Words, Words, Words, Words

Charlie and his friend had a great time at my parents' house these last few days. The weather held out, they got to go to the beach twice, so all was good.

The 2nd beach day they went with my dad, and later, at dinner, Tyler mentions very casually about how the lifeguard had to go out and get Charlie because he was out too far. This was news to my father and he had a figurative and retroactive heart-attack over the thought of Charlie being nearly swept out to sea and spent a good twenty minutes lecturing Charlie on the Importance of Following Rules.

My mother and I both had just enjoyed a glass or two of wine, so we were less freaked out then we probably would have been. I'm just very glad the lifeguards were on the ball.

I did email the job, for the record, and was told the decision would be made some time later this week. Arugh.

And now I'd love to hear opinions on something.

Charlie invited Tyler over today because spending the last four days in continous company with each other wasn't enough and while he was waiting for Tyler to come, Devon stopped by, as he is wont to do.

Devon is a nice kid, but I'm not crazy about the way he constantly comes over here without being invited. Charlie is never invited over to his house, and even if they go there they seem to wind up back here before long, and I get a bit aggravated that I'm constantly responsible for this kid who will drink all my juice boxes and eat all my snacks without asking me first.*

I think it is nice Charlie has friends who want to play with him, but sometimes, like today, Charlie really doesn't need the extra stimulation, and he knows it. He wants just to play with Tyler, so he asked me when Devon has to go home.

This is where my problem comes in. I don't want Charlie to be one of those kids who excludes friends, and I don't want Devon's feelings hurt, but I wanted Charlie to deal with this on his own. He told Devon he should go home by three, and then Devon asked me why. I didn't know what to say.

I thought it was a good compromise for Charlie to make - this was around 2 - he wasn't kicking Devon out, but he was setting limits. I just am not sure if I should have told him to just play with Devon and Tyler the best he could.

What do you think?



*Also his mom is the one who decided she didn't like me any more, so I get these unreasonable feelings of annoyance at the poor kid because of that.

I have the ghost interview thing tonight, and I have no idea what I should wear. It isn't a real job, so I don't think I have to dress up, but I don't know.

What do you think? Jeans? Nice trousers? Skirt? Help.

So, I'm planning on selling my dining room furniture so I can buy 'casual lounge' type things, since we hardly ever really use the dining room and I think I'd like to have a 'formal' room and a lounge type place for the television.

Anyway, I called my mom to ask her what kind of furniture it was, and she told me it was bought by her parents some time around 1940, and it was made by J.B. VanSciver, which was a big furniture maker back in the day. Cherry wood.

My question is, how much do you think I should ask?

This is what I am selling:

( A dining room table )

( A Buffet )

( A side table thingy, not sure what it would be called )

and ( A China Cabinet )

The table has a damaged leg, and the side table thing has some water damage, but other than that the stuff is in really good shape.

And also, which do you recommend for getting the best deal, eBay or Craigslist?

The other day I bought one of those Tide Stick things, to see if it actually worked. Charlie asked me what it was, and I think I must have said something along the lines of 'it cleans things'.

He was playing his Gamecube, and was really unhappy because his disc wasn't working. I came in to see if I could help, and I told him he should try cleaning it. "I did," he said, holding up the disc. It was covered in thse faint lines, like he'd taken a marker to it. "I used this."

I think you can see where this is going. He used the Tide stick.

Hey, any of you fashion types out there, can you explain the whole 'wear thongs and low rise trousers' thing? Is it still in style? Is one supposed to show the thong in the back?

I'm probably too old to do this, but I bought some thongs and I have some low rise jeans, and I'm curious.

On the Barsky Show they are having a discussion on 'what were you when you were in high school, and what are you now?' What were you defined as? Geek, Nerd, Artsy, whatever.

It's interesting, because I, for example, called myself 'new wave' if the subject ever came up, or 'non-conformist', but I've no idea what other kids called us. Artsy, possibly. Junior high I was just a loser.

My school had groups, but it was such a big school it probably didn't matter as much as it does in other schools. We had the cheerleaders, and the japs and the *shudders* break-dancers, to name a few.

So, how about you? What groups did you have, and where would you place yourself?

Why is Brittany Spears being interviewed on 'Dateline'? I thought that was a 'hard news' type show.

