Random Rants

The cold has frozen my brain, so I find myself unable to think of anything clever to write about. I'm feeling irritated, and unable to overlook the little things that annoy me, so I'm going to inflict them on you.

#1 rant: my neighbor's ugly car, which they have parked directly behind my driveway so that I have to be extra careful every time I back out into the street. I saw you had a "For Sale" sign on that white, rusting, crappy Jeep earlier this summer, and I bet no one wanted it because it doesn't work. At least, I haven't seen any sign you've even moved it from that spot across my driveway since August. I mean, I know the economy sucks, and you probably want to get something out of your junky car, but it's not going to look or work any better by keeping it out on the street to block my way and make the neighborhood look trashy.

#2 rant: people who volunteer to help out and then never show up. Okay, I understand people are busy. Maybe you thought you had more time when you first volunteered. But you can't even be bothered to send an e-mail or phone call to let me know you can't help? I can understand having to say no. But not even bothering with the courtesy of letting me know, so I can adjust my plans—that's just rude.

#3 rant: clueless drivers. Sure, this is a constant, so it's not even really worthy of rant space. But really, going 35 in a 55 mph zone? I don't care if you're lost, you're not being safe when you go that much under the speed limit. This is the probably the same guy who pulls out in front of me and fails to accelerate, when he could have waited 10 seconds and had no traffic behind me to impede his putzing car. This is probably also the same guy who creeps through the green left turn light, ensuring only one car of the ten lined up behind him can follow. Grrr.

#4 rant: TEENAGED BOYS. They're obnoxious and they argue too much and I'm going to stop doing their laundry and cooking their dinners and then we'll see who's won the argument!

Fun with numbers!

I looked at my statistics yesterday, and realized that this would be my 100th post in The Blathering. That's a pretty impressive number—at least, if you're a math nerd who loves playing with numbers, like me. (Example of math nerdery: while at Nationals this summer, I told my teammates that it was easy to remember my room number: it was a perfect power of 2, on the 5th floor, so of course it was 512. I saw quite a few head shakes in response to reciting this fun fact.) Anyway, I thought the way to celebrate my 100th post was to look at all the fun numbers related to this blog, which I started at the beginning of June:

170 days to write 100 posts
23 travel photos posted
13 posts about writing
9 haiku composed
9 posts about sewing/quilting
8 posts about cats (it only feels like more; sorry!)
8 posts about words
6 posts complaining about how boring Moby Dick was
5 ranting posts (although I feel another coming on, about the ancient piece-of-crap Jeep perpetually parked across from my driveway)
5 posts that prove I'm a total nerd (some might argue the number is 100)
6 manuscripts sent to publishers/agents
4 rejection letters
2 agents/publishers who need to speed it up!
11,068 words written for pay
untold* words written for fun
1 blog follower (Thanks, Mom!)
untold** regular readers

I'm kind of amazed that I've managed 100 posts, writing about nothing much at all. (Although I suppose if Seinfeld managed nine television seasons of a show "about nothing," this little blog isn't that much of an achievement.) Still, it's been fun to write, and even better when people stop by and comment. I plan on sticking around for at least another 100 posts, just to see what happens.

*Actually, I fear I would be depressed if I calculated how many words I've written for fun. Not as many as I'd like, that's for sure.
**And I appreciate all six of you.

Photo of the Week--11/10/08

There were all sorts of perks about living in London, but one was that Boy's school had a full week's vacation in late October. (Iin part to make up for no Thanksgiving, but also to correspond with British school schedules.) Anyway, in the fall of 2000 we decided to take a cruise that visited various Greek islands, plus Ephesus, Turkey; we spent a couple of days in Athens before sailing. As you can see, there are many hills in Athens and we climbed quite a few. This one gives a good view of the Acropolis in the background, and Boy and I felt like King and Queen of the Hill.

Callie blogs!

