Addicted to information

Now I know who and what to blame for my foggy-brain syndrome.

From NewScientist.com, "The relentless influx of emails, cellphone calls and instant messages received by modern workers can reduce their IQ by more than smoking marijuana ..."

Fifteen things about me

1. I worked on a documentary film crew when I was a teenager. When I was 19 I stopped and went to college.
2. My favorite color is red. Purple comes in second.
3. The Rolling Stones will always be my favorite band.
4. I like black and white photography best.
5. I wore Earth shoes.
6. I used to be a vegetarian but now I eat almost anything.
7. To me, ice cream is the perfect food. If you add fruit and a cookie it counts as a meal.
8. I dropped out of graduate school. It was a combination American Studies/Women's Studies PhD program. Sometimes I'm sad about it. And yes, I swear I didn't know I was a lesbian until years later.
9. I own two fur coats
10. I used to be a bartender. I'm disturbed by the trend of serving almost any cocktail in a martini glass and calling it "stupid-tini" or something.
11. I have voted for a republican, but it wasn't for anything important.
12. Ted Danson was my waiter in a Manhattan restaurant. It was before "Cheers."
13. I need nitrous oxide (laughing gas) to have my teeth cleaned.
14. I had an imaginary playmate until I was 3. Her name was Coco.
15. I took French in both high school and college and I all remember is how to spell hors d'oeuvres. Well, that and merde.

I've been naked there

La Guardia Airport

Bell Rock (one of the vortexes) in Sedona, Arizona

Traveling Interstate 81

The Clinch River

... your turn now.

I've been LOST for some time now ...

I'm really, really hooked on the ABC-TV show LOST.

I don't know what makes it so appealing for me. Maybe it's the vicarious pleasure I get by watching the characters survive in the jungle. Maybe it's Kate. Maybe it's the way the writers are into the slow reveal in how they tell the backstories of the main characters.

Who's my favorite? Hard to say. I didn't care at all about Hurley until we learned that he'd won the lottery and believed that the numbers he played brought him bad luck. Now I love the guy. And how about Sawyer? He's so bad he's good. Reminds me of one of my pretend boyfriends (which I now know, thanks to my live-in therapist/girlfriend) is just one of my versions of self.

Nothing in the show is predictable. Everything is possible on that island. Life, death, and leaving your wheelchair behind. The characters represent Jungian archetypes which is why we can relate to them.

I don't ever want them to leave.

Yep, it's broken

Jack's soccer career is over. For this school year at least.

It was the second game of the season. He was goalie. He hadn't seen much action so far because the other team sucked. Really. They sucked.

Then suddenly there was a flurry of action at Jack's goal. What looked like hundreds of middle school soccer players converged in a frenzy of kicking and falling down and pushing and where-is-that-ball-because-it's-mine-mine-mine.

Ninety nine players got up and rushed in another direction but the goalie was still on the ground clutching his arm.

The referee finally noticed and called a time out then the coach came over and took Jack off the field (but not after he was forced to surrender his goalie gloves to his replacement). I'm sitting in my folding chair watching to see what will happen next. Play resumes.

Some other players start icing Jack's arm and I notice that he's obviously in pain. So I decide it's time to walk around to that side of the field (not run like a frantic mommy, but walk calmly) to see what's going on.

I ask Jack, "Are you okay?"

"No!" he winces.

This is NOT like our Mr. Stoic Butt. I think we need to go to the emergency room and say so. Coach agrees.

At the hospital the clerks in admission quickly offer ice packs and tell us that even though the "rule" is only 1 person with the patient in the ER it's okay for everyone (including Hannah who rushed over when we called her) to go back with him. The ER doc is kind and gentle and says "uh hmm" a lot. The X-ray tech is fast and says something that makes Jack laugh. Then the nurse comes in and says, "I'm just a nurse, but do y'all have an orthopedic doctor that you like 'cause I saw the X-ray and you're gonna need one."

They equip him with a temporary splint-like thing and tell us he'll be fine for tonight but get in to see the orthopedic doctor in the morning.

Yep. It's broken.

Cat hunting is barbaric

I do not approve.

I'm grateful that my human allowed me space on her (lovely and entertaining) blog to discuss this issue with all of you and I am sure that our readers are as upset as we are. Please visit www.dontshootthecat.com to learn more.

If cat hunting is allowed I shudder to imagine what might come next.

-- Moe, the cat

Photos from London

London was terrific!

We're exhausted, partly because our return trip experienced delays. We sat on the runway for two hours (meaning that we were on the plane for over 12 hours total) then had a three hour delay in the Atlanta airport due to weather.

We were typical tourists ... I can't say I expected anything else. Judge for yourself when you see the photos.

Enjoy the photo album here.