Moses, I love ya.

I am so queer for this movie. I will watch it whenever it's on, like now, and I cry EVERY TIME. The voice of God just woke up Pepper. He doesn't just talk to Moses, apparently.

I read in a great book, "Harlot By The Side of The Road" how Tziporah saved Moses when God sent a spirit to smite HIM. She circumcised him. He was set in the basket before the Bris, I guess, and Ra didn't go in for that sort of thing. So Mr. Ten Commandments was not right in the eyes of the Lord. Good thing he married a quick thinking Shicksa, or it would all be over before it began. Girls rule!

Interesting that Ralph Feinnes plays evil enslaver Rameses, a human god AND Lord Voldemort evil enslaver who wishes he were a god. HMMMM...

12 of 12 June 07

5:15 AM - Pepper is quite angry that I've shut the cover on his food dish. He huffed out of the kitchen and threw himself on the floor in a fit. I have no sympathy for him. I hope he throws a hairy cat fit and works off some of that fat.



5:17 AM - I love salmon cream cheese on pumpernickel toast.



5:20 AM - Flannel knows he's handsome, so he's trying to smarten up the place with his handsome man poses.



6:37AM - I get a great view of all the presidential monuments on my way to work. I'm going in early to prepare materials for a class I'm teaching tomorrow. It is marketing related; I haven't switched jobs.



11:30AM - This Whole Foods has a great prepared foods section. I'm sure they put it in just for us office workers. Something tells me that that part of town is pretty dead after hours.



11:48AM - Back at my desk, I can dig in to the parfait that I got for dessert. I am a fool for parfait. You will never catch me saying "Hell no I don't want no parfait!"



2:20 PM - I just found out that we're going to have to spend an extra $40k a year to complete the project that I've been working on for a year and a half. Big picture it's not that much money, but my boss is funny about that stuff.



6:40PM - I won't get a chance to exercise tomorrow, so I have to get to class even though it's late and has started to rain. Boo hoo, poor me!



6:52 PM - The rain is really heavy, which surprises me since there were no showers predicted for today.



6:55 PM - Everything looks a little more clear when Justin Timberlake is in view.



8:05 PM - Say goodbye to exercise class, everyone! Be sure to thank the nice teacher for making the muscles in your arms sizzle like eggs on a hot griddle.



8:26 PM - Again with the Washington Monument. You'd think it was the tallest thing in the city the way it's horning in all my pictures. Oh, wait... By law it IS the tallest thing in the city. Glory hound.



BONUS PICTURE: SECRET - My secret is that I love eating so much that I would rather die an early death than change anything about my diet.

It Makes You Wish There Were More Than 24 Hours In The Day

So here we are in Sin City. I was here for a work conference and GMiller was able to join me for a few days. We stayed at the Venetian, which was great. I recommend it highly.



There are very few remaining traces of old Las Vegas. I bet this store is one of them. It looks pretty old school. We didn't go in.



After a short walk on the Strip, we take the covered bridge back to the hotel. You can see over GMiller's shoulder that Wayne Brady is playing at our hotel. You know, white people like Wayne Brady because he makes Bryant Gumbel look like Malcom X. The only show we saw in Vegas was Blue Man Group. It was like nothing I've ever seen before. Really interesting.



At the LV Natural History museum, we get to experience what life is like for the people of the African Cardboard Hut tribe. I think the goatskins are probably real. They also had a stuffed lynx in the children's area. Not a toy lynx, a real taxidermied lynx. Most of the fur and skin had been rubbed off one of its hind feet and you could see the wooden beetle that made up the underlying structure. That was unsettling.



Dale Chihuly is one of my favorite artists. He did the ceiling at the Bellagio and has several other installations in the hotel. We were hoping to see the Ansel Adams exhibit there, but it was closed due to another exhibit being installed. It was interesting to see the hotel public spaces and compare to where we were staying. As I said, the Venetian was definitely better.



This picture is a shout out to my friend Heather B. Even the mermaids in Vegas have plastic racks! Amazing.



This picture represents the only gambling I did. I spent $8 on the Star Wars slots, and when betting on Obi Wan to win in a fight against Darth Vader, won $107. I'm a happy miser!

