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August 31, 2002

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Hello Bloggers,

Happy Labor Day weekend! Woo hoo! I just got up from a nap. I love naps. Ahhh.

Clemson and UGA are playing football on my TV. Clemson just pulled ahead in the 3rd quarter. Is the game at GA? I haven't noticed. Oh... big G on the field. Home game. Okay. Sorry, Athenians. I always hated home games.

I've given my kitties happy catnip. They are very content. As it should be.

We've been house/pet-sitting for the five cat lady in Culver City. Next week, it's a couple of dogs in the nicer part of the Hollywood Hills. I go in on Tuesday for orientation and keys. $35/day. Not bad, considering how much I love animals anyway. It's one of many things I'd probably do for free, really.

Keith's Saturn commercial has started airing. It starts out with a guy leaving his garage on foot, running backwards into the street, and then going forward as if he is a car. Then, as the commercial shows everyone doing that little jog-run thing without cars, Keith is in the city streets where everyone is stopped and then again he's in the night-time shot, holding flashlights and headed toward the camera. It's pretty cool.

Alphabetical Blog Response Time:

Amy: Oh, man, I wish I had PT for migraines. I had an evil migraine last night for the first time in a while and it was just really atrocious. I ended up feeling like I'd been hit by a truck all day today, as I recovered from the hell of last night. HATE migraines. Ugh. Just glad I have them less frequently now than I did in my 20s.

Big Mike: I totally understand and agree about milk being the least of the evils in an unhealthy lifestyle. See... since it's easy for me to be without milk, I like to be all holier-than-thou about it. I am not at all a candidate for a healthy lifestyle, though I have been in the past. I'm at a pretty big low on the self-care meter, these days.

BJ: Oooh, can I have Netscape 7 for my Mac? Should I get it? Is it free? Oooh... is its Composer life better? That's mostly what I use Netscape for and I did NOT upgrade to Netscape 6 because its Composer life SUCKS compared to Netscape 5's. Sorry about the cat poop on the couch. I don't know why animals do that stuff. We were just saying how lucky we are that our cats were trained so well so young (after having stayed with five cats... two of which like to pee on things). Of course, those were "rescue" cats, so I don't begrudge them any odd behavior. Still... that sucks, that you had everything in place, kitty-care-wise, and still got the poop treatment. Once, my then-16-year-old cat Muffy took a crap on top of my Master's Thesis, which I had printed out and stacked neatly on the floor. I told him, at that point, I agreed with his review of the material. ;)

Chip: WHAT DO THE LETTERS TQZOPUFCPPL MEAN?!? They are at the top of the page that lists the bloggers and I MUST know. It's killing me! DragonCon will make Keith jealous. Did you have fun? I watched part of the Must See TV Special too. It was cute. Oooh, I miss Gyro Wrap. Go have a BBQ Chicken Wrap for me and dip your fries in feta dressing. Please? Yes, those 2003 kids would've been my 7th graders. I liked them... but not nearly as much as my 6th graders (class of 2004). Tell them I said hi, if you feel like it.

