I made the top %10!

Hey everyone. As many of you know, I was a full on Election 2006 political junkie. I really got into reading about the "hot" races and reading the polls daily. I even printed out a list of the races and put checks and minuses next to those that I thought would win and lose. On Election Night, I had both a blue and red Sharpe to mark the returns.

Two days before election night, I entered the Predict06 online pool as a member of Swing State Project and made my predictions. Some of you may remember that post.*

I didn't win the pool, but when I checked back today, they had posted a list of the top 50 best prognosticators in the Swing State Project pool. I came in 17th out of the 171 members! I came in 25th overall out of the 2313 who participated.




*If you have the stomach for it, you can visit the anonymous detractor who also left their predictions in the comments.

Happy Birthday Felix & Oscar!

Felix and Oscar are 1 today. They got extra hugs and chased around a moth. It doesn't get much better than that.

Oscar and Felix last Tuesday: Stalwarts of Democracy

For the Nature Lovers

Today, I did something that I've wanted to do since we moved here:


I hiked up the hill that majestically pokes outta the ground in back of our house. It looks far, but its not. It's also not a plateau as it appears. Its actually a ridge the rings another small valley. The day was perfect for hiking. 65, cold wind, and no snakes. Here is what it looks like from the top.


The arrow indicates where our house is. Click on it to see more clearly.


I also found some lovely brain poop, possibly a relative of brain corral.

One last political post before the big day

Besides the principle reasons that I don't vote republican, there are the dirty tricks that republicans employ that compel me to donate both time and money to the opposition party. (And no, the shit they pull in the link above is NOT something that both sides do, you cynic, you.)

For you political junkies out there, you can make your own predictions about the House and Senate races over at Swing State. I've made mine. The winner of this multiple person pool gets a free massage, some meth, and some inappropriate sexual conduct.

Also check out HN's recent post about Election Day.

Oh, and by the way, VOTE!

Take time to remember

This post is not about politics, snakes, or dogs. Its about a restaurant.

As first reported by KB, the Country Omelette burned down this morning. When I was a kid, a finicky kid, we'd have our occasional family breakfasts at the Country Omelette. If it was close enough to 11, I could get a hamburger. If not, pancakes. I would stack the jelly like most kids do, or I'd take a trip to the bathroom staring at all the white people (the most I'd ever see in any given week otherwise) and the large landscape photos of places in Europe used mostly to cover the walls than to advertise any particular place.

The Country Omelette was also where, after ordering a hamburger at 11am, I first heard the story of my parents first date. They met in Dallas. My dad, like many people loves breakfast, so he assumed my mom did too. He took her to what he says was one of the best places in Dallas for breakfast. They arrive at around 10am, and she orders...a hamburger.

The Country Omelette would probably be considered a dive if not for its huge windows in every booth. It had a bar, booths, and tables, a permanent salad bar with those mini-cereal boxes that seem only to exist in restaurants. It also had not changed since it opened in the late 1970s, hence it had brown shag carpet and fake wood paneling that had faded to a derby brown.

The best part though was that on our way out I could get an Andes Candy, which you could only get there and no where else, ever.

So, RIP to the Country Omelette of my childhood, I had only good memories of thee.

Some if not all of you out there in the tubes must have a similar family eatery that you remember from childhood, so take some time to remember and lets hear about it. You too lurkers!

Special Guest T from HN on Voting

Hello all, this is a cross post from from HN :

Voting

Are you registered to vote? Are you going to vote? Do you know where you can find out who is running in your district?

If you're not registered to vote, take 5 minutes out of your day today and fill out your voter registration card. It's ridiculously easy. You're too late to vote in the Nov 7th election, but you can vote in the next one!

If you're not going to vote, you're basically throwing away your one chance to change how things are done around your city, your county, your state, etc. Besides, if you don't vote, you can't complain about how shitty things are. And, man, things are shitty. Have you been paying attention?

If you want to find out who is running for office in your district, check out this website. Or this one. Make informed decisions in the voting booth. Your future depends on it.

So get to it, Gentle Readers! Woot!

brought to you by tiny robot on 10/25/2006

Good news, Bad news, you pick

While trolling the partisan blogs today, I came across the answer to a question that I have had in my mind for the past couple of years: Are Bush (personally) and his administration really fundamentalists? Do they really believe the words that come out of their mouths or the words they distribute in press releases?

Sadly (or happily?), the answer is what my parents have always cynically suspected: No.

According to a new book written by David Kuo, who was the number two guy at the Office of Faith Based initiatives, the Bush Administration has been using fundamentalist evangelical Christians for their vote much like you'd use a bludgeon to club a baby seal.

So both sides get their comeuppance and prove my parents right: The fundamentalists didn't get to turn their narrow view of morality into U.S. law (at least not on the federal level), the Administration is tagged as a bunch of phonies, and it becomes clear that their agenda really is to make as much money possible for themselves and their loyalists. Move over Ulysses S. Grant.

