Encyclopedias: A thing of the Past

So I am going through some old boxes of books and stuff and ran across a very nice and gently used encylopdedia set. This particular set is from 1989, purchased when the kids were in elementry school for the purpose of doing homework assignments. I don't suppose kids even use encylopedias anymore now that instant knowledge is available on the net. I remember as a kid doing a report and digging through these huge and mysterious books of great knowledge. It didn't seem to matter if the information was a little outdated, after all we didn't have the constantly updated WWW back then, did we? I wonder if kids would even recognize the word? I just ran my spell check on this post and it tried to replace "encyclopedia" with "enclaves".
Now, that's just wierd.

Farting Snowman?

The Boyz' Gramma got them a snowman to go with their Grumpy Santa toy.
It sings, dances and farts.
Rafe ran right out the door as soon as it started in.
Thanks Mom!

Houston Astros: Just ask the cats

Who cares what the fans think about whether the Rocket will return next year. Laurence Simon is asking the cats.

The Apprentice

Just for fun, the personal sites of a couple of our fired blondes


Felisha's site features the song "Nothing", seems appropriate when you start clicking the links. Everything opens in a new page, I hate sites that do that.
and
Alla has changed her personal space up a bit since last time I went in there. It's a little complicated to navigate, a lot is going on there and IMHO the flash is a little cheezy.

On the Canal: Brrrrrr

It sure is chilly today.
Rhett keeps asking to go out, but he then he doesn't seem to like the cold and comes right back in again.


Even the Birdies look cold

Grumpy Santa's Christmas Countdown

Grumpy Santa Says:

Check this out, Rhett!
JibJab stole our gig!



JibJab's Grumpy Santa Movie

20 days 'til Christmas

Snow in New Jersey

The Kids had their first snow of the season.


Are we having fun yet?


Yes, we are!


Make a snow what?


Incoming!

On the Island: Dickens on the Strand Cams

There is a web cam pointed at todays festivities for those who cannot make the trip.


Well, it's there everyday but today would be a fun day to check it out.

Dickens and the Sword Swallower

Well we didn't take the camera to Dickens on the Strand because I have photos from the past, and that is a shame because....

The Sword swallower, Thom Sellectomy chose me out of the audience to assist him in this trick.

It was so weird, first he had me demonstrate the magnet to the audience by holding the little magnet in my hand. He touched the sword to it to show they both were real, then stuck that sword right down his throat.
I put the magnet on his neck as he instructed and at first it did not stick so I had to push a little and I could feel the sword in there....ewww.

John was like....I can't believe you didn't bring a camera...my bad.

Grumpy Santa's Christmas Countdown

Rafe says:

"Shut up and give me the treats, Elf Boy"


22 Days 'til Christmas





This Sunday's Carnival of Cats will be at When Cats Attack.
They are all decorated for the holidays too!
In the meantime, check out Desi at The Friday Ark.

Shopping: Got CatMilk?

I am convinced that Whiskas CatMilk is the Bud-Light of the cat world. Every day after his afternoon nap, Rafe sits by the fridge waiting for his milk treat.
My mother started his addiction when I brought The Boyz to her house during Rita.

Gee....Thanks Mom!

The Apprentice: Final Four

It's week 11 of the Apprentice job interview and we are down to the final four.


This episode begins with Alla happy to see Felisha entering the suite.
Felisha is crying.
Alla is rolling her eyes.

Excel now consists of Randal and Rebecca, with Capital Edge being left with the remnants of this season's Blonde Brigade.

The Four are sent to meet with Microsoft executives where they are given the task of producing a 60 second video for Microsoft Office Live Meeting.
Felisha and Rebecca both feel they should be project manager this time.
Felisha is close to tears explaining how she needs to prove herself and Alla is trying not to roll her eyes.

The Blondes quickly come to blows with both of them trying to take the lead in the task.
Felisha is a train wreck waiting to happen, truly the girl needs some meds already.
Alla is becoming increasingly frustrated, weakness is not something she has patience with.
They argue in front of Bill, that can't be good.

Randal and Rebecca on the other hand are getting right to work with Rebecca taking the lead and Randal supporting her with useful suggestions. They work really well together.

Both teams go into the meeting with their respective presentations.
The Microsoft people are smiling at Excel's story, they clearly enjoyed it.
The Capital Edge video is choppy and the words move to fast to read.
They tried to cram too much into the 60 second allowed time, and it shows.
It was not hard to guess who would be the winner.
Excel gets the reward, a tour around Manhattan on a 1920's Schooner.
Randal and Rebecca were surprised and happy to be allowed to spend the day with their signifigant others.

