Ambush!

Why is it that whenever you have more then 3 women in a room and you put them in that room more then, say, 3 times - why does there always have to be DRAMA?

PTO meeting last night (same as PTA, just spelled different). A woman, we'll call her S, starts out with a simple question to, say K. K answers. S starts verbally attacking this woman and for about 10 minutes. This spirals down in to a complete nightmare and K finally gets up and leaves. S completely ambushed K with this minor thing. This thing needed to be addressed but S just seemed to use it as an opportunity to make K look bad and also, apparently to throw the PTO prez under the bus as an added side bonus!

It was a manipulative mishandling of a minor situation and I can only be thankful that we had a very slim attendance last night. I'm equally thankful that a) none of them but my friend Rachel reads my drivel and b) I have a place to vent all this nonsense! Not that I care if they read these, just in the interest of not having even more drama to deal with. I can only imagine what would've happened if we'd actually had a new member show up to that embarrassment of a meeting!

WTF??

Halfway through this craziness, as the rest of us are sitting there shell-shocked and flabbergasted, S says, "I mean, I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable." To which I whisper to myself, "Too late."

Now y'all know I'm not the most diplomatic person but in this instance, I tried keeping my mouth shut and sticking to my knitting (yes, I take it to meetings - don't you?). I tried 3 times to shut it down by saying, "That's enough, let's move on." and "Moving on..." No dice. S was not to be stopped in her harangue.

After that meeting, Rachel and I had to go in to town and have a drink!

OK, enough of that nonsense.

Here's a reading update.

I read one of the best books ever! The Shivered Sky by Matt Dinniman.
I don't read science fiction normally. And I don't think this book falls under that category. But maybe if I did, I wouldn't be so impressed? This author created an entire world and culture and creatures we've never seen (which I imagine is de rigeur for science fiction writers, which is why I brought that up).

These 5 young adults (mid to late teens all) die and end up in Heaven. Only in Heaven, the angels have lost the war and are a minor underground force. Demons are running the show and humans are slaves (and food). These teens are part of a prophesy and are supposed to put things right.

Only as the book progresses, their version of what's right is sorely tested. This book, in a roundabout way, reminds me of the movie Crash (also one of my favorites). Those who are bad also have their good sides and those who are good, well, maybe not so much.

The depth of character in this book is phenomenal. The secondary and even tertiary characters are so well developed that you really feel for them, be they demon, angel or human. I loved this guy's style of writing and I'm sure I'll probably read it again next year.

We're lucky enough to have a signed copy. My husband read a review in The Weekly (free independent newspaper) in Tucson. If you mentioned the review when you ordered the book, the author would sign it for you. Dave read it and when I asked him about it he said, "Eh." I should've known better as he says this about most things. It's an excellent book. Go get it. Now. I'll wait....

As I was reading it, I kept thinking, this would make a great movie. But as I got further into it and the way the characters were developed and presented, I changed my mind. I think the best way to present this to the masses (besides forced literacy) would be as a TV series, possibly even animated so you could really see the creatures and landscape as the author presents in his writing.

I'm supposed to be reading The Bonesetter's Daughter next (according to my New Year's list) but I'm taking a little side journey. I listened to 1st Degree by James Patterson (with Andrew Gross) on audiobook. It was OK. I really enjoy James Patterson - he wrote Along Came a Spider and Kiss The Girls, both made in to movies with Morgan Freeman as the main character.

The 1st Degree was entertaining and I like to listen to audiobooks while I make my Stitch Savers (as yet another aside, since being featured on Knitty.com's Cool Stuff page - it's been non-stop with these things! I don't knit anymore, I just make little keychains! Not complaining, mind you, just sayin'). Anyway, it was a pretty good book until the end.

I'll try to convey this without spoiling the ending. I don't know if I'll be successful - you've been warned. There's only 2 people it could possibly be doing these crimes. They discover it's not the one so all of a sudden these 5 smart, tough, well-educated women are all, "Oh NO! Who could it possibly be????" Seriously? And note to killer - If you're going to attack a policewoman in her home with a knife, wouldn't it occur to you that she might, I know it's a stretch, but she just might have a gun?

Anyway, it got me to thinking how much I enjoyed his Alex Cross books and I decided to read/listen to everything he's ever done. If you clicked on the Wickipedia link, you'll see what a *crazy* brave endeavor this is.

So - and eventually, I like to try to get back to my original point - my side journey has taken me to James Patterson's first novel The Thomas Berryman Number. It's pretty good so far - I'm about 100 pages in. I love that Patterson has these little tiny chapters (usually over 100 per book) and he has such fast paced goin's on in these thrillers. It's like watching an intelligent (most of the time) action movie!

