London Day One

We had an incredible day of travel to get here. It was a real treat to be able to fly out of our regional airport instead of driving 2 hours to Kansas City. The flight left on time and arrived early for our layover at O'Hare in Chicago where we had a lovely breakfast at Wolfgang Puck's. The four cheese omelet was divine. Paired with garlic roasted potatoes it was a good start since who knows what they'll be serving on the flight to London. The O'Hare to JFK flight left on time and arrived early too! Unfortunately my seat on the plane allowed me only a glimpse of the King Kong building and none of the Statue of Liberty. Fortunately I was able to add another state to my been-there list.

New York to London flight left on time. Many good movies to watch so I caught one before dinner was served. Tried to watch a second one after dinner, but my eyes kept closing. Since I wanted to sleep on the plane, this was good. I caught sleep off and on for about 3 hours. This is good since we plan to push through the tired and stay up on arrival in order to sleep at night like normal people. The plane, once again, arrived early. So early we had to circle round and round since they have noise rules that won't let us land at Heathrow prior to 6:00 AM. What I noticed in our circling? It's very green here. I wonder why that is?

We'd arranged to have a car pick us up and deliver us to our hotel in a suburb north of the city proper. After our experience dragging luggage on and off of public transportation in Paris, we checked "live like locals" off our list and vowed to never do airport to hotel public transpo again. Customs, in preparation for the upcoming Olympics, was fully staffed and moving the queue faster than I thought possible. The line moved at a steady pace and we were through in no time at all. The driver was waiting for us, very pleasant fellow and he whisked us off to The Hide in Hendon. Arriving too early to check in---which is good, don't want to see that inviting mattress---we were able to leave luggage, freshen in the lobby loo and hit the tube into the city. Not only do we get to freshen, but the desk staff serves us up a couple of Lattes in case we don't have enough caffeine in us yet. Armed with umbrellas and raincoats, our adventure begins.

Our first trip into the city only involves one tube line so it's rather simple to speak with the ticket taker and find out if pay as we go or day pass is today's transpo option. For today it's pay as we go since we only plan the one trip in and one trip back. We exit the Northern Line (Charing Cross via Kennington) at Embankment and there is the Thames spread out before us with the shadow of the London Eye falling across the water. We head towards Big Ben in search of the tourist buses that make the circuit of attractions to plan where we want to spend some in-depth time.

We pass Whitehall Gardens, 10 Downing Street, and several other impressive buildings with the requisite Statues of Old Dead Guys and cross Westminster Bridge to the south bank. On the bridge a lone Bagpiper plays for tips. A quick stop for more caffeine at the McDonald's in the building at the foot of The Eye and we find our tour bus, complete with live (not recorded) tour spiel. Immediately one of the things that wasn't on our must-see list gets added. How can you see the Tower of London and NOT want to go through it is beyond me. Wasn't appealing on paper but now that we see it, we're going. On the bus we're able to scope out near enough where we need to be for our TV show taping on Monday night.

After the bus we take the free river cruise that's included with the bus tour. This gives us a look at many of the same things the bus does, but as viewed from the river. It also tells us that we probably don't need to buy a hop-on-hop-off day pass to the bus when we return Saturday. Everything we want to see is certainly walking distance from the tube state. Probably on a par with our 12 hour walking day in Amsterdam. We can do this. Towards the end of the river cruise the sky darkens considerably and when we disembark, the sky opens and pours. For all of maybe 8 minutes, but we're prepared and keep the soaking to a minimum. Disdaining the river side City Loo, for which you pay 50P, I hope to find a loo at the tube station. There is one; a City Loo. At this point I'm willing to pay 50P to keep from peeing my pants.

Fading fast from the brisk wind that came up at the end of our cruise, we tube back to Hendon and officially check in to our hotel. We are hungry so we really just glance at the room and head back out to find a local meal. We are sooooooo tempted to eat at KFC as we haven't had KFC since the one in MHK closed, but on the walk there we discover Cafe Florence and decide to take a chance. Judi opts for the fish and chips (even though we do plan to hit a fish 'n' chip shop that's on the top ten list) and I have the chicken escalope which is flattened chicken breast coated in bread crumbs and then fried (deep fried I think by the even coloring). Both are very good. Not great but very good and with dinner in our bellies we return to the hotel for the night. Tomorrow we attack some attractions in-depth.

Please note, I have no way to transfer pictures from my camera to the PC to post here. If I snag a cheap card reader tomorrow that will change but if I don't, I'll have to come back to these posts and add pictures when I get back home.

Qwitcher Bitchin'

Words without action are pointless.

