All I Want is a Little Peace

Every now and then my Mom passes along something really good. This was one of them....

The Road to Inner Peace

I am passing this on because it definitely worked for me, and we all could use more calm in our lives. By following the simple advice I heard on a Dr. Phil show, I have finally found inner peace. Dr. Phil proclaimed "The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you've started."

So I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's, a bottle of Kahlua, a package of Oreos, the remainder of both Prozac and Valium prescriptions, the rest of the cheesecake, some saltines and a box of chocolates. You have no idea how freaking good I feel.

Please pass this on to those you feel are in need of inner peace.....

He Says, Sierra Says

From JD we get this great link to use at the holiday table. I know, not everyone listens to reason. But if they do, try some of these items on them. "How to Win Arguments and Influence People: A Sierra Club Holiday Survival Guide" is a cool, handy resource if your family is notoriously thick about environmental issues.

On the Media Player Today - Mental Vacation

Today's media player selection is called "Mental Vacation" and my theme song (so says Tickle/Emode) just came up, "Walking on Sunshine".

Your upbeat approach to life makes "Walking on Sunshine" the perfect anthem for you. We can see you dancing down the vegetable isle with your grocery cart, smiling at all the checkout clerks. We sure hope you've had your Wheaties to keep up with your perky pace all day long. This happy, horn-driven tune carries you to work every day. And even in those brief lapses when you're not fully on your game, "Walking On Sunshine" seems to put things in perspective and get you back to your super groove. "And don't it feel good?" Who cares that this tune was a one-hit wonder for Katrina and the Waves? Even that quality matches your one-of-a-kindness. You're walkin' on sunshine and spreading it wherever you go.

What's your theme song?

The Weasels of 2004

Since I'm on the Dilbert newsletter email list I got a heads up that the 2004 Weasels List was out. I voted some time last month and I'm happy to report that most of my votes are in the majority of THIS election. (In fact, I think I pegged all of them, but I can't quite remember. Some of the decisions were so close...)

In case you're too lazy to click on the link I've provided you three times, here's the top of the lists. If you want to see who else got votes you have to click.

Weaseliest Pundit/Reporter - Bill O'Reilly with 13,123 votes
Weaseliest Celebrity - Donald Trump with 12,125 votes
Weaseliest Industry - Oil with 17,999 votes
Weaseliest Company - Halliburton with 25,073 votes
Weaseliest Politician - George W. Bush with 17,068 votes
Weaseliest Country - United States with 19,918 votes
Weaseliest Sports Person - Kobe Bryant with 15,231 votes
Weaseliest Organization - Religious Fanatics with 13,192 votes

Ok, who else thinks that Dubya would be proud that he got more votes than Kerry again? But at least we know that the weaselist of all weasels is agreed to be Halliburton, it seems to cross party lines. HELLOOOOO PEOPLE! NON-COMPETITION CONTRACTS!!! PUT THE PIECES TOGETHER!!!! Ok, I'm fine, really...

Why I'm STILL a Dean-o-crat

What else do you need to know?

Dean spokeswoman Laura Gross said while other Democrats are talking about whether the party needs to move farther to the left or the right to attract voters, Dean plans to focus on the need for "destination, not direction" during an address at George Washington University on Wednesday.

Gross said even if Dean decides against running for DNC chairman, the former Vermont governor intends to work for his vision within the party. After dropping out of the presidential race, Dean started Democracy for America, which raised $5 million in nine months and helped fund 748 candidates in 46 states at every level of government.

If we can just get Howard Dean and Barack Obama in charge I would be one happy camper.

Weekend in Review

My latest addiction is Munchkins, a quick card-game for those times when you just can't fit in a full game of D&D. (Or Chill, or Vampire, or Star Wars, or GURPS..... Yeah, I'm a big geek.) This weekend I got the basic game expansions "Clerical Errors" and "Unnatural Axe". I am amused.

Other than that I feel like a great deal of my weekend was spent chopping vegetables. We were never big vegetable people, so preparing three meals a day just seemed to eat up my time. But the good news is that we are still on South Beach (although the husband had a weak moment yesterday and tried to convince me that *one* night out to Brick Oven Pizza wouldn't kill the diet) and the weight is coming off. I was a bit surprised that it was JD who was tempted first - he's usually so much more stolid than I am. And I was the one with the sugar fixation. Hopefully he'll be able to see me through when I see a chocolate cake, which is likely to happen sooner than later.

See how good I'm being at this 'daily thing'? Just weekends off (didn't turn on the computer all weekend anyway). I think I'm actually reveling in the fact that I have more than two minutes to rub together this month. See ya online...

On the Media Player Today

Right now I'm playing my list of "Dave Tunes" in celebration of it being Captain Dave's birthday. Since I only have four MP3s on the computer I doubt that it will stay on all day. For all of the other prog bloggers I will point out that one of them was a Dean song.

40 Million people can’t afford to get sick
While the people in Washington are up to their tricks
They give to you with one hand while they’re taking away
Everything you thought you had for a rainy day

Call the doctor, tell everyone
We gotta put the doctor in Washington
To cure what ails you
From Maine to California
And Texas too..

A couple of years ago we were deficit free
Until the people in Washington went on a spree

Call the doctor, tell everyone
We gotta put the doctor in Washington
To cure what ails you
From Maine to California
And Texas too..

[Lead section]

Call the doctor, tell everyone
We gotta put the doctor in Washington
To cure what ails you
It matters to you
These things that they do

They want to wrap you up in red white and blue
So you won’t see what they’re trying to do

Call the doctor, tell everyone
We gotta put the doctor in Washington
To cure what ails you
From Maine to California
And Texas too..

I got the DC Blues
I got it bad, it’s so bad
Call the doctor, I got the DC Blues.. etc

Friday Chocolate Bloggins

Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces. Judith Viorst

First, just go here and gaze upon the chocolateness. Yum. Then be amazed by their chocolate locator. They also espouse the Chocoholic Twelve Step Program: Never be more than 12 steps away from chocolate.
From their comments section I found this trecherous sounding Hot Chocolate recipe:

1 very large bar of Hershey's chocolate (the kind you see at Christmas or Valentine's day)
1 quart of heavy cream.
Break Hershey bar apart, add to cream in medium saucepan and heat over low.

Good luck with that. I hope it doesn't bring on a heart attack. Meanwhile I'll keep "enjoying" my South Beach Mocha Ricotta Creme....

On the Media Player Today

Today I'm listening to my Christmas playlist featuring "Red Hot Holidays" (a promo from Lane Bryant lo these many years ago). Right now it's playing "Santa Baby" as done by Eartha Kitt (yep, there was life before Madonna) which followed one of my favorites, "Baby, It's Cold Outside".

I also have a bunch of Christmas wave files from www.dailywav.com, like Frasier saying, "Oh joy, Christmas Eve. By this time tomorrow millions of Americans knee deep in tinsel and wrapping paper will utter those heartfelt words 'Is this all I got?'"

I'm trying to get merry and in the mood, but really I just drive down the road these days saying, "Why are these idiots putting their lights up so soon? Oh, right, it's already December...." I've had spirit before, I swear. I don't know what's wrong this year. OH, THAT'S RIGHT, WE'RE GOING TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET!

In Peeps We Trust

Sure, we may all be going to hell in a handbasket, but there is something about a morning of latte and good conversation that makes the trip bearable. The hat must be tipped to Zift Pryme for creating the Friday Morning Liberal Coffee. Maybe next Friday we'll sip latte and go joy-riding in Volvos for kicks.

Speaking of cars, I've been thinking about my stickers a lot lately. I've peeled the John Kerry stickers off of my car but left my Howard Dean sticker on. Basically I've started to feel a little more paranoid (what could be worse than a bunch of right-wingers hopped up on the 'rightousness' of their 'mandate' after the election?) and I'm willing to go down fighting for Dean, but not for FrankenKerry. I will admit that I did start to respect Kerry quite a bit more when I researched him, but I still don't particularly like him, and I'm not taking a beat down for him. Meanwhile, I made the rare stop by Whole Foods yesterday and that was the first time in awhile that I felt among my people (I was between a Weed/Kerry car and a Save the Bay/Weed car). Apparently I need to shop there more just to feel like I'm normal.

Which brings me to another subject. Seattle. We visited in 2002 and we really liked it. I'm considering that it might be enjoyable to live in a very 'blue' area for awhile. Thoughts? I still think I need to get residence in Ohio or Floriday by 2008 so that we can leverage the value of our votes.

Before I run off let me say that Nevsky, professor extraordinaire in Russian languages and literature, is considering seeking another position. If you've heard of anything that the Nev would be interested in, please pass it on. Hopefully somewhere in or around Virginia so that we can still have coffee from time to time.

I'm So Far Behind I Might Be Ahead

My Google news page today shared with me that blog is the most popular word in the online dictionary. So I popped over to dictionary.com to see what they had listed for blog and found out that, by definition, I'm supposed to be updating this thing daily.

Do have any idea how freaking mundane this thing would be if I updated it daily????

Just to give you some insight.... Haven't had a chance to read enough news to get my blood boiling. I didn't even follow the link regarding the increase in troops in Iraq, or the fact that the troops who are there will have their tour extended. In a way I'm thinking, how can I get upset? We knew this was going to happen if the election went this way. I got all of my upset out of the way in the year leading up to the election. Now I'm just..... resigned.

In other news, this is the second day of the South Beach Diet for the husband unit and me. So far so good.

In other, other news, work is busy. Today is the second day of December and I have already matched the number of days in November when I spent more than 30 minutes at my desk. Tomorrow I'm going for the big THREE days. If anyone even tries to put a meeting on my calendar I'm getting out the knives.

Meanwhile, I hope that my coffee crew is planning on getting together tomorrow morning. There's nothing better than a morning of drinking coffee and kvetching. Even if, with South Beach, it now has to be decaf.