Does anyone have any Kate Bush songs? There was this video of one of her songs I found on the interweb, and it was a really cool song. It is called Experiment IV, I think. Hugh Laurie and Dawn French were in the video. And I also always liked Wuthering Heights and Mother's Work.

Does anyone know how to add 'descriptions' to an iPod? I found the thingie that would show me the description column, and I can do the smart playlist thing that would let me sort by description, but I have no idea how to actually get descriptions in the 'info' section of the song.

I really want an iPod, and can't afford one. Tragic, no?

I think I might tell my family to just chip in and buy me one for Christmas. Thing is, I don't often get to listen to music. Though I could fool myself into thinking I'd start exersising because I'll have the music to distract me. Or something.

Currently I'm listening to my MP3 player, which I do love, because over at house_music this lovely person made MP3s of songs from the show House, and I was able to get the ones I like on my player. My player, however, only holds a few songs, not the bazillion an iPod holds.

Question for ya'all.

Pot smoking. There was this post on buddhists and the guy was basically wondering if it would go against his practise to 'keep his friend company' by smoking pot, or something. Some people took me to task for pointing out that, whatever one's personal view, pot is illegal, and therefore you could be messing with your karma by going against the 'right thinking' thing. Many people pointed out that some laws are meant to be broken. Frankly I don't think a bunch of people smoking pot constitutes civil disobedience, but maybe my own experiences are colouring my opinion. What do you think?

I just think, by a certain age, one should outgrow things like drinking to excess* and smoking pot. And I do think one could have a couple of glasses of wine and be fine, but smoking pot immediately impairs you.

Anyhoodles, what are your opinions?

*not to say one still can't do that on occasion - one suffers for it more than one did when one was young

So there's this really weird looking green spider that keeps trying to build its web right across my front door.

It's a very ambitious spider.

I've never seen a spider like this one. It's like Disco Spider - it's a lime green with a red stripe on it's torso and, I think, one on each side. My curiousity about the spider was tempered with my extreme fear of them. After all, just because it looked like a spider going to a fancy dress party didn't make it any less of a spider.

I tried looking up the spider on line, but the draw back to looking up spiders is having to look at spiders and...again...icky. The only green and red spider I could find was a jumping spider, and mine didn't look quite like that.

If anyone on my flist knows about spiders, or isn't wigged out by looking at them for any length of time, and wants to try to find out what kind of spider it was, I'd be interested. Want to make sure it isn't going to breed rapidly and take over my house and then the world.

For anyone dying of curiousity, here are the answers to the movie meme that weren't answered in the last post. ( remaining meme answers )

Fox channel has decided not to accept some commercial for the Super Bowl because Micky Rooney shows his bum. They say it is in bad taste. This from a channel that ran "Who's Your Daddy", mind. The entertainment industry is getting more and more hyprocritical every day.

And finally, I could use some advice. ( cut because it is a long story )

Please tell me I'm not the only human who finds American Idol terribly annoying. The whole manufactured superstar thing just bugs me. Where would music be if we depended on people like snarky Simon Cowell to tell us what was good? And why does it have to be so mean spirited? That's what's wrong with the world. A severe lack of compassion.

Like Granny Wetherwax said, the trouble starts when you start treating people like things.

And Gilmore Girls. (Yes, I watch Gilmore Girls. That and Joan of Arcadia are the only shows left on TV that I like, especially now that Angel is going bye-bye.)Pretty cool ending. SPOILERS in case you care and haven't watched it yet:

( Gilmore Girls SPOILER ALERT )

Okay. Here's a question people can answer, if you want - either to me or to yourself, I don't care.

What would you ask if you had the opportunity to ask only one question to the following people:

1. Former President Clinton

2. Current President Bush

3. Osama Bin Ladan

4. PM Tony Blair

5. HM the Queen Elizabeth

I was thinking about it because my sister recently had the opportunity to meet Bill Clinton, and she said she just shook his hand because she couldn't think of anything to say.

My questions would be as follows:

Clinton: Why did you lie instead of just saying it is none of anyone's business and has nothing to do with the running of the country?

Bush: What do you have against gay people. You dork.

Osama: What can we do to build an understanding between our two cultures so you stop hating us and trying to kill innocent people?

Blair: If you could start over again, and not support the war, would you?

QE2: Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like if your Uncle hadn't abdicated and your father hadn't had to become King of England?

Right. Once more into the breach. I have to get back to work now.