Once again, I don't really have anything to ramble about. It's not like what I write is ever what one might call "relevant" or "exciting" or even "interesting." But you're reading it, anyway. If I were you, I would consider getting a hobby. Wait until after I've finished my ramble, though. I'd hate to think I wrote this thing for nothing.

Which brings me to an email I received tonight from the lovely Erin who told me, "I just want you to know I am here and still reading (even if it is 6 weeks late)." That's right, she was responding to a post from May 27th.

I have to say I admire her perseverance. Real life can get in the way of things, and some people might consider deleting a ramble that old from her inbox just to make life that much simpler. Heck, some people would consider deleting new rambles out of general principle. But not Erin. And that is why she is extra spiffy.

I don't care how long it takes y'all to read these things. I'm just glad you read them. And Erin, thank you. You made me giggle with your email, and that is priceless in my book.

Shameless self promotion

My other blog, Willamette Valley Daily Photo now has its very own daily reminder mailing list. You'll join, won't you? Please?? Pretty, pretty, pretty please???


Not that I'm begging or anything. Come on, experience a little bit of Oregon via my photos. It does a body good. Four out of five dentists recommend it. Tango the Wonder Kitty reads it every single day. You want to be like Tango, don't you?

Speaking of the little devil, I have a new photo of him, which you can see at right. He was rolling around on the kitchen counter the other day, literally posing for the camera. Yes, he is smiling in the photo.

I had to get a new (actually, it's refurbished) digital camera the other day because my old one is dying, so that means I've been taking pictures constantly. And that means I also have some new photos of Pesha and Butler, plus some other stuff:





I'm still working on getting good photos of the other animals. If you want to see what other photos I've been taking (both from the daily photo site and otherwise), check out my Flickr photo gallery.

That's all for now. Take care, all. Especially Erin, who will probably see this sometime in 2007.

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I am such a girl.

I say this because of a mouse. Well, technically, three mice. They scare me. Hence, I fulfill the stereotype of a scared female when it comes to mice.

It's a ridiculous fear, but there it is. Just the idea of encountering a mouse gives me the willies in a major way.

We had a mouse in the house a few months ago, which I never saw. One of our cats caught it, it was disposed of, and I was happy... for a while. Last night, another (dead) mouse was discovered. Again, I didn't see it, so it wasn't that bad. But today, one of the cats was sniffing around the bottom of the oven, and sure enough, a mouse came scurrying out from under it and ended up under the couch.

No, I did not go after it. I ran the other direction, actually. And, again I didn't even see it. I was told about it as it was happening. That was enough.

I went and bought two different types of mouse traps and we have four cats on guard duty. I sincerely hope they get the little critter before I encounter it. I also hope there aren't any more of them.

We've lived in this house for 23 years, and this is the first time mice have been an issue. I don't know why they've decided to invade the place, but I wouldn't mind if they'd just stop now. I don't want to kill them, I just want them gone.

Watching the Stewart Little movie just didn't prepare me for the real thing. Michael J. Fox's voice was nowhere around, and mice do not drive cars. At least, not these mice. There might be exceptions somewhere. Just because I've never seen it doesn't mean it doesn't exist, after all.

Anyway, so that's my life at the moment. Feel my pain. Or not. Whatever.

I'm also a valley girl

I'm proud to say my Willamette Valley Daily Photo blog has been around for a month now. If you haven't visited it yet, I'd be every so grateful if you'd spend a few minutes to taking a look around the site. A new photo is posted every day, and it just had its first guest photographer.

From the blog you can visit dozens of other daily photo blogs from all over the world. The one in Paris is really well done... they are all well done. Give 'em a look. The links are along the right-hand side (look for the city photo blog expandable link 'rolls').

I probably won't post again before the 4th, so I want to wish everyone who celebrates it a happy and safe U.S. Independence Day. I'm planning on going to the parade here in town to take pictures, because, gosh darn it, I have to have photos to post.

Take care all.


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Just so you know, my brain has dribbled out my ears. That may not surprise you, if you've ever read any of my previously ramblings.

Anyway, due to my present state of brainlessness, I've decided to start a daily photo blog of the beautiful Willamette Valley, here in Oregon. It's really not a good idea for me to start this, since I already have entirely too many web sites. I told you, no brains.