Occupy Wall Street? How about Unoccupy Wall Street. You want to take money out of politics? Take your money out of the banks, out of the stock market. Remove it entirely from the entities that speculate with your funds. Some guy with a sign in a park has no effect; removing your money from the market sends a clear message to the very entities you protest against. Even if you only do it for a week, it will have an effect.

Want to stop new oil wells from being drilled? Buy an electric car, ride a bike, take the bus, join a car pool. But don't spend your time whining to me about saving the polar bear habitat if you aren't doing anything on a personal level to save the polar bear habitat.

Want the politicians to sit up and take notice of your desires? Get up and run for office yourself. No, you won't be able to run for president in 2016 but you can certainly start by filing your candidacy in a local office in your town. That way you can learn for yourself how it works and work your way up, just like hiring on at a company and working your way up the career ladder.

Too many people speak too many words and take no action. Until you shut up and step up, nothing's going to change.

Hill's Pet Food is BAD

Editing original post as I acquire additional information

No, I'm not talking about the product. I'm sure it's a fine product (I have in fact previously used Hill's prescription products for other animals in my household). My complaint has to do with their business model which requires their prescription food dispensing partners carry no other brands of prescription pet food or they pay higher prices for the Hill's product. This puts my local supplier in a very difficult position.

I have a 12 year old dog. She eats Purina j/m formula dog food. She's eaten it for the past 4 years. The LOCAL pharmacy where I purchase this item is having to cave into Hill's demands that they stock and dispense only Hill's labeled product to get pricing breaks. This is an independent pharmacy. They should be able to dispense whatever products veterinarian's write a prescription for without penalty.

I am not changing my dog's food. I will change my pharmacy first. And if I have to change my dispensing pharmacy for one item, I might as well switch all my pet's prescription needs to another pharmacy. I have some expensive dogs in the medication department. This may cause the local pharmacy to go out of business. Great work Hill's. The economy could use more companies like you.

Hill's pet food has made a serious enemy today. Let the internet trashing of Hill's begin.

11-18-2011: Hills adamantly stands by their claim that they enact no coercion on the companies they supply to carry only their product. MyVetsMeds adamantly stands by their claim that their contract with Hills is contrary to Hills' claims. MyVetsMeds has changed their business model and I am no longer able to get ANYTHING from them on a local level so at this point I am despising both companies equally.

When Did I Become a Conservative Again?

I try to book some home PC time every weekend because clicking links on tweets on the BB does not always render a page that's mobile device friendly. This weekend I'm catching up on links from Rachel Maddow's blog. And once again my fellow liberals just make me cringe almost as much as the right wing does.

TRMS highlights (as wrong) the politician that wants to make it so that the clothing allowance that's given to children on welfare and in foster care can only be spent at thrift stores or the Salvation Army. I disagree with limiting it to those two options but I don't disagree with the idea of requiring a clothing allowance be spent on clothing, especially if there are no current restrictions on how it gets spent. WIC dollars are restricted as to what you can spend them on, shouldn't clothing dollars be the same?

Does this sort of thinking make me a conservative? I liberally support public assistance programs; why can't I also support some sort of checks and balances that assure the money I give from every pay check goes to the actual sort of assistance I am supporting.

Escape From the Rest Home, Part Ia

I just realized after my part II post that I never posted about the local Realtor lady adventure!!!

O.M.G. Let me tell you a tale.

The week after Escape Part I, I showed up for our weekly weekend lunch and asked if he'd found any homes in the paper that he'd like to look at. The Topeka paper didn't have anything he wanted to see. We did lunch and then he indicated he wanted to cruise around my little town and see what houses had for sale signs. No problem. I had the local paper with me and we cruised up and down the streets and I compared what we saw with the info in the paper. Ended up with four houses he wanted to see.

He asked me when I would be available to take him to see those houses. I replied that it was a Realtor's job to show him those houses and if he was so sure he could live independently, he could certainly call the Realtor, and have the Realtor pick him up and show him houses. Which he did. I informed the staff at Shady Pines that this was being done with my blessing and they agreed it was a good reality check. After his Adventure in Real Estate was concluded, he called me to inform me that he'd made an offer on one of the houses and I needed to call the Realtor and give her my fax number so she could fax him some documents to sign.

The next day I called the Realtor full expecting i would have to fight some money-grubbing entity that was salivating over the thought of a nice commission in a lousy market. Oh Ye of little faith. Slipping back into my Los Angeles state-of-mind. What I got on the phone was another nice slice of Kansas. People who care. People who don't look the other way and say, it's not my business. People who every single day make me so glad I moved to Kansas.