12 of 12 May 07

9:23 AM - Back from exercise class with some tide me over for the weekend groceries. I did not buy an entire bag of honey. I've decided to adopt the posture of the caring suburbanite by buying reusable bags from my local organic food conglomerate. I like the idea of giving my tea the royal treatment.



10:15 AM - I have just enough time to get out of workout clothes and into a shower, then into clean clothes before Himself arrives at noon. I think the workouts are working!



11:38 AM - Sitting in my bedroom waiting for Slowpoke to put on her shoes. Buckles still confound me and I'm in my mid-thirties! God bless the people who thought of Velcro. They make shoe time fun time!



11:57 AM - I get kisses and we're nowhere NEAR a fort. Well, we probably are, but the kisses are the part you should take away from this picture. And we're driving to look at a potential house to buy together. SHAZAM!



12:15 PM - My Realtor opens the gate on the potential house. It turned out not to be our cup of tea, but I think it's important to get those forward momentum vibes out into the universe. Whatever you send out comes back to you X3. I heard that in THE CRAFT. Normally, I don't believe what I see in the movies, but that coven of teen witches taught me a lesson. I can't wait to try "light as a feather, stiff as a board" at my next slumber party. Do NOT read something smutty into that remark when you get to the thirteenth picture! Gutter-brains.



1:03 PM - I've left my plug in Treo charger at work, which won't help me on the business trip I'm taking on Monday. Best Buy is the answer. It didn't take very long to look at that house. From that you could infer that it was a) small or b)not so hot. It was both.



1:40 PM - We're still in a house hunting mood, so we swing by the National Park Seminary. We got a list of prices, with units that already have deposits. It was discouraging, and as I feared, well beyond our means. Even if people with deposits drop out, the Realtor there said that they would most likely revise the prices UP. Good grief. We're going to end up living in a van down by the river.



3:30 PM - At the Uptown theatre to see Spider-man 3. They showed a preview for the new Harry Potter movie, and I cried my eyes out. We all know that movie will end in tears. We've all read the book. I don't think I can bear it. Oh, and the movie was good. If you don't care about character development, or plot authenticity. I won't give any spoilers. I'm just saying to see the movie as "inspired by" Spider-man comics as opposed to a faithful rendering.



6:54 PM - In answer to your question, Mr. Jesus Fish Van, NO. I will be driving AS FAST AS I CAN out of that crazy site of Armageddon. You are assuming that I am going to ascend. Ha! Joke's on you, pal.



7:29 PM - I was too lazy to cook dinner, so we go out for Japanese. Udon with pickled veg for me, sushi dinner for him and cold sake for us both. Yum! Almost as soon as we sign the check, a huge thunderstorm starts. Crazy rain, wind and lightning make leaving difficult. GMiller runs for the car and swings by to pick me up.



9:10 PM - Back home we try to watch the Aqua Teen Hunger Force "Broodwich" episode. Is anyone else noticing this diabolical theme in my 12 of 12? It was so not planned. The weather is having its way with the cable and the system is kaput.



9:11 - Ever the optimist, Himself believes by mashing the control harder, the machine will be inspired to work. Alas, we don't find out whether Shake is delivered from the clutches of the demonic sandwich. Off goes the TV and off we go to bed.



BONUS PICTURE: DREAMSCAPE While this is not a fanciful picture, it is a representation of one of my dreams realized. I love this man with my whole heart, and he loves me right back.

If you are new to 12 of 12 - here are the basics:1) ALL PHOTOS MUST BE TAKEN ON THE 12TH OF EACH MONTH.2) After you post your pictures onto a webpage of your choice (Livejournal, typepad, MySpace, Flickr, etc...) please post the TIME, LOCATION, and A SMALL COMMENT in the pic.3) You own the rights to all of your pictures. The idea "12 of 12" is Chad Darnell's. While credit is not necessary, please don't credit someone else with the idea.4) The original concept was at least one body part in the picture. That idea was slowly faded away. The important part is that it is 12 pics.5) The monthly Bonus pic is a 13th picture and is optional.6) When referring to the project, please refer to it as "12 OF 12" - not "12 ON 12."7) Once completed, please e-mail or post the PERMALINK of the post AND the city and state or city and country of WHERE THE PICTURES WERE TAKEN. (If you are on vacation, it's where the pics were taken.)(The permalink is the link to the ENTRY of your page. If you just send me your website, I have to track it down. By listing the permalink, it helps for people to go back and view your previous 12 of 12 entries from previous months.)ANYONE is welcome to join in, even if you've never done it before! I hope you will.

