A blonde goes to her local pet store in search of an "exotic" pet.

As she looks about the store, she notices a box FULL of frogs. The sign says:

SEX FROGS
Only $20 each!
Comes with complete instructions

The girl excitedly looks around to see if anybody's watching her. She whispers softly to the man behind the counte, "I'll take one!" As the man packages the frog, he quietly says to her, "Just follow the instructions." The blonde nods, grabs the box, and is quickly on her way home. As soon as she closes the door to her apartment, she opens the instructions and reads them very carefully. She does exactly what is specified: 1. Take a shower. 2. Splash on some nice perfume. 3. Slip into a very sexy nightie. 4. Crawl into bed and place the frog down beside you, and allow the frog to do what he has been trained to do. She then quickly gets into bed with the frog and to her surprise........NOTHING happens!

The blonde is very disappointed and quite upset at this point. She re-reads the instructions and notices at the bottom of the paper it says, "If you have any problems or questions, please call the pet store." So, she calls the pet store.

The man says, "I'll be right over."

Within minutes, the man is ringing her doorbell. The blonde welcomes him in and says, "See, I've done everything according to the instructions. The damn frog just sits there!" The man...looking very concerned, picks up the frog, stares directly into it's eyes and sternly says:

"LISTEN TO ME!! I'm only going to show you how to do this ONE...MORE...TIME!!!"

Following are a bunch of pictures I took today. First up is Charlie:

He must have been mighty hungry. There was a lot of digging going on in the snow on my deck. I hadn't fed the birds in several days, so there wasn't anything for him to steal right from the feeder.

He has a nice bushy tail. The other morning I saw one running across my parking lot that had only about half a tail. Made me wonder what happened. Did another animal almost get him? Poor Charlie...

On my way back inside from some shopping, I looked up and noticed this chunk of ice hanging over the edge of our building. With temperatures into the mid 30's, it was melting and dripping onto our stoop. I just hope it doesn't start sliding off and land on someone.

Last night on the way home, I stopped at my local Tiger Direct warehouse because I saw they had LCD monitors on sale for $129.99. This particular model was listed as originally $289, so I figured saving $160 was pretty good.

Samsung is a good name and the reviews for it were all very good. It was quite easy to set up.

Here it is, all set up and working just fine. Now I don't have to deal with that honkin' CRT Monitor on my desk! That will be going to the computer recycling place very soon.

This became effective Jan 1, 2009 in all states. The National Highway Safety Council has done extensive testing on a newly designed seatbelt. Initial results show that accidents can be reduced by as much as 45% when the belt is properly installed. Correct installation is illustrated below:

(If you click on the picture, it should open up so you can see the animation.)

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Wife Of Riley for this award! I'm not sure what I did to deserve it, in fact I went back through all the previous blogs that it came from trying to find out it's meaning, so I could understand it better. Here is what I found:

This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his or her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values every day.

The rules to follow are:

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.


15??? Really? 15??? That's like every one that follows me! So instead of listing them all out, if you follow me you are entitled to this award. I know a few of you have already received this from Becky, so I won't hold you down and force you to blog about it a second time. But it is a really cool looking award, who wouldn't want it? As for those values, I'll have to think on that a bit more.

Follow-up to my very early morning post...




I stopped by the management office on the way home, and was told my upstairs neighbors are moving out in March! I'm starting the countdown!

Wooooooooooo Hooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can ya tell I'm happy???????

Yeah, I kind of already knew I was sane, but this proves it!

Your result for The Crazy Test...

You're sane!

You scored 8 Sane, 4 Insane, 4 Crazy, 5 Weird and 3 NeedHelp!

You might survive. Just don’t close your eyes.

Deep down inside: you are confused about circles.

Your great abiding passion is: payday

Your innermost fear is: payday

Your greatest strength is: clear thinking

Your deepest regret is: politics

Your most sincere hope is: world peace

Your best quality is: having your feet on the ground

Your weakest trait is: changing the oil

Your reason for living is: perfect teeth

When your house is in Uranus, you will find insight and wisdom. Watch for toothpicks on the 5^th. Prosperity is around the corner, but you must turn on the sprinklers before you leave. Look for a sign in the peanut butter on the 16^th.

When you grow up you will be the President.

