Commercial Break...

I'm watching Top Design right now, and they've already gotten to The Drama within the first fifteen minutes. Blah. I hope it gets more about the art and less about the drama soon. Also, Top Chef just ended, and I'm pissed that Elan won. I think he's a talented person, but not nearly as artistic a chef as Marcel. And also, he's a jackass.

I'm crocheting a new ipod cozy/sling for myself while I watch tv, because my old one (which is teal, and kind of hangs down like a tiny purse with a shoulder strap) is good for taking walks, but not for doing housework or playing Wii, because it kind of swings around. This one will be more of a dorky diagonal strap, but it will have loops to hold my headphone stringies down, a pocket for my phone, and an ipod pocket with holes for the screen & wheel. And it will be pink to match my apron. Girl! Power! ♥ :D

Oooh, speaking of girl power, I was invited to the Girls Incorporated Power of the Purse Auction and Dinner this year, since my mom designed one of the purses. I'm too poor to spend much (if any) money there, but it'll feel nice to go to an event focused on female empowerment. :)

Top Design is almost back on, so I guess that's all I'm writing for tonight.

Ok.........Go!

I know this came out awhile ago (I'm behind the times), but I just watched Ok Go's "Here It Goes Again" video, and I found it hypnotizingly cool. I wish our treadmill could stand up to all that jumping around. I guess I haven't tried, but I BET it can't, and I don't want to break it. Also, if we had multiple treadmills, I'd totally walk across all of them like that. These guys are so dope.

Phoning It In.

I can't think of anything to write about right now, and I don't feel like coming up with something (I'd rather crochet and listen to podcasts), so I did a shitty online survey, and I'm posting it in lieu of an ACTUAL post. Wow...I shoved all of that into one sentence. Anyway, here goes:

And You Are...? (Really fun-to-do, random survey!)
When was the last time you got drunk?:	wow...I don't know...maybe around xmas?
What's your favorite style of socks?:	ankle
One big gift or a bunch of little gifts?:	both.
Have you ever thrown a pair of shoes on a telephone pole wire outside?:	no
When is your birthday?:	May
Who's your best friend?:	Brett
Do you like energy drinks?:	rarely
When was the last time you went to a carnival or a fair?:	I think I went to one last year, but it might've been the year before.
Do you like upside down rollercoasters?:	NO. they make me sick.
Have you ever witnessed/been in a wet t-shirt contest?:	no
Hotdogs or hamburgers?:	from a restaurant: hamburgers. at a bbq: hot dogs.
What's your favorite kind of chips?:	sunchips or taro chips
Have you ever twisted up a swing and then untwisted it and spun around?:	yes
What was your favorite contraption at a playground when you were a kid?:	swings, monkey bars, fireman pole, tether ball, tunnel, big toy, etc. most of them.
What's a helix lucorum?:	I don't know...probably a snail.
What's your favorite aquatic creature?:	lots
Who's the best teacher in your school?:	um...I'm old.
Would you ever eat hufu?:	I don't know what that is.
How far away do you live from Ontario, Canada?:	pretty far; I'm about 2 hours south of Vancouver, BC.
Have you ever been to Alaska?:	nope
Ever drive your car on a sidewalk?:	yes.
Would you rather bake brownies or cookies?:	both. damn...now I want chocolate...
Do you like to make s'mores at a campfire?:	no
Who was your favorite power ranger?:	pink
What's your favorite flavor coffee?:	I don't drink coffee, though lately I've heard good things about the health benefits...
Do you own a knife?:	yes
Are you pro or against the death penalty?:	against
How many scars do you have on your body, that are non-surgical?:	tons.
What is one turn-off of someone you are interested in?:	that they're not Brett. other than that, lots. I'm picky - that's why I'm with Brett.
What is one turn-ON of someone you are interested in?:	That he's Brett.
Do you own a fish?:	only the fish in my belly from dinner...
Do you think there's other life in the universe?:	possibly
Are you afraid of cemetaries?:	not on a rational level
Ever seen a bar fight?:	yes
Do you wear hats/beanies?:	only if I have to for the sun
Would you rather have a hoodie or a comfy winter coat?:	depends on the temp...
Do you sleep with your bedroom door open or closed?:	open
Are you the type that can sleep anywhere if need be?:	not unless I'm REALLY tired
What are you mostly addicted to?:	food, water, air, technology
Are you supposed to be doing something else instead of this survey?:	no
Where's the last country you think you'd ever go on vacation to?:	I don't know...never say never, right?
Have you ever eaten anything that was inside a garbage can?:	Probably.
What will your wedding song be?:	I'm already married; we had a few.
How many times do you say "fuck" a day?:	Depends on the day.
What's your most-used swear word?:	Probably fuck. or shit.
Do you fear death?:	Kind of
Do you go to the beach in the summertime?:	yes
What's your favorite video game?:	Wii Sports!!!
Are you currently dating someone?:	married
Have you cheated on them at all?:	no
Have you ever played in a huge mud slide?:	no, that sounds dangerous...
Do you like to play football with your friends?:	NO
Do you like big crowds?:	no
When was the last time you checked the time?:	just after I read that question, so now; at 10:38
How bored are you, exactly?:	pretty friggin bored.
Take this survey | Find more surveys Bzoink - The Original Survey Site

