My apartment smelled of freshly chopped onions and baking bread earlier… now it’s nag champa.

Maybe going to swing by –

Discount Train & Hobby
211 E. Oakland Park Blvd.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33334

tomorrow… look for more terrain and paints to play with…perhaps find a way to prevent the odd Newt-hair from landing on freshly painted stuff. I can Newt-proof… but his hair turns up in the darndest places. I’m hoping that they have some decent o-scale models and maybe some more mixable acrylic paints.

“Stupidity” author busted for trying to pick up teen girl online – “We can’t be lovey-dovey in public,” stupidity expert James F. Welles explained to his online friend. “Bottom line, I’m committing a crime.” The author of “The Story of Stupidity and Understanding Stupidity” thought he was chatting with a 15-year-old girl, but it was actually a 40-year-old male detective at the keyboard. (Palm Beach Post)

Hm! Rachel’s now a successful photographer and has been shown internationally. I’m delighted… she’s quite a talent, and I’m sure she deserves the kudos. I still have some of her slides here…maybe I’ll scan them in at work and post them here, if we still have the capacity. I haven’t heard from her since ’98ish. It looks like she’s got a nice little life building with a guy / pet / home / marriage.

Newt shook off his “parachute-bag” just before the piccie was taken. He was on a big tear around the house, with the crinkly-toy in tow. you can see it starting to float to the ground behind him.

You are walking down a cracked inner city sidewalk. It is morning, slowly warming into a sunny day. You look up and yonder along the cement you see someone walking toward you. You are surprised to have perceived someone so far away. But, you keep walking, expecting nothing more than a friendly nod as you pass. He gets closer. You see he has a slight limp and shuffling gait, though he seems to be moving quickly. He is closer–a torn and stained suit jacket with tattered pants and bare feet. Closer–a mottled green and purple face, and slightly yellowed skin pinched back along his cheekbones. You and he are fifty yards apart. You, and an undead mockery of what was once alive are twenty yards apart. You approach on the notably empty path, no traffic on the road to the side. You nod. He waves, a pinky finger hanging loosely from a broken knuckle, and passes.

..

Brother’s a sleepyhead. I’m flyin’ solo to the ‘mat.

cool thing about tadpole shrimp on discovery. Super-Sea Monkeys!

off to make clean clothes, sheets and towels! until later, dear journal!

The Poetry Searcher – you can search by poem name, author, century* and country (It’s still growing, but will soon be a lovely reference site)

Hee hee… I like this guy’s custom clix on ebay… especially the caterpillar. Converted into Alice in Wonderland. I think that he could’ve spent a little more time on the Cheshire cat, though.

I’m just waiting for 10 to roll around so I can call my bro, and then trot off to the ‘mat. We’re going to send a little quality time together while doing chores. 🙂

Well, groovy. Got my new check card finally… now I just have to wait while paypal takes a day or three to deposit a little into my account,

Traffic’s heavy tonight… I’ll probably hold off on scoping out the haunted tunnel until Sunday, late. I wonder how the other spook-hunts are going this evening?

Someone’s burning something made of a fragrant wood outside… the air smells nice. I hear a light rain just starting, too… or maybe it’s just wind through the trees.

Taking a break, and kicking back. Tomorrow, my only duty is to do laundry…I’m going to try to get in by 10 and out of there by noon-ish.

Off to relax and chill. Nighters, dear journal.

dancer

Smacking crabs with a yo-yo is a good way to start the day. Froggy-fly eating is good too.

Friday, again. Was Halloween already over a week ago? Are the ACC expo and Thanksgiving really looming up ahead so soon? That Means that not so far away lies Christmas… the start of a new year, and my birthday. This year hasn’t totally screamed by, but it is speeding along at a good clip right now. I’m still stunned that Newt’s three, and that I’ve known my sweetheart for more than two… it seems like I’ve had them in my life for longer and shorter than that at the same time.

Newton J. Underfoot doesn’t like frosted cheerios, but he’ll happily scarf up the milk-dregs. He doesn’t go for the Honey-nut afters, though. He’s in “Trip Scotto Up” mode. Nearly knocked me off of my pins twice this morning.

More linkie-doodoo

Alex Toth has a personal site… interesting to see the guy responsible for the art of space ghost / herculoids / super friends talking about how he draws handwritten and scanned onto a web page.

Killer Squirrels on the loose. – Featuring Dr. Booty of Knutsford.

Zoological Bloopers and Practical Jokes. Strange Science is a great little page of missteps in the classification and illustration of exotic and extinct animals. It’s hard to classify all the links; some are dinosaur goofs, some are just poor depictions of animals from the time before photographs. Most are fascinating. Folks thinking that elephant skulls were cyclops remains is an interesting observation. I didn’t even know that there were ellies in the Mediterranean.

O.J. Simpson’s bad driving habits and legal problems extend beyond the Earth. Eschewing a white Bronco for a speedboat, the ex-football star and acquitted murder suspect was on Wednesday–for a brief time, at least–a wanted man for terrorizing a bunch of manatees in the waters off the coast of Florida.

