Sunday, April 30, 2006

Gimme Back My Ear!

Back by popular demand, is venerable ol' Mr. Wheats. He's looking at me like I personally stole his left ear. His left. Your right.

"Look, I don't know what you did with it, but I'd really like it back. I mean, it's not like you can sell that kinda thing on eBuy, can you? You jerk. Give me cheese. Cats love cheese."

I like taking pictures of my cats. They usually hold still just long enough for me to say "aww! That's adorable!" and then rush off to get my camera. That plan usually backfires, because they follow me back to my room just in case I might be fetching them some cheese.

"No! Go back to the chair! You were all curly-uppy there! It was friggin' adorable! No! No cheese!"

And then they stare at me.

Now I want to go give them cheese because I feel guilty for slandering them on a public forum. Read me later, time-wasters!

An Evil Squirrel

This is another picture I took this past Thursday on my little jaunt to the park. The li'l guy looks cute, doesn't he? Don't be fooled. He's evil. Not only is he celebrating his ability to cling upside down to trees and leap from treetop to treetop, but he is thinking all sorts of nasty things about me.

The cool thing about this picture is that I really managed to get this close. My camera does have a zoom, but it's crap, so I rarely use it if I want a decent picture. Back when I was first contemplating purchasing a digital camera, FooDaddy actually recommended a couple, but I found this one for a good price and unwisely went against his advice. Ah, well. This camera has actually been pretty decent, although basic. But I'm also a pretty basic photographer, so perhaps it's a good match. Besides, I like to say that it's not the machine, but the operator that makes the difference. This philosophy would certainly explain why most of my shots end up in the Recycle Bin.

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Instant Message from FooDaddy

Many of you out there in Internet Land have at least heard of the IM, or Instant Messenger, as it is one of the most popular ways of wasting time in the modern era. That's right, time-wasters! If you haven't heard of this wonderful technology, you need to get on the train of progress, sit down in the lushly padded boxcar of technology and try not to notice that you're in a boxcar with no Wi-Fi access, trying to type to people you could easily call on the phone.

Okay, so if you're a normal person, you don't live in a boxcar, and chances are good you've got Wi-Fi. Quit distracting me, time-wasters! I'm trying to make a sort of point and then pad it with filler to make an entire post out of an idea I came up with in the shower.

I do a lot of thinking in the shower.

While that soaks in, I'm going to leave you with a list of "Away Messages" you're all free to plagiarize and use with your Instant Messenger program of choice. These are automatic responses that the program sends to people who contact you when you're not around, and remembered to set your status accordingly. If used properly, many of you will have a lot more free time on your hands.

  • I'm gone. Wandered off. I don't know when I'll come back, but I'd better not find YOU here when I do.
  • Due to a national emergency situation, the Cabinet and I have squirrelled ourselves away in the pantry with all the doughnuts we could grab. In fact, I've put some of the doughnuts in the Cabinet, where they will be safe from mice. I've lost the key to its door, and now I'm going to bed. Drink more coffee!
  • Yeah? And how much do I owe YOU?
  • I'm currently busy raising an army of shrews to help me bring my sneaky little plans to fruition. If you're on my Crap List, you're going to want to look into getting yourself a new pair of ankles, buddy! Bwa ha ha!
  • Ignore the sirens. It was someone else.
  • I'm actually here, but so engrossed in some important activity, such as battling with my computer for cooperation, that the keyboard fire has prevented me from answering your Instant Message in person. Please stand by.
  • Why, hello there! Remember that I love you, and that I'm counting the seconds 'til I can IM you back! Wait. Is this Ed? Ed, you wank! You still owe me for that washer fluid I bought you! Ed? Ed! I'll get you! Where are my shrews?!
  • I'm not at my computer. I'm at someone else's. IM me there!
  • Get out of that boxcar and just call me up, huh?
I hope you can put those messages to use, time-wasters! I promise I'll have a real post coming up soon. A story!

Thursday, April 27, 2006

The Visage

Some people see a portrait of Mary in their soup. Others find Lincoln's profile on a french fry. On a recent photo trip to the park, I found a likeness of FooDaddy on a stick. It was uncanny and most definitely a sign of...something. If I told you, I'd have to kill you and that's really sweaty work.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Pet Peeves

While reading FooDaddy’s post, I couldn’t help but think of some of the annoyances that litter my life. For instance, I spend a lot of time on the road and see a lot of stupid things. One of the things that irritate me is when people with the intellects of pork chops try to merge in traffic. No, that’s not entirely accurate. They don’t try to merge. That’s the problem. I can deal with someone who is making a genuine attempt to “go with the flow.” These people, however, see this large, hulking vehicle on their left and panic. Thinking I am going to run over them, they begin to slow down. I glance to my left, but see there is a line of traffic in the so-called passing lane. Because my truck is not designed for jackrabbit performance, I am unable to change lanes and zip past the “merging” vehicle. Therefore, to avoid running the newcomer off the road and into a deep ditch, I must also slow down. The idiot in the car, for some bizarre reason, thinks that I am slowing down so I will have a better chance of killing him. Hoping to throw my devilish plan into disarray, he deems it prudent to reduce his speed even further. Again, to avoid running him off the road, I do the same. Eventually, he realizes that he is being a complete moron and jams on the accelerator. As I watch him disappear over a hill, I am left to slowly regain my speed, while, behind me, several miles of irritated travelers, who are wondering why this behemoth is lumbering down the highway at 30 mph, plant their fists firmly on their car horns.

But anyway, that’s not what I wanted to talk about. What I was going to tell you is that I forgot where I parked my car the other day. No, actually, it hid from me. I remembered exactly where I had parked, but when I came out of the store, my car was mysteriously missing. Oh, now I remember how this all ties in. I hate the feeling I get when I can’t find my car in public parking lot.

I exit the store, step off the curb, and head for the lot, only to realize, “I don’t know where my car is!”

I begin ambling nonchalantly, trying to exude a very deliberate attitude in an attempt to fool people into thinking that I know exactly where I am going or, at the very least, prevent them from taking any special notice of me. I angle casually to and fro, hoping to catch sight of my car in some distant parking space. It is then that I notice some incredibly beautiful specimen of womanhood watching me from a parked car, no doubt waiting on her flawless, muscular boyfriend, who never loses anything, much less anything the size of a car. Although she is expressionless, I know she is watching with amusement and disdain. I am humiliated and my random wanderings become much more feverish and desperate. Soon I am flitting about the parking lot with the reckless abandon of a squirrel in traffic, frantically whizzing in and out between parked vehicles, setting off car alarms and causing massive traffic jams. At last, I see a car that looks just like mine and only after I break my key off in the lock do I realize that my car is actually parked in the next space over.

You can see, readers, why I hate it when this happens. There are many other things that irritate me, but right now, the tapping of this keyboard is really getting on my nerves. Agh!