Saturday Sniffles, Swamps, and Sven

Waking up last Saturday with the beginning of a runny nose, I knew the best thing I could all weekend was rest. I spent most of the day, dozing in front of the tv, getting up only to eat or check blogs. Saturday night I caught a movie on Channel 26, WCIU, an independent Chicago station. Swamp Thing!

I had never seen the original movie from 1982, but had loved the 1990-1993 series on USA. Swamp Thing was an adaptation from a comic book series, starring Adrienne Barbeau and Louis Jordan, written and directed by Wes Craven.

Saturday nights on WCIU (The U!) also means it's time for Svengoolie!

Each week, Svengoolie hosts an airing of a (usually) classic cult horror show. Below is a brief description of his show:

Chicago's long-time King of Horror Flicks - Svengoolie -- opens his coffin for another frightful feature film! Along with musical sidekick Doug Graves, the talking skull Tombstone and assorted other nuts and dolts, Svengoolie provides comic relief between segments of the movie, with musical and commercial parodies, skits and jokes. Plus, segments of the movie are often presented in "Svensurround," with Svengoolie adding sound effects and re-dubbed dialogue!

Check out his page on the WCIU website.

You can also check out the whole history of the original Svengoolie, Son of Svengoolie, and the current Svengoolie HERE.

Thank you for all the well wishes. I'm feeling much better now. Unfortunately, I've been trying to get caught up from not reading emails for four days, sorting through my mail from four days, and trying to keep caught up on blogs (omg I have too many to follow), there aren't enough hours in the day left for me to post to my own blog! Ack!!!!!

I had something in mind for a post after Saturday night (cryptic comment left for Wife O Riley) but just have not had the time to snag the pictures I want or to even start the post. Toss in some noisy neighbors that kept me up half the night, and you start to see my problem.

Now, I can't ask everyone to stop posting (omg the blog withdrawal that would sweep the internet) so I just ask you to be patient as I try to get to a place where I have a little time to put my next post together. Thank you all, and happy blogging!

I've been home sick since Friday night, didn't even go to work today.

This cold I got is a doozy! I hope to be back blogging soon. If I can just keep from blowing my nose or sneezing for more than 5 minutes!

*Wipes down everyone's monitors with a disinfectant*

Bang Shang-A-Lang by The Archies

I saw this over on Wife O Riley's blog this morning, and knew this was one I wanted to do myself. Now that I've recovered from IntenseGuy's, Punkn's and LadyStyx's posts, I can work on mine. For those that don't know, I have quite an eclectic collection of music, so who knows what will pop up for me.

1. Put your music on shuffle (iPod/mp3 player, winamp, use what ya got)

2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer

3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS

4. I think we're all not tagging people, we're just having fun with it.


IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OK" YOU SAY?
Pretty Maids All In A Row - Eagles (I guess technically I'm a maid...an old maid)

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Won't Go Home Without You - Maroon 5 (who likes to go home alone?)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY?
Jamaica Farewell - Harry Belafonte (I need a guy to be able to say goodbye to him)

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
I Got Stung - Elvis Presley (I did get stung, by the Rhino virus...I hate colds)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Eyes On Me - Celine Dion (Stop watching me! It makes me nervous!)

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Vanishing - Maria Carey (Some days I do feel like vanishing, that no one would miss me)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Play Me - Neil Diamond (I can't think of any of my friends that like to be played)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
There Are Such Things - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra (Such things as me thinking? Only when I have to, and my nose isn't dripping)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Goodnight Moon - Jack Ingram (Hmmmm)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Beer or Gasoline - Chris Young (Between the two, I choose beer)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Comin' Home - Eric Clapton (Yeah, I'd like to feel like I "came home")

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LOVE?
Let's Face the Music and Dance - Diana Krall (I love to dance, don't you?)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Crazy On You - Heart (If they were still here, I don't think they'd believe I was crazy)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Sunset - Rankin Family (too bad this is a breakup song, not exactly what I'd pick for a wedding dance)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Use Me - Hootie and the Blowfish (Maybe my body will be donated to science?)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Look to the Rainbow - Barry Manilow (This would apply to AK, although I do appreciate the prettier things in nature)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
It's Not Over - Jonny Lang (It's not? When did it start? Did I miss something?)

WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Don't Tell Me You Do - Rockapella (Another break up song, I guess the worst could be finding your true love and not having them return your feelings)

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Go To Hell - Dolly Parton (If that's where I'm headed, I still have a lot of work to do here on Earth before I die. Or I could just hang out with Dean Winchester [;-)])

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Tell Me More - Michelle Wright (Was I too demanding?)

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Happy - Natasha Bedingfield (Being happy leads to laughter, right?)