Her first question was, "You're not really considering letting him do this, are you?" which segued into "I have serious reservations about his abilities to live alone." I said no, I wasn't, but that he was insistent that he was capable of this and f he proved he was, I would have no argument against it. She went on to detail how from the moment she saw him, she knew this was not a viable client. She had not submitted any offers to any sellers as she could not believe it would come to pass.

She continued to say that she really grilled him about his capabilities and couldn't believe he didn't have family to assist him, at which point he admitted to a daughter in the area. Relieved, she pushed no further as she could see he was getting agitated. She related that she too had a mother that was growing incapacitated and understood what I was going through.

So there are many people who tread the same path I do. What I want to know, is why am I walking this path for a man who mercilessly beat his wife and children to the point where they each left him several decades ago?

Escape From the Rest Home, Part II

Apparently he hasn't abandoned his fantasy of leaving Shady Pines, he was just waiting for me to leave town. We are going on vacation. We're going to visit my mom, whom I have not seen in seven years, and the three of us are driving from her place north of Phoenix to Vegas. We are going to have fun. Lots of fun. And I don't have to worry about my animals 'cause Amber stays at the house and I don't have to worry about Dad because he's got 24 hour supervision.

Note to self: Don't ever tell dad you are going on vacation. Just go. Let the staff at Shady Pines take care of him. It's what you pay them for.

After his experience with the local Realtor, he wasn't trying any in-town vendors. Found some travel agent in Burlington, Kansas (maybe she advertised in the newspaper he gets?) and bought a plane ticket to Redmond via Chicago and Portland. I feel sorry for the people he would potentially have come in contact with on this trip. He can barely walk. If he doesn't use the restroom frequently, he's incontinent. By the time the flight attendants caught on to the fact that he was having just a little too much alcohol, it would have been far too late. I shudder to think of him trying to make one plane connection, much less two. It's why I booked a non-stop when I brought him here. He is in complete denial of his capabilities.

It seems he mixed up the date he thought I was leaving and started telling everyone goodbye today. When the envelope with his plane ticket arrived at Shady Pines, the staff put 2 + 2 together and called me.

He's pissed. Said he wants to revoke the trust so I can't "keep him there anymore". Shady Pines director told him that he couldn't just say the words and make it so, he had to get an attorney. I told him that was fine, he could put his attorney up against my attorney any day, but it would have to wait until I got back from vacation. I made it clear that since I didn't want to have to worry about any stunts while I was gone, and with the staff's blessing, I was taking all his credit cards and his phones so he couldn't cause any more mischief. Told him that anything he needed to get by for the next week was right here at Shady Pines and that the staff would be happy to get him anything he needs, but gone. They would also be happy to make any calls he needed made.

This man, who beat my mother, my brother, and my self; who terrorized us for years, is the most ungrateful bastard in the world. He once told me I was an ungrateful piece of shit. Today, I know exactly what he was feeling when he said those words to me 35 years ago.

They're cute at that age, right?

Escape From the Rest Home, Part I

So my aunt & uncle from California call me Monday to tell me that my father has informed them that his younger brother in Colorado is coming to take him to Denver where Dad, younger brother, younger brother's wife, and their crack-baby granddaughter are all going to live together, happily ever after. WTF? I know Dad was bummed that he didn't win more at last Thursday's Casino Run, but I didn't think he was that unhappy.

So I talk to the director at Shady Acres and ask what I need to do to prevent this from happening. She tells me that based on the power of attorney documents she copied when we checked him in, I must do nothing. It's already done and in force. I am the only person who has a say in where Dad lives. Done, finished. Like He-man, I have the power. Relieved, I go back to work without even visiting him since he's not expecting me until Tuesday.

Tuesday I show up at the expected time figuring he'll tell me all about it. He only tells me part. Says he's not happy at Shady Acres. He's not as disabled as I think he is. This is not how he wants to spend the end of his life. Blah, blah, blah. Not one word about younger brother. Not one word about talking to real estate agents or loan officers. I humor him. I ask if he wants to go look at houses. He says yes. I say look through the paper and tell me which ones you want to see. I leave.

I'm so flustered by his bombshell, and his lack of full disclosure that I forget his laundry. But it's the perfect excuse for my stealth mission the next day. I breeze in five minutes after they put lunch on the table at Shady Acres so I can have some alone time in Dad's room. Just me and the numbers on his telephone's Caller ID list. God I love technology. I copy down the list paying special attention to the numbers in Colorado. I gather the laundry. I kiss him goodbye and return to work.

