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free
people.



Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We
have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to
extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of
the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured
them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations,
which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.
They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our
Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in
War, in Peace Friends.



We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America,
in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the
world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by
Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and
declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free
and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to
the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and
the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and
that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War,
conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all
other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for
the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection
of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our
Fortunes and our sacred Honor.