A Hundred Cups of Coffee

I found some new digs yesterday. I was on my way home from meeting some friends, and I hadn't had breakfast yet. Unfortunately, it was around four in the afternoon, and I had to be at work by five. So, instead of heading home, I stopped at a shopping mall to head to its food court.

It must have been my lucky day, because I got the one spot closest to an entrance. As I was going up to the nearest door, I saw a little sign that advertised coffee and sandwiches, all of which sounded appetizing. (Hey! It was 4 o'clock, and I hadn't even had breakfast yet!) I decided to pass on the cafe and headed to the main door to the mall. No more than five steps in, I saw a similar sign. This time I took a little more time to read it. Not only was it advertising those wonderful sounding sandwiches ... It was advertising a free half an hour of internet access with a purchase. Intigued, I went in. The part of the cafe I entered was dark, with a lot of computer screens and a surprising number of people engaged in games for a Thursday afternoon. In the better lit section, it looked more like a regular cafe, with a couple of exceptions; namely, two computers with nineteen inch flatscreen monitors. I did no 'surfing' yesterday since I only had about 35 minutes before I had to get to work. But, I did make a mental note to return again (especially after having the grilled turkey on five grain brown bread with a large spiced tea.)

The sandwich was delicious, as was the tea ... Which reminded me of some wassel (spiced apple cider; I don't know if I spelled it right, but I'm sure it's pronounced the same no matter how it's really spelled) that I had several years ago with a friend in college. If you're in Lexington, and you need a cup of coffee and to check your e-mail, check out Dink's Cafe! (Click the link for its location. I know I'm sitting in it right now, but I couldn't type out the directions to get there to save my life!)

Say hello to my leetle friend! Her name is Peaches, and she is my niece's Christmas present from her mom (my sister.) This little one is made of only three things, and in these proportions: 1 part fur, 2 parts wiggles, 4 parts pure caffeine. My mom's dog appears to love her. Too bad she's going back down to Alabama in a couple of days. (I won't miss the teething very badly, but I will miss everything else about her. And, so will Duchess, our golden retriever.) 

Merry Christmas to All!

To all Friends and Family Everywhere (Whether We've Met, or Not!),

The shopping is over. The dinners are on the stoves, we're all just sitting down to eat. It's my sincerest hope that everyone is having the best holiday season possible, and remembering the reasons behind it!

Wishing you all the best in this coming year, and all the years that follow ...

Happy Holidays!

....Crystalline Entity! .... 

A shot from out my back door. I'm surprised at how well it came out. You can't tell that there's a screen door between me and the view I tried to capture. (If it weren't for the distortion at the top, I wouldn't be able to tell there's a pane of glass between the camera and the trees, either.) 

A close up of some shrubbery that surrounds the parking lot at a local grocery store (Kroger's). Even though the travel in my state (and particularly in the Western half of it) was hellish, the weather did set us up for some remarkably beautiful vistas. 

I don't know if this picture shows up the way I saw the scene, but the trees and powerlines were sparkling like jewelry today. 

Humpday Quote of the Week!

All persons, living and dead, are purely coincidental
---From the introductory pages of Time Quake by Kurt Vonnegut

Humpday Quote of the Week
"Can the Isley Brothers go wrong?"
---David Aaron

Ok, so I haven't given you a humpday quote exactly. I just have to gush about the Isley Brothers. I mean, how many other bands that started out in 1957 are still going today? (And, among all those, who else can say they influenced the likes of the Beatles? I love the Beatles, too, but somehow I believe that if Paul McCartney and I were in the same room with Ron Isley, Paul would forgive me for forgetting that he was a Beatle!)

I'm listening to SIRIUS radio right now on my satellite TV, and "For the Love of You" just came on. If there is a song out there that I like more than that one, I would have to sit and think about it for a loooong time. If there is one I liked more than it, Marvin Gaye probably did it (and it would have to be either "Inner City Blues" or "What's Going On").

Before today, I never knew that "For the Love of You" was an Isley Brothers song. It was years before I knew that "Footsteps in the Dark" was theirs, and I like that one quite a bit, too. Then there's "Who's that Lady" ... It was featured in a shampoo commercial a couple of years ago, and I'm pretty sure that it's also by the Isley Brothers. That's three songs on my list of all time favorites. I'm going to have to include a link to their site on my sidebar now. I can't believe I've overlooked including them for nearly a year and a half now!