You will have 2.3 children and 4 SUVs.

You will have a nice house in a neighborhood.

Your spouse’s name will be known.

You will enjoy a long and healthy life.

Everyone will love you.

Wisdom will follow you all of your days.

The Jack of Trades indicates your present. The Card of Death represents an ending. The Nine of Branches turned clockwise shows your future.

You were born in the year of the Lily Pond. Your Sign is Big. In your past life, you were alive. Your wrinkles tell the story of your life. Your destiny is unfolding.

Take The Crazy Test at HelloQuizzy

I'm sitting here at the computer at 12:13AM, when I should be sleeping. Tell that to the a**holes upstairs. Since 10pm they've been bouncing around like they want to put a hole through my ceiling, running up and down the stairs, pushing my buzzer along with theirs, and in case you haven't figure it out yet, being just plain annoying. Every time I put my head down to try to relax and go to sleep, BOOM, another pounce. What is it with people? With all the times I've complained to the management, you'd think they'd get the idea that they need to kind of hold it down at night. Maybe it's finally time to start looking for another place. A place where I have no one around me who is in the restaurant business. A place where I'M on the top floor, with no one above me. A place with no outside north wall! I have 10 months before I would have to be out of here, plenty of time to get packed and moved, right?

Blue Ridge Gal asked, and I will answer. Her questions are interesting in that she doesn't know me very well, and went back through my blog to find topics for questions. Hey, it's probably what I would have done!

So, here they are, BRG's questions, and my answers:

1. You have had a hard cold winter in the Chicago area and I see that not only have you had water in your apartment but also a parking lot full of water and ice. Has the weather taken a toll on your social life as far as getting out and seeing friends and family this winter or have you all just skated to and from one another's homes? Skates, sleds, or has it been e-mail only as far as staying in close touch with those you love?

Fortunately, there hasn't really been much water in my apartment since last February. But yes, my parking lot has had the worst of it, flooding in September and then again in December. In September, I was able to get out, barely, to go spend the day with my aunt. I was sort of adopted by that family years ago, and I go spend Sunday afternoons with her, have lunch, see a movie, that sort of thing. When it flooded again in December, I was completely cut off from my car, and was stranded at home all weekend. Of course, that's not a bad thing when there's football on tv! As far as the weather in general, it hasn't prohibited me from getting together with friends or family too much. One day I was stopping by a friend's house after work to pick up some candles I had ordered from her, and it just happened to be our first big snowstorm of the season. That was a very long drive home! Other than that, I really have no social life anymore, so staying at home after a storm or flood doesn't bother me too much.

2. Last November you had a post on your blog that mentioned Sunshine and Lemonade and a the prize of Betty Crocker Warm Delights? Are you a Betty Crocker type of gal that enjoys cooking and if so do you have a lot of cookbooks and which one is your favorite and why?

Too funny, because I so totally do not enjoy cooking! I mentioned the Warm Delights because of the giveaway Kat was having, and because I LOVE chocolate. I am a self-described chocoholic. I do know how to bake, and can do it if I need to, but I much prefer the premade stuff you just put on a cookie sheet and pop in the oven. Surprisingly I did keep some of my mother's cookbooks, but I think I've only looked at them maybe twice in 10 years? The joys of living alone and being a picky eater: Finding foods that don't have leftovers, that you'll eat and that don't require an hour in the kitchen.

3. You mentioned last October that one of the careers you would like to try would be to own a winery? If the opportunity arose to buy a winery, what state would you hope it was located in and why?

Well, I love wine. I belong to a wine club that sends me two bottles of wine every month. I thought it was a perfect way to get introduced and learn about the varieties and flavors of wine. As for the winery, I don't remember posting that, but if you say I did, I must have! If I were to own a winery, I'd probably want it to be in CA, so I would be closer to my family. They are always wanting me to come visit and asking me to move out there. I wish I could afford to live there, but I'd need to win the lottery first. But then I'd either need to hire some really knowledgeable people or teach my tongue really quickly how to tell the different flavors apart, because I can't tell tannins from oak flavorings.

4. One of your blogs is about keeping an eye on our government.... Without revealing your political party, tell us who you think was the most crooked politician to walk this earth.

