2/24/06

reading: The Working Poor, by David K. Shipler. Finished last night: Grave Sight, by Charlaine Harris. Oh, how I LURVE Charlaine Harris. This is the first in a new series, the Harper Connelly series. I loved it. Finished the night before last: She Got Up Off the Couch, by Haven Kimmel. I so very, very, very much didn’t want this book to end. I desperately didn’t want it to end. I went back and re-read a couple of chapters just so it wouldn’t end, but – like all good things – it ended. DAMNIT. If Haven Kimmel thinks she’s going to get away without doing another memoir, she has got ANOTHER THINK COMING. I want to know about her high school years, I want to know why Rose wasn’t mentioned in her dedication or acknowledgements, I want to know what life was like after her father left, I want to know how he died. I will hound that woman until she gives in and writes another memoir just out of self-preservation, I swear I will! And a very cool reader (Hi Cindy!) is lending me her copy of A Girl Named Zippy on CD, and I can’t wait!

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So, I started watching a show on WE called Daddy’s Spoiled Little Girl, and I thought for a little while it might become my new guilty pleasure, but then I saw the episode with Karly Urat@, and I got so pissed that I said to myself, I said “Self, it is RIDICULOUS to get this pissed off over someone you don’t know, will never know, and doesn’t know you even exist.” So I stopped taping them, at least for the time being. But let me TELL you a little about Karly Urat@. Karly Urat@ is 27 and has an older sister Kelly. Kelly was about to turn 30, so Karly decided to throw her a surprise party, at Daddy’s expense, of course. She picked Daddy up at the golf course, because she was taking him shopping for Kelly’s birthday present. She was thinking maybe a nice tennis bracelet, so she and Daddy went to a jewelry store and ended up spending (I think) $6,000 (of Daddy’s money) on a tennis bracelet. And then. AND THEN, Princess Karly starts lobbying for Daddy to buy her – Karly – a $90,000 car. This is Princess Karly’s reasoning: “You just bought Kelly a $6,000 tennis bracelet, it’s time to get something for me!” Yes, of course. I see the correlation – Kelly’s birthday present cost $6,000, therefore Karly is owed something that costs 15 times more. So what if it’s Kelly’s birthday and not Karly’s? Karly is OWED a $90,000 car, Daddy! So Karly drags Daddy to the car dealership and they test-drive the car, and Karly’s all “Oh, we’ll take it!” and Daddy’s all “No, we’re going to think about it”, and you know what happens, don’t you? Karly turns instantly into a pouty little bitch. The show goes on and Karly and Kelly and Daddy and a bunch of their friends go to Vegas, because Kelly doesn’t know about the surprise party, so she thinks that the trip to Vegas is her birthday. And of course they need DRESSES, so Daddy buys them dresses, and of course they need a spa day, so Daddy buys them a spa day. And then Daddy buys dinner for everyone, which if I recall correctly cost multiple thousands of dollars, and there is partying and hijinx. And then we come upon the day of Kelly’s birthday, the day of the surprise party, and Daddy shows up to tell Kelly and Karly to move along (possibly Kelly and Karly live together, I’m sure in a house THEY didn’t pay for), and Daddy tells Karly he has a surprise for her. And it’s the fucking $90,000 car. In the driveway. With a huge bow on it. ON KELLY’S BIRTHDAY. 1. Daddy clearly has too much money and needs to be hit over the head so he’ll stop spending. 2. I hate spoiled rotten princesses. 3. Way to make Kelly feel special on her birthday, Daddy. 4. The day my father spends $6,000 on a piece of jewelry for me is the day I slap his ass into a nursing home, ’cause he’ll have gone off his freakin’ rocker. I mean, I know it’s the guy’s money and he can spend it however he wants, and I’m sure a father likes to spoil his daughters from time to time, but GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY. How is this helping to make those girls productive members of society, I ask you? That’s right – it DOESN’T. However, the Secret Lives of Women series still rocks the casbah. I watched Shopaholics today, and I’m looking forward to Plastic Surgery Addicts next week!
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The attitudinous Meester Boogers. (He beesy) We refer to this as his “Paw Paw” look, because way back before we got him – before we were even seriously thinking of getting another cat – I saw his picture on the shelter’s web page (his name was Paw Paw back then), and he had this exact look on his face, and it cracked us up so much that when we WERE ready to get another cat, Fred said “Is Paw Paw here?”, and he was, and once we saw and held him, it was all over. “Sugarbutt! Front and center! I need some snuggle time!” “Mother, may I please go out and explore the garage?” Sugarbutt discovers that his purple nails have magical powers, and that he can FLY!
All of today’s pictures are here.
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Previously 2005: “4.2 billion,” he said suddenly. “Not 4.7. Because a regular signed 32-bit integer only goes up just over 2.1 billion – that’s 2 to the 31st power – and an unsigned would be one more power of two onto that, so–” 2004: Is it easier to write bad poetry, or am I just naturally a bad poet (and didn’t know it)? 2003: Let’s see whether or not I can give Lisa what she wants! 2002: No entry. 2001: No entry. 2000: Have you noticed that I feel like an idiot a lot?]]>