Where I proceed to Google each and every number on the list. Telemarketer's are the toll free numbers. A couple of the numbers must belong to younger brother. I hit pay dirt. One of the numbers belongs to a loan officer at a Colorado mortgage company and her web page has an email link. I explain to her that the man she's been consulting with is an assisted living resident that is not currently able to leave assisted living and that since I have power of attorney over him and his affairs, I hope she hasn't gone to too much trouble coordinating the stated needs of my Dad.

She responds that she had no idea of his real situation, could only go by what he'd said on the phone. I responded that I was sure that was the case, gave a few more details and my sincere apologies for any inconvenience she may have gone to. Five minutes after I click send my cell phone rings. It's the loan officer. She is calling to give me a pep talk, support, and to tell me of her own horror stories when she went through the trials of an aging parent. We cry on the phone together. Later she sends me the contact info for the real estate agent Dad's been talking to.

In the evening I touch base with the California relatives, who know that Dad is right where he needs to be, and they tell me that they spoke with Dad after my lunchtime visit and Dad told them that the Colorado relatives were NOT going to rescue him after all. I am relieved. Not that they could take him out of there; the staff at Shady Acres is aware of the plot and have orders not to let Dad depart the premises without my blessing or company. I'm just not looking forward to having to sic the police on people who are in not much better shape than Dad is. However I think they are just after Dad's money so that mitigates any misgivings I have about ripping them new a$$holes. At this point, having talked to the loan lady and knowing I will do the same with the real estate agent, I think we've pretty much put closed to the issue.

Today I emailed the real estate agent. He responds that he has already talked to Deb and is aware of the situation. He wishes me the best of luck in getting Dad to accept the situation. A few hours later he calls to say that Dad has contacted him again to tell him what areas of Colorado he would like to live in. Double WTF! Dad's not actually thinking he can move somewhere alone, is he? I would say that even no-good younger brother as a housemate is better than none, but I know the no-good younger brother, he is not better than none. Real estate agent then proceeds to tell me his personal horror story of his father, who had Alzheimer's. I am surrounded by fellow travelers who feel my pain and offer support and kind words.

I would love to see my father living independently in his own home, but given his current physical state, and sometimes foggy mental state, this is not possible. My plan is to have lunch with him on Sunday and explain that I know all about the sneaky dealings he's doing with the Colorado business people and that they have been told that someone other than him has power over his affairs. I will encourage him to participate in medical care that would improve his physical condition to the point of independence and that when he can demonstrate that independence to me, I will be happy to coordinate finding a new home for him.

Wish me luck. I'm going to need it.

For a good laugh...

My tools display tells me the top searches that returned a link to this site are:

1. roman bust
2. pharoh
3. roman busts
4. life imitates art
5. roman bust sculpture

You'd think this was an Art & History blog, eh?

Please take the time...

...to go to this website and vote. http://www.rallytorescue.org/ It's a contest where the winning group gets $5K in pet food coupons. I personally have voted for Buddy and the Border Collie group Border Collies In Need Inc. There are 10 rescue organizations to choose from, each has a short printed blurb plus a short video detailing their story. You don't have to watch the videos to be able to vote and I will ask you to vote for Buddy and his group (they're #4 in the running right now), but make your own choice if you feel like spending a little time to view the entrants.

Please take the time, it's a really good cause. Please pass this on.

Kansas Primary: August 3, 2010

Before we move on to our day-before elections coverage, let me just say that Dad's settling in nicely at what we lovingly refer to as Shady Pines, but what I really came here today for was to get some of this election poison out of my system.

Get out and vote. Don't sit there and tell me your vote doesn't matter, it does. If you want our elected officials to stand up for the principles they espouse, you need to get off your ass and stand up for the principles YOU espouse. You have a better chance of seeing the candidate you want elected than you do of winning the lottery.

I know I knowingly came to a Red State when I moved to Kansas so I am pleasantly surprised by the wealth of candidates the Democrats are fielding for the primary. Unfortunately I think they could have winnowed out some of the less-likely-to-win candidates in favor of a cleaner ballot and spending more on the few to reach more "undecided" ears. Hopefully this oversight will be rectified by the time November rolls around.

I'm not going to leave my party (too much) in my nit-picking other than to say that I was unaware that there was so much voter fraud going on in the state of Kansas that someone felt the need to make it the #1 issue in their campaign and, really, do you want to send someone to Washington who's only campaign promise is that they're going to "stick it" to Obama and Pelosi? That frightens me more than I can say.

Please note that I am only commenting on races in which I am actually able to vote. The rest of you can do your own research 'cause that's part of the voting process.

For US Senator we're fielding:

Robert Conroy, a man who has no idea how he ended up on the voter rolls as a registered Republican. Thanks, I don't need someone that clueless representing my interests.