Katy Blogs

So you think you have too many blogs to read? Well too bad because here is one more to add. My sister has started a blog and though her updates are about as frequent as Midwest or BBQ, there they are. Some of you out there may have met my sister before. Some have not, but perhaps all have heard the oft told story of how she drove a bunch of drunken college students home from a party.

The party was at Midwest's old apartment and for some reason Katy was in town and for some other reason I took her to this party. Even though she was 15 and had a learners permit, we had no intention of letting her drive.

As the party progressed, someone, lets call her Margaret needed a ride home. I volunteered, but was told that I could not drive. M also decided she could not drive, so we volunteered Katy to drive. Why not?* Its legal, she has a learners permit, so the four of us along with Mel-a-rific and possibly someone else piled into the car and we were off. We let Margaret sit up front so she could direct....I confess this story is not as good as it should be as all I remember of the trip was the car lurching across 26th street into the left lane of a residential street as another likely drunk vehicle was coming at us in the proper lane. Scream, scream, scream and we were all sober. After dropping off Margaret (if that is her real name), M took over.

Truthfully, it was not Katy's fault that she so unprepared for the Austin streets at 15, but we still never let her forget it.

*Later it was revealed that Mel-a-rific had given Katy at least 2 beers sometime during the party.

The limited appeal post

For those librarians out there, our registrar turned me on to this novel way of presenting the book online. In this case, an auction catalog. I'll be forwarding this on to the listservs later.

Just for fun!

For the Simpsons Fans

This caught my eye as I was looking for an obituary for a patron. Enjoy.


Ol' Grimey was older then I thought.

Back to our roots.....dog pictures!



































But we can't let the snake thing go entirely! Earlier this week, D found an impressive snake skin in our yard.









We admired it, identified it in a handy snake book (purchased once we moved out here) and then threw it to the dogs. They love weird smelling shit. I tried to get a close shot of Oscar with some skin hanging from his mouth, but just as I snapped the picture, he went after a moth that flew by. Cute, huh?





















And just for fun, here are a few pics from our trek to ACL two weeks ago. It was less hot this year, but somehow way more brutal. We had a great time, though.


















































As we surveyed the two large parking lots filled with overflowing bikeracks at ACL, D sighed and said "Only in Austin." We're coming back, Austin! We promise!

You too can be politically savvy, or get yelled at

At the risk of this blog becoming more political and less dog, I offer up the following:

First, If you are a non-republican of any stripe and are at all interested in the coming mid-term elections but you just don't want to wade through all of the bullshit to get at the information, some nut has put together Electoral Vote.com, a non-partisan (as far as I can tell) website that breaks down every contested senate and house race. There is polling data for each race and for the most part, the polls are very encouraging. For those of us in Texas, we can at least live vicariously through other states, such as Pennsylvania who will soon have a new Senator.

Second, if you have a fast internet connection, you dislike Fox News, you disliked Path to 9/11 so much you didn't watch it, you love (or at least miss) Bill Clinton, and your tired of seeing politicians give lame answers to stupid questions, enjoy this two part interview:

Stephen Colbert will die soon

Perhaps you all have heard of Stephen Colbert's gig at the White House Press Corps Dinner thingy, I know that I had, but I realized that it may be on youtube.

I have never seen anyone with a bigger set of balls than Colbert. Its so scary to watch, yet you can't turn away. Its like his show but in front of the people he makes fun of in his show. Its brutal, he even makes fun of the reporters in the audience. Its actual real satire. If you have a fast connection, you should watch.

I sincerely hope that Ann Richards got to see this before she died. RIP the real tough grandma.

No way......

The Crocodile Hunter died!

OK, D and I are currently debating the surprise factor of this bizarre piece of news. I'm honestly a little surprised and he's.....not. Not even a tiny bit.

I guess I just thought that this guy has done crazy stunts for so long and built an entire empire around his wacky ways that he was really being more careful than it seemed. The man is a father! Was I sucked in by the sur-reality of TV? Though I only saw this guy when I accidentally stumbled upon his show, I always got the impression that it was as much a nature show as an act. I mean there is so little authenticity in TV that I had no reason to think otherwise, right? It always seemed so put on and over the top that it never occurred to me that this guy was really just betting on the idea that a thick layer of stupidity provides some sort of protection from the laws of nature. (I suppose that's possible, seeing as Bush not only survived childhood, he lived to graduate college! Darwin be damned!)

Anyway, I just thought I'd throw that out there. Am I alone in my rose-colored view of TV? Has grim reality finally taken over, leaving behind that childhood revelation that the blood on screen was only red goo?

Just for fun.

P.S. to previous snake post:

You haven't lived until you pick up a dead snake with salad tongs and fling it over your fence at 6:30 in the morning while wearing a bathrobe. With a towel on your head. With no shoes.