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Without You - Air Supply (I would cry if I lost my blogging friends, you're all so wonderful)

WHAT SCARES YOU MOST?
Time - Pink Floyd (Seems we never have enough of it)

DOES ANYONE LOVE YOU?
Shades of Grey - Billy Joel (So does this mean someone sorta loves me? Or that I'm only sorta loveable? Or am I only loved when I'm wearing grey?)

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Take Your Whiskey Home - Van Halen (Yeah, we all should have taken our whiskey home, instead of ummm, where did we take it?)

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Don't Waste Your Time - Kelly Clarkson (Not sure what to make of that one)

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Bang Shang-A-Lang - Archies

How sad is it when the recipient makes her own award? I think I should be embarassed.

To LadyStyx (maker of said award) and to QueenieJeannie, the Inspiring Comment Award, for inspiring me to get up off my ass and clean my door. Thank goodness LadyStyx didn't go looking for a picture of an ass...

Better?

I don't have an award to hand out, couldn't make one even if I tried, so this will have to do. Instead of an "Inspired Comment" award, I nominate LadyStyx and QueenieJeannie for "Inspiring Comment" awards. They inspired me to take a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser out of the closet and use it on my door. And I didn't just use it on the area by the doorknob and turkey, no I used it on the WHOLE door! So the whole thing is clean. Thank you for inspiring me to get off my ass and do something.

I received an email with a bunch of cartoons about getting old, these were the best of them:

This first one is a circle, divided into segments, smallest segment is eating, then about a fourth of the circle is working, then just over a fourth is sleeping, and the rest, about two-thirds of the circle is Looking for things I had just a minute ago.

An old lady answers the door, and "Death" is there. The conversation goes like this:

Death: Are you Mrs. Edna P. Dawkins?
Lady: Yes.
Death: I am Death.
Lady: That's alright sonny, I'll just talk real loud!
Death drops the sickle that's in his hand, then puts his hand up to his face and says, "This is gonna be a tough one."

Saturday afternoon, after doing a few things around the house, I decided it was time to put my summer door mat away. And since I would be pulling stuff out of the closet to get to where the mat goes, I might as well pull out my Thanksgiving decorations while I was at it. Keep in mind, the summer mat sat on the carpeting by the bed all through Halloween, and the Halloween decorations never made it out of the closet. So for me to bring out the Thanksgiving decorations is a major accomplishment. And it will take me forever to show you all my "turkey day" decorations, so let's get started.

The little turkey that I hang on the inside knob of my apartment door. Please disregard the dirty door, I know I need to clean that.

Here's the bear/pilgrim/turkey that is on my coffee table. Is it a bear? Is it a Pilgrim? Is it a turkey? Or could it be a Bepilkey? Whatever you call it, isn't it CUTE?

Here are two bears dressed like Indians, ready to join (or fight) the bepilkey above for turkey, or pheasant, or whatever they really ate at the first harvest/feast of thanks.

That's it! That's all of my Thanksgiving decorations. I'm sorry it took so long, I didn't really mean to bore you with hours of decoration pictures.

For those interested, I've started a new blog. I welcome contributions, ideas, suggestions, comments, let me have it!

My New Blog

Sorry, AK I'm sure the flight home for the Nittany Lions football team will not be fun. Iowa Hawkeyes beat formerly unbeaten Penn State 24-23 in a surprising upset in College Football.

From the AP: Penn State is perfect no more, its hopes for giving coach Joe Paterno another national title given a sharp and surprising kick by Iowa. Daniel Murray hit a 31-yard field goal with a second left and Iowa rallied to stun the third-ranked Nittany Lions 24-23, likely dashing Penn State's hopes for a spot in the BCS national title game. The Big Ten title and a Rose Bowl berth are the Nittany Lions' main goals now. Paterno's third national title is a long shot. For Iowa, it was the Hawkeyes' first win over a top five team since 1990, when they beat Illinois 54-28.

If I had a son, and still lived in Iowa, I'd want him to have this for his bedroom. Heck, I'd put it in my own bedroom!

Does anybody out there have any memory of the reason given for the establishment of the Department of Energy during the Carter Administration?

Anybody? Anything? No? (Some of you may remember back that far. Me, I was 8 years old in '77, so I can't say I remember it.)

Didn't think so.

Bottom line ... we've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency the reason for which not one person who reads this can remember.

Ready?

It was very simple, and at the time everybody thought it very appropriate. The Department of Energy was instituted 8-04-77 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. (Actually that was the Federal Energy Office that was supposed to do that by 1980, but when Carter became President, he decided to put everything energy related under one Cabinet agency. This includes nuclear, oil, coal, etc.)

Hey, pretty efficient, huh?

And now it's 2008, 31 years later, and the budget for this necessary department is at $24.2 billion per year, they have 16,000 federal employees, and approximately 100,000 contract employees and look at the job they have done!

Ah yes, good ole bureaucracy. And now we are going to turn the banking system over to them?

God Help us.