David Haley, the only one with legislative experience and my common-sense vote but for the fact that he's so soft spoken I don't know if the people in Washington or Kansas can hear him.

Lisa Johnston, whom my gut and my heart tells me will do the best at the job but for the fact that she has no experience swimming with sharks.

Charles Schollenberger, who says many things I agree with but again, no time in the shark tank.

Patrick Wiesner, who has ten things on his to-do list, seven of which I agree with but I vehemently disagree with those other three.

For the US House of Representatives our choices are:

Cheryl Hudspeth, who is far too valuable at the local level to let go to Washington.

Thomas Koch, a man who can kindly be described as an eccentric Kansan.

Sean Tevis...I don't believe I'd ever seen a left-wing nutcase until I took a browse through his website. I believe he must be friends with the KU alumni who is convinced the Russians are controlling the weather and using it as a weapon against the United States.

For Governor/Lt. Governor there is only one choice, Tom Holland and Kelly Kultala and I don't have a car with a big enough bumper for that sticker but I would vote for Satan himself if he was running against Brownback. Oh wait, he is running against Brownback...

For Attorney General and Treasurer we have Steve Six and Dennis McKinney respectively, so unless I'm doing the write-in thing, X marks the spot.

And, finally, we have the battle of the Chris' for Secretary of State. Chris Biggs hasn't put much on the web to defend his current job or give retention reasons but Chris Steineger has a "billion dollar list" on his website detailing things he'd like to try to reduce the deficit. Because the list contains humor, he will get a vote from me.

So there you have it Dems, these are our choices. All three of us need to get out tomorrow and vote!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Where did April go? We put Nephew on a plane to Air Force Basic Training on March 30th and spent the month waiting for letters (we got 2, one of which was a form letter). I have to admit the letter he wrote was impressive. It was a page and a half long, had no mis-spellings, remembered both our names, and the names of all the animals. He sounded great and it looks like we found a place where he can thrive and mature. We go for graduation on the Wednesday before Memorial Day. I am looking forward to San Antonio as I've never been.

I brought my 75 year-old father from Oregon to Kansas this week. He's been gradually slowing down but resisting any type of assistance. Two phone calls, one from his brother and one from the family that lives next door to him made it clear to me that he's no longer able to live alone safely. I've been dreading this day imagining the fight to get him to agree he needs help and that it's best done close to my home. I can't keep flying off to another state every time he has some sort of crisis.

Surprisingly, he's been very agreeable. When his brother first posed the idea that he needed to go into Assisted Living, Dad asked his brother to look into facilities near him (in southern California). I talked to Dad about his reasons for not wanting to come to Kansas and was able to shoot them all down.

Dad: I don't want to live in snow anymore.
Me: (thinks to self---how many more winters are you really gonna see, Dad?) Well Dad, how much time exactly do you spend outdoors each day? And I don't know if you got the memo or not, but Kansas got electricity last year and we now have air conditioning that keeps us warm or cool depending upon the season.
Dad: You have a point.
Me: Next reason?
Dad: My brother and his wife can visit me in SoCal.
Me: You're talking about the people that travel 10 months of each year?
Dad: You have a point.
And what about me? How often can I visit you in SoCal?
Dad: You have a point
Me: Next reason?
Dad: Well all my friends live there.
Me: Dad. Honestly. Not to be morbid or anything, but how many of them are still alive (none)?
Dad: You have a point.
Me: So what do you want me to do Dad?
Dad: Look around and tell me what you've got there for me.

So I suppressed my knee-jerk reaction to hop on a plane. I knew the neighbors would continue to look in on him and either send him to a hospital or get someone to come in the home and care for him until I could get there. I took the time to tour all the facilities in my area and then I went to Oregon. For the first two days I suppressed my instinct to help with every little thing and just observed. That gave me good idea of what he can and can't do for himself. We filled any needed prescriptions, visited a doctor for a specific problem he's having and got the green light to travel to Kansas.

Today we toured some of the places I found acceptable and tomorrow we'll tour more. Friday we have an appointment with an attorney that specializes in Geriatrics and we'll see what sort of money assistance he's eligible for so we can determine what he can afford.

I'm a little stressed, but without the tooth and nail fight I was expecting over this, it's going easier than I could have hoped.

I'd also like to take this time to thank Senator Chris Dodd and President Bill Clinton for the FMLA. Pleased I don't have to worry about losing my job.

March Madness

How did I succumb to March Madness this year? I've never been a basketball fan. I don't think it's the game that I have no interest in, I'm pretty sure it's professional basketball players. The ones I have the most exposure to are the ones in my birth town and the ones that get the press there are just not nice people off the court. There is nothing about them that I think should inspire the sort of worship they receive.