It all started last week when I discovered the wonders of the City Daily Photo Yahoo Widget. It is a desktop application which cycles through the various city photo blogs and displays their current photos. Since I don't live in town big enough to support 365 photos a year, I've decided to have mine encompass the entire Willamette Valley, which basically spans between Portland to Eugene, which are over 100 miles apart. It's horribly under represented in the grand photo blog stage. Plus, I'm stupid.

So, if you get a chance, give it a visit. It will have a new photo every day, hence the 'daily photo blog' aspect of things, along with captions describing where it was taken, and miscellaneous other gibberish. In fact, they're basically mini-rambles. If you do visit, I'll love you forever. But if you don't... well, I'll love you anyway.

If you have photos of the area, I very much welcome contributions. So g'wan, you know you want to.

I may start a mailing list for the photo blog. If I do, I'll let ya know.

Limping forward

My dog, Lucky, has a hurt leg. She won't walk on it, and most of the time, she simply can't walk. That means she must either be carried, which, after trying it, I simply cannot do (she's too heavy, and my shoulders, back, and neck are not happy body parts after I tried to do just that), or she needs some sort of transportation. Her own wheels, if you will.

Which, I am proud to say, she now has. I bought my dog her very own Radio Flyer little red wagon. Granted, I still have to pick her up to put her in and take her out, but otherwise, it's all good. She took to it instantly. I couldn't afford to buy the thing, but it needed to be done.

So that's fun. She's an old fart of a dog who's not inclined to do much, anyway, but she does need to go outside frequently. And I'm not supposed to be lifting even remotely heavy objects. My doctors would have a fit. So this seems a happy alternative. It's better than nothing, at any rate.

I'm trying to convince Tango the Wonder Kitty to get in the wagon and take a ride, but so far, no luck. I'll keep you posted.

You know, I always wanted a Radio Flyer when I was a kid, but never had one. But now I get to pull my dog around in one, so I guess it's all good.

Until next time, take care all. And if anyone wants to come over for a ride in my new wagon, just let me know.

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Before my ramble, I'd like to request that... oh, everyone on the planet go over to Teavee.com and vote for Xena:

Xena: Warrior Princess at Teavee.com

It's unfortunately in second place at the moment for best TV show. So, please go vote every five minutes (who needs sleep?), or as much as you can. The voting ends June 1st. Yes, it's fairly pointless, but for whatever reason, I've become emotionally invested in the outcome.

The logic of nursery rhymes

Let me say up front: while I read all the time as a child, I didn't read nursery rhymes, Dr. Seuss, etc. It was just never my thing. None the less, at least one has apparently penetrated my brain enough to be the subject of the very first voice memo I left myself, back in December.

Yes, friends, it's another MP3 (90k in size) of my lovely mumbling voice:

• Humpty Dumpty

The translation: "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall... really, you know, big-ass dude like that, breakable, he really shouldn't be sitting on a wall."

If you ask me, ol' Humpty was just looking for trouble. He was an egg. He had to know if he fell, he wasn't gonna make it. He must have had a death wish by climbing that wall.

But it's not the rescue squad was any better. I can see sending the King's men, but expecting the King's horses to help put him back together is just silly. If anything, they probably just made things worse. Their fine motor skills are a bit lacking, what with those hooves of theirs and all.

So, as you can clearly see, I've put entirely too much thought into this. I can't remember what I did five minutes ago, but my brain is busy working on non-essential junk. It's good to have my priorities straight.

This just in from Tango the Wonder Kitty: "xac." I don't know what it means, but Tango just typed it, so it must mean something. It could be a coded message to all his Tango's New World Order recruits. Be warned.

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I am pleased to report I have received a ground swell of support from my loyal reading audience (3 people!) regarding my ramblings. That has inspired me to ramble again, despite the very real obstacle of not having an actual topic. That hasn't exactly stopped me before.

Oh, sure, there are blogs out there which actually write about things like politics, human rights, low-flow toilets (gosh, I love Dave Barry!), that sort of thing. But that's not my style. No, my style is... um...

