Liberry Air

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Now would be a good time for a miracle

As soon as I saw the email, I knew the news would not be good. A friend and colleague who has been seriously ill has been moved from aggressive treatment to palliative care; her kids are flying in. Prayers for her - and for a miracle - have been requested. I look at the monsters discussed in today's news - the murderers of children and other innocents, the serial killer who has taken at least forty lives - and I just don't understand why they enjoy good health and are still alive while good people are claimed by horrendous disease. Someone want to tell me the story of the loving deity again?

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Farther

Up to 263 today - round trip = 2.62

Thurs. elliptical for 10 minutes - painful
Friday - zip. knee really unhappy

walking is best

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Un autre meme

1. Grammatical pet peeve.
"Quotation marks" - um, no. I really do mean quotation marks - where none are warranted (e.g., the sign in the product section at the market this week: "Avocados" - above avocados).
Does this include stupidisms?
Current favorites:
Proactive
Reflect back
Pre-draft
Pre-boarding
Pre-work
VIN number
Please RSVP
Roast beef au jus with gravy (that really should be in quotation marks)


2. Household pet peeve.
No bloody dishwasher after all these years. Thinking about one of those roll around types until renovated kitchen is possible.

3. Arts & Entertainment pet peeve.
Illiterate responses given by movie stars during press conferences (Tom Cruise may be the worst. Response to question about working with one of Britain's finest actors: "It was, like,...wow!")
Rock star-ese: refer to the Super-nova competition, particularly assessments by the esteemed panel of judges.

4. Liturgical pet peeve.
Isn't that a redundancy?

5. Wild card.
Unsolicited personal advice (e.g., "Gee you look nice. You'd look even nicer if you wore better underwear.")
Runner-up: the guy in the produce section this week who gave me the lecture on the quality (or lack thereof) of the sweet corn.

Bonus: Things that I do that become other people's pet peeves?
Talk too much.
Give unsolicited advice.
Avoidance of the phone.

Seen at 12 cats

Progress

Walked up to #225 today - coincidentally that's about 2.25 miles round trip. Maybe next time I'll manage the whole 3 mile route. Have not slipped off diet in over a week now. Woohoo.

And the beat goes on

Yet another reason not to shop at WalMart: Paidcritics.com

Better news: WalMart has agreed to make emergency contraception available in CT and disapproving pharmacists are required to either get another staff member to help the customer or send the customer to a convenient other pharmacy. Are they doing this because they want to? Nah. The state government finally got sick of negotiating with them and told them they could comply with this or the state medical benefits' prescription plan would not include Wally World as a provider. So, all that hooey about their considered positions comes down to...money. They do have a price, as huge as they are.

All of this, plus their attempt to go after Target's business, and Costco's business, encourage me to continue to boycott.

BTW, considerable research I've done has not come up with even one story I can confirm on Target's prescription "problem" other than the one we all saw. Target is required to honor dissenting pharmacists positions, but does require them to treat the customer well and make appropriate referrals. They also do seem to have disciplined employees who don't comply. I'm shopping there again.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

What a champ

Finally got my butt out the door yesterday and walked a little over a mile. The Knee expressed some mild dissatisfaction.

So today I went a little over 1.5 mi. Knee was pissed and said so - but only for a while. After 3/4 mi, stopped whining and was ok. Maybe I'll go out for a while longer this evening, when it will be back down to only hot again.

The last time I lost 40 lb, the walking was the key. Stopped walking - gained back half. I want the second half gone again. It was the best I ever felt, both physically and in terms of being less dissatisfied with appearance.


Saturday, July 15, 2006

A Meme!!

Plain = haven't seen it. Italics = seen it a few times. Bold = favorites. snf = saw lots, but not favorite.

24 Several times when husband was watching - feh
4400, The
7th Heaven probably have a dozen in ten years - or it may have been the same one over and over
Absolutely Fabulous
Adam-12 have seen probably all of them - but not a favorite
Addams Family, The
Adventures of the Gummi Bears
Aeon Flux
ALF
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alias
All Creatures Great And Small
All in the Family well-intentioned ploy that didn't work as expected
America's Next Top Model saw two - seemed like only 20
American Dad
Andy Griffith Show, The snf
Angel
Arrested Development
A-Team, The
Avengers, The (the ones with Diana Rigg!)

Babylon 5
Babylon 5: Crusade
Batman
Batman:the Animated Series
Battlestar Galactica (the new one)
Battlestar Galactica (the old one)
Baywatch ick, just...ick
Beavis & Butthead just like being at school!
Ben 10
Beverly Hillbillies, The snf
Brady Bunch, The snf
Beverly Hills 90210 kind of like a trainwreck - you just have to watch

Bewitched the first one with Montgomergy & York - well maybe a favorite
Blackadder
Blossom
Bonanza favorite til age 12 - liked Hoss; so impressed he had a PhD
Boondocks, The
Bosom Buddies
Boy Meets World
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Bug Juice

