My Pet Peeves

Here are my top pet peeves:

• Bad Drivers, namely:
  *Those who won’t turn on red;
  *Those who pull out two feet in front of me - I drive a LARGE Chevy Uplander, I am not invisible; and *Tailgaters , who force me to drive even more s-l-o-w-l-y (right, Grimjack?).



• Bad service in good restaurants
  


• Bad service at bad restaurants., For example, Drive-thru cashiers who think I care about what food THEY like. We have one of these at the McDonalds near us. For some reason, she feels compelled to tell me why she does or doesn’t like something I’ve ordered. Last night’s Chat Du Jour – iced tea and why she doesn’t drink it unsweetened. Meanwhile, Little Grim is in the back saying “Hey, I want my Chicken Nuggets, Mama.”, and there are 10 cars backed up in the drive-thru behind me.
  


• Customer service lines that have been outsourced to India.



• Our Indian next door neighbor – I am NOT racist, he is just an a$$hole. Hopefully Grimjack won’t end up killing him….



• The cops who didn’t arrest the Indian neighbor…story for another time.



• The ‘Greeter’ at K-Mart that was missing most of her teeth. Seriously. That isn’t really even a pet peeve, it just freaked me out. They obviously need a dental plan.
  


• A Dog who occasionally pees on my rugs and other places when she gets really mad. Oh, and a dog who chews the noses and ears off of Little Grim’s stuffed animals. Not quite sure how she manages that.



• An over abundance of cute Girl Scouts selling cookies in public places during Girl Scout cookie-selling season. Hey, I love Thin Mints, but if I bought a box every time I passed someone selling them, I’d weigh 400 pounds. I already need to hit the BowFlex and treadmill.
  


• Women who DO hit the BowFlex and Treadmill regularly…..Not really, that’s my jealousy talking – apparently consuming mass quantities of Gummy Bears, and Beer Bread and dip will not make me thinner. Sad but true.

PROMOTING GLOBAL LITERACY - For you bibliophiles out there.....

I found a cool Website to locate and read eBooks online. Project Gutenberg Consortia Center is a member of The World eBook Library Consortia. The World Electronic Book Library Consortia is a global corrdinated effort to preserve and disseminate classic works of literature, serials, bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference works in a number of languages and countries around the world.

Helmsley's Dog Gets $12 Million in Will

What a nut job.

'Nuff said.

Parents Begin Potty Training at Birth

“SUTTON, Mass. - Thirteen-month-old Dominic Klatt stopped banging the furniture in the verandah, looked at his mother and clasped his right hand around his left wrist to signal that he needed to go to the bathroom. His mother took the diaper-less tot to a tree in the yard, held him in a squatting position and made a gentle hissing sound _ prompting the infant to relieve himself on cue before he rushed back to play.

Dominic is a product of a growing "diaper-free" movement founded on the belief that babies are born with an instinctive ability to signal when they have to answer nature's call. Parents who practice the so-called "elimination communication" learn to read their children's body language to help them recognize the need, and they mimic the sounds that a child associates with the bathroom……..”

Holy crap…you have got to be kidding me. First of all, why are they teaching their kid to pee on a tree outside? Isn’t that going to create bigger problems later, like at the school playground or in Rittenhouse Square? There are already enough adults doing that. Are these people crazy?

This one is even better:
….”Isis Arnesen, 33, of Boston, has a 14-week-old daughter, Lucia, who is diaper-free. She said it can be awkward to explain the process to people, such as when she helped Lucia relieve herself in a sink at a public restroom….”

Uh, the SINK ?!? Now I have to worry about the SINK when I take Little Grim to the restroom?

Just for Fun for you Music Lovers out there....

Want to know the #1 song on a date in history? Check out this link. Click on the month of your birth or whatever, and then the day....

http://www.joshhosler.biz/NumberOneinHistory/SelectMonth.htm

I DO....I DO, TOO.

