gadget: isn't that a French word?

The Buzz Report says the best life-changing gadget of 2004 is TiVo and .. who am I to argue? TiVo has erased the following phrase from my vocabulary: There's Nothing Good On TV! because the stuff it records are the things I truly want to see. I'm not sure if I'm watching more television than before but I'm certainly finding my viewing time to be more useful. And that in itself is Toasty Goodness. I'm especially amused by the ability to give multiple ThumbsUp! verdicts on stuff I really like, and multiple ThumbsDown! on stuff I never ever want to view.

Today's word of the day is fetid (meaning: foul smelling). There's no relation to feta cheese.

Today's not-yet word of the day is catastrophize (meaning: to create a catastrophy). There's no relation to trophies.

Biggest surprise of the weekend (in the Fine Dining Category): Waffle House makes waffles, too! Their 2005 menu is in the stores and the servers are still coming up to speed. I had a bowl of Ben's Extreme Chili (or something like that) which contained beans, cheese, onions and jalapeños. Good thing I ordered some Raisin Toast with which to "wash it down," huh?

numbness

I was asked to fetch the DVD of either Motorcycle Diaries (2004), or Ray (2004) from Blockbuster and I was able to score the last copy of Ray last night. We watched the version with the excerpts which made it a bit longer than usual, but most of the scenes (save one -- some lame outtakes) added some plot dimensions. Jamie Foxx did a good job as Ray Charles, but I still think Don Cheadle out-acted him, as the lead of Hotel Rwanda (2004). I guess we'll know Sunday night when the awards are handed out.

I spent the bulk of the day driving the back alleys of my neighborhood, installing some 6x12" aluminum signs which identify the house numbers. Because the streets here are not in a precise grid, finding the exact alley which corresponds with a street address isn't always easy. It took us 3.5 hours to install 25 or so signs (almost none were consecutive), with a large part of that time spent figuring out how the alleys work. Bizarre.

It's now almost 1:30am Sunday and I'm just numb. Part of this numbness is due to my mom's yo-yo health (at one point last week her BP was 42/23) and part is .. well .. something else. Is blogging about it therapeutic? Doubtful.

Unrelated: the email reminders of this year's Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival have started landing in my inbox. Last May, I blogged about my Texas Renaissance Festival thoughts and they haven't changed.

how (not) to buy cat food

I ran out of cat food (again!) and made a grocery store run, which cost about $60 for 3.5 pounds of dry food. In addition, I got about $56 of free groceries. Well, that's one way to look at it.

I stopped at the Tom Thumb grocery and used my monthly "$5 off $50" coupon from the Entertainment Book. Those coupons alone make the Entertainment Book a good deal. The trick to maximizing that $5 coupon is to have $50.01 after the other coupons (including those doubled if less than 51¢) have been deducted; it's not always an easy calculation. Most of the time I end up guessing way high - like $75 or so - and I have never guessed below $50. Today (after coupons, before tax) I had about $53 in my basket, so I am Very Pleased With Myself. The grocery carts used to have calculators built into the handles, but they're not as common as they once were, and I never found them very useful.

The best grocery POS (point of sale) system is the Shop 'n' Scan that's in the Albertsons stores; you can keep a running total as you shop (but I'll admit, I've not tried scanning coupons into that device). Their system ain't perfect; if you use it in conjunction with the self-checkout lane, the voice system will nag you -- multiple times -- with "unexpected item in bagging area" while you bag your items. That feature is very annoying.

Anyway (back to today) .. Tom Thumb didn't have Purina Cat Chow - Vitality Formula, so I had to stop by Kroger for only the cat food. While checking out, the coupon printer saw that I bought cat food, so it printed a $3.19 off (!) coupon for Iams Savory Sauce, which is the equivalent of nutritious (?) gravy for your canine. I wonder if Beta (the wonder dog) would like it. Silly question, indeed.

Cover of the Rolling Stone .. sorta

I don't know whether the story about Dan Rather, or Kinky Friedman makes me wanna head down to the Barnes & Noble and git me a copy of Texas Monthly .. but either way, I mo'go-gitme one. 

of BLOOD and BLOG

The doctor called with my blood results from last Friday .. and the cholesterol is now within striking distance of normal. Ideally, it should be less than 200 and is now at 213. This is a huge drop (120 points) from the October measurement. Bad news: those other numbers are still too high, so I've been advised to add another pill each day, and see Doc in a month to compare. Meanwhile, I trying a new tactic: counting daily carbs instead of calories.


as seen on T-shirtHumor.com

Hurry! Al Hurra!

I see that the Bush Regime's Al Hurra satellite TV station has gone on the air. Unlike President Quagmire himself, it doesn't appear to be universally loved (see Al Hurra - The Middle East hates its new TV station). For those of you Not Paying Attention, Al Hurra is the Middle East's equivalent of Fox "News" (i.e. the CFRP's Interpretation Of Reality).

Personally, I find Dubai TV to be far more fascinating (even more so than Al Jazeera).

target: granny

oh, this is rich .. the front page story in today's paper version of the Dallas Managed News says that Karl Rove's (hey, Everybody Knows™ He's behind it) Swift Boat Liars for Bush (now having nothing to do) are turning their venom on the elderly - specifically the AARP - and will now proceed to smear them in order to pass The Puppet's Social Security Reform boondoggle.

I can hardly wait to see the format their TV ads will take .. probably showing that granny's:

1. not really 72 .. but 42 instead
2. not a woman after all!
3. uses hair color - i.e. that blue tint isn't natural

I'm amazed how most of the people don't know that The Puppet's ham-handed proposal doesn't really allow for private investment. YMMV, but the way I read it: you get to invest your own funds until retirement, then you turn your gains (or losses) over to the Social Security Administration who then pays you. If you die before your portfolio is paid out, the government (not your heirs) gets the remainder. Anyone who thinks those funds are theirs are sadly mistaken.

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