Look! Another Victoria Beckham dress I like.

It doesn't hurt that Iman is wearing it.

My baby is sick

Spunky Jones, aka Bones Man, aka one half of the best cat duo in the world, is quite sick. He is miserable, and it is making me miserable. He is having a big problem with his bladder, and there are crystals in it that are plugging him up and he is totally unable to urinate. So, then Bones has to go to the doctor, the doctor has catheterize him, and Bones has to be horribly depressed. It has happened twice in 2 weeks.

Today I brought Bones home after more than 48 hours at the vet, and he is not ok. I thought that he would be, but he is clearly not. He can't go again. I really don't know what to do because he can't tell me what's wrong. But when your cat gets in the litter box every 2 minutes, and can't ever go to the bathroom, there's clearly a problem. If this persists, he has to go right back in tomorrow.

I am tired and frustrated by this. And on the one hand, my cats are like my babies, but on the other hand, I only have so much money and I don't know what to do. I'm feeling negative. At this point, I'm just hoping that he spontaneous gets better over night. Yeah.

Update: It is now a few hours later and baby Bones is resting. Finally. It only took like forever of me and Mister Jeff snuggling him to take his mind off his worries. But now I'm feeling more positive.

Don't tread on me.

Four Loko and drinks like it are disgusting and probably have the effect of further oppressing the poor and already oppressed. I say that because these malt liquor drink are CHEAP. They have the alcohol of 3-4 standard drinks per, and a pack (sold in 4 or 6) costs like $2.00-$3.00.

However, the government just needs to stop getting into everyone's business, not get deeper into it by banning drinks. No matter what the consequence, I will never support the government telling grown ass people which LEGAL products they can or can't drink, or in which combination. I understand that your puritanical self just knows what is best for everyone, American government, and I know you love to feel virtuous, but just STOP. Sit on your hands, if you have to. If you don't step off, I will procure some black market caffeinated malt beverage, drink it down, and go crazy on your ass. That's a promise.

What the wha?

I'm sorry, but WHAT. IS. THEMEANINGOFTHIS?

Book review

Well, not so much of a book review, just some thoughts. Last night I finished reading the book "Orange is the New Black" by Piper Kerman. The long/short here is that Ms. Kerman got involved with some artist types who smuggled drugs from Africa all around the world and into the US. She stopped this behavior after a while, and moved on with her life, but was later charged and even later went to prison.

My first thought: the book was very good, interesting, and moving. Really, this book is about sustaining, comforting and worthwhile relationships between women. It was also about the senselessness and uselessness of much of the prison system: for the most part, the people who are locked up don't need to be, and prison does not rehabilitate at all. Doing a prison sentence actually just makes it harder for the incarcerated person to live out with us in the real world after their sentence is done, and it leads them right back to prison. And all of this uselessness costs a TON of money. So it;s just not worth it.

I had other thoughts as well, though. Like, it is very interesting how/what she writes about the crimes that landed her in prison. As in, she shares like nothing. Now, because of the way she writes, it seems like she is sharing. The part about her illegal activity takes up pages and pages, and we are told about the end of one specific money smuggling episode. But besides that, all her prose is very vague, and is actually a whole lot of words that boil down to no real information.

This makes me think that she got some legal advice, and that advice was, "don't go around talking about the illegal things that you have done, even though the prosecution seems to be over." It also makes me think that she sort of did a lot, probably things that she is not proud of today. For instance she never talks about her drug use, but I find it hard to believe that she is the kind of person who craved excitement and adventure so much that it would lead her to be part of an international drug smuggling ring, but not so much that she would party with drugs.

This leads me to another note: Kerman doesn't really seem to feel bad about her crimes, and international drug smuggling is a huge crime. Heroin ruins families and neighborhoods. And Kerman doesn't really deal with true depth of her crime, and what it means about her morally. More on this topic here, where Slate reviewed the book.