There have been so many crooked politicians, and they seem to be multiplying every year. And Illinois has had our fair share of them, including our current and previous Governor. Without doing a lot of research on it, I would say the most crooked politician that I know of would have to be former President Nixon. He held the highest position in government in this country, and abused that position by authorizing tape recordings of the opposition. The smartest thing the House did was to impeach him and he was fortunately smart enough to resign. I could keep going here about all the different politicians that have done crooked things, but being the president, you're representing all of America, and should be above all that. The governors and senators, while important to our form of government, can be removed from office more easily and with less damage to our reputation and way of life than the president.

5. Would you ever run for a political position, if so, which one? Mayor, Governor, Senator, President? And why?

I'm not sure if I would want to run for a political office. Maybe a city council position, but definitely not senator or president. There are too many hands wanting things, and in today's world, unfortunately, you don't get anywhere without putting something in those hands, and getting support for them. I don't see enough people getting into government that believe in less involvement by government and more honesty in the officials to have me make a difference. I feel I'm better off out here, informing the masses, helping to tell those elected officials what the people want and to persuade them to make the right decisions for our future.

So there you have it, my answers to Blue Ridge Gal's questions.

Now it's your turn if you would like me to interview you just leave a comment and I will email you the questions!

Here's the directions:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Thank you Jeannie (and LadyStyx) for this wonderful award! I'm honored that you both thought enough of me and my blog to pass it along.

This blogging adventure has taken me someplace I never thought I'd go. I started out with a few online friends, blogging between us, to keep up with each other's lives. Slowly, my world has expanded and I've found some really beautiful blog friends.

When Blogger came out with the new widget to "follow" blogs, I thought it was great. Now I could keep track of the blogs I read, to know which entries were new. If I have gone to the trouble of "following" your blog, then I will read every post. And no Jeannie, I don't comment on every one, but I try to comment on most that I have an interest in. The point of following is to read and comment, so the blog owner knows you were there, right? What's the point of following if you aren't going to go read the blogs? I would rather have 5 loyal followers that commented than 14 followers that I never hear from.

My point is, I read blogs where I have found some connection with the author/owner/writer, whatever you want to call them. That's the kindred spirit I look for when selecting blogs to follow. If you are a follower of my blog, actually read my posts, and have not received this award yet, please take it with my blessings.

Matt over at My Side Of The Story tagged me to do this photo thing. Here are the rules as posted by him:

1. Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer.
2. Select the 4th picture in the folder.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag four people to do the same.

Before I actually select my picture, I have questions. I'm always asking questions. Do I only select photos that are jpg's? Should I count bmp's or gif's? Which picture depends on how the folder is organized. Is it in alphabetical order by file name, or by date received? It makes a difference in which picture I post.

I'll assume I should stick with only jpg files, and since my folder is normally in alphabetical order, I'll not change that for this exercise.

I like being difficult, lol.

Oh yeah, I don't have four folders, I only have one. Now if it had been music, I have WAY more than four folders. But pictures? Just one.

So now that the suspense has sufficiently built up, here's my fourth photo in my one folder:

No, this is not my house. I was taking a walk, must have been almost two years ago. It was summer time, as you can tell by the green grass and leaves on the trees. Down at the opposite end of my street was this house that was for sale, and had been for sale for many months. Since it wasn't selling, I thought I'd offer it up to anyone who read my blog. The asking price wasn't much: $429,000. Unfortunately, I had no takers, and the house stayed on the market for many more months. I'm not sure what happened; If it was bought, or foreclosed, but the for sale sign eventually disappeared.

Now I get to tag four people to do the same.

LadyStyx - I know you have LOTS of interesting pictures. (If they're all on Photobucket, then choose the fourth one from the fourth folder there)

IntenseGuy - Maybe it will be a picture of a Charlie?

Lainie - Because you don't included in things nearly enough.

ToriZ - I know you and Kelly take lots of pictures, so you should have a good story to tell.

Happy picture hunting!

Time to finally start getting caught up on some posts I've been needing to do...

This award is from LadyStyx. Thank you so much!!! I do my best to make my blog interesting, and it's nice to know my readers appreciate my effort.

Here are the rules:

1. Say a nice thing to a man in your life.
2. List at least six ways you measure success in your life.
3. Assign five other worthy blogs.