By virtue of where I work, sports are a big thing. Every year there are brckets to fill, this year they happen to be tied in to some charity donations, but they would be there even without the altuistic tinge. This year I filled one out. It's my Underdog Bracket. With the exception of how I determined the winner in the Michigan game, every one of my choices was based on advancing the team with the worst seasonal record. I actually made it through 3 days of play before my bracket bit the dust.

Today is Elite Eight day and my local team is still in it. The game they played the other night, the one that landed them up against Butler today, was the most exciting basketball game I've ever seen. I'm watching the game today for two reasons. To see if my enjoyment the other day was a fluke and, if they win, I'm going to have to go in to work to open up the phones for retail. They will put in some extra hours so they can sell Final Four tee shirts. Don't laugh. We sold out of our Elite Eight shirts in less than a day. Go Cats!

Eats at Barleycorn's Update

Well, Barleycorn's has become the new favorite. I go there any chance I get and have even taken visitors from out of town there.

The three cheese tomato soup is still my favorite, but the chicken noodle is pretty darn good too. I've managed to go beyond the Chipotle Chicken Wrap to try the Jalapeno Chorizo, the Cajun Chicken and the Club Sandwich. Hopefully it does well enough that I will eventually be able to make my way through the complete menu.

Stay tuned.

No Place Like Home For the Holidays

Driving to town to rent a DVD...

• $2.00 in gas

Finding the title you want in stock...

• $4.99 (actually free with the early return rebates you've accrued)

Watching your eighteen year-old nephew's face when the dancing penis comes on screen...

• Priceless

New Eats in Town

We've got a new restaurant in Wamego, Barleycorn's Downtown Bar & Deli. I've eaten there twice now and the food is really good. The first visit I tried the soup of the day, three-cheese tomato. It was awesome soup. You could really taste the cheeses and I'm sure it was made with milk, it had such a rich taste. Paired with a Chipotle Chicken Wrap it made the perfect meal.

Today the sides offerings included warm potato salad which sounded pretty good since it's getting colder. And it was. I wonder if they'll share the recipe with me 'cause I'd like to make that at home myself. I had the same chicken wrap as the first visit and I can say the good food is not a fluke. Spicy chicken and warm salad. I'll definitely be back for more! They have an amazingly large menu for a bar so it will take me a while to get through all they have to offer.

AVG Sux!!!!

AVG sux seriously. What good is an anti-virus that identifies a threat but does nothing about it? No good, that's what I say.

Seems I can only go a few years with an anti-virus product before I have to switch to something else due to it not performing as advertised. In my history as an IT person, that means I've been through Norton (back when all it was was an anti-virus); McAfee (back when all it was was an anti-virus); and most recently AVG (started back when all it was was an anti-virus).

Some website deposited three nasties on my laptop last week. The scheduled scan of AVG did not idetify any of these bad-a$$ exe's. Resident shield identified the three but took no action even though auto heal/delete was enabled. The only reason I knew of the invasion was my firewall was prompting to allow internet access for a program I did not recognize.

Is there anything out there that works anymore? I don't need link scanning, safe-surfing, or any of that other bullshit. I want a program that does one thing (check for viruses) and does that one thing very, very well.

Crazy busy

So...what do you do when what you loved to do for 8 or more hours every day becomes something you dread to do for 8 or more hours every day?

I miss my home, I miss my dogs. I miss life.

Gee, what will they think of next...

Mom, you won't miss anything if you want to skip this post.

I got this newsletter today telling me about a new insect repellent from SC Johnson Brands. The OFF!® Clip-On™ repellent provides personal protection from mosquitoes without having to apply something to your skin.

This is really appealing to me since I am really appealing to mosquitoes and rather sensitive to the repellent products that actually work to keep me from being bitten. I’d never heard of the active ingredient, metofluthrin, so I G00gled it. It made for some interesting reading. I learned about things like LD50 (lethal dose where 50% of the test subjects die) and LC50 (lethal concentration in 50% or test subjects). Here are some excerpts from the EPA’s sheet on this chemical (http://www.epa.gov/opprd001/factsheets/metofluthrin.pdf):

… Metofluthrin, like other pyrethroids, is neurotoxic in rats, rabbits, and dogs; both sexes were equally sensitive to metofluthrin. Clinical signs include tremor (all species), vomiting (dog only), and increased salivation (rats and dogs).

SO THEY TESTED THIS ON DOGS (beagles, to be exact), RABBITS, RATS, AND MICE.

… clinical signs including ataxic gait, tremors, tip-toe gait, lateral position, clonic convulsion, hypothermia, and mortality in both sexes.

