June 28, 2005

Pet Consumer Alert

I don't know how many of you this affects, but it pissed me off ROYAL, so I thought I'd share.

A certain large, national pet chain (one that thinks you're sMart if you shop there) will shortly cease to carry Iams and Eukanuba products for dogs and cats. According to the regional operations manager, who we actually spoke with yesterday in the store, they are switching to Science Diet products exclusively.

While this is fine for their business, and Science Diet is a fine product, the makers of Science Diet DO NOT make a large variety of prescription dog foods. Until last week, the sMart store was the ONLY place I could pick up Eukanuba K/O Kangaroo and Oat allergy formula dog food. Now, they no longer stock it. Arrgh. How the bloody f*ck am I supposed to feed my dog without her getting sick, huh?

Oh well, here's hoping the food will be available SOMEWHERE in LA without having to buy it from a vet....

Anyway, I realize that I may be the only reader of this blog who feeds her dog a prescription food, but nonetheless, some of you may purchase regular Iams/Eukanuba products there, so I wanted to pass along the heads up.

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June 26, 2005

Apologies in advance

It's no secret we're moving. Here's the schedule:

Today: go to my office, clean out my desk, remove my toys and posters (picture to follow so you understand), print out what I hope is the final version of my thesis so I can take it in to the Grad school tomorrow to get it measured (DON'T ASK). Feed my friend's cat. Keep packing. Call in Dog's prescription

Monday: take dissertation to be measured. Make any changes, clarify requirements for printing (# copies, etc.). print on fancy paper. Turn in dissertation and all the paperwork to the grad school. Photocopy grades for Jennie, campus mail them to her. Keep Packing. Get rental application for new house from FAX machine (yay!), fill out application, return to sender, otherwise call her and figure out another way to get it... Keep Packing. Take bookcases, desk, garden/patio stuff to friend's house. Feed friend's cat. Go to costco, ask about transferring prescriptions to CA. Pick up dog's pills. Put in MY prescriptions. Keep packing. DH needs to call JSC and Moving company. Call to get cable/phone/power/water off or switched. Put change of address cards in mail.

Tuesday: dog to groomer. Keep Packing. Go to work. Finish up there. Say goodbye. Come home. Keep packing. Movers come tomorrow. Keep packing. Keep dumping. Pick up my pills. Feed Cat.

Wednesday: Movers take my furniture. Mom and Dad to Hotel. Load Car. Get rid of extra crap. Clean house. We go to friend's house. maybe sleep. Feed Cat.

Thursday: Mom and Dad to airport. Friend returns. Meet with current landlord to return keys and pick up a check.

Friday: Hitting the road with dog for parts unknown. Blogging will be light to non-existent.

Back on the 7th. For those of you I emailed, I will be checking, just not blogging

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June 24, 2005

Looks Yummy!

This week's Carnival of the Recipes is up, hosted by Dana of Note-It Posts.

Everything looks so wonderful. Go check it out!

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June 23, 2005

Blogging = Birth Control?

Every time my life intervenes and I take 24 hours away from the blogs, somebody else turns up pregnant!

Either I've got to read everyday, or y'all are just gonna have to quit making babies. My poor little fingers are gonna be worn down to nubs making booties and blankets!

Especially with three coming the same week

Seriously, though, congratulations to my (sort of) blogparents on their impending second parenthood and to Sadie on becoming a big sister!

Yay!!

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Today's the big day...

At 2:30 pm EDT say a little prayer for my mouth, that it doesn't flub up.

As you can see, the counter's down to less than a day. When I finish, I will have completed all my program's requirements, and other than some paperwork, I'll be a free-and-clear Doctor (Technically, I already am since the paperwork's in, but hey....)

I am so mental....

We're having a party afterward. I'll let you know how it went.

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June 21, 2005

100 Years, 100 Movie Quotes

So AFI, the arbiter of all film worthyness has decided to rank movie quotes. This being a film quote house, I decided I'd watch and see how many of my favorites made the list....

The list of all 400 nominees is here. The final list will be released at 11pm EDT.

So far, not many, and one of my favorites, the "Life is a Banquet" line from Auntie Mame is in the 90s. Geez. Leo and Kate (in a movie I'm proud to say I have never seen....) were 100.

Abbott and Costello's Who's On First routine is number 91.

Somehow I'm guessing this is gonna be a long damn show....

What are your favorite movie quotes?

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Question for the Masses

Ok, so as you well know, we're moving. Destination somewhere in the LA area. Probably Pasadena. Our stuff won't arrive until August, so we have some leeway with timing etc.