First, there is no "man" in my life. So does my boss count? I wished him a nice weekend before I left work today.

Second, I've had to really think about this. And think. And think. I've been thinking for almost two weeks! Can anyone imagine how difficult this is? Now that my brain hurts from it, here are my six (I hope) in no particular order:

- Getting my paycheck on the 15th and last day of the month. That means I still have a job, which is a big success considering my luck the last two downturns in the economy.

- Waking up every morning. That means I'm not dead, so that's success, right? Work with me people!!! I TOLD you this was hard!

- Getting awards from my bloggy friends. That means success at this pitiful attempt at blogging.

(Only three more, come on you can do it!)

- Seeing my credit card balance go down. That means I'm spending less, which is a good thing! Debt is bad!

- Having good friends to spend time with. Both IRL and online. A few of you I only talk to online, but hope to meet someday. I treasure all my friends and would miss them terribly if I lost them.

- Getting my taxes done on time. I got my W2 today, so I'm all set. Maybe this year I won't wait until the second week of April to do them.

Whew! I need a rest after all that work!

The third and final part, I need to assign five worthy blogs. Five? Only five? Ok, here's goes:

TheGrammarphile @ Red Pen, Inc. She finds some of the worst grammar mistakes ever on the net, and I get a laugh when reading them every day.

Wife Of Riley @ Living The Life With The Wife Of Riley. Not only is it so cool that we're both from Chicago, but she and her hubby have the greatest relationship and she openly shares the hilarity with her readers.

Babyrocasmama @ Last Shreds Of Sanity. It's nice to find another blogger out there that isn't taken in by Obamania. She also takes the time to support other bloggers who are needing assistance, prayers, any kind of help. And she held some awesome giveaways last year. Too bad I didn't win any of them, lol.

The Blue Ridge Gal @ The Blue Ridge Gal. She has been sharing pictures of her world in Virginia, her family (including her doggies), and her childhood home in Iowa. That alone is enough for me, but the way she tells the stories and describes things grabs you and makes you want to come back tomorrow to see what else she's found.

Heather @ This Is The Day...Ps118:24. I'm a relatively new reader to her blog, but I greatly admire her faith, her love for her family, and her sense of humor. Anyone that will admit to finding ET playing the drums while everyone was at church, belongs in our little crazy world!

Wow! I did it!

65%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Online Dating

In need of a loan? I got this via email today:


Hello!

Are you looking for a cheap loan today? We are certified private Loan Lender based in the United states, we offer loans to individuals, firms and cooperate bodies at 3% interest rate per annum both secured and unsecured at 3% interest rate monthly base, with no credit check up.Loan terms and determinant, loan amount between the sum of $3,000.00 to $500,000,00 On any currency contact us today via email and tell us so we can send you an application form.

Contact us today via e-mail
E-mail: information.cheng@gmail.com

Regards,
Dr. Cheng Shao ZENG,
Cheng Inscape Loan Finance.

**********************************************************

NOTE BELOW :-
Please Serious Seeking Interested Persons Only in dire Need of this loan or Mortgage either for Personal or Business or Even Rehabbing.Keep in touch. Unserious Persons will have their Offers Turned down,when applying for a loan,please Ensure you come with a scanned Copy of Your Drivers License,or Your International Passport alongside your Full names and address.Once again you have to be In dire Need of the loan so as not to get your Offer Turned down,We are taking this Guideline to scoop off Unserious persons who mail us into thinking they are Interested and we Never get their Response after sending in Our Terms.

Please forward your Loan Applications to- information.cheng@gmail.com

**********************************************************


Just so everyone is clear, this is only for individuals, firms and cooperate bodies. Not corporate bodies. And you must be a serious person in dire need, all unserious persons will be turned down and perhaps even scooped off.

Yes, I'm still alive. Not very clean, but alive. I haven't had the time or energy to be online much, or to even check blogger the last few days. Today I had all sorts of time to do nothing, since I had no water.

Yup, there was another leak from the cold. I thought everything was fine until I woke up this morning to no water in the building. Apparently, there was a leak in my wall that was coming out in the bathroom below me. Finally about 4pm Jack, my good buddy and maintenance manager came with a plumber to cut into my wall and replace the broken pipe. The wall should be fixed by Tuesday, since Monday is a holiday, and the toilet will be put back in place then.