DID WE MENTION DEATH…OH YEAH, WE CALL IT MORTALITY.

… a single dose of 100 mg/kg produced tremors, twitches, abnormal respiration, increased motor activity, and mortality. The animals found dead or in extremis 24 hours post-dosing (7 out of 20 animals) exhibited signs of clonic convulsions, hyperpnea, prostration, lost righting reflex, soft or liquid feces, tonic extensor convulsions, salivation, chromorhinorrhea, and chromodachyorrhea.

… Increased incidence of tremor was observed in males at 30 mg/kg/day in the chronic dog study. Tremor was observed in the head, limbs, or body of all males beginning on Day 96 (1-5 incidences/dog except one male with 46 incidences) and in only one female and only on Day 289.

ARE YOU TELLING ME THEY POISONED THESE ANIMALS FOR ALMOST 300 DAYS IN A ROW???

Well, this is just a little upsetting to me. I know, testing like this goes on all the time and it’s for my protection but shouldn’t we really be testing this stuff on humans to get results relevant to our own species?

I don’t know that I could buy this product knowing what I know about it and frankly I’m afraid the look at the MSDS sheet for the product I currently use.

On the other hand, the testing is done and the animals are already dead. Nothing can bring them back. If I don’t use this product, won’t their deaths have been in vain?

I fucking hate moral dilemmas.

Europe recap

We are safe and sound back in the good old U.S. of A. I have to comment about how well the traveling part of the trip went. I love vacationing in far-off destinations but I hate the physical act of traveling. I hate lugging luggage. I dislike plane travel (that must be a control thing) and I wasn’t especially fond of the public transportation (but was, frankly, glad not to be driving in Amsterdam or Paris). Once I’m where I’m going I’m fine, it’s the getting to and from that irks me. Can’t wait for transporter technology to be developed so I can just beam to my chosen place.

Here are a few more pictures from the trip, pictures that didn’t really fit in with previous posts (plus after running around all day, it was a stretch to stay awake long enough to post the entries I did; I’m not a spring chicken anymore). Our canal tour of Amsterdam was quite a long tour and there were so many things to take pictures of, but this one is noteworthy for the fact that you can see arch after arch after arch looking down the canal (I believe the guide said 8 in all) and the teeny-tiny delivery truck on one of the bridges is pretty darn cool.

As we were waiting for the Thalys train to Paris, we sat on this really cool red bench in the station that has all sorts of quotes about travel. I guess if we’d known and taken the train from Schipol instead of trekking into Amsterdam Central again, we never would have seen the bench.

Here’s what the view was like from the high speed train.

Everywhere we went people were very nice and polite. I loved Amsterdam and the people living there and there was quite an international assortment of guests at our hotel (it was a popular place for airline crews on their ‘you-will-get-some-sleep’ layovers. The Internet in the room (wired) was expensive but if you went to the lobby you could have the wireless for free so that’s where I ended most of my days in Amsterdam and at that time of night the guests coming out to smoke are pretty darn tipsy from happy hour. One night there was a drunk Englishman and a drunk Norwegian giving me tips on France. The Englishman kept repeating himself and the Norwegian was completely unintelligible. But they were harmless. When I saw this sign, I thought maybe it was a special place for the Russian flight crew that was staying at our hotel.

But it turns out it means health club. The fitness center was right next to it. Zorg gets me to thinking of the girls from Kazakhstan. I was out having a smoke one night and these two dark beauties and a guy were waiting for the hotel shuttle into Amsterdam. They were in town for two days and ready to hit the clubs. Of course they spoke better English than I do. I always ask the foreign smokers to translate the warnings on their cigarette packs. The ones we have here in the US are so wimpy. Other country’s warnings detail the slow, painful death that results from smoking. They told me the ones in Bangkok even have pictures of lungs and deformed babies. We traded cigarettes. I ended up with the remainder of a pack of Kiss Superslims Energy. I don’t know what’s in them that makes them call it energy, but my bet is it’s not legal in the U.S. There were supposed to be four of them going to the clubs but one of them wimped out and went to sleep. They invited me along and as appealing as it sounded, I declined on account of the fact that I might have succumbed to all the vices of Amsterdam.

As you can see from this next picture, I really will take a picture of anything. Another of the things I liked about Europe (at least the parts of Europe I went to) were the public restroom stalls. These babies had floor to ceiling walls and total privacy. Why don’t we have that here? Oh, because we can't even get the toilets to flush here...

Everywhere I looked there was ornate detail on everything. The buildings…

…the statues…

…even the light posts are works of art.

I know we are a young country, but why don’t we do structures like this? Everywhere a feast for the eyes.