As a fan of HBO’s BIG Love, I have to admit that I am secretly fascinated with the subject of Polygamy. While I have usually been monogamous in relationships, there is something very appealing about the thought of having another wife around to shoulder some of the burden around the house. When I was a single parent, I used to joke about needing a wife, not a husband.

Although Utah has outlawed polygamy, as has the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (aka the Mormons), there are believed to be 25,000 to 30,000 followers of ‘plural life’ in the state, and 37,000 throughout the western United States. Polygamy is part of the social structure of the west. Warren Jeffs, the polygamist leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints, formed in 1935 by a number of excommunicated polygamists, was arrested last year on felony charges for his part in arranging an underage marriage between two cousins – so obviously there are some very nasty goings-on in some polygamy sects. And the reassignment of wives seemingly on a whim is disturbing.

I recently watched some interviews with practicing polygamists. The women, appearing sheltered and subservient to me, all said that they loved their families and that sex was for procreation only and they were happy with that (seemingly). Hmm, that’s a drag. I’d like to ask if the wives are bisexual.

The one man interviewed, who practiced Polygamy for 20 years, and no longer does, indicated that if a polygamist male indicated it was not for the sex, he was lying.

But, now I question, why not multiple husbands? That would benefit a household more – dual breadwinners, for one thing. This question was addressed in a Polygamy forum I reviewed, and here is the answer one practicing polygamist gave:

“ In a Christian household, the man is the head of the household. If a Man has two or more wives, he is still the head of the household and has a set authority over his wives. If a woman has two or more husbands, she would have two or more heads in her household. There can be only one household. The authorities of the men would overlap. Who then would have the authority over her?....”

Um, religious belief or not, this seems just a BIT (sarcasm) Neanderthal to me, how about you, ladies? All joking aside, there are people who have suffered greatly from being raised in a polygamist environment and as adults have difficulties.

But overall, who wouldn’t like a little more help around the house? I’ll have to have a chat with Grimjack……..

Atlanta Considers Banning Baggy Pants

I wholeheartedly agree that Baggy, low-hanging pants are annoying, stupid-looking and can be offensive – but calling it a “Racial Profiling bill” seems like a huge stretch to combat the amendment. So are mini skirts on any female over 35, but I don’t see anyone trying to control that. There is nothing wrong with teaching today’s youth some proper decorum when in public, in school and in business. But start with the parents - How about if the parents of the youth refuse to buy them? Hey, there’s an idea, parents, Just Say No - and dress your children in a manner to be proud of, and in sizes that fit them.

And besides, doesn’t Altanta have bigger problems than this to concentrate on? If not, we’re packing up and moving to Georgia….

ATLANTA - Baggy pants that show boxer shorts or thongs would be illegal under a proposed amendment to Atlanta's indecency laws. The amendment, sponsored by city councilman C.T. Martin, states that sagging pants are an "epidemic" that is becoming a "major concern" around the country.
"Little children see it and want to adopt it, thinking it's the in thing," Martin said Wednesday. "I don't want young people thinking that half-dressing is the way to go. I want them to think about their future." The proposed ordinance would also bar women from showing the strap of a thong beneath their pants. They would also be prohibited from wearing jogging bras in public or show a bra strap, said Debbie Seagraves, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia…... But Seagraves said any legislation that creates a dress code would not survive a court challenge. She said the law could not be enforced in a nondiscriminatory way because it targets something that came out of the black youth culture. "This is a racial profiling bill that promotes and establishes a framework for an additional type of racial profiling," Seagraves said. Martin, who is black, said he plans to hold public hearings and vet the proposal through churches, civil rights groups and neighborhood organizations. The proposal will get its first public airing next Tuesday in the City Council's Public Safety Committee……..
Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com/

I got my eye on You.....

OK, so is anyone else upset about HBO’s cancellation of John from Cincinnati ? Has anyone else actually even seen it? It was difficult for us to find anyone who was watching it this season. The Grims LOVED this show – it was intriguing, surprising, and best of all, the characters and setting were unique and it didn’t feel like every other drama on TV. Mrs Grim personally watched each episode several times On Demand. The show was created by David Milch, the brains behind Deadwood, another Grim favorite. Deadwood was supposedly cancelled so he could concentrate on JFC. But now, we’ve got no Deadwood AND no JFC. To recap for those of you who didn’t watch:

Just north of the border, in a tired coastal town, live three generations of the Yosts, surfing royalty turned society misfits. The Yosts' reign and reputation, once defined in the curl of a perfect wave, have been eroded by years of bad luck, addiction and hubris. But just as things are looking like they can't get worse, a stranger named John arrives – and the Yosts' banal existence is lifted into something profound, miraculous and, possibly, universal.Set in Imperial Beach, California, the last great surf-break before Tijuana, where the U.S. meets Mexico, and water meets land, John From Cincinnati tells the story of the Yosts, a family of surfers whose awesome athletic talents have seemed for generations to come with a curse attached. The gifts of 13-year-old Shaun rival those of Butchie, his addict-derelict father, and his now-ascetically-withdrawn grandfather Mitch, both of whom defined the sport in their heydays. In shaping Shaun's career, his grandmother Cissy strives to achieve a commercial and athletic success that will compensate for the frustrations and failures of her life with her husband and son.Into this world, where even simple joy has been turned into a commodity, steps a mysterious stranger named John. Soon after, things begin to happen to the Yosts, and those whose lives they touch, that test the boundaries of past and present, the mundane and the miraculous, the natural world and what lies beyond it.

Ed O’Neill (the former Al Bundy) played a fabulous character, Bill Jacks, who was a retired cop, friend of the Yost family, and very eccentric. This role will certainly revive his career. He stole every scene he was in – from talking to birds, his deceased wife, and himself, and his interaction with the others. “Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ” with gritted teeth has become a sort of mantra in the Grim household. Most of the other characters were standouts as well. Many came from Deadwood, and we were happy to see them, like friends you’ve been out of touch with for a while. Clever music, too – Johnny Appleseed by Joe Strummer was the opening theme song, while old clips of sufers on long boards played. Other excellent choice – Feeling Good, played when Shaunie Yost miraculously recovered fully from a brain/spinal injury and goes out on the half pipe on his skateboard.

Cast List: http://www.hbo.com/johnfromcincinnati/cast/index.html

The only disappointing factor about JFC was that Keala Kennelly, who played Kai, did not surf on screen until the end of the finale. Keala is rated one of the best women surfers in the world.

So, our lamenting continues, and we will probably drop our HBO subscription, once this season of Big Love is over. Losing Deadwood, Rome, and now JFC (after only 1 season I might add) is just too much to bear. Although maybe now they can do the two Deadwood movies they promised us.

My Day

So I'm working from home, waiting for a delivery from Home Depot so Grimjack and I can finish our much-awaited patio out back before a family party on Saturday. Right now, the backyard contains a 6' by 18' 8-inch deep hole, filled to the brim with this week's rainwater runoff from the yard. We may have to stock the moat with Koi, and I'll finally have that pond I've always wanted.

Grimjack dug that, with some help from Number One Stepson.

Can't use the yard with a moat in it, and Little Grim can't be left outside to play unattended. Of course, Canine Grim loves it and now also cannot be left outside unattended, due to the swimming that occurs, as evidenced by the pic. Who doesn't love mud?

Part of the delivery came yesterday, but you know how these things go...It wasn't all there, and I was assured that the remaining materials would be delivered today by noon. Well, low and behold, noon came and went. So I called the store, much annoyed, and was finally told by the Delivery Coordinator "Mrs. Grim, I am doing everything I can for you", to which I replied, "I don't think you are or I would have had the whole delivery yesterday when I was supposed to". He used his insincere, ingratiating 'customer service' voice. I get the feeling he uses that phrase multiple times per day.

Anyway, here I am with a moat, still waiting for the delivery. I think I'll punt to Grimjack on making the next call to the store. Stay tuned....