Memories...

Shannon, Brett and I are goofing off and talking about random crap, and Shannon reminded me that I had sent her this email last fall. I felt compelled to post it here to give everyone a window into our high-class lifestyle.

From: Cat Jackson
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2006
To: Shannon B
Conversation: Sharting.
Subject: Sharting.

Okay. So, I felt you needed to hear this. We had dinner with Brett's family tonight, because of Alison's birthday, and then after dinner we were all sitting at the table having tea and candy and looking at some things Alison & Berta bought at an estate sale today, and Brett wasn't interested, so he SHOWED his disinterest by FARTING FOR LIKE 10 SECONDS STRAIGHT. By the end of it, we'd all stopped talking, and everyone was just looking at him while he stared at the table with a straight face and PUSHED out the last three or four juicy "put put put shhhhhuuusssshhh" noises.

Then I was like, "oh my god, that embarrassed ME."

And he was like, "huh?"

And his mom told him he might want to check his pants, and then Alison said she hoped he was going to do his own laundry.

The End.

Since Brett mentioned it on his blog...

I'll talk about it too. Especially since he referred to it as "the hbo special about penises." It's CALLED Private Dicks: Men Exposed. I picked it because I feel like being exposed to other people with varying body types and personalities makes me feel more comfortable with my OWN body and personality, so I assumed Brett would be the same way. I was wrong.

As soon as he opened the envelope he was like, "I don't wanna hear guys talking about their wangs." No amount of discussion could get him to see it as a healthy natural thing; he said it just made him feel uncomfortable, like he was seeing something he shouldn't see.

I thought he might feel differently after watching it for a couple of minutes, but no. As soon as they started the photo montage of circumcised and uncircumcised penises at the beginning of the "circumcision" section (about halfway through the doc), he was like, "God! Please turn it off! Ugh!" and I knew he'd hit his limit. So I paused it, we watched this weeks Top Chef episode which I'd taped for him, and I finished the rest of the wiener DVD on my own while he talked to Shannononon about our hanging out plans tomorrow.

It wasn't like, the pinnacle of enlightenment that I thought it would be, but it was way better than that stupid shitty Vagina Monologues DVD. GOD I hate Eve Ensler. Blah. I still didn't like it as much as Naked States or Naked World, though. Not that they're really intended to be similar films, but they both talk about and show varying sizes and ages of nude people in a documentary setting, so...you know. Sort of similar, in a way. Brett liked Naked States and Naked World just as much as I did, and so did my mom & step dad. They're definitely worth watching, and not at all sexual. Private Dicks wasn't really sexual either actually, though obviously they do talk a lot about sex and sexuality. But there's a big difference between TALKING about sexuality and BEING sexual. Despite the appearances of Jonah Falcon and Lex Steele (the latter shown waist-up only), this movie is clearly meant as a thoughtful humanization of the male form, and does not objectify it at all.

Please don't take this post as confirmation that I'm some sort of closet nudist or something. I'm not. Clothes are cute, and keep me warm! But I hate how...I don't know...ashamed? secretive? self-conscious? people are about their bodies in this country. I'm self-conscious about my weight right now, but only because it's unhealthy. When I was a kid, even through high school, most of my friends and I were perfectly comfortable undressing around each other. It probably helped that several of us swam together at school (so we had to shower together daily anyway), but we took baths in front of each other, went to the bathroom in front of each other, etc. Partially, or totally nude.