Also, she does a good job laying out how prison does not meet any of its rehabilitative goals, or correctional goals. And she's totally right. Those should be the biggest goals of prison, and they're not even close to met. It's a joke. But another goal of prison is just to punish, and to say to people, well, you've never shown any interest in living legally, or rehabilitating yourself, so we no longer care about rehabilitating you, or doing what is best for you, we only care about keeping you out of our community where law abiding people live, so we're sending you to prison JUST TO KEEP YOU AWAY. And I don't think that she really recognizes that as a legitimate end of prison, which it is, and which is met.

Interesting book, good Christmas present for the thoughtful reader in your life.

Lansbury

Well, sad times. My brother lent me his PS3 to watch tv on, and I returned it this weekend.

It was amazing while it lasted. I watched like at least 2-3 episodes of Murder, She Wrote every day. I was into Season 5, watching straight through. But this weekend I thought it was time to give it back. I want a Roku Box really bad.

Day one without MSW: it sucks.

This shit is for real.

Winter in the midwest. There are no friends here.

Golden Girls

Leslie Nielsen has died.

I know that he was most famous for Airplane! and such, but I will always remember him as Blanche's uncle, Lucas Hollingsworth.

Lucas comes to visit Blanche, but ends up meeting and marrying Dorothy, and taking her to live with him in the South. And that is how the series ends. It's a great ending. RIP.

Being Catholic now.

I have been wanting to return to church for some time. Maybe I will this in 2011, the Year of the Mass.

17 signs you ain't nothing but a hoochie mama.

More from thefrisky. Alright, some of these are just nasty, so I'm not totally sold on this list, BUT. I do like any list that includes "You’d describe your personal style as 'walk of shame.'"

Damn you auto-correct!

Funny stuff. I love to hate auto-correct.

Marchesa Spring 2011

More here.

Interesting

I HATE the matching shoes, just as Tom and Lorenzo do. But, what surprises me about this dress is that I love it, and it;s a Victoria Beckham original. It's just great, and very Posh.

The first poem I ever memorized, or, Welcome, winter.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

I'm pretending it's warm outside.

I'm pretending it's warm outside to try to make myself get out and run. Or something. Anyway, I decided to make one of favorite easy salads, a cucumber salad, to trick myself into thinking that it's summer or something! We used to eat cucumber salad all the time when I was young, and we would make up good seasons dressing and just dump it over the cukes. Then, when I moved out on my own, I got into making my own vinegarettes, which was pretty time consuming because of the chopping of herbs, the whisking of the dressing, etc.

Then my parents found a recipe that seemed too simple to be good: Pour seasoned rice vinegar over cucumbers. Done. I would probably have ignored this recipe, but they tried it, and it's FANTASTIC. The seasoned rice vinegar is so flavorful.

At our house, Mister Jeff and I add peels of carrot and minced garlic and chopped peanuts. And the Best of the vinegars that I have found is
It's tangy and sweet, which I like. And no, I'm probably not going to run now. The salad just made me cold. But it was worth it!

P.S. Sorry my phone takes such crappy pics!

Out of my element

REI cashier: Are you an REI club member?

Me: No.

REI cashier, unsure if he should even ask, sizing me up pretty quickly: Do you...um...even want to hear about it?

Me: Um, no. I'm here once a year, to get my brother something for Christmas. He's one of you. I'm not. I'd probably be better off if I was...but no.

He smiled.

You're wondering what to get me for Christmas, aren't you?

Look no further.

LOL

Go girl

Why yes, I will drink to that. Tosa Village, were some of Rihanna's latest album was recorded is totally adorable and hip. Without being pretentious. Mister Jeff and I looked at a few apartments there, and almost decided to live there, but none of the buildings had garbage disposals, so we ended up in Pewaukee. It's funny the reasons that your life takes the turns it does. Garbage disposals. Right.

Once again...

...Helen Mirren, STFU.

Lansbury

She is always so stunning and lovely! This lady never gets old. Except that she is like 85. But whatever.

Thrify runs in the family.

Texts between me and my bro:

Me: We can look and see what's on sale closer to the holidays. I hate paying full price.
Joe: I feel you. That's why I always go to the bar for two for ones.