Below are some various pictures I've taken in the past week or so. This first one is a tree that turns red like this every Autumn. It's so beautiful, I look forward to it every year. As you can see, some of the trees are bare, some are barely changing, and some are in full color. Autumn definitely seems to like doing things in stages around here.

Next are the trees to the left off my balcony. As you can see, some trees are bare, one has changed to yellow, and the big one in the background has hardly started to change.


This is some type of berry tree that also turns a lovely orange every Autumn. It is wide enough to drape across parts of three parking spaces. When Autumn comes, and those berries start falling, those are three spaces I will not park my car. I learned the hard way the mess those berries leave on your hood.

These are some trees at work, that just last week, maybe Thursday or Friday were still very green. By Monday, when I came back to work, the tops had started to change, it was that fast. If the sun comes out tomorrow (I feel like Annie) I'll try to grab a picture of what they look like now. The hard part is getting the right angle with the sun.

Here's more of the trees at work. As you can see, the ones overhanging the drive to the parking garage are still green, but the one in the center is starting to change. Again, this was taken last week, and now the leaves have started to fall off.

I don't know if this is the same kind of Pampas Grass that Punkn blogged about, but it looked similar enough for me to take a picture. What do you think, Punkn?

And last but not least, I saw this while filling my tank with gas last Sunday. A dead WTF (Whistling TrackFoot) Alien, left on the side of the lot, not even being given a decent burial. I suspect foul play because the blinking orange eye is missing, along with the feet. Who would commit such a heinous crime?

This squirrel must be a Republican, lol

Power Outage

Favorite mosquito or least annoying mosquito?

Happy Birthday Intenseguy!

Two of your most favorite things in the world, just for you! Some orange sugar-free jello, and a squirrel to share it with. Don't let the squirrel and his OCHA friends eat all the jello before we get there for the party!

I added a poll to the right, for those Americans that read my blog. The choices are in alphabetical order, so no one can complain about the order. I would have put this up earlier, but I just thought of it. Your answers are anonymous, so I won't know how each of you voted. I'm just curious to see what the results are.

For those Americans that read this, don't forget to go vote tomorrow!

Check out this link for a musical tribute to all our Campaignin' Friends. Make sure you have your speakers turned on. It's cute and it's non-partisan.

Wow! An award, for me! Thanks Iggy, author and Superior Scribbler in his own right, over at IntenseGuy for awarding this to me. He has a way of making some of the most ordinary things sound interesting and funny.


*Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.

*Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.

*Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.

*Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

*Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.


I was able to successfully take care of all the rules except for the first one. Five bloggers? Hmmm, I know Iggy's not available. Tori isn't either. Neither is Jess, Marmite, Wife 'O Riley, AK, Lainie, punkn via Sugar Bush. So that leaves........YOU!

Instead of trying to pick five bloggers, I nominate this to all the other readers of my blog who haven't already been nominated: LadyStyx, Karla, punkn not via Sugar Bush, and anyone else that I'm forgetting, because I know there's someone.

You can post the award on your blog, you can forward it if you know of other bloggers that are deserving and haven't won yet. Or you can just say thanks and ignore it. I won't mind, honest!

When I started blogging, I wasn't sure what I would write about. Believe me, my life just isn't that interesting! After closing my first blog and starting over with a new one, I have found that it is actually quite enjoyable. I can post crazy stuff, silly stuff, political stuff (even though not everyone might agree with my positions), lots of pictures, whatever I want. I can make it as personal or as light-hearted as I want it to be. Thank you to all my readers for their support, I do this for all of us.

One new blogger that I just recently started lurking at, is Dorkys Ramos. She's a great blogger that I just recently discovered via comments left for Iggy. She blogs at Dry As Toast. Her first blog I read was about trying to navigate the Philly subway system to get to the parade for the World Champion Phillies. Now, being a Chicago Cubs fan, I can honestly say I wish it had been the Cubs winning the Series instead of the Phillies. But at least it was the NL team that won. So, congratulations to the Phillies and to all Philly phans. From what I've read on her blog, I'll have to stop lurking and post some comments to let her know she has a new reader.

If Barack Hussein Obama gets elected President of the United States:

Tori, this is a picture of the cover of The New Yorker magazine. It has Barack Obama and his wife Michelle on the cover, standing the Oval Office of The White House. Barack is in full Muslim dress, and Michelle is in camouflage with an AK-47 on her back. In the fireplace is the US Flag, being burned, and above the fireplace is a picture of Osama bin Laden.

WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD?

BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for change! The chicken wanted change!

JOHN McCAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

SARAH PALIN: The chicken had to cross the road because he was not able to find a bridge. Alaskans do not build bridges to nowhere. If he wanted a bridge, he'd have to build it himself.

HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure right from Day One that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either against us or for us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his current problems before adding new problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2008, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken2008. This new platform is much more stable and will never reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?