It's about time that Food Lady gave me a chance to blog. You'd think she'd be quicker to get the idea*. I sat on her desk, next to the computer, and all she did was scratch my ears. Then I sat on her lap, right in front of the keyboard, and all she did was stroke my fur. I tolerated that for a little while. She tries to be nice, I guess, but if she's not going to give me some treats (ie FRESH CHICKEN), she should at least give me a turn on the clicky click click machine. Click click click and little bugs dance across the screen. I like to chase bugs. They are quite tasty, if not as good as FRESH CHICKEN.

I've fixed her, ha ha. She's gone somewhere with the Big Noisy Man and left the computer on where I can get it. She thought I was sitting on the cat tree looking out the window for birdies, but I was really waiting to pounce on this keyboard. So now I can give you the real scoop about what goes on around here.

I am the real boss of the house, of course. Even my Big Fat Sister knows better than to mess with me. I tolerate her when it suits my purposes. Here all her extra fat is helping keep me warm, so I permit her to share my pillow. But if I'm enjoying a seat near Food Lady's dinner and she tries to nose into my territory, I will growl and swat her nose until she backs off. I will not share my chance for crumbs with anyone, especially not Big Fat Sister, who doesn't need any extra crumbs. I don't even bother growling at the Gray One; that's what Big Fat Sister is for. She keeps the Gray One in line, and I enjoy the top perch for watching birds, getting the best food, and stalking FRESH CHICKEN.

Don't let the Food Lady fool you. She may be making clicky clicks on this computer all day, but she's not doing real work. Sometimes I have to stare at her for 10 minutes before she realizes that I need more food! Those food pouches don't open themselves, so get to work, Lady! And when you're done, I feel like chasing a mousie. Don't make me come in there and knock the toy box off your desk before you realize you need to get back to work. And when you're done with that, come fluff my quilt. This blogging thing is tiring; I need another nap.

*I can't believe it took me this long, either, but I just now saw the idea somewhere else, and all the best ideas for this blog come from thievery.

Kitty Therapy

I've spent the last two weeks doing publicity work (which I dislike), and to make things unimaginably worse, today I'm attending a funeral for a teenager. I can't write under these conditions, so there's only one alternative: cat pictures. Here is Clio being adorably cute in my lap:


Here is Gigi, going crazy with love? anger? hatred? for a poor, innocent kitchen towel:


Callie, doing her best to obstruct any office work. I believe it's the warmth of the lamp that she finds attractive.


To top things off, a sweet sweet dessert, if you will: an adorably cute sleepy kitten. He (actually a rare male calico) has the right idea of how to deal with days like this: stick your head on the floor and nap.


Now I can go on with my day. Hope yours is better.

Hair today, gone tomorrow!

We've created a monster! Boy says it's my fault for telling him how much fun I had in my marching band days, and what great friends you can make. His great new friends decided to shave his head in honor of Nationals competition, which happens this weekend in Indianapolis. So here you see the before (crazy hair after being pinned under his uniform hat) and after (hair all gone!).

Hmmm ... a vision of his follicle-challenged future? Seriously, I couldn't be prouder of Boy this fall. Not only has he gone all out in participating in marching band (at least 24 hours of rehearsal a week), he's done it while earning all As and A-s in his first quarter of high school. Hopefully someone will post a video of the show very soon, because it's amazing and I can't wait to link to it. Go PCMB!

Photo of the Week--11/3/08

Ahhh, Venice! Listen, when your mother-in-law offers to stay with the offspring while you and your hubby go explore this lovely city on the Adriatic, you don't hesitate! Now, The Spousal Unit did have business meetings during one day, but that just meant I had a free day to spend in the glass museum and shops in nearby Murano. We had a beautful fall weekend and enjoyed a gondola ride, a Vivaldi concert (performed in period dress), and of course the lovely canals. This view is of the Santa Maria della Salute, one of the many churches built after Venice survived the plague of 1630. I thought it was a lovely shot, particularly with that skyrat pigeon dove flying through the air.