Wee Corpses

When I sold my house and was cleaning out the basement, I found a stack of my old snow tires from Minnesota. They were wrapped in plastic, with a pair of safety glasses sitting in the hollow on top, creating an indentation in the plastic.

Also in the indentation were not one, not two, but three (THREE!) dead mice. In a house with no history of mice problems (there were a few before I ripped out all of the ivy, but that was five years ago).

I pondered it at the time, but was too busy to give it much thought — and was just reminded of it when I needed a pair of safety glasses yesterday and didn’t have them. So you tell me. What’s the story, morning glory? Mousy suicide pact? Offering to the Michelin gods? Were they huffing plastic fumes, or did my invisible basement cat leave them as a gift for me? I’m stumped.

Fight As You Can

I’ll tell you what’s driving me crazy about the Aasiya Hassan murder and beheading. Apart from the obvious.

If I hear one more “conservative” react to an honor killing with “Gee, I wonder if we’ll hear from NOW this time,” I’m going to smack someone.

Newsflash. NOW is a joke. They’ve always been a joke. Blaming them for not responding to an honor killing is like blaming the UN for not reacting.

They’re useless. GET. OVER. IT.

If you care even the slightest bit about these women — and most conservatives really don’t, they just like bitching about the left’s hypocrisy — quit with the douchy snark, and try doing something about it. You can’t defeat the misogynistic bastards yourself, but you can take a tiny tip from the few liberals who aren’t all talk, and *gasp* volunteer at a women’s shelter. Or donate money or food to the women in your community who’ve had to deal with this religious/cultural fully-sanctioned abuse first hand.

It won’t make you vote democrat or morph into a granola eater, I promise.

Muslim women’s advocates consider the statement significant after years of indifference in a community which has seen only recent progress — for example, the opening of shelters for battered Muslim women in a few major cities.

“This is a horrible tragedy, but it gives us a window,” said Abdul-Ghafur, editor of the anthology “Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak.” “The next time a woman comes to her imam and says, ‘He hit me,’ the reply might not be, ‘Be patient, sister, is there something you did, sister? Is there something you can do?’ The chances are greater the imam will say, ‘This is unacceptable.”‘

Conservatives are the ones who always talk about being able to choose their own charities, instead of being taxed, but I don’t know a single one who actually volunteers. And it’s not like the liberals are busting their asses to help these poor women, either. It’s up to us. Put up or shut the hell up.

Punching Small Mammals

Oh, and also? Across the board cut in pay. All contractors lose 10% starting the first week of April.

Because it wasn’t enough that they tripled our workload by retiring/firing thousands of people in December. They have to pay us less for the extra work, too.

Can this month POSSIBLY get any better?!

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

I went to get groceries yesterday, and as I was going back for the second armload (*sigh*), I was chatting with a woman who lives in my building. She has a crazy little puppy that’s growing into a pretty decent little dog, and we were talking about her growth and stuff.

She knows my dog is pretty old, and she always asks how he’s doing. I said he was fine, and that he loves the freakishly cold weather we’ve been having this winter. She goes “I’m sure, with all that hair.”

Then we’re both quiet for thirty seconds or so, and I’m playing with her dog, and she goes “I bet he dies in the summer.”

I was completely dumbstruck. I just stared at her, going “Blink blink. Blink.” I knew she couldn’t be blithely predicting my dog’s death, but her inflection said exactly that. And she finally goes, “Because it’s so hot.”

Blink. *head tilt*

“Doesn’t he just melt? Or do you give him a haircut?”

And of course that’s all she was saying, but jeez. Inflection, lady. I’ve had a rough week, and a Canine Cassandra I don’t need.

Still Here

I know, I’m sorry. I’m alive. I just feel like I’ve been beaten with a bag of hammers, mentally and physically.

I have a bunch of entries in draft mode — “entries” is a bit strong, really… a bunch of links that could eventually become entries — so I’ll try to stop being a wuss, and get some of them to appear. Magic wand, etc.

Square Biz

I’m not a shoe girl. I’m sure I’ve mentioned that. I wear heels to work, but I couldn’t possibly care less about having a particular brand or designer. Unless they’re Chuck Taylors, I mean. Of which I have many pairs.

Having said that, when I was selling my house last year, I saw these and fell in love.

Naughty Monkey makes a lot of styles that have a 40s edge that I really love, but those in particular just grabbed me. Since I had moved out of the house and was paying rent and mortgage (and utilities for both) at the same time, I couldn’t really justify spending $100 on shoes, but I decided that I’d buy them when I sold the house.

You know where this is going. Of course my size was sold out when I sold the house, duh. So I kept the link at zappos and looked at them once in a while, and signed up there and at amazon, in case someone returned a pair. But that was months ago.

And then I found them on ebay last week. New. In box. For 20 bucks. And they’re gorgeous.

And now I need them in more colors…

Girl talk, part PTHTHTHTHTHTHTH!

You know the drill.

Read more »

Translations

So I saw a charming bumper sticker this morning, on a truck with several other religious bumper stickers. And I thought, this guy, either (a) didn’t read that closely enough, (b) is inappropriately arrogant, or (c) has an amazingly open mind, for a Christian.

“One learned man is harder on the devil than a thousand ignorant worshippers.”

And now I finally get a thirty-second break in this ballbuster of a day, google it, and it turns out it’s attributed to Mohammed. So now I don’t know what the hell to think. Somebody help me out, here.

Air Pooch

This must be the most insane time in history to launch a business that’s focused this closely on one specific group of customers, but I’ll definitely support them.

Don’t Let Your Pet Fly In Cargo

Due to minimal oxygen and a lack of temperature control in the airplane’s cargo, suffocation and heat prostration have been among the most common causes of death on commercial airlines. Since the Safe Air Travel for Animals Act was enacted in 2005, a total of 102 pet deaths, 48 injuries, and 30 losses were reported by the airlines to the U.S. Department of Transportation due to commercial airline-related incidents. (In an independent study in 1995, the San Francisco SPCA, estimated that the number of injured pets was 5,000 per year.)

Holy crap! I mean, I knew that sticking a living creature in the cargo area of a plane was a bad idea (and I’d never do it myself), but I had no idea so many pets had died. 102 in barely four years?!

The people who have small enough dogs that they can stick them in a carry-on bag have it good. But can you imagine me trotting my St Bernard onto a plane, and trying to shove him under the seat for take off? He wouldn’t even fit in a seat, if I bought him a ticket. (Ok, maybe in first class we could share two.)

So check it out:

Welcome to Pet Airways, a pet only airline, dedicated to a pet-friendly travel experience for your pet.

With Pet Airways your pet will be safe and comfortable, flying in the main cabin, not in cargo.

From check-in at our Pet Lounge, and throughout the flight, our Pet Attendants will be caring and catering to all your pet’s needs.

You can even monitor how your pet is doing.

Pet Airways is the only way your pet should travel.

Pet Airways - Pet Travel Done Right!

Awesome! It’s a little messy that it’s pets only, and you’d have to take a separate flight — and I’d still rather drive, unless it was an emergency — but what a great idea. I hope they make a zillion dollars, and start flying overseas. Because then I could move to Australia. :o)

Nobody cares except me, but…

My student loans are completely paid off.

Paid!

Yay! (And the payoff amount was apparently off by 42¢. Think they’ll send me a check?)