Carnivale
Carol Burnett Show, The
Chappelle's Show
Charlie's Angels

Charmed
Cheers
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
CHiPS
Closer, The
Code Lyoko
Cold Case Files
Columbo
Commander in Chief
Cosby Show, The
Coupling [BBC]
Coupling [the NBC series that got cancelled]
Courtship of Eddie's Father, The ok maybe it was kind of sarfy but it was
very sweet
Cowboy Bebop
Crossing Jordan
CSI
CSI: Miami

CSI: NY growing on me - like the new reshuffled second season
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Cybll

Daily Show, The
Danny Kaye Show, The loved it when we were kids
Danny Phantom
Daria
Dark Angel
Dark Shadows a major hoot!
Dark Skies
Darkwing Duck
Dawson's Creek
Dead Like Me
Dead Zone, The
Deadwood
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Designing Women kind of liked their attitude
Desperate Housewives
Dharma & Greg
Diagnosis Murder eh
Dick Van Dyke Show, The loved it when we were kids
Different Strokes
Dinosaurs
Doctor Who
Dragnet when we were kids, Friday was a god
DuckTales
Due South

Ellen
Emergency!

Entourage
ER
Everwood I see whiny kids all the time - don't need another
Everybody Loves Raymond

Facts of Life
Family Guy
Family Ties
Farscape
Father Ted
Fawlty Towers
Felicity
Firefly
Flintstones, The
Flying Nun, The snf
Frasier
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The

Friends
Fury
Futurama

Gargoyles
Get Smart would you believe a big favorite?
Gilligan's Island thought the Professor was extremely cool
Gilmore Girls
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. jeez
Golden Girls, The

Goodies, The
Green Acres this was so bad it was kind of good?
Green Wing
Grey's Anatomy
Growing Pains

Gunsmoke always wanted Matt to wind up with Miss Kitty

Hannah Montana
Happy Days
Hell's Kitchen
Henry Rollins Show, The
Hercules
Honeymooners, The on when we were kids - LOATHED with the heat of a
thousand suns
Hogan's Heroes so it was pathetic but Hogan was cute - who knew
Home Improvement

Homicide: Life on the Street
House

I Dream of Jeannie
I Love Lucy also on when we were kids - wanted to smack her then; still
want to smack her
Incredible Hulk, The
Inuyasha
Invader Zim
Invasion

JAG don't like courtroom dramas except the old Perry Masons
Jackass
Jeffersons, The loved the women
Jetsons, The
Joey
Johnny Bravo
Jonny Quest
Junniper Lee
Justice League, The

Kingdom Hospital
Knight Rider the car had the best lines - and the most acting ability

L Word, The
Land of the Lost
Laugh-In
Law & Order
Law & Order: SVU
Law & Order: CI
Little House on the Prairie bleh - same for the books
Lizzie McGuire
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Lost
Lost in Space warning! warning Will Robinson!
Love, American Style
Love Boat, The

M*A*S*H
MacGyver still watch reruns
Malcolm in the Middle
Married… With Children
a few - unfortunately
Melrose Place
Miami Vice
Millennium
Mission: Impossible the original, Mr. Phelps
Monk so OCD is amusing now?
Monkees, The when we were kids these guys were so cool
Mork & Mindy nanoo nanoo
Mr. Ed
Muppets Tonight
Murder She Wrote
My Favorite Martian
My Three Sons another staple when we were kids - wanted those parents
My Two Dads
Magician, The
Man From U.N.C.L.E., The collected the cards - guys were absolutely
swoonworthy
Munsters, The
Muppet Show, The
My So-Called Life
My World and Welcome To It

NCIS
Night Gallery the first set - scared the living crap out of me every time
Nip/Tuck
Northern Exposure
Numb3rs
One Tree Hill
Oz
O.C., The
Office (UK), The
Office (US), The
Outer Limits, The
Outlaw Star

Penn & Teller's Bullshit!
Perry Mason and Della!
Pokemon
Power Rangers
Pretender, The
Prison Break
Profiler
Project Runway
Quantum Leap
Queer As Folk (US)
Queer as Folk (British)
Quincy ME
Real World, The

Red Dwarf
ReGenesis
Rescue Me
Road Rules
ROME
Roseanne
Rose of Versailles, The
Roswell

Sailor Moon
Saved by the Bell
Scrap Heap Challenge
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
Scrubs
Seinfeld I must be one of the only living humans who really didn't like this show
Sex and the City
Six Feet Under
Shield, The
Simpsons, The
Six Million Dollar Man, The
Smallville
Smothers Brother’s Comedy Hour, The
Sopranos, The
So Weird
South Park have to admit I'm liking this better now that they've squared off
against the loonies

Spaced
Spongebob Squarepants
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate SG-1

Suite Life of Zack and Cody, The
Superman when we were kids this never seemed so corny (nor did using a beach towel for a cape to wear while jumping off the back porch)
Supernatural
Surface
Survivor

Third Watch
Three's Company
Top Chef
Top Gear
Taxi
Teen Titans
That 70's Show
That's So Raven
Transformers, The
Twilight Zone, The
Twin Peaks

Veronica Mars
Venture Brothers, The

Waking the Dead
Waltons, The
Whose Line is it Anyway?
Will and Grace
Wings
Without A Trace
West Wing, The
Wild, Wild West, The loved Artemus Gordon and the gadgets were neat - do not remember seeing any stretchy pants on guys in old photos though
Wonder Years, The