Try it.

If anyone has been listening, reading, or (god forbid) watching the news, you may know that the administration has been likening itself to Winston Churchill and the terrorists to the Nazis, claiming that the US is fighting to stop a growing tide of Islamic fascism. In this story from NPR, Rumsfeld claims this in earnest.

An unusually decent editorial from Keith Olberman*, a talking head from TVland, sums up my outrage and disgust. Read it, because if you have become complacent and apathetic to the constant barrage of bullshit coming from the WH, this will whip you back into a froth just in time to get out and vote.

P.S. We did kill the snake that just recently bit Felix.

*and yes, I understand the irony of this contrasted with my parenthetical comment earlier

Just for fun.

Worst. Parents. Ever.

Well, we have a hunting dog. Since May 23rd, Felix has been bitten by a rattlesnake (in the damn yard) three times. 3! He must be hunting them every time we let him outside even for two minutes! Oscar seems to steer clear. Or maybe Felix is the bodyguard. (can you hear Whitney in the background?)

What is wrong with us? If they had pet protective services we'd be in big trouble. We'd have supervised visits with the dogs and would probably be demoted to taking care of house plants or sea monkeys. Look out aloe vera plants and pet fish, I'm incapable if taking care of a 15 pound dog. You're next!

Here's Felix last week after recovering from snake bite #2. Yes, last week.......

Notice his slim little nose.


















And this evening with his venom goiter and nice fat nose.
I think we will single-handedly breed the dog super flu with all the antibiotics that Felix has taken in the past two weeks.























Oh, and to any potential visiting friends or family.....we have only accidentally stumbled upon a rattlesnake once in over two years and it didn't even open it's eyes. So please don't think that Samuel L. Jackson lives here and battles snakes day in and day out. Felix just has a knack for finding them.

Remember when I posted those two pictures of Oscar and Felix sleeping in their bed to show how much they had grown in one month? Well, here are those pictures plus one recent photo. We are sure this time that they are done growing.

Jan 2006

Feb 2006

Today
I had to make them sit in their bed as you can see that they have obviously outgrown it.

As many of you out there in Tvland may know, those turds at UT finally caught on after nearly two years that I am no longer a student have shut down my e-mail address. It was my primary for 7 years and it was a conduit through which the trivial and inappropriate could safely find their way without the threat of jeopardizing my employment.

So what have we been doing since our last real post about Kinky Friedman, who continues to claim victory in poll after poll in Texas:

• Today, we heard the Johnny Cash version of "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails in the grocery store today. For those who know us or have been to our local grocery store, it would be an understatement to say that it was surreal to hear that song. It is also the second time in 2 years that we have heard a decent song at the grocery store (The first was MacArthur Park)

• Stupid-ass Felix, seen below jumping for joy at hearing that Mars is bringing back the light brown M&M*, got bit by a second rattlesnake that was promptly run over by the ranch foreman the next day. This time was not nearly as scary as both dogs have been vaccinated for rattlesnake venom. He was fine after about 2 hours, back to his stupid self.

• My sister and Adam came to visit while M was in Chicago visiting her sister. I made crafts, we had some really bad mexican food (really bad), bought 36 Miller High-Lifes (which I just finished off this past week), and one of them ate my peanut butter cups. Both deny it, but one of them had to have eaten it. I know I didn't.

• Speaking of missing things, (if I didn't have a fish, then why did I have the bowl, Bart, why did I have the bowl?) I have been watching the 8th season of the Simpsons this week. Its a good season but there are parts that indicate the oncoming slow death of a show that went from beloved to unwatchable.

• This past week, I got another write up in the local weekly newspaper. Only here can you make it into a newspaper by doing your job.

• M took the GRE and did well, so this grad school thing is not beer talk, she is really going. So for all of you cheap motherfuckers** who complain that you shouldn't have to pay school taxes because they don't have kids, watch out, cause she'll get ya.
  

• After two years of living in the country, here is our tally of dangerous creatures that we have run across: 1 black widow spider, 3 brown recluse spiders, 5+ scorpions, and 3 rattlesnakes. However, this is mitigated by 3 road runners, a couple of horny toads, a tarantula, countless rabbits (jack and cottontail), horses, and cows, a llama, and one Mississippi Kite chick with its parents.
  

*In the words of the tax guy from that enduring 1990s Tostitos commercial: "No, not really."
**Yeah, I used AND spelled out the whole word. That's how strongly I feel.

For the first time ever Texas Monthly has inspired me to spend money on something. I ran across a short story about this place west of austin that does zip line canopy tours. I absoltely want to go, so if anyone has $60 that they can spare (and aren't going to spend on beer, cigarettes, grass, shoes, admission to movie theatres, restaurants, prostitutes, or beer), lets make a date.
www.cypressvalleycanopytours.com