Is there any author you'd like to read all of? I'd like to read all of Matt Dinniman's stuff but The Shivered Sky seems to be it so far!

Reading til it hurts, Ruth!

People I've Never Met, Yet Despise

In the spirit of the season....

OK, in the anti-spirit of the season, I'm going to mention some people whom I've never met, yet I so. Hate. Them.

The woman I trade massages with opened a spa on Mainstreet in November 2006. I saw her putting up the Grand Opening banner shortly after we moved here. I thought, at the time, it was a bold move considering you could stand in front of her place, turn 360 degrees and see at least 5 other places you could get massage. Well, a year later, she shut her doors and moved her spa back to her home basement (which is lovely!). There were many factors and I'm proud of her for having no fear and taking her shot.

OK, so there's this other day spa 2 blocks away. It's set up in this old Victorian home and routinely wins Best Day Spa in Parker. I've never met the owner, but I hate that bitch! She has this HUGE black SUV with one of those big, magnetic, "Here's my business" signs on the side of it. She would always park right in front of this brand, new, just startin' out business of my friend's. That's so weak. If you're spa is getting "Best Of" ranking all the time, why do you need to try to steal business from a new place. Never mind the fact that you have completely different goals and styles (Best of Bitch is very upscale and has hair and nails available, too. My friend is very homeopathically inclined and more health oriented rather then pampery), it was twice as bad because my friend had an awning that said Health Spa, but didn't' say the name of her place. So people would get the number off the SUV and when they'd call to book, the desk was instructed not to tell the caller of their mistake. B.I.T.C.H.


And the guy at the restaurant, last week. We were seated and then they seated the table next to us with a couple who were obviously on a date. I say this because they sat next to each other, rather then across from. Sir. Take out your stupid cell phone ear thingy!! How F'in rude! And the lady with him should've said something. Aren't' you worth it to have an hour or two of his undivided attention? Are his phone calls more important then his time with you?? Sister, stand up and yank that thing out of his ear. Throw it into his drink, then toss his drink into his face and then go hang out with people who aren't looking over your shoulder to see if someone cooler's going to show up (or call).

Hate that guy.


And you! Yeah, you. The guy I saw at the post office yesterday. You know who you are. My friends haven't met you so I'll just tell them about you.

This guy walks into the post office as I'm about to leave. He's got short, spiky hair with frosted tips. He's got those super-baggy jeans and big Chanel, men's sunglasses. He's wearing a big, puffy white jacket with all those emblems all over it (a la Gucci handbags). Then he takes of his enormous shades and.... no. way. He's like 45. Years old.

I seriously couldn't help myself. I walked up to him and took him by his big, puffy, emblemized jacket front and shook him, "Dude. You. Look. Ridiculous!!"

In my head.

Seriously, though. It's bad enough when people dress like that anyway. But if you're going to do it, the time to do it is when you're young and stupid and have the excuse of being young and stupid. Once you hit - I don't know what the cut-off age should be but definitely before your in your 40's - you should stop. Just stop.


Also, the woman at Target yesterday who's mini-skirt was so mini we could see the bottom of your butt...
Well, there's just no good age for that. That should just. Not. Be.

She was in line ahead of me and the kid who was checking her out was a kid I used to work with all the time. He's a sweet, skate-rat and this lady had Mount Cleavage and kept reaching over the card swipe thing to show the kid stuff. Every time she'd reach, Mount Cleavage threatened to give this 16 year old boy a black eye! And he was clearly uncomfortable about it - he was looking everywhere he could to avoid looking at her.

When I was young and in high school, I used to dress all mod and punk and crazy. My personal theory was if I couldn't be pretty, I could at least be interesting. I know, I know, I'm pretty. It was that whole teen angst silliness. This lady ahead of me was pretty and there's never any reason to dress or act like that.

When she'd left and it was my turn for checkout, I said, "Man, she nearly put out your eye!" The sweet kid said, "Yeah, that was brutal. Nobody wants to see that. I'm a 16 year old guy who loves chicks and I don't even want to see that!"

How about you guys, anyone you've seen, never met 'em, but still want to just shake them?

Constantly perplexed by human nature, Ruth!

The Measure of a Man

The Denver Broncos have a new tight end. They got him from the Tennessee Titans. This guy has 9 children from 9 different women in 4 different states.

I know. Sit down, take a moment.