X-Files, The
Xena
Xiaolin Showdown
Young Ones, The
Zorro the really old one

And what about:
Monty Python
The Prisoner?
Legend
unfortunately extremely short-lived (the Edison jokes alone were
worth watching)

Jet Jackson
Sky King
Dr. Kildare
The Lone Ranger
Soap
The Green Hornet
Ed Sullivan
(his look when he introduced the Beatles: priceless)
Howdy Doody still have my Howdy-Doody puppet washcloth!
Surfside 6 they were all so cool and so unattainably gorgeous - terrible show
Wyatt Earp
Hopalong Cassidy
Maverick
Roy Rogers
Bat Masterson
Sargeant Preston
The Swamp Fox
Leave It to Beaver
I've Got a Secret
To Tell the Truth
Ernie Kovacs
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Beat the Clock
with Bud Collier - my parents were actually on this show - won a Fridgidaire!

Amazing how much TV we watched (all in black and white on only three channels). Makes you wonder though: those were the good old days?

Seen at 12 cats




Friday, July 14, 2006

A substance we call plastic

You know how everyone complains about those annoying seals on a new CD or a new DVD? Well, try ordering a whole bloody CASE of them for your school and trying to process them. I ordered (and paid for) shelf-ready. What did that mean? Did it mean they did all the dirty work: took off the crappy, tabless, shrink-wrapping, magically magnetic frickin' plastic? Put on all the stickers? Put on all the various permutations of glossy and non-glossy labels necessary for use? Have them ready to actually go on a shelf? No. It meant they throw most (not even all) of the crap you need to do this in a big honkin' envelope and ship it to you, all crinkled and mushed up in the bottom of the case of DVDs. So what the hell do you get when you don't order shelf-ready? One hestitates to even ask.

Well, I may not ask, but it's what I'm gonna order next time. I can pay $3+ bucks a head for "shelf-ready" processing and do all the work or I can pay about a buck a head for whatever the alternative is and do all the work. Even I can do this math.

And they can't catalog for crap either.

jerks.

Nice how I elevate the literacy level of the blogosphere, eh? Class-eee.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

There are social conventions for chewing gum, but...

Having read all those articles with suggestions for what to do when a friend is ill, I find it's still incredibly hard to know what to say or do. A colleague (also a LIBERRian) has a horrendous illness. She's seldom at work (and we work in different buildings) so I haven't seen her - so we email. Somehow sending cards and ecards seems lame. I've offered to help with her LIBERRy (did learn that from some article: don't just say "let me know what I can do" - offer something specific you can actually manage) - if she's able, we'll meet so I can do that next week.

I know that one of her greatest fears, besides worrying about if she'll survive, is that we'll forget her. So how do we reassure her that we are constantly thinking of her?

Her illness is not contagious, but you'd think it was from our response. Why do we not have more contact when something like this happens? Do we just really not know what to say? Are we denying the possibility that one of us could wind up with the same illness - something almost impossible to detect before it's too late? Are we so forcefully reminded of our own mortality that we're moving away as a form of denial?

This woman is one of the strongest people I know. She's been fighting for her life for almost a year now - fighting hard and maintaining a positive attitude...until now. Her latest email sounded weary, plaintive, fearful. Maybe it was because she emailed after a trying, tiring procedure. Maybe it was because it was only to a couple of us and she felt comfortable enough to be honest and not have to maintain the woman of steel persona. Maybe not.

Sad

A couple of weeks ago our eldest cat (16 years old) passed away. He had been cruising around earlier that day, snoozing in his various preferred places, drinking water from his personal plastic cup (he never liked water dishes). That morning I had been petting him - when I started to head downstairs, he patted me with his paw, his usual signal for "more petting please", purring like crazy. So I sat with him longer. When I found him, he was lying in one of his favorite spots, front paws daintily crossed as usual. I only realized something was wrong when he didn't jump up when I came trudging up with a load of laundry. Of course, I also keep wondering if there were signs he wasn't well I missed ( was he drinking more? less? anything?).

I miss this kitty. For years when husband was away consulting 100% of the time and daughter was at college and grad school, he and I were companions. He'd sit with me while I read, reviewed books, compiled ebibliographies for school. He also liked watching the Weather Channel (although his favorite was watching Pillsbury commercials - loved the doughboy).

He was a gentle, sweet kitty. As fond as I am of our multitude of current kitties, none of them has been a special companion yet - some have potential, some haven't. I hope one of them turns out to be like him; none will eclipse him or take his place.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

First things first

First thing:

I owe my wonderful Spoil-A-Blogger Pal a huge thank you!!!

This has been a really rough year on a number of levels. One of the very few lovely aspects has been your packages - and your thoughtfulness. Megan, you are so appreciated! I should have blogged long ago - even in my almost never blogging phase.

I keep holding out for pictures of your wonderful LUSH package (I did take pictures!) Picture lessons are very high on my list now that it's summer - then the Blogosphere can see how generous and kind you've been.

Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!!