Ironically, I didn't learn to feel modest about nudity until I started college. My first set of roommates were all conservative Christian types from The Burbs, and the very first time I walked around the suite in a bra (with pants on) one of them complained, and the others concurred. It was inappropriate, and I wasn't to do it again. So I didn't. Though I was out of that crap-hole suite before the year was up (those chicks were nuts), the feeling of shame they imposed on me still impacts my behaviour today.

It's funny...even artists are often a bit uncomfortable with nudity. Most everyone is fine staring at a nude model for hours on end, and I mean REALLY STARING. But usually the models undress/disrobe in the back of the room and walk to the platform nude. The few times I've witnessed a model disrobe ON the platform, almost everyone in the class averted their eyes (or even physically turned away) until s/he was finished. Because seeing them in that awkward "in between" time would be too much of a reminder that the girl serving you coffee down at Stuart's is the same girl whose tits you stare at for three hours twice a week. It just feels...weird.

I guess it's just too intimate. Logically it doesn't SEEM to me like it should be that way, but in our culture sometimes there's just no getting around the FEELING of discomfort. Like, even if you're okay with showing me, I might not always feel okay about seeing it. It's a bizarre learned reaction, but still...it's there, even in me. But I refuse to feign more modesty than I actually feel, and I still like hearing the stories of other people's experiences with their bodies. And once I send back Private Dicks, Breasts: A Documentary will be on it's way, which I'm hoping will be...well, revealing.

For now though, it's sleepy time. Good night! :)

I saw a show on tv awhile ago...

where a woman referred to herself as the "CEO of the household." Does that mean I can call myself a CEO? I don't think executives get down on their hands and knees to scrape old dried onion slices off the floor behind their garbage cans. But I'm more than a housekeeper, 'cause I also cook, throw parties, make gifts, and do all the decorating. I guess I'll just stick with house wife or hausfrau for now. Or Brett's beloved "hausferatu." Actually, I take that back. I really hate being called hausferatu. Don't call me that.

Mordechai scratched me today. It was an accident - he was falling off the kitty tower where I was petting Star, and he was trying to use his claws to pull himself back up. He failed though, and crashed down to the floor. Leaving me with a gash from elbow to wrist, just opposite the side of my right arm where Star scratched me in a similar fashion last year. I still have a pretty ugly scar from HER scratch, and I hope his doesn't leave a matching scar. Actually, it's not that bad. Most of it's just a bad scratch, rather than an actual torn open GASH like her scratch was. The worst part of it is pretty bad though; bad enough to have bled through my extra big tough strip bandaid significantly within the first 10 minutes. It's clotted now though.

I'm so scrappy...I swear, it seems like some people just never get hurt. Me - I'm constantly nursing some sort of scrape or bruise. Last week I was putting together some bookshelves for our room (different from the shelves I talked about in the last post), and I went to flop down on the floor next to them and ended up scraping my body against the side of the bed on my way down. Not the mattress, but rather the side of the box spring, since the mattress was slightly askew. It was one of those pains where you cry out involuntarily, and then just have to sort of sit there for a minute with your mouth open, not making any sound. I still have a gigantic bruise on my ass. It's hot.

I saw the American version of The Office for the first time tonight, and I was kind of disappointed. Maybe it was a lame episode, but I just sort of thought it was "meh." I reeeally don't like most sitcoms, but I thought the British version of The Office was HILARIOUS, and I'd heard this was just as funny. So far: not so much. I did kind of think that Little Mosque on the Prairie show was funny though - we watched that earlier this week. Not funny enough to be like, "Oh, it's [blahblah]day, LMotP is on!!!" But funny enough to not change the channel if I stumble across it. I guess there aren't many shows that I actually LOOK for on tv, though. CSI, BSG, House, Top Chef, Project Runway, The Simpsons, Ace of Cakes, and every once in awhile a season of ANTM. Okay...damn. That's a lot of tv. And that's not counting random scifi movies or food network challenges. But it's also not counting repeats; only new episodes. Anyhoo. I should go to bed, because it's late.

Good night! ♥

A blow-by-blow of my uneventful day.

I can't think of any one thing to write about today, so I'm just going to write about all of it, and maybe SOMETHING will be interesting.

So now...we begin.

I had some unpleasant stomach business last night and this morning, but that's nothing new. If there's one good thing I learned from working at WaMu (and really, there are lots of good things), it's that I AM capable of bucking up and pushing through the pain, despite how many times I have to stop what I'm doing and run to the bathroom. Sometimes (when it's like, throat ulcer, no-solid-food bad) I have to just curl up and do nothing (hence my FMLA intermittent leave approval at WaMu for awhile) but usually I find ways to do SOMETHING with myself.