Meanwhile The Blondes are having dinner and discussing the big loss.
Felisha is crying.
Alla is rolling her eyes.

It's to the board room for Capital Edge.
Alla is out for blood, Felicia's blood.
Felisha is crying, The Donald hates crying.

Felisha, he says is not strong enough to work in NYC and fires her.
Alla rises, Trump says.....sit down Alla.
Alla is hard to manage, says Trump.
Alla is shocked to hear that she is also fired.

I really think that if only Alla had backed off and stopped talking she would have been spared to go on to the final three.
I was crushed, she was my favorite for the win.

Bu-Bye Blondes


Murph at Life Goes Off agrees that Alla Should have kept her mouth shut as does Mike of the Barers of Maple Valley.
Jamie at the Eye of Polyhemus thinks Rebecca will give Randal a run for his money.
and
Becky at Adventures OF Mommyhood is in love with Randal.

Grumpy Santa's Christmas Countdown

Grumpy Santa Says:

Yeah, that will fit on your crappy little tree.
hohohoho

25 days 'til Christmas

On the Island: Dickens on the Strand

This weekend the Strand Historical Distict in Galveston will be transformed into Victorian London.
Dickens on the Strand, now in it's 32 year, has become a favorite holiday tradition.
See ya there!

Rhett found his Christmas toys

He only had to dig in 2 Walmart bags, dig out the package and tear it open to get to them.
He comes trotting down the stairs and drops this at my feet the little shit.



There were 5 in the package and I can only locate 3, so he must be hiding two of them for a future adventure.

Trimming the Tree: Desi's turn

Desi got her very own Christmas tree too!

Yes, that will be fine Daddy


I'll just wait here for Santa


Did you hear Jingle Bells?


Oh, I guess not

In Houston: Autorama

We decided to kick around H-town yesterday and ended up at the George R. Brown for the Autorama.

There were
New Trucks


And Old Trucks


along with every kind of classic car you can think of

I stupidly forgot to bring extra batteries, but did get a few pics HERE.

Houston Astros Morgan Ensberg was appearing, but we didn't wait in the long line for his autograph.
Sadly, the pic I took is blurry to share.

It was fun, and only fair after I drug John to see the Diana stuff.

Weather: It's raining....

its pouring.
One of those nice sleepy rains.....*yawn*

Beer Blogging?

Glenn Reynolds prefers Beer Blogging to Cat Blogging.
This little dig was aimed at one of our favorite places on the web,
Carvnival of Cats.
Now......
I usually only enjoy drinking beer while cat blogging ,
but thought I would give it a try.

Which, dear readers...do you prefer?

Beer blogging


or

Cat blogging


Yeah, me too

Grumpy Santa's Christmas Countdown

Grumpy Santa says:

"ahh, tell it to the Easter Bunny"

29 days 'til Christmas

Shopping: The Mall Madness Game for girls

I just saw this advertised on Saturday Morning TV.
I think I would enjoy playing this game with my young nieces and grands, but I'm not sure what values they would gain by pretending to shop with a never empty ATM near by. Maybe a budget your money and save for college game would be better.

Trimming the Tree: part 2

Where's Rhett?

Trimming the Tree Part one

Check out more cute kitties at IMAO this Sunday for the Carnival of Cats

Shopping: Black Friday

If you thought I left 15 years of retail management only to shop on Black Friday.. you were wrong.

I'm going back to bed.

The Apprentice: Hour 2

Part 2 of tonight's Apprentice double header finds the blondes + Adam once again playing the waiting game.
Alla worries who will cook her breakfast should Clay be fired.
You have to admit, that girl has her priorities straight.

The teams are selling perfume this week.
They are given a bunch a shrinkwrap to work with.
Rebecca and Randal hire people to hock the fragrance.
Adam wants to wrap up a horse-drawn carriage including the horse.
Somebody call PETA already.

Today's lesson is how to cuss out someone on the phone, really useful Trump....Thanks.

Excel found out Capital Edge was holding megaphones at Radio Shack and bought them out from under them. Man, that was harsh, I love it.
Alla is Pissed.

Both teams head out with hoochie-looking Shania Twain wrapers in hand.
Excel spreads temps and "stolen" megaphones around the city and Capital Edge Wraps their carriages, and thankfully not the horses.
Looks like a close race.