Come to think of it, alcoholism runs in families as well. But that has nothing to do with this. At all. I mean it. Don't look at me like that! Who are you to judge me!?

Class

I've never considered any possible world were I would be part of the upper class. I don't need or want that title. But I've also never thought it possible that I could slip down, either, to the lower class.

I am middle class. I want to be middle class forever. I'm scared that it's going away. If it disappears, and we are all still here, who will we all be? Who will we turn into? Who will we step on to climb the ladder, if we do climb? What friends will step on us if we slip? Usually this is the time when I would say, "I hope I'm dead by then," but that's just too glib a response for something so totally monumental and un-American as the disintegration of the middle class. I really, desperately want this to get fixed.

"But then again, that is what war is, the mocking of plans."

When the caption reads, "EVE OF BATTLE Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, center, before the fight in which Sgt. Joshua Brennan, far left, and Spec. Hugo Mendoza, far right, would die," you don't even have to read the article. Everything has already been said.

But I did read the article. It's about Sgt. Giunta and why he is the first living recipient of the medal of honor since Vietman. The title of this post is a line from the article. I wonder what plan all these people had made before the war, and who their families are, and what plans they had made.

Good job.

I support the President's tougher language on China. Now let's start talking about their human rights violations, repression of the press, and intolerance of different religions.

Now this is a man I can get behind.

Eat your heart out, Stephen Dorff.

Joyful

This was loading sort of slowly, but see if you can watch like 30 seconds or a minute. So much joy, so little time. Life passes too quick, people.

Do not want.

Let me share something with you guys. I'm not into this pic. Like, at all. Maybe I'm alone on this, but I just can't stand a man who looks like he eats nothing but egg whites. Too much P90X, Stephen Dorff. Also, that coat looks itchy.

You like me! You really like me!

Oh, wait, you don't. My bad.

I had a trial today that ended with my client losing. It was hard and sad for a number of reasons. But at least I learned some new things. For instance, I learned that I offend people. In various ways.

Let's take the jury, for example. When you select a jury you start out with a lot of people, ask them questions, and end with 12 people. So we ask our questions, and then the people who are not ultimately chosen leave. My friend Tom, who is a DA, was in the audience, and decided to go ask the people who were leaving for their impressions of the attorneys. It turns out that the men had some negative feelings towards me. Like they thought I was trying to plant ideas in their minds. Or something.

I can't imagine why they thought that. And neither can you, right? I mean, you agree with me that that would be crazy, don't you? I'm sure you agree that that is not a very reasonable way to feel. But you should make up your own mind.

I totally cannot with this!

This IS a mullet. You have to give him that.

Why?

Why do I do this to myself. I have a trial tomorrow, and yet here I am posting on my blog. I always procrastinate the most in the moment when I have the least time. Let's hope I still work well under pressure.

Revisiting one of my all time favorite lolcats.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Golden Girls

Buy here.

Lansbury

Angela Lansbury is the best person ever. Hands down. Done. You must watch this video and love her. And yourself!

Bitch, please.

This kid has it down.

"I can't think of a better team for this to happen to," he added. "I literally can't stop smiling."

Hating on the Cowboys is fun, and The Onion does it well.

Olbermann

Keith Olbermann's suspension is very interesting to me, and I don't think that there are any easy answers here. I like Keith Olbermann as a sportscaster, but frankly find his style on political and serious news issues annoying and heavy handed. He's practically like Limbaugh, for heaven's sake, and we just don;t need any more of that. I avoid his show, and think that Ben Affleck's take on Olbermann was right on.

And what is the real problem with his contributions? While he is broadly a part of journalism and the news media, he's essentially a opinionated commentator. So why can't he contribute? Before we knew he made a few contributions this election cycle, did we think he was unbiased? Where we confused about his political leanings? MSNBC wants him to spew his liberal opinion at us all the time to make money for them, but he's not actually allowed to lend his support to the candidate of his choice?