I'll let you know as soon as I figure it out. Don't hold your breath.

Okay, technically, I have three topics, as pointed out by the lovely Erin, based on some voice memos I've left for myself over the last few months. I think I'll split them up into different rambles, otherwise this one will be very, very long (as opposed to very long), and we can't have that, because then it would be all very, very long and stuff.

Decorating Senseless

Here is the actual voice memo (in MP3 format, 90k in size):

• Our decorating style

For those who can't understand my mumbling, I said, "Mom watching Home & Garden... and our decorating theme in our house is 'animal hair.'"

I would like to say this made sense when I recorded it. But as I remember, I was in bed, mostly asleep, when the thought (such as it is) struck me enough to record it. That was two months ago. I had completely forgotten about it until last night.

Mom watches the Home & Garden channel a lot. She's one of those people who has some sense of decorating style, so she finds useful things in what they show. Me, I sit there and make fun of the people on it. They're just so darned perky. And I can't even stand to watch the DIY (Do It Yourself) network. I feel the strong urge to slap everyone on there until they snap out of whatever drugs they're being given. No person is that relentlessly chipper without the aid of powerful narcotics.

One show I do like on Home & Garden is "What's With That House?" The host is a riot, and I love to ponder how often he bleaches his hair, and how much peroxide he must use. The show, as you might glean from the title, is about houses, and people who wonder what's with them. The host cracks wonderful jokes. He's spiffy.

So, anyway, getting back to whatever the point of this was... hold on, let me scroll up... ah, yes, the animal hair thing. As you may know, we have four cats, three dogs, and one guinea pig all living under one roof. That means, despite out best efforts (which, frankly, are pretty lame), there is animal hair everywhere.

So I've thought of a great idea for a new Home & Garden show called "Animal Instinct," or possibly not. Dunno. It would feature perky people with entirely too much time on their hands showing us inferior souls how to decorate our homes so that shed animal hair is a feature instead of a distraction. The more hair, the better. In fact, your home would actually go up in value the more pet hair there is.

Provide this idea catches on -- and I can't see why it wouldn't -- my house would be worth several gazillion dollars in a matter of weeks. Come to think of it, there could be a cross-over with that fashion channel thingy, which would show the latest clothing designs to incorporate the casual yet elegant dusting of animal hair on shirts, jackets, pants, etc. It's a look I personally sport, and I must say, it really is quite fetching.

These shows could also work on Animal Planet. I don't care, as long as I get paid a large fee for thinking up the idea. So if anyone out there works for any channel interested in my ideas, let me know. And remember: I prefer cash.

Tune in next time...

I'll be tackling the high mortality rate and questionable morality of fairy tales, or maybe the infernal mouse which lives in our house somewhere. Unless I forget. Hey, I know... I'll leave myself a voice memo.

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I want you to know, loyal reader(s), I haven't abandoned you. You've been on my mind and in my heart since my last post, but I became sidetracked.

My major distraction was the creation of Tango the Wonder Kitty's month-old MySpace profile. It wasn't my idea to make it, it was Tango's. I just did the manual labor.

His friends list is for other cats, dogs, etc., and a select few humans. If you want to be one of the few, message him on MySpace about wanting to be a friend and that you know him from this blog.

I also have a MySpace profile, but it's pretty lame, since Tango makes me spend all my time doing his. I'm open to human friends, though, so feel free to send friend requests. If Tango lets me take time out from him, I'll be sure to approve you.

Tango's profile has his own blog, from his point of view. Check it out when you have time.

Oh, and I put up several photos of Tango and the other kitties at Flickr. They are adorable little twerps.

Really bad gas

You may recall my recent troubles with the Purple Plaything, which is still a Honda scooter and not a sex toy. It turns out I had a batch of crappy fuel, which was causing it run like it had rocks up its muffler, if you know what I mean.

I gave it some Tums, and it's running better now. Not great, but better.

Boring life as I know it

Another reason I haven't blogged is a simple one -- my life is very boring. Want to hear about the cereal I ate this morning? How about the new mouthwash I bought?

Yeah, me either.

If anything fairly interesting does happen, though, I'll let ya know. Or maybe I'll just make something up.


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