I now have water, but when it was finally turned back on, it was too late for me to go out for any of the errands I wanted to run today. So I was basically a hermit today, staying snuggled under a blankie relaxing. The good news is it's warming up outside, slowly but surely. I have other things to blog, but they'll have to wait until I can maybe sorta get caught up on all the other blogs that I've neglected for days.

Mmmmmm Lemonade!

Thank you to BabyRocasMomma over at Last Shreds Of Sanity! I'm supposed to nominate 10 bloggers to give this to, that show great attitude or gratitude, but since I've seen this award going around on a lot of the blogs I read, I'll just put it out for anyone who follows my blog. If you haven't received this yet, I offer it to you as a sign of my thanks for reading about my boring life. I keep hoping things will get more exciting here, but right now it's all about the snow. Just watching it fall. Day after day after day. Spring IS coming, right? Right?? RIGHT??????

Your Word is "Love"

You see life as possibility to form deep connections with a few people. Relationships are the center of your world, and you always take time to bond with those you love. You are caring and giving. You enjoy helping those you love. And when it comes to romantic love, you feel passionately ... even in a very long term relationship.

What's Your Word?

Since I had my camera out, and the Northern Juncos have been at my feeder since I filled it yesterday afternoon, I thought I'd take advantage of the opportunity and get some pictures.

They aren't the best pictures; I was shooting through either the screen door or my dirty glass. There are about five or six that have been at the feeder all weekend. Finally, today, some other birds (mostly sparrows) discovered I had put seed in the feeder and came to get their fill.

On this mound where I had piled some snow on my balcony, the Juncos would use their feet to kick some of the snow away to look for more seed.

I just love Juncos. They're so cute with their charcoal grey top half and white belly. And they're only here in winter. Such a nice contrast against the white snow.

When I was sweeping the snow, I noticed there was some dropped seed that had been buried underneath the snow, which was then mixed into this pile.

Somehow, the Juncos knew there was seed down in there, and were kicking it away with their feet to get at it. And yes, Iggy, that's my ORBA in the pictures...inside, safe and sound from Charlie.

I finally ventured outside after the latest snowstorm. It snowed Friday night through most of Saturday afternoon. I had intentions of going to my aunt's house today, but she's not feeling well. Instead I get to watch more football, and keep myself warm and toasty after clearing all the snow off my car.

I did a rough measurement and it looks like I got about six inches (15cm) of snow.

I took this show so you could see the drifting on the south side of my car. It stuck out a good two inches past the edge of my car. Retrieval of my brush was done from the drivers side, then once all the snow was cleared off my car, I got my little shovel out of the trunk so I could clear a path to get my car out of that parking space and in to one that had been plowed recently.

Here's my windshield when I was part way done clearing it. And did I mention it's snowing again? We're supposed to have snow showers for the next four days.

Is it spring yet?

I can officially certify that I have 358 small paperclips at my desk here at work. I also have two small yellow paperclips. I have not counted the large paperclips, but I may work on that after lunch.

Just an update to let you know not much is happening here. It's back to work time for everyone, but I worked all six days around Christmas and New Years, since I only had 1/2 day of vacation left. It was a full day, but back in February when I took the morning off, my boss forgot to put it into the computer. The good news is that because our vacation is calculated based on monthly accrual (even though it's given for the year if that makes sense), I get an extra 1-1/2 days this year due to hitting the five year mark on September 1.

According to our Policy Manual, 6 months to 4 years you accrue .833 days per month. 5-9 years you accrue 1.25 days per month, etc. So I get .833 days per month for January through August, then 1.25 days per month September through December. That rounds down, roughly, to 11-1/2 days, plus my 1/2 day carried over, for a whopping 12 days of vacation this year! Ain't I lucky???? Plus we get two personal days, four floaters, and six sick days.

Another good note, my company finished the year with record sales of $1 billion, first time we've hit that amount. Everyone knows 2009 will be a lot less, so they are budgeting for it, but hopefully the record setting in 2008 will follow with nice bonuses in February.

Hopefully I'll find something to take a picture of soon, or a funny story to tell, or a cute email to share, or something to entertain everyone.