We're planning on ending up in Fresno, until the stuff arrives, but between here and there is a toss-up. We've decided to take advantage of the trip across the country and do a little sight-seeing.....

Vote for your favorite option, or suggest another:
1) The 40. Simple, straight, from here to CA via TN, AK,OK, TX, NM, and AZ. Includes stop at Grand Canyon

2) North! NC to WV, across the midwest, and up into the Dakotas, maybe Montana, and then south via Yellowstone....

3) Something in between, similar to our trip out here 5 years ago (which included Denver, Kansas, Springfield, MO and etc.)

4) South! Down to Jacksonville and across on the 10 to CA. May include Northward detour to Killeen for visit with in-laws....

5) ???

What do y'all think? Anybody along any of the routes? Any different ideas? Places to avoid?

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June 20, 2005

New Blog Showcase!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Children of All Ages, Welcome to the Second Greatest Show on Earth: The New Bloggers Showcase!

In Ring #1: Aggravated DocSurg, a general surgeon with a new blog, an interesting blogroll (already!), and great taste in music. And I don't blame him for his opinion on lawyers.....

In Ring #2: Dubious Profundity, a collection of stories, poetry, and other submissions all for your reading pleasure.

In Ring #3 (Fixed the wrong link!): Holly Aho, a Soldier's Angel who blogs on her life and her work with Soldier's Angels helping troops overseas

The Refreshment stand: Ray's Coffee Break, a NC blogger, Veteran, and has an interesting take on the Charles Jenkins story.

In the Sideshow: doodle-y-doo, the blog of sweet lisa jay, offers up fun stories, catblogging and really cool graphic images.....

Next week's showcase is hosted by VW Bug of One Happy Dog Speaks, so get those entries in to showcase(dot)carnival(at)gmail(dot)com (you know what to do with that....) or submit yourself via the Conservative Cat's Multi-Carnival Submissions Page

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New Blogger Showcase....

Will magically appear in this space later today... Did I mention work sucks?

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June 19, 2005

Happy Father's Day!

To my Dad, and to all of the blogger Dads out there, including

Dean

Jay

Rev. Sensing

Contagion

Prof. Taylor

HWNNL

Mitch

Acidman

Aaron

XRLQ

Patterico

Pinwheels (spending Father's Day far away from his kiddies)

John of Argghhh!

Parkway Jim

and all the others I forgot to mention, the dads who play such a big part in the Moms' stories of their kids and families, and the proud Dads of wonderful pets like my darling GMT and Gay Patriot.

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June 18, 2005

Question...

Does my blog show as updated on your blogrolls? I'm not seeing it on anyone else's page as updated, although it shows up as new on my RSS reader....

MuNu has been giving me fits with the tracking back, showing pinging errors every time I post.... Although it seems to be hitting almost everyone's pages with the trackbacks....

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It's Carnival time!

This week's Carnival of the Recipes is up!

Thanks to the lovely Michele of Meanderings for hosting! Everything looks soooo yummy!

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June 17, 2005

How did I miss THIS one???

I have really been out of it.

First, Katie Mango comes back for like a week and I miss it.

Margi takes digital photography to a new level, and I'm 2 days behind,

and now this, again, 2 days late...
GayPatriot is Back!! Yay! Even the Patriot Pooches are happy. If you haven't dropped by in a while, go say hello and get caught up. Oh yeah, and welcome to the BFL, too, Bruce. It's nice to have you back!

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PETA workers arrested for Animal Cruelty

It's not a joke!
From NABR (the National Association for Biomedical Research):

In a stunning development that is fast becoming national news, PETA employees Andrew Benjamin Cook and Adria Joy Hinkle have each been charged by Ahoskie, North Carolina police with 31 counts of animal cruelty and 8 misdemeanor counts of illegal disposal of dead animals.

During a month long investigation, law enforcement officials observed the two individuals in a white van, allegedly registered to PETA, toss several trash bags into a commercial dumpster behind a shopping mall.

Police confirmed the bags contained 18 dead dogs, including one bag containing seven puppies. An additional 13 dead dogs were found in the van. Both the investigation and surveillance of the shopping center were prompted by four other similar incidents. According to police the animals were from two North Carolina animal shelters approximately 30 miles away, where Cook and Hinkle had identified themselves to shelter staff as PETA representatives from Norfolk, VA. According to the local Animal Control Officer, the two had made claims for the past two months "they were picking up dogs to take them back to Norfolk where they would find them good homes". Cook and Hinkle have been released on $35,000 bond each. Two of the 31 dogs have been kept for an autopsy.

