Monday, December 18, 2006

What a Boob...

Soooo...I lost my internet connection over the weekend

*poof*

One page I was surfin' & the next click I was out of fracking luck. I start racking my brain trying to figure out what I had done to offend the internet Gods. Or maybe it was the little men who live inside my computer...have I been neglecting them?

I'd just downloaded some so called "critical security updates", run a spyware scan to remove any offending bugs from my tempermental lifeline to the outside world. Certainly I'd been doing everything possible to keep the infernal machine happy!

But Noooo...the damB thing cuts me off midstream...AND, I've got a deadline for a on-line game I'm playing with some on-line friends looming in 3 hours. Hey, I'm a team player....I can't let my team down! Soooo, I call up my neighbor and ask if I can use her internet connection to send off the answers for this game...she's a good sport and plays along. So I intrude on her Saturday afternoon for 15 minutes, apologizing profusely for my internet addiction, and quickly bow out of her living room, quietly cursing to myself.

As my brain continues to review every random keystroke of the last hours before my life was so rudely interrupted, my "Dear" Husband asks incredulously, "what, no internet? This really interferes with my plans to make a last minute Christmas order and do some research 'blah, blah, blah'".

I think my head is going to explode.

Finally, I reach my ISP and some wonderful man on the other end of the phone spends an inordinate amount of time with me trying to discover what stupid thing I have done to my machine, which he finally does. It takes all of 10 seconds to fix and he doesn't make me feel stupid for having been such a BOOB.

But the important thing is I'm free again, the world is at my fingers! - Yipee!

Friday, December 15, 2006

My Teeth are Falling Out

Yesterday I took my Mother to the Cosmetic Dentist as she had surgery for a "Dental Implant".

While sitting in the waiting room I was bombarded by messages from a 32" LCD television that continually played "The Smile Channel" and ran "Dental Health Quizzes".


*AARGHHH*

Seeing teeth that appeared to transform from those that hadn't been brushed for years into movie star smiles was nauseating enough, but the images I was left with of "liquid candy" (i.e., essentially everything I consume) waging war on my enamel on an endless basis left me feeling, well...dirty.

Now, I can tell you by the suppleness of the leather sofa I was sitting on that these folks make a hefty profit on their work.

Veneers, implants, invisalign...I didn't see any of those options on my Dental Plan.

I can imagine the dollars leeching out of my pockets....*sigh*

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Breathe in Breath Out

Ok, I've been AWOL, but it doesn't mean that I haven't been thinking about you or that I haven't been busy!

I've been putting up the Christmas decorations, organizing for my daughter's wedding (in two weeks), shopping for Christmas, wrapping packages, taking my son to his Karate and Spanish lessons and generally pulling my hair out.

As I type this I am listening to a performance by Peter Mayer that was recorded this afternoon and is being broadcast on Sirius 31/Radio Margaritaville. Listening to Peter's Stars & Promises is truly a Christmas gift.

Peter is a very gifted musician and special person. We were fortunate to see him as he and his ensemble passed through Ft. Worth recently.

Maybe I won't pull my hair out after all.

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

CIP

Surfer Girl (my daughter) called all full of joy and laughter just to tell me that she and her husband were enjoying a beautiful day on the beach in Monterey, California. It was warm out and they were getting ready to go to this little beachside surf shack and order a Cheeseburger in Paradise.

She knows how much I love the beach and ocean and while I’m thrilled that she was enjoying a beautiful day experiencing this marvelous creation of nature, that we had encouraged her appreciate, I was left in my cold house moving furniture and dreaming of fun in the sun.

Time to start planning my escape to the Caribbean.

Monday, December 4, 2006

My back hurts...

Why is it that no serious work gets done around the house unless company is coming?

We are having a wedding in the family in three weeks, and there will be visitors to the house, not to mention the usual Christmas trauma. We have been painting; moving furniture and cleaning out places that no one will ever see. Although it all needed to be done anyway, ouch…I am in serious pain as I type this entry. Moving the bed in my bedroom yesterday was the straw that broke this camel’s back (which is in poor shape anyway).

