In honor of Calvin’s birthday, birthday present, and my own joy at FINALLY getting back my 35-mm pics from the Indianapolis MotoGP, Valentino came by and put in an appearance.

Vale and … Vale  - at the Riders Q&A with charity auction for Riders for Health.

Vale looks through turn 6.  Yes, I’m bloody close.  Yes, L & C, you will be too.

Vale coming out of the straight, headed for turn 1 — view from our seats.

Only 329 more days…

When your 8 x 10 American flag bumper sticker/magnet has become a square of baby blue with big old field of white around it, you’ve blown right past declaring your patriotism and skidded smack into declaring your ignorance.

Roofing crews should officially be renamed:  A group of Mexican laborers who can haul major ass and the white guy who speaks 15 words of Spanish sitting in his truck watching them.  Seriously, the most recent one started across the street this morning sometime after 8 a.m.  They most likely will be finished before I complete this post.

My grocery is c.o.n.s.t.a.n.t.l.y out of my chocolate soy milk.  You’d think they’d wise up and dedicate more space to it so they could order more.  The stuff has a tremendously longer shelf-life than that of regular milk, for pete’s sake, and they charge both arms for it.  Someone failed Econ 101 here.

My child talks to my mother waaaaay too much, so much, in fact, that her grandma hyper-radar is starting to replace her common sense. 

My dog’s hot laps around the house are totally worth the wear and tear on the carpet.

I’ve recently become an activist in my chosen field, but it wasn’t because I really wanted to.  Nothing motivates me like stupid people.  I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.

We’ve recently been counseling a friend who is in major like with someone.  It doesn’t matter how old or experienced we are or aren’t, when we are in that newness of major like, we are all reduced to middle schoolers who would just really like to be able to pass a note with boxes on it that says, “Do you LIKE me?  Check one.”

I LOVE FALL and couldn’t be happier that it is here.

We watched Home Alone with Boy the other night.  I know, I know, but I’ll still admit it:  That movie still makes me laugh like hell.  The Boy, of course, loves it.

I really wish I could get my dog to understand that laying on the floor next to my wheeled office chair is a BAD IDEA.  (No puppies were injured with this observation; I just can’t move!)

I sent a mail to all staff on my mailing list recently, some of whom don’t work directly for me, letting them know that federal law had changed and how we would be adjusting one of our policies because of it.  I should have known, but no, I was still in awe when I opened my inbox and saw the, “Does this apply to my work?”  My immediate thought was, “No, when they wrote that law in Congress, they made a special exception for that client because they knew your silly ass was working it.  Carry on.”  I can only hope Zell is proud of me.

Stumbled upon in Boy’s English notebook:

Writing application

I interviewed The Iron Maiden singer named Bruce… … but I forgot his last name though.  I asked him why he wanted to be in a band.  (This whole thing is made up.)  … But all he said was he wanted to be the richest guy in the world and wished no one else had money ever again.  … And that’s when I hollered, “CAN SOMEONE CALL THE POLICE?!?!?!?!?!?!”  Then the cops came over as soon as possible. … And thats when Bruce was arrested for the rest of his life.  The End

You can tell he’s TB’s kid by the person he chose to interview and my kid by the oodles of punctuation – which I didn’t teach him, thankyouverymuch; it’s a genetic gift.

If I may Bogart my husband’s MM theme for a moment…

A little over a week ago now, I picked up Jason Mraz’s CDs Waiting for My Rocket to Come and We Sing.  We Dance.  We Steal Things., the latter actually being 2 CDs and 1 DVD, which I haven’t had a chance to watch yet.  But, when I’ve listened to music in the last week, I’ve listened to nothing else but these 3 discs.  (I already owned his CD Wordplay.

My husband will back me up (rat me out?) that, in the past, I have had that annoying tendency to buy a disk for one song and never listen to the rest of it.  With age, I’ve mellowed — and will usually wait until I like at least 2 songs on the disk before I’ll buy it and never listen to the rest of it.

Actually, I’m pretty good now about listening to the whole thing, at least once.  Since I’ve been listening to these quite a bit while painting, I’ve now heard them all the way through repeatedly.  My new favorite songs are not the ones I bought the disks for in the first place, and I’ve been wanting to share them.  When I came to You Tube to check them  out though, I found a fantastic song of his that I hadn’t heard before and another that I’d seen on You Tube before, forgot about, and loved that isn’t on any of my disks.  (Note:  Yes, Honey, that means I’ll be buying more Mraz in the near future.)  And while I originally wanted to share a particular couple of songs from the CD, I think these 2 from You Tube show more about the range, depth, and the obvious multiple influences of the man.