So what did I do? I watched a CSI Miami marathon while moving furniture around and contact-papering pressboard shelves for our bathroom. We used to have this like, gigantic 6' tall, 5-shelf chrome storage unit in there, but it was ridiculously big, and our bathroom is a strange L-shape, so the shelves made it so you like, couldn't even open the shower door all the way. If you're one of the lucky few who's spent time in our master suite crapper (Shannon, Ali, and anyone who's wandered back there during a party) you know what I'm talking about; they were great for keeping some of our mess of the ground, but just TOO BIG.

So those shelves are now in the "kitten room," which is what we call the guest room containing two litter boxes, NOT the one containing two beds. I can utilize them much better there by stacking them full of towels, bed linens, surplus costco items, etc. And in the bathroom I've replaced them with a much smaller set of pressboard shelves that we got at Fred Meyer like, probably 5 or 6 years ago. And now the shower door can open all the way, the bathroom feels much more open and spacious, and all I did was juggle around furniture that we already had! :D

After the shelves and CSI I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, but forgot to make the salad, which sucked because I really felt like eating it, but I didn't remember it until we were already sitting down to eat and I didn't want to wait. Then we played Wii for awhile, I gave Brett a quick shoulder rub, he went off to bed, and I watched Ace of Cakes and Top Chef.

Can I just say...I am SO GLAD Marcel made it to the top two. I know he's the villain, and I know people dislike him, but *I* don't dislike him, and though he does come off pretty pretentious and abrasive, I still respect his creativity, and his desire to push himself and his food to the next level. Just like other art forms, food is not JUST about passion; it's about innovation, skill, and thoughtful execution. Some of the techniques that he gets soooo excited about (namely his frigging foams, and tonight's xanthan gum) I find both trite and unappetizing, but at the same time he's TRYING. He's experimenting. And he often gets good comments from the judges, so maybe his food is more sensuously pleasing in person than it seems on tv. I'm disappointed that Ilan made it to the final two instead of Sam (who seemed far more talented), but I guess the producers probably wanted to exploit that great "face off battle" angle for the finale.

Speaking of great battles, check out this awesomeness:



Nerds are the best. ♥

O. M. G.

I'm so pissed. Well, I guess I'm also relieved, but still. GRR!!! Brett just got home from work, and we were having a friendly little conversation while I was cleaning in the kitchen and he was opening the mail, and then he stopped talking, and made a little panicked noise.

"What's wrong?!?" I ask.

"Oh. My. God." is his response.

"WHAT'S WRONG?!?" I ask again, now panicked myself and rushing from the kitchen to the dining room, where he's sorting the mail.

He pauses for a moment, then asks, "How can they do this?!? This should be illegal."

He hands me what appears to be a final notice on our FUCKING MORTGAGE, complete with an angry all-caps headline and unfriendly pink paper.

I gasp, my mind flooding with memories of always always ALWAYS paying the mortgage on time. What do we do?!? How do we fix this?!? How did this happen?!?

"It's fake." he says. "It's a fucking ad. See?" He points to the actual body of the letter, where the words "PRE-APPROVE," "LOWER INTEREST RATE," "CASH BACK," etc. have been bolded.

I read it twice, just to make sure. My panic is replaced by indignation. I've never ever EVER been late on a mortgage payment (or even rent, back in the day), which is probably why they want us to refinance with them. But sending a fake pink notice? Like, what the butt? I conduct my business in a business-like fashion, and if I'm ever interested in refinancing and losing our sick-ass, super-low interest rate, I'll be dealing with a company that behaves similarly, thank you very much. I don't care for StoneCreek Capital Mortgage's awful alarmist direct marketing one bit. :P

This afternoon...

I haven't really done much. I played Wii for about an hour and a half, and bowled a 227. Woo! That's a Wii 227 though, so I know I'm not REALLY that good. Besides, if it were real bowling, I probably wouldn't even be there.

REAL bowling alleys smell like shoe polish (among other gross things) and every time I go to one I leave feeling like the entire surface of my body is coated in cooties. And I ALWAYS hurt at least one finger, because I don't throw the ball right. And I'm lucky if my score is over 100.