Well, now everything is all piled up in the guest bedroom….rut roh…guests?
I’ve got more work to do.

But the new paint is really nice.

Saturday, December 2, 2006

The Cosmic Muffin

Well here I am on the blogosphere, thanks primarily to CruiserMel and LezLee.

I'm a veteran of message boards and am accustomed to the faster pace of that format, but I'll post here from time to time for my own amusement and therapy.
So
in the infamous words of Kinky Friedman, "Why the Hell Not".

So lets launch this Ship.

I'll begin by telling you a the history of my screen name:

It all started with the spoken lyrics to Jimmy Buffett's Fruitcakes (1994) song:

"You know I was talking to my friend Desdemona the other day she runs this space station and bake shop down near Boomtown. She told
me that human beings are flawed individuals. The cosmic bakers
took us out of the oven a little too early. And that's the
reason we're as crazy as we are and I believe it."
Being a Licensed Professional Counselor, these words resonated with me, as it has been my experience that many of us truly are "half-baked". 😂

Later, Jimmy released a (1996) song (Desdemona's Building a Rocket Ship) that
'lyricizes' Desdemona's adventures from Jimmy's (1992) book "Where is Joe Merchant?"


Now for the real history behind Desdemona's Rocket Ship: The Continuing Saga of Desdemona's "Cosmic Muffin" -- or How To Convert Howard Hughes's Airplane Into A Floating Jimmy Buffet Namesake.

The Boeing 307 Stratoliner: Only ten such aircraft were produced in the late 1930's. In addition to being one of the first four-engine airliners, it was also the first airliner to feature a pressurized cabin.

The Eccentric Howard Hughes Jr.: Hughes acquired his own Boeing 307 Stratoliner in 1939. The interior was converted into an executive office layout. Actress Rita Hayworth added her own woman's touch to the aircraft's décor. In 1949, Howard Hughes sold his "office on wings" to Houston oil man Glenn McCarthy.

Through the years the aircraft was clobbered by Hurricane Cleo in 1964, neglected and corroded in the tropical air of south Florida. Attempts at restoration to flight were unsuccessful, but in 1974 it was converted into a motoring yacht. Further extensive restoration was completed in 1981 by David Drimmer.

Enter Florida Folk Hero Jimmy Buffett: In his many travels, Tropical Troubadour and Florida Folk Hero Jimmy Buffett had noticed Drimmer's 'plane-boat". He was so struck by the uniqueness of this vessel that he paid it homage in his 1992 novel, "Where Is Joe Merchant?".

In this novel, Florida Keys sea boat pilot Frank Bama and his former girl friend Trevor Kane begin to search for Kane's brother, rock musician Joe Merchant, who allegedly committed suicide by throwing himself off of a cruise ship in the Black Sea. Not so! One of Merchant's former band members, Desdemona, claimed otherwise.


Desdemona "lived" on Drimmer's plane-boat on the island of Boomtown on the windward coast of Hispanola. But this was more than just a "plane-boat". You see, Desdemona was being channeled by aliens from the Plaides (or "Seven Sisters") to construct a spaceship to take her to the Plaides, and the "plane-boat" which she named "Cosmic Muffin" was to be that rocket ship! In honor of Desdemona's rocket ship to be, the boys from the Boomtown boatyard presented her with a blue jump suit that said "Build Spaceships Now".

As a token of his appreciation for Buffett's description of his plane-boat in this novel, Drimmer renamed the craft to "Cosmic Muffin", a name it retains to this day.

(Thanks to William Moriaty and Planeboats.com for the history of the "Cosmic Muffin".)

Even science has taken notice, as evidenced by this post
Quasars in “Desdemona’s Building a Rocket Ship”

So there it is...
(actually, Desdemona is also a character in a little play that Shakespeare wrote 😉)