So, by all means, head to You Tube and find a decent version of The Dynamo of Volition (great song for a dance workout, by the way) and Details in Fabric (an amazing song of life will go on, even if the last line is hysterical in a total guy way).  Note that Jason loves having people enjoy his music however they want, so there are more than a handful of various flavors of all of his songs on You Tube.  If listening for the first time or looking for CD quality, you may want to just find one that has the lyrics with it and avoid all the live stuff; though some of it is amazing, there’s a good bunch of cellphone-type stuff too.

In the meantime, enjoy below, based on your mood of the moment — and then pick up some Mraz.  It’s worth it.

10,000 Motherfuckers, Jason Mraz  – helped to inspire my recent purchases

Gypsy MC, Jason Mraz — inspiring my future purchases

This just in:

President Obama calls Kanye West a jackass.  Later today, he will also announce that the sky is blue.  Stay tuned.

Members of the press immediately jumped on said comment, though it was made in a traditionally thought of “off the record” timeframe and was bloody obviously not intended for general public consumption.  My issue here is NOT in defense of a Democratic leader.  My concern is that I do not want a President who feels that he is never, ever allowed to say or feel what the average American says or feels when he is simply relating to the average American on a such a question.  Is he held to a higher standard?  Of course.  But one reporter commented sarcastically in his Twitter, “now THAT was Presidential.”  Excuse me?  Are you telling me that it was Nobel Prize-winning journalism to even ASK the PRESIDENT about why Kanye West snatched the microphone from Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech at an MTV Video Music Awards function?  I’m pretty sure you had no intent on airing the question and his response in the first place because it was small talk, not news. Had his response been something that could have endangered the American people, then fine, that is news, but, Mr. Former White House Correspondent, you should have been around Washington long enough to know that the place is built on relationships and a very intricate balancing act of trust and confidences.  You just burned your bridge –MY bridge — over THAT?  You’re an idiot.  And I’d be saying the same thing no matter who the President was (and have the history to back that up).

I want my President HUMAN.  I want my President ACCESSIBLE.  That’s the entire reason the news pool was moved into the White House in the first place when it had previously been exiled across the street, which, by the by, was a President’s decision.  Journalism is supposed to be my conduit to the White House and Congress – the people that *I* have put in charge of my country; stop thinking you’re so damned high and mighty and “reporting” meaningless garbage.  This is right up there with a President who doesn’t like rutabaga, some idiot deciding to report it, and when rutabaga sales are down, the President is blamed.

Americans are dying – of cancer and poverty and addiction and gunfire, at home and abroad.  Pay attention to what matters.

And totally on the record?  KANYE WEST IS A JACKASS.

i saw molly wesler at lunch today.

Oh yeah?  I remember her from the yearbook.

yeah, she’s really pretty.

Yes, I thought so too.

i like her hair.

Yep, it was very nice.

yeah, it was all fluffy and tall, not flat like yours.

…

yours is just, like, regular, flat hair.  hers is all … fashiony.

… Hmmph.  I wonder if her mom would come over and do my hair too.

that’s a great idea.  maybe you should ask her.

Have you ever had one of those days when you just need to get down on your knees and scream bloody murder at the top of your lungs?  Overwhelmed with the need to lose control, to fall apart, to stop fighting ‘it’, to exhaust yourself by screaming, running, jumping, yelling, fighting, crying?  A day where nothing happened, but still it feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders and crushing you?  Anxious, jumpy, tired, scared, wrung out, strung out, beside yourself, upside down, off-kilter, and thrown aside?  Crawling out of your skin with the need to fuck or fight but just to DO SOMETHING to change your status quo of this.exact.second.

Yeah, me too.

The Boy has a short haircut, but it is growing out to the point of starting to stick out in places.  Since he HATES getting his hair cut, he tries to put it off forever.  I’ve told him that a trim will be happening in the next 48 hours, period, but since we just made it back last night, today required some effort to look a little better for school.  So, I sprayed some water on and used a little gel on my hands to slick the sides back and spike the top up, and I must have done a decent job because this was his take on it:

mom, what are you doing?

I’m trying to keep these bits here from sticking out so that it looks a little better until we can trim it.

okay, but i think i liked it better before you started messing with it

Give me some time, son; I’m not finished!  … water, gel, futz, futz, futz.  There, now look.

you’re right, much better, but i don’t know if i can wear it like this.

Why not?

because it’s a catholic school — i don’t think you’re allowed to be cool.

Ow.  In so many ways.

For more than that, for now you’ll have to see my comment on TB’s Day One roundup.  I can’t wait to see my photos — just as soon as I find someone who will still develop them.  (Wow.)

Love from Indianapolis,

Dys

Today’s version brought to you by the, “I’m a Better Student than You are” Foundation.

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How was school today?

rotten.

Aaaand what was so rotten about it?

i’ve been there 4 days now, and those kids have yet to shut their half-wit pieholes.

You’d think I’d learn to start with a different question.