The results are in:
Capital edge loses by only 5 calls.
Someone will be fired.
Alla is pissed.

Excel's reward is to spend the day with Shania.
They enjoyed horseback riding followed by dinner with the country music star.

Meanwhile, Adam and Alla feel Felisha should be the next to go.
Felisha....(why is she only wearing a towel?).....realizes she will get the blame.

In the boardroom:
Felisha is in the hot seat, but to Adam's surprise, Alla sticks up for her.
Trump sends Alla to the suite.
After some discussion about who is better suited to go into the final four, Adam was fired.

bu-bye Adam

The Apprentice: Hour 1

The much awaited 2 hour Apprentice started out with flashbacks and deleted scenes from the beginning of the season. It was fun to watch and I can't help but wonder what else they didn't show us.

Where's Rafe?

Well, he turned his nose up at a turkey dinner.
I offered him white, dark and giblets.
Rhett went for the giblets right away.

Rhett says: YUMMY!

Meanwhile....

The guys struggled with my Christmas Palm Tree


But it turned out pretty


They put out the snowman


and the candy canes too


Ho Ho Ho

Trimming the Tree

The Boyz are helping put up our tree today

Rhett is in charge of color coding the branches



Rafe makes sure they go in the right order

We may get this done today, and we may not

See lots of blogging pets at The Friday Ark

Happy Thanksgiving

Lazy day for us today. I just put a 12 pound turkey in the oven.
That should feed 4 humans and 2 cats fairly well.
I like watching the parades, but can take or leave football.
Have a good holiday everyone.

Shopping: M & M's

Did you know M & M's come in 21 colors?
Did you know you can order them in any of those colors printed with any thing you want?
Did you know you can buy cute collectibles without going to that big store in
La Vegas?

Well now you do.

Grumpy Santa's Christmas Countdown

Grumpy Santa says:

Burp!


32 days 'til Christmas

"Ugliest dog" goes to Rainbow Bridge

Sam, the winner of an "ugiliest dog" contest 3 years in a row passed away at the age of 14.
This pampered pooch was rescued from an animal shelter 6 years ago as a foster and won the heart of his human rescuer. He was internationally famous, appearing on numerous talk shows and even had his own line of T-shirts and coffee mugs.
RIP Sam

Rainbow Bridge Poem

Shopping: Fun at Super Walmart?

I put off buying Thanksgiving food 'til today.
I was feeling too lazy to drive an extra 5 miles to Big HEB or even the extra two miles to FancySchmancy Signature Kroger. I don't shop at Don't forget your stupid Shopping Card or pay too much Randals for a variety of reasons any longer and that only leaves Super Walmart. Now I am the usually to first to slam Super Annoying Walmart, but actually had an easy trip today. Pretty much everything I needed for Thursday's annual feast was right on the main food aisle. From green bean casserole fixings to stuffing, celery and broth. I was able to load up and be out with no waiting in line even.
I opted for a fresh turkey thinking there is no time to thaw one now, and there was a nice selection of assorted sizes. I can't help but wonder what I forgot to buy, that was way too easy.

If you think Thursday is Turkey Day, you are wrong.

Today is Turkey Day, at least for this pair of lucky gobblers.
Each year a turkey slated to become turkey and gravy for White House guests receives a presidential pardon.
Normally the lucky bird is sent to live out his life in a local petting zoo, but there is a change in itinerary this year.
40 pound "Snowball" will be sent on a jumbo jet to Disneyland and be given the royal treatment as Grand Marshall in the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
They are also sending along a backup bird.
I suppose that is just in case the poor thing can't take the excitement. I'm thinking they would rather be sent to the petting zoo.

Real Estate stuff

Man, talk about complicated!
I thought the hard part was getting my education completed and evaluated, but just spent about an hour on-line trying to figure out how to register just to be tested. I did manage to get the application filled out and paid for. Now I find out I need to wait at least 2 days for that to be processed before I even register for the test. I still have to find a prep- class and those are filling up fast because starting Jan. 1st the state requires 30 more hours of education and many people are trying to get liscensed (ME!) before that happens. I hope to get the the prep-class as close to the testing date as possible. I don't know why I am letting all this stress me out. I should be enjoying this first holiday season that I am not working in retail.
Maybe I should get a just holiday job at the Mall while I get this finished up.....nah...maybe not!

Update 11/23: I got a huge pdf file in my email that I can't open for some reason with all the instructions on how and where to take the test...I just can't win.