SUCH a liar!

My office mate is trying to cancel his AMEX and is telling the operator that he's never charged on the card, and that he's been trying to cancel since July 06. "$26 on the account? I've never charged!"

Fool. AMEX charges just for having the card. You KNOW he's trying to get out of paying. Now he's blabbing about how he spends a lot of time in Afghanistan, and always comes home to all these bills from AMEX. If by Afghanistan, he means the chair in his office opposite me, then yes, he spends a lot of time in Afghanistan.

AMEX is worse than the devil. I think they run Hell. If you cross them they will ruin your credit forever.

The Quality of One's Company

I went to one of the restaurants in my frequent lunch rotation today. This restaurant is part of a well run partnership in Virginia with several other interests in the area, and recently acquired a noted chef from another establishment. The chef has made many changes to the menu and tried to raise the profile of the joint by doing "pairings" with beer and apps, etc.

Since he took over, I'm not so excited about the food. It's okay, but not on a par with the meals I was having before he took over, yet I eat at the restaurant about two or three times a month. Mediocre food; why would I put up with that? The bartender. He is so warm, so affable that he makes lunch at the bar a real pleasure. Today, he wasn't there and I read the newspaper while eating a pasta dish that would have tasted better from my own kitchen. I thought as I ate that the quality of one's company can make all the difference between a good meal and a great one.

How Much Is That Condo In The Window?

I signed the papers on Friday and now my house is for sale. I know you faithful readers out there are such great fans of mine, that you'll be tripping over yourselves to grab a hold of a piece of RKD history. So: if you're in the market, or would like to imagine that you know me better by looking at each room in my apartment:

http://matrix.mris.com/Matrix/Public/Email.aspx?ID=19258581937

Already I'm tired of keeping it so clean, and it's only been two days. I think I am a professional mess.

Another Song Dedication to MYSELF

Queen's "I Wanna Break Free" is about ME! I am so dang sick of painting and taping and electrical things and making my house look boring as hell so that folks with a patented aversion to thinking outside of the box will want to make my home their own. All my nekkid lady pictures have to come down, my oil paintings of Turkey, my Chinese watercolors. FEH!

I'm signing papers putting my place on the market tomorrow. Then I'll start looking for an even bigger space. Of course you know that whatever I get next, I'll want to redo the kitchen. I always do.

Please, Lord, let me find some place with a washer/dryer IN the unit. In Baby Jesus' name, AMEN.

12 of 12 April 07

7:15 AM - Flannel takes his protective duties seriously. Even though the spy hole he chewed in the last set of blinds has been replaced by sturdy aluminum slats, he makes a habit of parking lot surveillance. Get him a trench coat and he could be McGruff, Jr. Except he's a cat.



7:37 AM - Not even the Lorax would speak for this tree in my parking lot. It needs an advocate, though, because the building has made the decision to take out all the trees in our parking lot. They're really not doing well.



10:47 AM- A morning snack while I read yesterday's Food section. They have a new editor for the Food section and he seems to be taking the "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?" approach to food journalism. Reduce wine coverage while increasing beer coverage. Man-catcher brownie recipes and "Bistro dining comes to DC!" features. Bo-ring!



12:22 AM - I'm in the middle of constructing a timeline for a follow up memo I have to write to a vendor. Sounds like the WaPo Food section (boring), but I have fun with it.



3:22 PM - On the phone with GMiller. Our first 12 of 12 that we're in each other's photo line up, even if it is only telephonic.



3:44 PM- I'm leaving work now because after suffering with the flu for three days, I only have energy reserves for seven hours. The predicted rain showers are rolling in making the sky look really dramatic.



3:45 PM - I wonder why it smells so sweet in my car, then I realize that I took this bottle I got on the flight home from Savannah out of my purse and put it in the drinks holder in my car to remind me to bring it in the house and not drive or walk around with booze anymore. Savannah is in Georgia, not Maryland, Drunky!