Courtney: Bless your heart, dealing with the CA DMV. Boy, don't I know what a pain in the ass that is! Hey! I'll be doing freelance work all three-day weekend too! Yay us! Uh-oh... you said, "My next husband." That can't be good. Everything okay? I'm thrilled your TMJ PT includes massage. Man I need one of those! Thank you for sharing the details of your treatment. I really do appreciate it. Oh my God, I think you are TOTALLY right about the anti-anxiety drug timing and the rise of Starbucks. I wonder if they own stock in one another's companies. That's brilliant, Courtney! Do you still need advice on defragging? There is a way to set up your computer to do it on its own every week (or whatever timeline you put it on). I think, if I remember my PC correctly, you go to Start, then Tools or wherever the System Tools Live, and when you select the defrag option, you have the opportunity to set it up on a regular schedule. Be prepared for its first run to take a big chunk of time, if it's been awhile. Hey, I totally get the need to copy and paste blogs to respond to them. I do that too! Necessity! Thanks for clarifying the Joe + Dad + Cigar dynamic. I like it better, now. Ooh, I guess the Discovery Channel would be a good thing to watch during exercise. Oh, my Pilates purchase from Amazon is a DVD, not a book. Of course, it might as well be a piece of art, considering I haven't played the dang thing yet. Grr. I'm so impatient with myself right now! Thank you SO much for the rates on editing. One more question: for those who do choose to charge a flat fee, what would that be, generally? Thanks again. I told the guy that we WILL publish his book, so now I just need to give him an idea of what the editing will cost and decide if I want to take a bigger cut of the book sales or get paid up front. I'll let you know what I decide. Oh! The letters I keep asking Chip about are in the Title Bar of my web browser, not on the page itself (like all the way at the top of the computer screen... does that make sense?). I do have the blue notebook and the list of bloggers. The letters, though, are in the title bar and I'm just dying to know what they mean! I guess I'm not surprised that you would say I live the lives of a dozen people. That's probably true. I get really down on myself when I under-function (in my opinion) and people have to remind me that even when I slack off significantly, I'm still doing more than three people at once would be doing. It's hard for me to get that through my head, though. I like doing all the different things at once, though. My greatest joy is the writing, and luckily I get paid to do that (something I never imagined would happen). Now I just need to get paid more to do it (or at least get paid for more of it that I do for free right now). Thank you SO much for saying that a hummingbird was telling you to say hello to me. That TOTALLY made my day. It's the little things, really, and I've been missing Mom a lot lately. Thank you, Courtney. Really. Oh, I've never heard of plutes. I did just see mache (lettuce) on Oprah though and I really want to try some of that. Know anything about it?

David: Your task with WRFC sounds like the GA baseball game broadcast crap we had to do over at WUOG when I was there. Of course, we didn't switch anything over to an automated jock after the game, but the sitting there during it process sucked! Ugh. Do you like football, at least?

Shelley: Wanted to tell you about Keith's bike wreck settlement offer. Okay... so, Keith gets hit by a truck (deluxe Cadillac SUV, actually) while riding his bike in the bike lane and following all the laws, etc. The guy doesn't signal nor merge into the bike lane before making a right across the lane (and on top of Keith) to turn into a parking lot. The attorney you got us in touch with (via the San Fran legal folk) tells Keith that this is such an open-and-shut case that he should write a demand letter on his own and keep all the money for himself (surely, $10k over his hospital bills, ambulance fees, and lost wages from his job at Yahoo!), but that he'd be happy to represent him if he WANTED to share the money. We did the letters (using NoLo's "Writing a Winning Demand Letter" guidebook) and... get this... the offer comes back: $8500. Period. That's $8500 to cover $6500 in hospitalization, ambulance, and medical bills and... oh, here's $2k for your lost wages, pain and suffering, getting your bike repaired, etc. WHATEVER!! So, Keith thanked the guy from the insurance company, after making absolutely sure that he understood that the $8500 wasn't the offer on top of paid medical bills, and now we'll go back to that attorney and start again. Pff. Seems so stupid, since now we'll sue for triple the bills (1/3 for paying the bills, 1/3 for Keith, and 1/3 for the attorney)... when they could've just settled for even as little as $15k inclusive. Anyway, just wanted to give you the scoop on that. Obviously, LA is NOT a bike-friendly place. I'll keep you posted on the continuing saga.

Tina: I love your list of foods with which to have milk. I agree with them all. Would you add pecan pie and fudge to that list or is that just me?

Okay, gang... that's gonna have to do it for today. Must get back to work and earn some money, holiday or no holiday. Keith has an overnight shoot for a film tonight. He's going to be shot between the eyes. It'll be great tape. Yes, I'm sufficiently worried and made sure he took precautions with the safety and stunt folks in the planning stages of the shoot last week. Ooh, time for Big Brother 3... just as UGA pulls ahead late in the 4th. Very good!

Happy September, everyone. XXOO
--
Bon

"Welcome to the humiliating world of professional writing." - Homer J. Simpson, food critic, to Lisa, his ghost writer

Posted by bonnie at August 31, 2002 8:00 PM