According to accounts just coming to light, PETA may have been picking up dogs and cats from animal control facilities in North Carolina for months or even years and bringing them back to PETA headquarters in Norfolk with the stated purpose of "attempting to find them good homes" when, in fact, they may have been killing and dumping them before they ever crossed the North Carolina state line. The purpose for this particular exercise; how many animals have been exterminated and why they were just dumped in parking lot dumpsters is still unclear. NABR will provide more details as they become available.

The VA Pilot (local to the arrests) story is here.

The AP story is here.

This is frigging sick. Taking poor, helpless animals from shelters or rescue groups that have a good chance of finding homes for them and just killing and dumping them. The poor things never had a chance.

And these people are AGAINST cruelty to animals, huh? Makes you wonder what the really cruel people are like.

It's unbelievably difficult for me to contain my rage right now. These people have the balls to come into MY workplace, look at MY animals and trump up a story about MY colleagues being "cruel" because they didn't euthanize animals properly or some such, all the while their OWN people are killing dogs and dumping them in ditches and dumpsters.

DITCHES!!!

If you support PETA, I hope you look into these charges and seriously reconsider your contributions.

They talk a good game, anti-fur, meat is bad for you and all that, but at the core, they're a group of thugs who terrorize innocent animals. This is simply another example of PETA sponsored animal cruelty, to go along with their previous attempts to set free animals that have no ability to survive outside a controlled laboratory environment. I mean, how in the hell do you expect a BLIND ALBINO rabbit to survive in an open field????

I don't know about you, but I think an organization against animal cruelty ought to REALLY practice what they preach.

UPDATE
: DogSnot and Acidman are all over this too

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I'm It

Brandon and his mommy tagged me with the childhood meme, so here goes:

Five things I miss from childhood:

1. Time to sit on my rear and do EXACTLY what I want. Read book after book, play with my Barbies or my paper dolls, ride my bike, whatever.

2. Summer Vacation. When I was a kid, I loved getting 3 months off. LOVED it. I would sleep in, go swimming at the neighbors' house EVERY day, ride my bike everywhere.... Grad School means you work all summer.

3. Sitting on my Dad's shoulders so I could see over the crowd wherever we went. I'm still short....

4. My grandmother. I used to talk to her every day on the phone, from when I was too small to dial for myself. I used swing on a tire in her back yard and play golf with her old clubs and wear her old shoes when I was younger....

5. Boundless energy. When I was younger I played softball and volleyball and tennis and golf (not well, mind you), and I used to go hiking and all kinds of things. In the last few years, that's really gone away.

Soooo... Who to tag..... Hmmmm.....

How about Paul, Ben, and Darling GMT

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Good News!!! (for a change)

Margi and Mitch, new parents of a VW Beetle, are also about to be NEW PARENTS!

No. Really.

Congratulations you guys, I hope your adorable grandson likes his birthday present

And Mitch, this is for you.....(right click and download, please)

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June 16, 2005

Gone too soon

MommaBear's beloved PoppaBear has passed away.

So terribly sad. There's not much else to say. Our thoughts and prayers are with her. Drop be and let her know you care.

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Rusty's had it

Kos has crossed the the line, saying, "The torture
that was so bad under Saddam, is EQUALLY bad under U.S. command."

Rusty Shackelford fights back, with a graphic reminder of why Kos is just so wrong.

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June 15, 2005

Mom's Pea Salad

Mom's sitting here next to me, so I don't have to call her to post the recipe.

I personally hate peas, but everyone who likes peas can't get enough of this salad, and I'll pick through the peas to get to the other stuff.

Don't give me any crap. I'll eat most other veggies. Just not Peas.

CaltechMom's Summer Pea Salad

1 package petite frozen peas
1 large package cheese tortellini
3 stalks celery, chopped
1-1.5 cup cubed jack cheese
1/2 sweet or red onion, sliced
1/2 cup cashews
6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
Ranch Dressing

1. Thaw and drain peas.
2. Cook cheese tortellini according to package directions, drain and cool.
3. Combine peas, tortellini, celery, onion, and cheese in a large salad bowl
4. Add ranch dressing to your taste, toss to mix
5. Chill until ready to serve
6. Top with cashews and crumbled bacon before serving

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Done! (with lecturing, anyway)

Just finished putting together my LAST lecture for the class. Now all I have to do is write a test for Friday and grade them and the papers that will get turned in then, too.

Yay!!

Here's Today's Neuro Bit:

Schizophrenia means "divided mind". It was first reported in 1896 by Emil Kraepelin, who called it "dementia praecox", and is only marginally better understood today. About 0.1% of the population (1 person in 1000) is schizophrenic. The phrase "Thorazine shuffle" was coined by mental health staff who observed the characteristic rigidity that Thorazine induced in patients who took the drug for many years.

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