3:58 PM- The rain hits while I'm driving by the Watergate. I wonder what happens now in the offices that Nixon had broken into.



4:26 PM- Ask not for whom the chipper chips, tree. It chips for THEE!



5:44 PM- Flannel completes his afternoon surveillance by monitoring my vital signs with his super sensitive Medi-paws. A tricorder has nothin' on this cat.



7:30 PM- Pepper comes to sound the Suppertime Claxon Horn of Lateness in my ear. I guess his staring and whimpering isn't getting the job done.



8:54 PM- I take my evening Tamiflu dose. It feels like it helped even if maybe it didn't.



BONUS PIC: Chad's random word generator came up with "office" for me. We are moving our OFFICE and here's a floorplan of our proposed OFFICE space in the new building.

If you are new to 12 of 12 - here are the basics:1) ALL PHOTOS MUST BE TAKEN ON THE 12TH OF EACH MONTH.2) After you post your pictures onto a webpage of your choice (Livejournal, typepad, MySpace, Flickr, etc...) please post the TIME, LOCATION, and A SMALL COMMENT in the pic.3) You own the rights to all of your pictures. The idea "12 of 12" is Chad Darnell's. While credit is not necessary, please don't credit someone else with the idea.4) The original concept was at least one body part in the picture. That idea was slowly faded away. The important part is that it is 12 pics.5) The monthly Bonus pic is a 13th picture and is optional.6) When referring to the project, please refer to it as "12 OF 12" - not "12 ON 12."7) Once completed, please e-mail or post the PERMALINK of the post AND the city and state or city and country of WHERE THE PICTURES WERE TAKEN. (If you are on vacation, it's where the pics were taken.)(The permalink is the link to the ENTRY of your page. If you just send me your website, I have to track it down. By listing the permalink, it helps for people to go back and view your previous 12 of 12 entries from previous months.)ANYONE is welcome to join in, even if you've never done it before! I hope you will.

Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive: My Trip to Savannah

I should really say OUR trip to Savannah, since there were two of us.

DAY 1: Our trip started with a trip out to Tybee Island. We had breakfast at the Breakfast Club and then went on to Ft. Screven, now the Tybee Museum. Inside the museum were all sorts of artifacts from life on Tybee, including some of the "best friends" of the Tybee Island children.



Woo, woo! I think that this arrangement is a little provocative, given the poor reputation that pirates have, but I didn't curate this exhibit. The other part of the excursion was the Tybee Island Lighthouse. It's pretty tall, and after my experience descending the Key West lighthouse (a fiasco complete with shaky crying due to my fear of heights), I decided to stay on the ground. GMiller vetoed my idea that he take a photo from the top looking down in which I would pose as if I fell from the balcony onto the lawn surrounding the lighthouse with twisted broken leg and shoes knocked from my feet by the impact. A missed opportunity for hilarity, if you ask me. While I was waiting, I tried to talk to an orange marmalade cat they had, until I saw the fleas literally SIZZLING off him. Yikes! No thanks Bubonic Plague cat, I think I'll sit over here. The lighthouse was very pretty.



We went to another fort that day, too. I think. Yes, we did because I had GMiller take a picture of me behind a stockade door making a frown face... because I'm in jail! Get it? When I get the picture from him, I'll post it. I also got kisses at this fort, which makes it doubly shameful that I don't remember the name. It might be Ft. Pulaski...



We drove back to Savannah and checked in to our hotel. I can't recommend it, so I won't post a link. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great, either. ANYWAY we took a nap then went to the Waterfront area for a late night supper. Though it was Wednesday, St. Patrick's Day revelers, street vendors and Savannah city workers were all gearing up for the celebration.

DAY 2: We drove to Charleston, SC where we brunched at Hominy Grill. Delicious! I got a big ol' pork chop covered with chow chow, greens, fried grits and sweet tea. GMiller got sweet tea, too.



The Grill is close to a Charleston hospital, and we were surrounded by doctors, nurses and administrators hence the greenies in the background. He had Low Country Purloo which is like a stew with chicken, rice and sausage.

