September 2008 Archives

Someone needs to.

I can tell when our "Winter Visitor" season is starting by counting the number of Winter Visitor coins I receive as change when I conduct cash transactions. They increase substantially as winter approaches, and drop off dramatically when the temperatures start to rise and the local roads and freeways become magically unclogged and devoid of cars bearing license plates from exotic Vancouver or Alberta.

I suspect my northern cousins can likewise use coinage to tell when they see an influx of southern visitors -- either in the summer months or when a Republican wins the Presidential election.

This is why someone -- either the US or Canada -- needs to change. They need to change their change. The similarity in size, weight, and color of the various coins making up our respective dollars simply must cease. We must differentiate.

I'd like to see the US do this -- even with the addition of a touch of color to our paper money, our cash is dreadfully dull. Dull, flat, lifeless disks of base metal -- even the copper-esque penny dulls out rapidly. We tried to do something interesting with our dollar coin, but that never went anywhere.

Of course, the similarity means that the wealthy, retired senile sorts who can afford to have a home in the sunny Southwest when their igloo doors get iced over are easily confused, hence the uprise in Canadian coinage in my pocket. Seems my local shopkeepers figure to unload their foreign metal on customers, rather than risk the wrath of the boss.

So. We need to change. We should talk to the designers for Apple -- they keep coming up with eye-catching stuff for their products, maybe they can innovate some really cool coinage.

It is not as though the coins are worth anything, anyway, so we may as well make them as interesting as the toy prizes you can get in your Happy Meal.

TransformerCoins! Collect the whole set!

You've seen those ads on teevee, right? The "Peticure"© whoozit, where they show all these tail-wagging, contented dogs with beautifully short claws, sitting quietly and having their nails done by this whirring electric gadget? Shove the dog's toe into the little hole and it whirs away the dog's nail tip and the dog thanks you?

Trimming the dog's nails has been an issue for me. All my previous beasties have usually done their own nails, but this crew I have don't seem to wear their nails down or chomp on them. So every coupla weeks I would drag their furry butts off to PetSmart to have someone there clip the nails for $8.

This Peticure© thing. At first I was all "Oh, right, like my dogs're gonna sit still while I jam their nails into a whirring grinding noisy gadget, uh-yup." But I could not leave it alone. I like the concept of grinding instead of crunching the nails with a scissor-like nipper. How does it work?

It only took a little Googling to uncover a few ideas.

The Peticure© device itself is a small Dremel©-like tool with a sanding band. Using a Dremel© or similar tool with a sanding band to grind away dog nails is actually a fairly common technique, favored by many veterinarians and show-dog peeps. What makes the Peticure© unique is the cover with the hole you put the dog's nail into. It just shields the dog from the band, helps position the nail for optimal grinding, and collects the shavings. That is a nice idea. So if you already have a Dremel© (and what self-respecting Tool Boy or Girl (© Sylvia, Supreme Leader of misc.writing) does not?), then getting the $20 attachment might be a good idea ... provided, of course, you can actually Dremel© your dog's nails.

So that sent me off in another direction, and I found DoberDawn, who has pretty detailed (if oddly formatted) instructions on how to introduce grinding by Dremel© to your dog as a link on her site.

I've started introducting the Dremel© to my mutts and, so far, so good. I have not, as yet, started any grinding.

I am totally overwhelmed at work. That's not my peeve, mind, 'cuz I rather like having too much to do. When I have too little, I get bored.

No, that's not a peeve, but rather an explanation. Having too much to do means I have a whiny-assed excuse to procrastinate.

"No, really, boss, I'm working. It's just that I need to take a few moments to let off a teensy amount of steam by griping about totally unimportant things. I'll be a bit late to the meeting, though. Sorry!"

Peeves, then:

1. The facilities management peeps (formerly known as "janitors") are missing an opportunity. See, the water temperature in the bathroom faucets is merely "freezing". If they pipe it through some dry ice, they can go from turning our hands blue to actually causing them to fall off.


2. I used to gripe about how noisy the peeps are in this building they moved us into. Well, I guess they heard me 'cuz they've been pretty (fearfully) silent. So now my bitch is that the fluorescent light fixtures are doing a sort of rhythmic hum. I'm starting to think I should be marching up and down the aisle wearing a band uniform. I totally can't concentrate on my work.


3. People who send me hilarious YouTube links at work are evil. They clearly want me to be sent away to a nice, peaceful place with pretty, pretty padded walls.


4. OTOH, I'm not really seeing a downside, there.


5. The next person to have a Britney Spears song for a ringtone is going to be hung from the faulty light fixture by their own entrails.

McCain: still fusty, out-of-touch, squishy, and gives the feeling that he's more interested in saying whatever he thinks the powers-that-be want to hear so that he can get himself elected than in doing what is right for this country.

Palin: Scary. Not in the way whatsername, Clinton, was scary, but more scary in some ways. She and I have so little in common. We're both moms and we both work, but it pretty much ends there.

Obama: I dunno, but he just seems like a mannequin. I cannot believe that man has any original thought and that he's the pretty-faced, beautifully intoned storefront for some mysterious Democrap powerhouse. I have difficulty believing that what he says he'd like to do is what will actually happen. But, regardless, he represents the Democrap party and as such is to be despised and mocked.

Biden: I think his role is to be the Bad Boy and beyond that, he's irrelevant.

Disasters (Ike, train wreck, etc.): I am sorry, in a "we're all humans together" way, that these things have happened and a piece of my heart goes out to those who are suffering as a result.

's'all for now. Gotta go take photos of some things, take care of some chores, etc.

My blog is a sad, sad blog. The 'ware is way complicated and I'm one of those impatient sorts who reads just enough of the fuckin' manual to cause trouble.

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Please oh please, if you find you are unable to comment, write to me directly using
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