On my 270 photo day, there was a lot to go through when the day was through. I didn’t know how well my pictures of the high up statues were going to turn out. This one had a little bonus when I looked at it full sized. Don’t ask me to identify the kind of bird, but it’s a one in a million shot, oui?

They are very environmentally conscious over there. To get the electricity and air conditioning to work in the hotel you have to put your room key in a slot by the door otherwise you get nothing beyond the 30 second courtesy light that comes on when you open the door. This can create problems if one of you keeps heading down to the lobby for a smoke because the one that stays behind gets left in the dark. We learned quickly that we’d need a second key. They’re big on recycling and make it easy with bins all over the place. Trash cans too. No, the car in the picture below is not being recycled…yet.

The cars for the most part are much smaller than here but I’m not sure if that’s an environment thing or a we-have-the-smallest-streets-you’ve-ever-seen thing. There were a lot of Smartcars and they even have a program where you time-share a Smartcar with other people. It makes sense. Many people live in walking distance of where they work and the public transport is usually faster than driving on the streets. If all you need a car for is the occasional large purchase, why not share a car with others?

I loved touring Paris by open-topped double-decker bus but it did have its hazards.

I liked the cobbled streets and would like to get the moss between the stones thing going on the cobbled paths in my garden. The local upscale produce market has these plants called step-ables for sale. I think I will get some and see if I can’t recreate a little Europe in my own backyard.

The food was divine. We did a lot of eating but for the most part the calories we consumed were canceled out by the calories we burned walking. We only had one meal that wasn’t WOW and even that had a wow factor in that it was topped with a thick layer of melted cheese. We really like the fried egg sandwiches and even made some at home for dinner when we got back. We went to one restaurant that turned out to be a mistake. Funny, everyone kept telling us that the French were rude, especially to Americans. Maybe it’s because we mostly went to tourist sites, which depend on your dollars, but the only rude people we found in Paris were the two Italians that were on staff at Pompei Pizza. We’d been eating off and on all day so we weren’t looking for anything heavy. We thought the pizza place around the corner from our hotel at Rue de l’Arcade & Rue de Castellane would be perfect.

We’d figured to split a pizza and have drinks before calling it a night. Well apparently you don’t split a pizza at Pompei Pizza, everyone is required to order an entrée and they were extremely rude about it. So we left and went to Triadou Haussmann at Boulevard Haussmann & Rue de Rome where we each ended up ordering something and I had the best omelet I’ve had in a long time. All in all it was a great vacation and I’d highly recommend both cities to anyone, but Amsterdam was my favorite. But skip the pizza in Paris.

And Amber, re the building you were asking about (across from the giant marshmallow peeps bunnies). I don’t know if it’s anything special in the architecture/historic category, but it is the GAP store at Rue Auber & Rue Tronchet.

Paris: Last day - Montmartre

Our last day in Paris finds us on the Metro again.

This time our destination is the Montmartre area.

But we almost think we’ve taken a wrong turn when we see this Metro stop.


I think we’ve walked quite enough on this vacation so when I see transportation to the top of the hill, I can’t get to the ticket window fast enough.

At the top of the hill is the oldest church in Paris, Sacre Coeur. It also contains the world’s oldest bell (according to the driver of the choo-choo tram that runs between the metro and Sacre Coeur).

Along with the church there is what is probably very expensive real estate with killer views.

Like Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur has lots of rain spouting gargoyles.

No sign of Quasimodo, but this pigeon apparently spends a lot of time in front of the camera judging by the poses it ran through for me.

I ran across a familiar name…

The guy in the orange shirt is about to sketch my portrait. The orange shirt is a sign, oui?

And I’m glad to have gotten the portrait sketch out of the way right away as there is another sketch artist around every corner. Sort of like stink on you-know-what. Around each corner is some little gem of scenery like this fountain.

Or this garden.

As we sit at a café on the main square overlooking all the resident artists, I realize it truly is springtime in Paris and the birds are looking for love in all the right places. This is the only French Porn I saw.

We skipped Dali’s place…

…since we had the real McCoy’s right in front of us. The gentleman peeking out of the right side of this display is a true artist. He stretches his own canvas.

We’re making it an early day today since we have to rise at oh-dark-thirty to catch transportation to the airport. We take the stairs down the hill. Gravity does help but after so many of them I get dizzy and worry about overstepping and tumbling the rest of the way down. When we arrive safely at the bottom we celebrate with cappuccinos…

…at a café with a photogenic waiter…

…and an aptly named toilet. Definitely not sitting here.

Finally, here is the café area of our hotel where we had breakfast every morning.

And the lobby where we had refreshments in the evening.