An Inconvenient Bag

I’ve recently read that if human beings were to disappear off the face of the earth today our buildings would crumble and fall, our house cats would survive while our dogs would die out, and there would be millions and millions of plastic bags floating around the world. Something about the imagery of the Empire State Building crumbling with time and being over grown by weeds while plastic bags roll by like tumble weeds really disturbs me.

So to do my part from keeping creepy plastic bag world from happening I have started to use paper more then plastic at the grocery store. I usually use my two reusable cloth bags but when an extra bag is needed I try to go for the paper bag.

The thing that really bothers me is that when I go to the store the person bagging my groceries will often put my paper bag inside a plastic bag thus negating my entire reasoning behind the paper. I try to tell them, just paper but often it doesn’t work out and I end up with my plastic-paper bags and a bleak baggy future.

I guess Kermit was right…it’s not easy (trying to be) green.

From Such Great Heights

This morning Steve and I were rudely awoken by the sound of our cat jumping up on to Steve’s dresser. Recently Moose has taken to being on top of things weather it be the armoire or the refrigerator, this last week Moose has felt the need to scale it. Earlier in the week he discovered he can jump from the counter, to refrigerator, to the top of our kitchen cabinets. Once he’s up at face level he gets nasty too and will scratch you if you try to get him down.

So when he got up on the dresser this morning we sleepily made the choice to just let him be. Until he started meowing for our attention; it seems that the top of the dresser was not has high as he wanted. We thought he wanted to jump on to the shelf in the closet and we watched him get ready to jump expecting him to end up landing on the floor in failure. We were all surprised when Moose jumped not into the closet but on to the top of the closet door. He stood on the closet door with Steve and I staring up in awe at him. He was balanced on the one inch thick door trying to the tall shelf that was already covered in stuff with no room for a cat.

Sensing the fruitlessness of this next jump he decided to jump somewhere else. We held our breaths as Moose moved toward the edge of the door and jumped from the door down to our bed/on top of Steve. Moose had given up the quest for higher in our bedroom for the morning. Once down to ground level again he promptly meowed, jumped off the bed and ran into the kitchen to be fed now that we were awake.

On The Island Of Sodor

When I was growing up my sister and I watched a lot of PBS. From Sesame Street to Mr. Rodgers we were avid fans. On Saturdays we would watch Shining Time Station, a nice show about a train station run by the woman, who was the beauty school drop out from Greas,e and other colorful characters. It made trains and train riding look romantic and fun (a notion that was quickly put to rest after my first time on an Amtrak). The best part of this show was when Mr. Conductor would show up and tell stories about Thomas the Tank engine and his friends. Mr. Conductor was played by Ringo Star until he went to the North Pole with Santa during the Christmas special, after that Mr. Conductor was portrayed by George Carlin. So it was that many a childhood lesson was taught to me by George Carlin’s voice.

George Carlin is one of Steve’s favorite comedians so last week when he was in town Steve got tickets for the two of us to go see him. Now, I know George Carlin has a dark sense of humor, and I knew he probably wouldn’t be talking about his time with Thomas the Tank Engine, but I was a bit surprised when he came out on stage yelling “F-ck Lance Amstrong and his ball!” All notions of Mr. Conductor being a small friendly man went right out the door.

By the end of the night George Carlin was no longer Mr. Conductor and I lost a little part of my childhood.

Sick

As I’ve said before it’s generally really hard for me to call into work sick. I usually try to stick it out because I know that when someone is out sick it can make work really tight for everyone else. This week, however, I’ve had no issue calling out sick. I woke up on Sunday feeling totally wiped. I had no energy at all and my throat was sore, but I worked though it and felt a little bit better by Monday when I worked. Tuesday rolled around and I started to feel dizzy and generally crappy and left work early.

I progressively felt worse as the week went on and ended up calling out from work both Thursday and Friday free of guilt due to the degree of my illness. I ended up going to the doctor on Friday and as soon as she looked into my ear canal she said “yikes, I would hate to have those ears, they look really painful.” That right, I have a sinus and double ear infection. I was sent home with two week supply of antibiotics and instructions on how to drain my head of all the ill that has built up there during the week.

Today is day one of my antibiotic treatment and I already feel a bit better. I don’t feel guilty about calling into work this week but I hope I’m well enough to go into work on Monday, I think Moose is tired of having me around the house.

Oh What Fun

Chicago was a blast. Sometimes when you are away from people for so long you forget how much you miss them. I forgot how much I missed seeing Becca and Dana so while I was there we lived it up.

Sight Seeing


More Sight Seeing


Getting a Gnome Drunk

Now I’m paying the price for the good times in Chicago with a nasty head cold. At least I have some awesome memories and hopes they will be in Boston soon!

Yet Another Vacation…

So after two weeks of hard work I’m going on another vacation. I know you are thinking, “didn’t you just go on a vacation?” And the answer is yes. Puerto Rico was nice but it’s time to have some time with my friends. I haven’t seen Dana since May 2006 so it is really time for us to get together, get drunk, reminisce, and have fun. Since Dana and I are so much fun, Becca has desided to fly down from Chicago and participate the aforementioned activities. Sweet!

Tomorrow I will leave for Chicago to have some beer and pizza and apparently watch a hockey game. I’m told it’s snowed pretty much every Tuesday in Chicago so hopefully I can get in on time and start a friendapalooza. Wish me luck.