Still though, I do okay on the Wii. And though it's definitely phoning it in as a workout, an hour and a half of bowling, boxing, baseball, tennis and golf on the Wii does get me sweating a bit, which feels nice. Brett bought Wii Zelda last weekend, and so far I don't think he's had to stand up once while playing. The most active component of the game I've seen at this point is fishing, and he even sat down for that.

I like Wii Sports, because you can mooove. It's what makes this console fun for me; usually I don't even like game systems. I've never once used our PS2 for anything but watching DVDs. I thought about buying DDR for it awhile back, but the reviews for the home version didn't sound very promising. I haven't checked out the other games available for the Wii, but when I do I hope to see lots of stuff that utilizes the Wiimote.

C to the N to the Y

Chinese New Year (aka Lunar New Year) is a big deal in our house. It's a holiday just like any other major holiday we celebrate - Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve, etc. There's only one little difference:

It's 15 days long.

Dude, that's almost TWICE as long as Chanukkah.

In addition to the CNY party we usually throw at some point during the festivities, there are different activities to partake in almost every day. Apparently this year, we didn't think that was enough. This year, the plan is for:

A CNYE (traditionally a family time) potluck with some of Brett's family

A trip to Vancouver BC for lion dances, shopping, and possibly other CNY activities

A CNY potluck with Brett's team from work

A CNY potluck with a few of our friends (TBA)

And POSSIBLY a CNY dinner with a few of my siblings (TBA). But I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed, so we'll see.

Guar. I was going to post about other crap too, but seeing all those events written out is kind of overwhelming. So I'm going to watch "Things Pets Swallow" on Animal Planet instead. *Gulp!*

For those of you who've been wondering...

According to King5 News, that icy car crash video was shot at the corner of SW 20th Ave & SW Salmon St, just behind PGE stadium.

On a completely unrelated note, I slept horribly last night, and now I have a monster headache. I didn't start getting ready for bed until 1am because of some email forwarder problems, and then I was in the bathroom getting ready for bed when I felt a hair fall off my head and land on my arm.

I was putting lotion on my face at the time, so I just kind of wiggled my elbow and kept at it. It didn't fall off and it was kind of tickling me, so before I leaned back in to put on my lip stuff I turned my head quickly and blew on my arm to try to get it to fall off. No such luck. I was plucking at my eyebrows and it finally got SO tickly that I turned my arm to try to feel for the hair and brush it off with my hand. It was at that point that I saw the dime-sized black spider crawling up the back of my arm, just above my elbow.

Now, I really do love spiders. I normally don't mind seeing them around, and I've even been known to pick them up with my bare hands to put them outside. Once in Louisiana I even (without thinking) picked up a female black widow. The widow didn't bite me, but I have been bitten before (by a Hobo spider) and I have the scar to prove it. I'm STILL not usually afraid of most spiders. But there's something to be said for the element of surprise, and when I saw this little guy on my arm, alone in a dimly lit room in the middle of the night, I screamed. Like a little girl. And jumped.

Once I was done shuddering I decided I was a little too uncomfortable with him to just leave him in place, so I used a piece of plastic from the trash to scoop him up and set him outside. Where he'll probably freeze to death, but I'd like to think that's not really my problem. I snapped a couple photos of him before I put him outside, but I'm not uploading them today. I have a lot of shit to upload to flickr, and some of it's on Brett's computer, so I kind of want to set aside a few hours to go through all of it and upload a few sets at once. I'll mention it in a post here once it happens.

So anyway, that spider story goes out to anyone who's squealed about a spider in front of me, only to have me mock them and laugh.

I finally fell asleep around 2am, but then had to get up at 6am to help Brett finish up the Chinese New Year (or CNY, as it's known in our household) party invites for his team at work. It's a party only for his work team, so don't grumble because you didn't get an invite. Unless you're on his team. In which case it's Brett's bad, not mine.

Anyway, so I was supposed to finish up the invites the night before, but I forgot. So we did them together this morning, and I tried to go back to sleep but I always have trouble with that. I finally fell back asleep around 8am, only to be woken up over and over again by the same person alternating calls to our home phone and my cell FIVE TIMES within about an hour and a half. You know who you are. And then I finally decided to just give up on sleep and call you back, and you were busy. BUSY!!! So you said you'd call back in a minute, but that was like six hours ago. And I never went back to sleep. So now my head hurts, and I'm tired. And Brett and I have dinner plans tonight, and if I fall asleep over my curry, I'm blaming you. Not really, but still. Geez.