Once we were through eating, we headed in to the city. Charleston is a beautiful city with lots of great spaces to walk around and enjoy the weather in. Can you imagine going to check out books from this place? I wish my library looked like this.



We also stumbled across one of the oldest Unitarian churches in the country. To get to it, you have to go down this garden path which opens up to a lushly overgrown graveyard. Through the trees hung with Spanish moss you see the church.



How incredible is that? We weren't able to go in, but we spent a lot of time exploring the graveyard.



This photo is a shout out to my best friend Lisa F. We both like the fantasy that one day, our cats will consent to get all dolled up and put on a show. You can keep your "crazy cat lady" comments to yourself, thanks. : )



We headed back to Savannah and had dinner again in the historic district.

OH, SNAP! I almost forgot to tell you about the biggest GYP in Charleston, this historic site that's trying really hard to be like Plymouth Plantation in Mass. It's not. GMiller sold me on the fact that they have a wild animal park of native SC species to include a lynx and a puma. Of course I said yes. So we get there and they're almost closed, but we get tickets anyway and head toward the animal park. Where are the animals? Asleep! Otters: asleep. Deer: asleep. Buffalo: asleep.



The cat exhibits were completely empty. The only thing we saw at the lynx cage was this crazy swarm of Fiddler crabs moving from the mud flats to the grass enclosure. The sound they made SKEEVED ME OUT! They were interesting, though, with their big fat claws. With the animal park behind us, I find a nice bench to sit on while GMiller tours the "town". Soon, like the animals, I was asleep. After having experienced the park, I can't blame them.

DAY 3: We decide to go to Bonaventure Cemetery in the morning. What a great place. It's very quiet, as you would expect from a graveyard. It's right by the water and has great views. This cemetery is famous for all it's grave marker statuary. This was one of my favorites.



We also saw Johnny Mercer's grave. There's no headstone, just big slabs, like Elvis has. Mr. Mercer is buried between his mother and his wife. Maybe that says something about his situation in life, but they were probably planted in order of death, not mental pathology. While we were driving through the Jewish part of Bonaventure, I saw this cute cat sitting on a gravestone among the azaleas. "Bye, bye Hebrew kitty!" I hollered as we drove away.



Today is also the day we stood in line for an hour to eat at Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room. Man was it worth it! If you go to Savannah, eat here. The meal is served family style with about ten people at each table. The food is all set for you before you get to the table and each day has a standard menu of about 12 items plus daily specials of 3-4 additional items. The fried chicken was some of the best I've ever had and I spotted many dishes that were old favorites from Mama Anne's (my grandmother), table to include peas with noodles, white bread stuffing with egg and okra with tomatoes. We each felt like Mr. Creosote from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. We needed a bucket.

After lunch we went to the train museum and a maritime museum. The maritime museum was full of handmade scale models of all sorts of ships. Mostly they were named "Savannah" so of course they needed to be in the museum even if they had never sailed anywhere near Georgia. In the ladies' room someone thoughtfully posted this sign.



No one likes to be surprised by a rumbling toilet. Imagine the chagrin one would feel had there been no advance notice.

The train museum was really cool because they're restoring the train yard. The rail road was once a cornerstone of industry in Savannah and meant a lot to the people there. The rail yard has been preserved really well and they have lots of neat engines and cars on display. El Presidente gives a speech from one of the travelling office cars.



You can tell from the adulation he's receiving that he's wildly popular and there's now no need to enact the "I hate poor people" tax he was planning to levy because the large majority of polls showed low approval in the indigent demographic. : )

We spent the rest of the day wandering around Savannah's squares. Every square that had a fountain was squirting green water. It was a little disconcerting. A few park goers were complaining that the water was less green this year than last. It looked plenty green to me.



We took advantage of the "little traveler" opportunity Savannah affords to walk around with cocktails. If only cups of beer really grew on trees...



We ended the evening with a sunset view of the Mercer House where Jim Williams shot that boy to death. Now it's a museum, but we didn't go in. I'd want to see all Jim Williams' things and they've been sold.



The next day, St. Patrick's Day saw us homeward bound. After some shuffling due to bad weather in Pittsburgh, we ended up on the same flight home we'd been told was cancelled. It was a good trip and we had a great time together.