So we were discussing this at the dinner table last night and the logistics of it. We figure as a pro-football player, at least he can support them. But as Dave says, financial support is one thing but how can he be any kind of a father to any of these kids that are so spread out? I thought up this elaborate scheme (as I am wont to do) - what if he had a big mansion with 9 houses around the perimeter. Each house has a baby mama and the kids can stay in those houses or the big house. Even then, it'd be chaos and tension. The women would be unhappy, away from their friends and family, not to mention being surrounded by daily reminders of their rather suspect choice of men. And the guy'd probably rarely be there with the duties of his job (and avoiding all the drama).

So what do you think makes a man a man? I know I am spoiled with the amazing man I managed to capture. He's an amazing dad, he's romantic and loving and beautiful. When the boys were babies, I never had to ask him to change a diaper or get their jammies on. He always just did it!

Awaiting your opinions, Ruth!

When It Rains, It Pours

I forgot to tell y'all some stuff.

The last day of Trev's school before the break, I had errands to run during the day. I checked my P.O.Box and I got a nice treat. I'd won an umbrella from a blog contest and it came in the mail that day. It's one of those small collapsible dealies that's perfect for keeping in the car.

Of I went about my day.

A few hours later, when I went to pick up Trev, it was pouring!! They don't let the kids out when that happens, they hold them in the classrooms until the parents come get them (or until they think it's safe and lightning free enough for the bused kids to go to their buses). I ran in, with my handy (and timely) new umbrella. When T and I were leaving, it was hailing, too! (Hail is something the boys have never seen before) Yikes!

Another "when it rains..." item:

I've often bemoaned the fact that there's really not any massage therapy jobs to be had because of over-saturation. I've been on call at one spa on Main Street since November, but they've never needed to call me! If you stand in front of that particular spa in Parker and turn around 360 degrees, you can see six other places you can get a massage.

Well, when I got my hair cut (a mere 2 miles away from Main Street) on that rainy Tuesday, my hairdresser told me they needed a massage therapist on Friday nights. Then the next day, Donna (the owner of the aforementioned place on Main Street) called and said her current therapist was moving and not only could I get on the schedule on a regular basis, I could be salaried by working the desk as well!

Good thing we just spent $60K on our new business for me!

sigh.

Soaking wet, Ruth!

More 7's Please (And a Rant)

I had this brilliant idea about making a blanket for Trevor. Davis has a fairly intricate hand knit blanket that a woman gave me at his baby shower. Very sweet, especially since I didn't know her all that well.

Anyway, my idea was to use the Pattern-A-Day perpetual calendar. I'm planning on doing 11 big blocks (19" X 20") using dates that are important to our family (birthdays, anniversaries and such). Plus one block of stockinette with his initials purled in. I figured I'd do a block a month and then I could give it to him for xmas.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! How freakin' delusional am I??? Here it's almost halfway through May and this is all I have...

That's not even half of one block. sigh.

Now there are two things I have to knit (OK, only one is "have to") and they both need the size US 7 32" addi's that are stuck in this block. I'll probably bust out the block and then use the needles for the other projects and then someday, maybe when he goes to college, he'll have a nice, new blanket. sigh.

(BTW, here's the sight that has the errata for that calendar.)

Last weekend, Dave and I watched Gunner Palace. It's a documentary about soldiers in Iraq, made in 2004. It's pretty good. It's depressing and sad and a bit hopeless. There are funny parts, too and there's no visible violence/gore so I suggest watching it as soon as you can. The saddest part, for me, was hearing the AFN (armed forces radio network) news blurb saying that our government was going to send 187 billion dollars to help our troops - getting them the equipment they needed to be safer, etc. Then they show some guy joking about how much of that money they actually get - showing the "high grade Iraqi metal" (scrap metal salvaged from suicide bombed cars and buildings) that they were having to use to reinforce their vehicles. It makes me sick.

Then I find this article. It tells how there's this system that already works being produced; this system can detect and diffuse RPG's (rocket propelled grenades) within a certain radius of a vehicle. This could save countless lives and limbs of our troops but the ARMY won't buy them because they have an $70 million contract with Raytheon. Raytheon, who is developing the same technology but estimates that they are 5-6 years from completion. WTF??!! So, not only is the government screwing our troops, the Army is jumping in for a sloppy seconds screw as well. Does this give anyone else a headache?

In a perfect world, the Army would bite the bullet (so to speak), end the contract, and go get the systems that are already working. In an even more perfect world, Raytheon would gracefully bow out and let them get what they need.

Then I see things like this movie called Delta Farce coming out. So, yeah, let's take the fact that our troops are overseas, losing vital body parts and dying and let's make a farce out of it for some quick cash. It's the American way, right? I love America and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else but sometimes it makes me so mad that it's OK to belittle such important things.
Freedom of speech, they can exercise it by making such drivel and I'm exercising it here. I only wish common sense were as prevalent.

Praying my active duty friends are safe, Ruth!