Cats wearing hats. No way would Newt put up with that for more than .00005 seconds.

I feel really drained after today’s work. I’m not going to linger on the stupid stuff… politics, ever politics.

Good things –

Dexter Thursday, with special guest star Bailey!

Two badly lit pictures of them running in the hall. 800×600, so behind the cut they go… pooches!

A gift! printable paper rulers!

According to haunted Fort Lauderdale…My Tunnel has a ghost… this weekend I’m going to go down the pedestrian walk area, and take some pictures. (That particular ‘haunted Fort Lauderdale’ guy is a little bit of a crackpot… lens flare does not equal ghostie, in my mind, anyhow)
the tunnel… I don’t see any ghosts there

A day full of uses of the poo wand for my sweetie and me but had a nice time, despite the tech-struggles… perhaps even because of them.

I’ve determined that my tools at work are woefully inadequate, at least for me. Corel photo paint and Corel draw 8 not only aren’t cross compatible, but they both are dung-filled doughnuts of despair as far as tools go.

Give me Photoshop, Photopaint, or the GIMP any day over the Corel nightmare. I’ve sent the files to work with home, but I think instead I’ll work on them with proper tools tomorrow… I’m going to install the gimp there…my only element remaining is to make a decent banner graphic. (It’s actually going to be the background, but it’ll be at the top of each page, all banner-like.

The scent of synthetic ambergris is on my mind and in my mental directory.

A good hump day. Tomorrow, she is Thursday, yes?

Three great words/phrases of power.

1. Please
2. Thank you
3. I’m sorry.

If I hear people use any of those with sincerity, my brain clicks into uber-helper/friendly mode. I like to think that I’m normally pretty nice, anyhow… but those are the magic words. Watch me jump to action.

wow! The piggie amendment made the cruel site of the day! The ban passed, by the way.

Koko’s got a CD coming out? Didn’t they know about apple nipple hungry?

I want just Black Manta and the Sub. Aquaman… I wonder who I could give him to? I’d like to trade him for Will Magnus. Is it me, or does Lead (Who should have a Pb as his logo) look a little sissified? Everyone else seems true to form. This Manta is pretty cool, too.

It is really beautiful weather-wise outside. Maybe 72 degrees? Just downright nice.

I dreamt last night that I ran a turtle-powered farm/ mill/ bakery. They were used as *very slow*, but strong beasts of burden… pulling plows and carts full of some sort of grain. There was a large geodesic dome storage area, and a water wheel powered millhouse by a fresh water river full of well-rounded stones along with a “petting zoo” area where folks could feed the off-duty turtles apples right off of the tree. The bread we made was a very good seller… we couldn’t keep it in stock. The “secret ingredient” was sea salt, and apparently it made all the difference in the world. Apparently the Amish thought we were especially good, and wanted to trade all sorts of quilts and furniture for our wares, too. I don’t recall if we used Amish milk in the production. We did have juice there too.. but I don’t know if it was made on site or brought in. (I figure a cider mill would work with the waterwheel, and apple tree but I don’t recall in the dream.)

Of course, I had to do a search for turtle bread, and found this bread machine recipe… sounds pretty darn good, actually. It’s been a little while since I’ve made my own bread. I may try it later on down the line, but it sounds pretty hefty… a slice of bread that has more calories than a can of soda! I’ve not used sucanat in cooking before… I imagine splenda might be an alternative? This calls for more research, later.

Turtle Bread
1 1/3 cups water
13 vegan caramels, unwrapped
3 1/2 cups flour
3 tablespoons dry, powdered soy or rice milk
2 tablespoons sucanat
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 teaspoons bread machine yeast
1/3 cup vegan chocolate chips
2/3 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Place all ingredients except the chocolate chips and pecans into the bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select the sweet or basic/white cycle. Use medium or light crust color. Do not use the delay cycle. Add the chocolate chips and pecans at the beep signal or 5 minutes before the last kneading cycle ends. Cool on a wire rack. Makes a two pound loaf (16 slices).

Per slice: 195 calories 5 grams fat

From the grab bag –

a treasury of macramé owls My brother and I both got macramé owls as kids from Sally Brunot. We were quite young, and thought that they were cool as all get out. Come to think of it, Over at Sally and Bill’s House, I encountered my first copy of playboy. My Brother’s owl looked a bit like the leftmost one on page five, and mine looked like the leftmost one on page seven.

Speaking of pretend animals… these *non-taxidermy* mock-animals are awesome. (the other stuff on the site is also quite good)

New Kitty Cartoon… Outtatheway – The vines That Tabby needs an orthodontist. Featuring a little Newtie mosh-action.

Wasn’t the googleism thing a meme already?