Okay, I'm done complaining, and I should shower soon so we can leave. But has anyone ever tried anything similar to Smashbox's O-Glow? Or do you know anything about the science behind it? I know it's pretty new (hence the beauty insider link), but I'm really intrigued by the idea of something that just forces a natural flush, rather than coating my skin with a pigment. Since I'm so pale and my skin's so sensitive, it's really hard for me to find a blush I like. My current holy grail is Becca's Creme Blush in Amaryllis, but if I don't use it sparingly, even THAT looks too dark on my skin.

My only concerns are that 1) my skin would build up a tolerance for it like my lips appear to have with lip venom, and it wouldn't make me flush anymore, and/or 2) that whatever causes the flush would also cause breakouts due to inflammation.

That's all for today (I REALLY have to get in the shower), but if you have a strong tolerance for insects & arachnids and my spider story didn't phase you, you can check out my all-time favorite/least-favorite bug story at my all-time favorite bug site. It's the one titled "Tampon Infestation." I read this story a few years ago, and ever since then I've thought about it at least once a month.

Ha.

Brett just made my day. We're sitting in silence while I check my email & he does Chinese calligraphy for something, and then we have this conversation:

Brett: um...could you play that one Fergie-Ferg song again?

Me: ha!

Brett: it's stuck in my head!

Me: which one? Fergalicious?

Brett: the one that goes, "oh shit!"

Me: (knowing that he means London Bridge, but wanting to savor his Fergie craving) Glamorous? Featuring Ludacris?

Brett: no!

Me: London Bridge?

Brett: (shamefully) yes. that's the one.

I play the song.

Brett: (sarcastically, as song is ending) this song is genius.

You know...

I don't know whether this video should make me laugh, or just stare in awestruck horror. This happened in Portland, but our whole area has had snow and ice for most of the winter, and just last weekend Brett and I went to see Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) which *I* thought was good but Brett didn't, and we ended up skidding over the curb a couple of times because of the ice. It's mostly melted on the roads for now, but please DRIVE SAFELY! Or when the roads are this bad, just stay home! ♥

*Bump!* (down.)

It's a little late, but this one's for you, Shannon. So I hope you haven't already seen it.



Damn, that video really makes me crave Capri-Sun.

Fwd: Fw: Something NOT to laugh about

I'm normally not comfortable talking about religion and spirituality because I feel like my relationship with god is no one else's business, and proselytizing and/or super judgmental/discriminatory religions can sometimes frustrate me to the point of well...having nothing nice to say.

I'm also not a fan of most email forwards. And someone I love (who shall remain anonymous) sent me a religious email forward today that I'm REALLY not a fan of. Then someone sent me their reaction to the forward, which made me happy. Then I sent them MY reaction, and now I'm going to post the whole thing here, because I think it provides good insight into my views on spirituality in a very calm, somewhat rational way.

So now, we begin...

ANONYMOUS EMAIL FORWARD:

If they know of him at all, many folks think Ben Stein is just a quirky actor/comedian who talks in a monotone.

He's also a very intelligent attorney who knows how to put ideas and words together in such a way as to
sway juries and make people think clearly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart:

I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are.

I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter.

I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores.

They never know who Nick and Jessica are either.

Who are they?

Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up?

Why are they so important?

I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive?

Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are.

If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.

Next confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.

And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees.

I don't feel threatened. I don' t feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me.

I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto.

In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year.

It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu.

If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians.

I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period.

I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country.

I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica

and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?

I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.

But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different:

This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane
Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this Happen?" (regarding Katrina)

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.

She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for
years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our
government and to get out of our lives.
And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out.
How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorist attacks, school shootings, etc.

I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare

(she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools,

and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.

The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself.

And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave

because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide).

We said an expert should know what he's talking about and we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong,

and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.

I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.

Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire

but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace,

but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did.