West Nile Virus vs. Bubonic Plague

In Tucson, you always hear about this...

West Nile Virus

It's transmitted via mosquitoes and for the ten years I lived in Tucson, it kept getting closer and closer. Working it's way from southern states and finally landing in Tucson.

When Dave and I first moved in together, we lived in a townhouse. Outside our development, across the street was this huge open field next to an equally large wash (ditch in CA). People always take their dogs and/or kids out there and let them run off leash. One spring, I was out there with our (my) dogs, Maggie (the embarrassingly harmless rottweiler), Toto (the wire-haired terrier mutt that looks like, you guessed it), and Squirrel (the pretty, if stunted mutt with the short, strawberry-blond fur and the same colored eyes). The dogs had gone down in the wash amidst this waist-high (for me) grass. They couldn't see each other and so were completely, gleefully racing around the grass playing tag. I went down there with them and was running around too. My legs felt a little itchy but I just figured it was the grass. When I had the sense to look down, my legs were covered in mosquitoes. I ran out of the ditch, got the dogs out, ran home. At home, I showered, slathered in that goop that makes you less itchy and had a stiff drink.

The next day, they reported the first case of West Nile virus in a human confirmed in Tucson. I had another drink.

OK, fast forward. Now we live in Colorado. For the past two days, we've been hearing in the news that they have found one dead bird and several dead squirrels with confirmed cases of this...

Bubonic Plague.

It's transmitted via fleas. Does this make anyone else think the end of humankind will be perpetrated by insects hard to see with the human eye and even smaller bugs that are impossible to see?

Our problem here, in this house we're renting, is that for the past two months we've had squirrels chewing on our roof. Seriously, it's a horrible sound. Imagine sticking your fingers in your ears and chewing popcorn kernels. That's the sound. And just that loud, too.

We called the landlord and he checked the roof and checked the attic and said they haven't gotten into the house yet and there's nothing much we can do. I suggested getting one of those fake owls I see on other houses but he said it wouldn't work because the squirrels are so smart.

They are at it all day. They have woken us up at 3am the past two days in a row. The last thing we need is for Dave to be woken two hours before he starts his 13 hour day.

And since when are squirrels smarter then humans? Anything I see as roadkill on a regular basis, I don't know, I gotta assume we're smarter then they are (bad grammar, notwithstanding).

Any suggestions?

Contemplating cute squirrel homicide, Ruth!

Of Chicken Legs and Rabid Dogs

OK, seriously people. WTF?

I'll give y'all the minor stuff first.

We went to Costco yesterday to do our weekly shopping. We'd had an exhaustive day, stopping at 4 places already and buying two bikes for the little guys. We decided to buy a delicious rotisserie chicken for dinner and Costco's are the best. It was almost closing time and there were only two left. Well... almost two. One was missing a chicken leg! Someone popped open the plastic container, helped themselves to a leg and closed it back up! Did no one see this happening?

So that opens up the question - if you saw it would you do something? I totally would. I wouldn't go tattle on the person but I would make sure they knew they were seen. I'd probably just say, "Nice, very nice." if I saw them eating it. If I saw them actually in the act of pulling the leg off, it'd be more like, "Seriously, what are you doing??"

Now on to the serious stuff...

Dave told me about this sad state of affairs. There's this woman with 5 kids and she offered up her 7 yr. old daughter for pornographic pic's and sex. Luckily for the girl, the woman was offering it to an undercover agent. Actually shows up at the hotel with the girl and a bag of sex toys and different outfits. The article, if you can stomach it, is here.

Of course, she's pleading not guilty. And she may only get 20 years for this. As an officer, I would have to take the woman into the street and put a bullet in her head for all to see. Same as you would to a rabid dog. I wouldn't make a very good cop.

My friend and I were talking a couple of years ago about the sheer amount of pedophiles these days. Was it always like that? Are we just talking about it more? Has this replaced, "If it bleeds, it leads" in the news? My theory is this: Statistically, a pedophile will get to 30 kids before they are caught the first time. Almost all pedophiles say they were messed with themselves at some point in there lives. So, out of those 30 kids, say 3 take the same wrong path. Alright, now, mathematically where you had only one, now you have 4. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am no mathematician but that's my theory.

Another statistic is that when these pathetic wastes of DNA do jail time and are let out, that's when they start killing. Leave no witness kind of thing. And there is no cure, people. They never stop. So my other theory is... never let them out. Even better, let's expand our death penalty. Swing that needle 'round. Rabid dogs I tell you.

Thanks for listening, friends. We will resume our lighter fare tomorrow.

I remain, Ruth!

Update: My SIL just sent me this website so you can check your area. It's here.