I especially like the last four lines, and “she sounds like Charlton Heston”

Won an auction for more figures… . $18 total for 66 little plastic guys. (plus $5 shipping) for – (each one is three of the same figure, in varying strengths)

Dwarven Fuser,Imp,Werewolf,Cave Archer,Cave Butcher,Flesh Golem, Soaring Crossbowman, Soaring Gunner, Whirling Golem,Berserker, Dwarven Mounted Fuser, Dwarven Ram, Dwarven Rotary Fuser, Shelled One (rock lobster!), Standard Bearer, Wild Mountain Troll, Deadwood Golem, Demolishing Ape (munKEEE!), Lizard Man, Wereboar, Werecat,Weresabertooth

The ones I already had a few of will be good trade-bait for Dave…and maybe Dan. I think I hooked him last time.

addendum – Nimrods at the Fort Lauderdale remote office changed the pcanywhere password, thus they get no November data and will suffer perditions flames from Jenjen in the morning because of it. I wash my hands of the whole affair. One day they’ll learn that they’re not allowed to mess with stuff like that. (Or the big guns will stop populating the offices with mouth-breathers) I’m glad that it wasn’t the Quebec office! 🙂 At least this one is only a few miles up the road.

long day at work today… some brief bright spots, but overall the same old thing. Island boy left early to do his first voting as an American citizen… very cool, indeed…but Kev didn’t register in time. I’m pretty disappointed in that, because he’s the big example of the “Good American” at work. Ah well.. I don’t think that Santie or Chupa or anyone else of note voted. I forgot to ask Sappho, Riker and the Pamster…but none of them strike me as votey-types.

I look forward to seeing what happens when Island Boy gets called on for Jury duty!

Newt sez, Vote for Dukes! A vote for Dukey is a vote for cool orange cats everywhere.

Cool singing horses. Safe for work, but it’s got sound.

Coca Cola is releasing a Yoo-Hoo-like substance called Choglit…. possibly the dopiest name for a drink this decade. Looks dangerously similar to a Mr. Pibb or Dr. Pepper can. Careful mixing them up!

Put my votes in all nice and neat-like. I’m actually more enthusiastic about the amendments than the candidates. a lot of negative campaigning has been going on the TV lately, and I’ll be happy to see those commercials brought to an end. A pleasant surprise is that I seem to have gotten less political junk mail this year. Maryland has a neato-named Governor candidate (though he won’t win, because he’s a libertarian, rather than the ‘big two’) SPEAR LANCASTER. He sounds like a cool private eye, or an angry white savage, raised by a lost tribe of javelin-throwing natives. Spear. That’s an odd name… a weapon. I’d heard of Dirk, Lance, Glaive, Pike and Mace…. am I forgetting any? I can’t say as I know anyone named Halberd, Flail or Quarrel… I suppose Gun names don’t really count, because they’re generally named for a person, not the other way around. Smith & Wesson… Is Colt named for a person, or just a horse?

“What’s green, has eight legs, and would kill you if it dropped on you from out of a tree?”

“A pool table!”

Nyuk nyuk nyuk nyuk!

Newt was fairly vocal this morning…not sure what set him off, but he was willing to carry on a conversation for a little while. “Mer!” “What’s that?” “Mer!” “Are you sure?” “Mer!” “The Blue one?” “Mer! Mer!” “Ok… what about the monkeys?”.. with that, Newt just cuddled back with in bed… I may never know the answer to the Monkey question. I’ve worn him out this morning. He’s now purring peacefully atop monitor two as I type this… he’s more fond of the screens, as they’re warmer than the futon, and he can play with me more easily when in front of me, rather than behind.


I should pick up a new web cam. This one’s output is pretty dang fuzzy.

I’m still not terribly hungry, even after yesterday’s semi-fast. I wouldn’t mind some waffles, though…maybe I’ll treat myself to something tasty at lunch. I’m not sure who’d deliver waffles, but IHOP would be nice about now. I could really go for one of my sweetie’s apples in the bowl on her desk, too.

I’m reading a book by C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity. Superb. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a good, non-predatory evangelical insight about the faith. The reading can be heady, but well worth some of the thinking required.

As I mentioned earlier, here’s me lost in a cave, and some cave-drawings. It’s an elephant, but the shaman-guy is wearing elk-antlers.

I wonder lately if I escape being called sir because I’ve got long hair. If I got a wiffle-cut (no, I’m not planning on it) tomorrow… would suddenly, most strangers call me ‘sir’? Right now, most often, I’m referred to without title… “Excuse me” or “May I help you” or “Yes/No”… and I’m sort of glad of that. I’ve seen folks use the term, and it appears sort of weird.

I do get called mister occasionally, when a little kid wants to ask me something. I like that I’m approachable by kids.

Speaking of which, the almond joys are officially gone. My trick or treating brother assisted in my consumption of mass quantities over the last week.

It’s too late in the night to make a hot supper… I think a bowl of cheerios will do the trick. I just realized… I didn’t eat lunch today! Dang… how did that happen? I’m not that hungry, probably because I drank about a gallon and a half of water from the cooler over the course of today. I’ve only had cereal today… breakfast and supper. Well, that works. I’ll have some real food tomorrow though. Just reflecting on not having had any makes me hungrier.

Before I hit the sack, a fun link… bcdb: it’s an imdb just for cartoons!

Nighters, dear journal.