But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

ANONYMOUS REACTION TO EMAIL FORWARD:

How did you feel when you got this? I felt like I should write a rebuttal-at least suggesting that my God did not cause hurricane Katrina because of Nick and Jessica or the ban on prayer in school. I absolutely do not believe that a jew wrote the last half of that email. I guess I embrace an entirely different kind of spirituality. Thoughts? Love, *****

MY REACTION TO EMAIL FORWARD:

Ha! I'm glad you feel that way. :)

Here's the actual transcript of what Ben Stein said:
http://www.benstein.com/121805xmas.html

Noooo mention of the separation of church and state causing hurricane Katrina. :) I guess it's kind of sad, but *****'s email didn't really surprise me much. It surprised me a little bit that it came from her (and not *****, who I'm sure will send it later today or something), but at the end of the email it does basically call you chicken if you're a Christian and you don't forward the email to like, everyone you know. So I bet a lot of people feel pressured to forward it just because of that, despite it's extreme tone.

I think it's amazing how someone managed to take something written by a fairly conservative and religious man, something that most people would NOT find offensive, and turn it into a not-so-subtle threat: "force your children and neighbors to worship the biblical God, or HE WILL DESTROY YOU."

I have a hard time understanding organized religion anyway from a spiritual point of view - I honestly believe that God speaks to me in my heart; I feel like there's a REASON I like some things and not others, and there's a REASON I feel in my heart that some things are good, some things are bad, and some things are okay for others, but not for me. Just like my intelligence and creativity, that moral compass was a gift from God. I've gone to a few different church services as an adult, and talked to people from all sorts of different religions, but none of them FEEL exactly right for me. And when it comes to my spirituality, I'm not willing to compromise.

I think there are plenty of religious people (especially religious officials) who are following the correct path for themselves, and who are quite spiritual and in touch with God. However I also feel that (for me personally, so most likely with others as well) listening to a person telling me what is right and wrong, and having them tell me what God says I should say and do actually impedes my spiritual connection with God, because it makes it harder to hear his voice internally.

I think we all have the opportunity to commune with God, but that his message for each of us will differ slightly (or maybe even drastically), and his form (or forms, or lack there of) will be unique to us as well. It's a special, private relationship. I don't presume to know whether a Jew is more spiritually "right" than a Christian or Buddhist. I think people forget that religiosity is not entirely synonymous with thoughtfulness or spirituality; you CAN be thoughtful and spiritual without being religious (and certainly vice versa).

Don't get me wrong; I DO NOT think that our public schools teach children how to be thoughtful, spiritual people. At all. But I DO think it's possible for us to help them exercise those skills without forcing them to conform to even a generalized sort of monotheistic, Abrahamic religion. Which is why I feel the separation of church and state is a GOOD thing. I just wish people would spend less time, money, and negative energy fighting about it, and would start working with and enjoying their fellow man regardless of his/her religious beliefs. Which was, I think, the basic point of Ben Stein's original commentary.

Love,
Cat

OMG.

I'm on my way to bed after watching the first disc of the first season of Sex and the City (I've seen a few episodes here and there, but I wanted to watch it uncensored before forming an opinion), and I realized I hadn't checked my email since early this morning, so I stopped off at my computer on the way. I decided to check flickr, myspace, and statcounter while I was here, so I opened them all.

Hotmail: normal - a pottery barn shipment notification (woohoo!) with a quick note from my mom.

Flickr: normal - one new comment.

MySpace: like, a guhgillion bulletins from my niece, which I haven't looked at yet, and no new comments (boo).

Statcounter: nine separate hits in the last 24 hours (which is pretty normal for the weekend):

four with no referring link (you really like me!) :D
one from Malisonian
one from Brett
one as a google search result for "Jackson the cat" (which oddly enough, is pretty normal)
one as a yahoo search result for "cat wet and dirty pics" (less normal)
and one, from the fair city of Gulfsat, Kuwait, as a yahoo search result for "why my cat does not make her shit in the right place?"

Now...well...WHAT THE FUCK?!?

1) Why am I the NUMBER ONE search result for "why my cat does not make her shit in the right place?"

2) This is clearly written in second-language English. Did they really find the Arabic search results that unsatisfactory?

3) What the fuck?

4) Why DOES not your cat make her shit in the right place? Do you keeping her shit box with the clean? Our cats make their shit in the right place, but much happier they are with shit keeping scooped out of box.

Before I offend ALL of you, I'm going to stop. Hopefully I've just offended four, maybe five or six people at this point. Let me point out that the reason I find that search SO funny isn't the ESL, it's the casual use of the word "shit" in an ESL sentence. Not "feces," nor "poop" nor even "waste," but SHIT. Anyhoo.

Who in the Seattle area is using dialup? I don't see you SUPER frequently, but when I see it listed I always wonder, well..."who in the Seattle area is using DIALUP?"

