While watching “The Wild Wild West” Sunday, the bad guy said,

“Silence Wretch!”

That’s my new phrase.

For those who are not students of history, Labor Day in the United States exists to celebrate workers in the United States, and hopefully to pause to consider how worker rights have improved.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

Child Labor in the United States

But we should also pause to consider the state of Unions in the US, and the status of laborers. By this I don’t mean lawyers and CEOs, but the people who do the work in the service and manufacturing industries: slaughterhouses, commercial farms, coal mines.

Also consider that for those at the bottom, wages have remained stagnant or decreased with inflation, rates of health insurance coverage are falling (while health costs rise), and workplace safety is again becoming an increasing problem.

Bureau of Labor Statistics
National Agricultural Workers Survey
US Department of Labor

And I’ll chose the wrong way every time.

Today’s tasks included scrubbing the deck so it can be painted (since we finally have a deck and parking space!) and moving muddy rocks. I scrubbed the deck first–and then second–so when the weather clears up, we can paint it.

Then I played in the dirt.

Then I walked across the clean deck.

Then I cleaned the deck again.

Blind Justice (1994) Bruce Alexander
A Sir John Fielding Mystery

Jeremy Proctor was orphaned at thirteen, after a mob kills his father–all under the guise of justice. Jeremy runs away to London, and it is there that he first encounters Sir John Fielding, the famous magistrate of Bow Street.

Read More about Blind Justice

Dead Witch Walking (2004) Kim Harrison

This book had a lot to overcome. I don’t like the cover, I hate the title, and the first time I picked up this book I couldn’t get past the first ten pages. However, I kept hearing good things about it, and Michael said that he liked it, so I decided to give it another chance.

Read More about Dead Witch Walking

The Good, The Bad, and the Undead (2005) Kim Harrison

The second book finds Rachel Morgan still working with Ivy and Jenks, and struggling to make ends meet. She’s getting jobs, but they’re barely enough to cover the rent.

Read More about The Good, The Bad, and the Undead

I’m also reading (and nearly finished with) the second “Master and Commander” book, and have started “The Spectacle of Corruption” by David Liss.

Spelling test

I missed 16 out of 50. Which means I got 34 right.

All I have to say is thank goodness for spell check.
(more…)

Michael: [Long ramble about Giant Eagle and gift cards and the gasoline discount.] But you don’t really care.
Michelle: I care deeply. Just not about whatever the hell it is you’re going on about.

Yeah. I need more chocolate in my diet.

I have to admit that I secretly take great enjoyment from the subjects of some spam messages.

I mean, how can you not wonder what “Girlfriend Plagarism” is?

Been talking about “The Wild Wild West” recently. Last night at dinner with Gina and Erin, and today with Kim.

Gina was saying last night that she wanted to borrow by DVDs when we were done, because she and her husband were debating how old Robert Conrad was during “The Wild Wild West”. Gina thought he was much older–because she watched the show as a child. (She’s wrong, he wasn’t very old at all. See here; be sure to click on the Robert Conrad link.)

Now, in case you haven’t seen it, the first season is in black and white. The remaining three seasons were in color. Today as I was talking about this with Kim, I realized that I think I only ever saw the show in black and white–my parents didn’t get a color TV until 1980, and I don’t remember if I saw the show after we got our new TV.

This is also why, as a child, I wondered why Mister Rogers had a closet full of gray sweaters.

And here you go Gina, is this old?
(more…)

Saturday evening we left the hospital for awhile so my grandmother could eat in peace, and we could find dinner. Driving around, things went pretty much like this:

Michelle: Where are we going?
Brian: There’s a red light ahead.
Michelle: Look out for that car over there!
Brian: Isn’t the way back to Grandmom’s in the opposite direction?
Michelle: Where are we going? I’m hungry! That car up there is stopped!
Brian: The light changed.
Michelle: Green light means GO!
Dad: What did I do to deserve all this abuse?
Michelle: You got into a car with both your kids?

Just got back from Baltimore. My grandmother is still in this hospital, but will hopefully be discharged tomorrow. She has ulcerative colitis (the name is on a piece of paper in one of the bags I brought home, so I won’t guarantee I have it correct.) Short of it is that her colon is inflamed.

We were all highly amused by the following conversation.

Grandmom: They’re giving me some medicine for the colon.
Dad: Do you remember what it is?
Grandmom: It starts with an “A” I think it’s something like “a-s-s-o”
Everyone: You think your colon medication is called “asso”?!

Mind you, my family is such that we kept closing the door to her room, so we wouldn’t disturb the other patients with our noise and laughing.

Ah, West Virginia has the BEST criminals.

A West Virginia man claiming he was Osama Bin Laden led police on a high-speed chase before he ultimately crashed into other vehicles, police said.

The terrorist act of choice for Tena Bergeno, 26, of Charleston, W.Va., was threatening by drink blender

You just have to love the phrase, “allegedly brandished a blender.”

(via S)

Here’s a five minute slice of my evening.

I’m sitting trying to relax, when the land line rings. It’s my brother, looking for updates on my grandmother. While I’m talking to him, my cell phone rings. I manage to wrest it out of my pocket and toss it to Michael. It’s my aunt calling from the hospital to give us the updates on my grandmother. Then Michael’s cell phone rings. I find it and pitch it to Michael. It’s his mother. Michael gives me back me my cell phone (my aunt) and I hang up the land line (my brother). Almost immediately, the phone in my grandmother’s room rings, and as my grandmother is out of the room (ahem), my aunt has to answer it. It’s my brother.

I’m doing the Wellness Programs “Pedometer Challenge.”

We’re supposed to keep track of how many steps we take per day, and everyone who completes the challenge gets put in a drawing for a gift certificate.

The goal is to get between 5000 and 10,000 steps a day, which sounds like a lot, but really isn’t.

I can tell that today has been rough, but the fact that I already have 10,649 steps and it’s not even noon.

I really do hate talking on the phone. So that must be why I’ve been on one phone or another since we got home from work.

But we were talking about (and to) my grandmother, so it wasn’t bad. Especially since she’s feeling better today.

What I don’t understand, however, is how I call my parents to give them the latest updates on my grandmother, and end up trying to explain to my father how to check the voice mail on his cell phone.

Of all the technical support I’ve provided, I have to say that qualifies as an all time low. Of course, I did get to imagine my father with a phone to each ear, listening to the voice mail prompts and me at the same time.

“What should I choose?”
“What are your choices?”
“Call voice mail.”
“Choose that one.”

And people wonder why I hate to talk on the phone.