Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Happy Blogoween

There has been a minor controversy in the feminist blogosphere about the sluttification of Halloween costumes for women. See, for example, Twisty's Slut-o-ween Report and accompanying comments.

I, on the other hand, am simply grateful for the wealth of fun costume ideas. Next year, I'm totally going as sexy 1900s steel conglomerate tycoon!

(Click below on the big white square or whatever it looks like to you or else what I just said will make no sense whatsoever.)

Monday, October 30, 2006

Sometimes You Win

...and this is actually one of those times.

Last week I chipped in to bid on a gift package to benefit the Dallas Women's Foundation. When we split the package up I had a choice between free tickets to the Dallas Theater Center or a $50 gift certificate to Dave & Buster's. I was temporarily overcome with a mad desire to get drunk and play skee-ball for useless trinkets, so I picked the gift certificate. However, remembering Holly's effusive post about DTC's production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, I realized I made the wrong choice and started kicking myself.

But! Lo and behold! Just a couple of days later fictionfiend comes through with a lovely invitation to attend the show "FOR FREE" tomorrow night. Isn't it wonderful how things work out sometimes?

I wonder if she enjoys drunken skee-ball...

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Live from the Gypsy Tea Room...

The Decemberists!


via Unruly Duckling's cell phone...

I had a great time at the show last night even though they didn't play very many of my favorites. A lot of the songs came from their new album "The Crane Wife" which I don't have yet. However, I enjoyed the new stuff more than I thought I would. I tend to get really attached to one certain album of any particular band, and then I'm all disappointed with everything else they do, but The Decemberists are one of a few bands that I consistently like.

The crowd was also very cool. No one jostled me or inappropriately Woo!ed in my ear throughout the show. No one puked on themselves within my sight. And, most importantly, at no point was I in fear of being quite literally trampled to death by hormonally over-charged teenagers. These are the experiences I have come to associate with concert-going, which is why I usually avoid it like the plague. Way to go, Decemberist fans! We totally rock and have a well-developed understanding of socially acceptable behavior at a public gathering! Woo hoo!

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Ohio

The Husband and I had a delightful trip to Ohio a couple of weeks ago. The main reason for the trip was to visit my Sister-in-Law and her new baby - my nephew. Yay! I'm finally an auntie. Poo! The little bugger lives in another state.

Anyway, when we first got there, we headed up to a little resort town on Lake Erie. It was off-season, so everything was very quiet, but the weather was perfect - cool and sunny. We took a ferry over to South Bass Island to check out a small town called Put-In-Bay.







When we got to the island, we realized that the town was on the other side of the island from the ferry dock (the only ferry running in the off-season), so we rented bikes and rode into town. We rode down the street you can see running through this picture. We started quite a ways past the small airstrip in the upper-rightish corner, followed the zig-zag, and entered town somewhere off to the lower-right side of the pic.



While we were there, we visited the Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial.













Here's the town and the bay from waaayy up high on the memorial.





After we were done tooling around the island on our mondo-crappy rental bikes, we drove to the very charming Marblehead Lighthouse.



The next day we took the scenic route down to Athens, stopping at Mohican State Park for lunch and a quick hike.



The first full day we were in Athens we went on an "urban hike" and wandered all around Uptown and the campus of Ohio University. For dinner we went to a really cool hippie co-op Tex Mex restaurant, furthering my quest to eat Tex Mex in as many corners of the world as possible.

The next day we took a scenic train ride with the cutest, most chubby-cheeked baby EVAR!

On our last day in Ohio, we stopped at Hocking Hills State Park, which was unbelievably gorgeous.









And then we came home and my cat's ass exploded.

The End

Friday, October 20, 2006

Warning: Too Disgusting for Anyone to Read

I've been gone a long time, getting ready to go out of town, being out of town, swabbing my cat's ruptured anal gland with peroxide. Oh yeah, I've been getting alot of not-so-HOTT anal action (sorry to disappoint you perverted Googlers out there).

When The Husband and I came home from our trip late last Friday night, Dizzy seemed fine. But over the weekend, she got punier and punier. She just lied in the same place all day. On Monday when I got home from work, she didn't even get up to come see me. But later that night, she made her way downstairs whining and wanting to be held. That's when I discovered the gaping wound on her backside.

Of course I freaked out and called my dad immediately. (He's a vet. I don't call him on a regular basis to update him on the state of my cat's butt.) He said it sounded like an abscess from the way I described it, which is usually caused by a bite. I started wondering what the hell C (the wonderful, trusty, volunteer cat sitter. Thanks, C!) was doing biting my poor cat on the ass while I was out of town.

I took off work on Tuesday to take Dizzy to the vet, and it turned out that her anal gland had gotten infected, which is probably why she was feeling so crappy, and then it ruptured, letting out the infection and making Dizzy feel better, even though it looks utterly gross.

In addition to the butt-swabbing, I also have to give Dizzy a pill once a day. Not to minimize Sophie Sealegs's nail-trimming accomplishments, but I have managed to give the cat her pill unassisted and with no major injuries on either of our parts. The next challenge: to brush her teeth on a regular basis.