Good Night. :)

Baby, it's cold outside...

It really DOES feel like 18 degrees.

And I don't really have much to say right now, because I pretty much said it all on flickr (in the sets titled "Christmas at the Coast" and "January, Pt 1").

So go to my flickr account already! Gosh.

Blah.

I can't think of much to say right now, which is why I haven't posted anything, but I want to post, so I'm doing it anyway. I'm still in that after-holiday, bloated, lethargic, fat with material goods, fat with cookies, fat with fatty fat fat, fat fat fatty fat, fat fat fat stage. And I'm a little sick, and I have PMS (TMI?) so I'm feeling really sluggish today.

But we got some sweet shit for xmas, and except for the five minutes I had to spend listening to Joe talk about the OC (seriously), all our holiday gatherings went smoothly, so I'm really grateful for that. We also got to see Courtney, which was AWESOME. She took a picture of us (sans herself) that shows just how fat (and forehead-shiny) my holiday has been. And how adorable everyone else's holiday has been, because they're all friggin adorable.

Whatelsewhatelse...hmmm...we're going to Maria's for dinner tonight, and she doesn't know it but I'm totally bringing her a birthday present...We've used the grill dad gave us so much lately that I've had to clean the kitchen waaay less (sweeet). And Brett makes it sound so awesome to cook with (and the food has been so good) that now *I* want to learn how to grill. And everyone who sees it gets jealous, which is also pretty sweet. Another jealousy-inducing item has been our Wii, which is sick as hell. I've actually made myself sweaty and sore using it, and so have B and our friends. We need more wiimotes, so more than just two people can play at once. But Dan needs to bring his own, because he got wiitarded and flug it across the room TWICE (by accident). And I'm not playing Shannon, because she's too good. It's unnatural.

Oh!!! I also got a new hard drive!!! It's been on my wists for 4EVA but I kind of figured none of my parents would be nerdy enough to get it for me, so my plan this xmas was to use some of our xmas money for it. So I did. HA! And it's soooooooooooo cute. So cute. It's the same silver/white color as my mini and it fits perfectly underneath (it was designed to work that way). It's also a USB/firewire hub, so now I can daisy chain my ipod, camera, scanner, all-in-one, etc through the LaCie and have them plugged in all at once instead of picking and choosing and switching them out all the time. And so far it's been really fast and really quiet, and hasn't seemed to get that hot which is good. But most importantly, it's 250GB, and I only had about 10GB left on my mini, so I'm really going to put the extra storage to good use.

I ALSO got Fresh's A Grain of Rice from my dad, which I'd actually asked for scent-un-smelled, but which I now LOVE (as does Brett) and have been wearing almost daily. *I* like Sugar Lychee and Sugar Blossom a lot right now, but Brett was only sort of "meh" about them, and he likes Fracas and Incanto Charms, but only in a "yeah, this is okay" kind of way. Sake smells like...just grown up. Nice. I actually think it smells more elegant than Prada, which I think is a nice grown-up sort of scent, but which Brett doesn't care for on me. Sake doesn't smell like actual sake (which is probably a good thing), but it does have a tiny hint of the same floralness that sake can have, so maybe that's where the name comes from. According to Sephora, the notes are: langsat fruit, grapefruit, ginger, white peach absolue, lotus flower, lily of the valley, osmanthus, vanilla, musk. The only thing that I can clearly pick out when I wear it is an occasional whiff of citrus (probably the grapefruit), and the rest just blends together in a delicate, smooth, non-powdery, very feminine, only a little sweet, quite...well...FRESH scent. Which is strange since I don't usually think of musks as fresh, and you can tell there's musk in it, but still. It smells polished and clean. And it doesn't give me a headache, and it works great with my body chemistry, and I can't believe how much Brett likes it. So two thumbs up. Nope...wait...Brett says "four." So four thumbs up. :D

What else...hmmm...we really got a ton of great stuff...oh! We're getting an insulating table pad for our dining room table, so I won't be so paranoid about people hurting it, and maybe I'll invite people over for dinner more. :) Oh! And we got a tiny new vacuum with a shoulder strap, which has made cleaning the pine needles off of our carpeted stairs a SNAP! It's so lightweight...it's way easier on my back.

I can't think of anything else to write right now, and my belly is hungry for lunch and my hair is hungry for a shower, so I'm gonna go. But I shall leave you with this, courtesy of Jon: