First order of business

State of the Union drinking game!

First rule: for every instance of the words "hope" "change" "stimulus" "healthcare" or "green" - in any context - YOU DRINK.

Second rule: For every minute that Nancy Pelosi does not blink, take one drink. For every time she pops up like a botoxed Wack-a-Mole, take a drink.

Third rule: For every goofy grin on Joe Biden's face, take one drink.

Final rule: for every inappropriate response or outburst from the right side of the aisle, you take a shot.

Post your intoxication level in the comments section. Prost!

Behold our future!

AND WEEP!

(This is a follow-up to the previous post)

The downside of letting your pre-teen child use popular social-networking sites that are generally meant for grown folk? They air all your bidness, fool!

Like this:
OMG my sister is such a druma queen! My sister yells so much and fights with my dad to much i am so disapointed at her she talks back to him alot and gets spancked alot and grounded alot.

And THIS:
my sister says my dad is picking favorites but he isnt she says he dose not love her and he dose.She said she would rather go to gufenial detenchen then live with us her family


I'm serious - this is directly from the younger one's profile. I'm just going to go ahead and say that I don't think the "spanck"ing is having much effect...might I suggest the intervention of a nanny? This one comes highly recommended!

So...good luck with that

A little rant, in which I get more than a little hyper-critical and judge-y:

My husband has a friend who was married just out of high school, whose son is the same age as mine. This friend and his wife are about my and my husband's age, if maybe a year or two younger. They have four children, the oldest being eleven, the youngest being I believe four or five (with a ten and seven year old in between). They've never had a lot of luck, moving back and forth between here and family in other states, and often struggling to make ends meet. In the past, I've mostly wanted to attribute this unsettled and transient lifestyle to certain choices and the husband's inability (or lack of interest) to hold down a steady job after leaving active duty in the military. He's been supposedly enrolled in classes in "aircraft maintenance" somewhere, but he's always struck me as one of those perpetually lazy people who only ever wants to do the easy thing, and I get the feeling that he spends a lot of time playing WoW these days. His wife works rotating shifts at a convenience store and is taking some classes. The two oldest kids, both girls, ages 11 and 10, were recently allowed to create Facebook profiles. The older girl's profile is peppered with the word "fuck" (and all her mom & dad have done is post comments warning that she's not allowed to take those quizzes any more?!), and neither has their pages set as private, so they seem to be viewable by anyone using Facebook. The younger girl lists her interests as "men". It's like I'm watching a set-up for 'To Catch a Predator'. I see bad things on the horizon for these little girls. Then, to top it off, their mom just went out and got tattoos of all of her children's names. On her wrists. Her. Wrists. In rather large lettering. Because nothing screams "7-11 employee for life" like a well placed wrist tattoo. Her daughters are posting to her Facebook profile how much they like her "tats". And the circle is complete...

Rant off.

And you thought it couldn't get worse? Wrong. They just made a Facebook profile for the seven year old. Lost faith in humanity I have. Facepalm I must.

Of dead cultures and missing links

It is so cold in my building that I'm wearing my heavy coat inside my office. The temps in the offices are ranging from the 40s to the mid-60s. Although it was around 30 degrees outside when I got in this morning, and it is technically warmer in here than out there, there is still a pervasive chill that I haven't been able to shake, even with coffee fresh out of the pot. Don't even get me started on the meat locker ambiance of the restrooms. And I wish the HR receptionist would stop acting like the world stops because she's chilly. We're all cold. The facilities people are doing what they can to make it warmer. Convincing the manager to call the maintenance department head isn't going to make the boiler work faster. It's not like no one realized it was freaking freezing in here up until you mentioned it.

We got really cold rain over the weekend, but the possibility of snow never quite materialized. I got one little icile on my roofline on Saturday night, and there was a brief period earlier in the day where we could see a flake or two in the drizzle, but that was about it. Other areas of the state did see the white stuff, though, and the proof will be in the spike in price for strawberries and oranges. It's supposed to warm up laster this week, in time for M and I to see Jonathan Coulton with Paul and Storm at this gorgeous little place downtown called NOVA535. I'm thinking Hook's for some edamame, miso soup and maki rolls beforehand?

I am all set for my Cultural Anthropology class. I'm actually looking forward to it. One of my coworkers* has decided to make fun of the fact that I have the syllabus, the lecture outlines, the supplemental reading and the class calendar (that the professor made available as part of the course outline - I want to hug her!) all together in a binder. I'm a little fanatical about being organized. Sometimes.

My Literature class is the the exact opposite situation, though, and far from ideal - no syllabus posted, seven assigned books (one of which isn't even available to purchase because it's - get this - out of print), and according to the college staff, they haven't seen hide nor hair of the (adjunct) professor since the holiday break. Of course, the staff promised to find out what was going on and get back with me. Which they did not do. Big. Surprise. The class is tomorrow. If it turns out that this is a potential disaster, I'll drop it and find another literature or writing class that will suit me for this semester. No use in making myself crazy for something that I'm just doing for fun for the time being.

Just because:

*The one who may not have a job after this week. So...yeah. Hahaha. Make fun if you want, lady. At least I know I have a job (whether I like it or not...). She's hinting around that all of her projects will be reassigned to me. Which makes me...not laugh.