'Nuvver Mundai

Here we go again. It doesn't feel like a typical Monday, but it's a Monday still. Everyone, keep your guard up. This is the kind of day that can get you!

(Five lines. My posts are getting shorter. I suppose when I have something to write about, I will.)

I Love Watching Geniuses at Work!

I know there's going to be an obligatory line in here about the sorry state of television if the commercials are more entertaining than the shows they pay for. But, there is an add out there for a product (and I'm not going to name it, but if you've been watching TV lately, you'll know what it is) that has two of my favorite actors in it. I haven't gotten around to adding links to their websites yet because, frankly, it keeps slipping my mind to update my favorites links.

Those two actors are Fred Willard and Michael McKean. That spot is fifteen seconds of pure entertainment. But, come on! These two were in the movie Spinal Tap together. I'd watch them if they were advertising horse manure!

Humpday Quote of the Week
Damn the torpedoes, or give me death.
Maj. Chip Hazard (Tommy Lee Jones) from the movie Small Soldiers.

Monday, Monday. (Blah Blah, Blah Blah Blah Blah...)

Ok, my second reference to the Mommas and the Poppas for a Monday. I just think that song sums up my feelings about Mondays. It's not that I hate them, it's just that I wish there was a one more day to the weekend. (Maybe we could call it Blurnsday?)

I woke up this morning believing whole heartedly that this was Sunday. It feels like Sunday still, and I have no idea why. I even went through my regular Sunday night routine ... The chat on the Yahoo Forum (man, the people on that forum are so cool! I confessed to them last night that I wasn't quite as big a Scooby Doo fan until I started talking to them ... I mean, I do like Velma, but I never paid much attention to the rest of the gang. The show's a lot more fun now that I've "met" people who enjoy it enough to write their own stories based on it.)

It still feels like Sunday though ... Maybe if I go in to work tomorrow and ask each of them, "What kind of Monday are you having today?" then they'll forgive me for missing today.

I'll play it safe, though. No use loosing a job during the Christmas season...

Good News, Bad News

The good news is that I have a real good chance of going to first shift sometime relatively soon. (I should know one way or another by the fifteenth of this month.) That is very good news to me. I plan on using my afternoons to their fullest. I have already joined a writers' group (but I won't be physically present for their next meeting), and I intend to take any sort of classes I can afford at either the Carnegie Center or the Good Foods Market. I plan on doing some hellacious networking...

Bad news is ... I missed the application deadline to be able to enroll for college this coming semester. Today, I went ahead and filled out an application anyway (just in case I actually can get in this semester. No use putting it off for another year if there's even the slimmest chance it'll go through in the next few weeks.) If this turns out for the worst, it means I have an extra eight months to do whatever I please with my afternoons (which will mostly be testing my academic potentials, anyway.)

I've decided to embrace my nerdom openly. It's been nineteen years since I was stuck with that label. It's high time I give it some proppers!

Thursday's Humpday Quote of the Week

Since I couldn't get to my favorite quote site yesterday (and I'm running out of time to look for anything today), I've decided to (try to) make an original quote. Here goes. (Stop me if you've heard it before):

Sure, opposites attract. But, never underestimate the bond between two losers!
-----David Aaron

...O'er the Land of the Freaks and the Home of the Naive

If you weren't the kind of person to question "authority" before, and you've read about this incident at Atlanta's airport and still don't question authority, ask yourself why. Ask yourself how, too. How does giving someone a badge also give them the right to through civility right out the window with little or no provocation? (And don't give me the clap-trap about how people earn badges either. When they're earned, they're given ... So don't bother trying to nail me on semantics. It has no effect on the lack of civility anyway.)

I can't tell you how many times I was clipped by a mirror before I learned when to back away from a car. I know I never had to wear a sling after any of those incidents. It just seems to me that if you're a cop, you ask someone to move their car ... Excuse me ... Vehicle ... And you don't get out of the way fast enough, then it's time to think about getting into another line of work. Preferably one that doesn't involve a lot of contact with the public if it leads you to haul a 42 year old woman out of her car and bodyslam her onto the asphalt.

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P. S. I'll do the quote tomorrow. The site I normally pull quotes from (ThinkExist.com)is being tempermental right now.