The biggest mis-match of all time....

No, this is not a post about my sense of fashion.

This morning I took Luke the Wonderdog out for his usual morning stroll around the 'hood.  HIS hood, or so he thinks.  Seems he hasn't yet noticed he's a Yorkshire terrier weighing in at a mere solid 8 pounds.  There are some regulars we see every day out walking, too, like Oliver the bulldog, Angel the little fluffy "thing", The Lady Who Won't Talk To Anyone and her long-haired dachshund, and a few others.  They all pay their respects to Luke, and he lets them use his sidewalk.   Vivre et laisse vivre.

Today there was a new kid on the block, a Mastiff.  He was HUGE!  And yes, it was most definitely a "he".  I didn't have my camera with me, but as best I can remember he looked something like this:

He was on the other side of the street checking out the smells of his new neighbors when he and Luke spotted each other at the same time.  Luke immediately widened his stance and stood a 1/4" taller as though saying, "Did I say you could look at me?  Did I?"

The stare-down lasted a good minute.  I don't know if the Mastiff actually blinked first or if he just really, really had to go pee, but he broke things off and went looking for a suitable tree, and Luke went back to sniffing bugs, about the only things outside that are smaller than him.  

One of these days I'm gonna have to sit Luke down and explain to him how the jungle works, but for today at least, I was proud of the boy.  :)

Happy Friday everyone!

S

"Git on down the road, Miss Priss...."

My daughter will be moving next month into a new (to her) house in the podunk-but-growing town of L___n, northeast of Dallas.  (It's sort of like Mayberry, except not as picturesque, and Otis is in charge.)  

Last week in preparation for her move she called the L___n Special Utility District (the water supplier for the town) and asked how much the deposit was for water service.  She was told, "Twenty dollars, but the Board will meet next week to discuss revising that."

She went in yesterday and was told the Board had indeed revised the deposit/application fee....to $300.  Yikes!  Effective when?  Tomorrow.  

"OK, I'm here today with all the paperwork you require, and here's my $20."

"No ma'am, it will be $300."

"No, you said that's effective tomorrow.  I'm here today.  Here's my $20."

"But you're not moving until next month.  By then that will be the required deposit."

"So I can't make application in advance?"

"Of course....you can make it tomorrow."

*Sigh*

"I need to speak to someone with some authority, please."

"You come walkin' in here like you're Miss Priss....you git on down the road.  Looks like you're not movin' to L___n!"

"If you don't take my deposit right now, I'm leaving here and going straight to the news media.  They'll have a field day with this one!"

HMFIC gets involved.  

"Blah, blah, blah, but, but"....they took her $20 cash deposit and gave her a receipt.

Fifteen minutes later a member of the Board of Directors of the L___n Special Utility District (Otis' idiot son?) calls fire-spitting daughter....

"Seems to me you're just trying to beat the deposit increase."

"Well, I can't really blame you, but I'm going to have to make some phone calls.  This has never happened before."

"Knock yourself out.  BTW, I'm holding signed receipt number 1234 dated today acknowledging my application and deposit.  Game.  Set.  Match."

That's my kid!  The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. 

*Occasionally that's not a bad thing.*  :)

S

They're at it again....

The Arab world is rioting again.  Well, as they're always pissed off about something, I guess this isn't really breaking news.  

Now things seem to be boiling over in Egypt, a "strategic American ally".  Really?  How so?  They hate us.  Except on the day our $1.5B foreign aid check arrives in the mail.  Then we're big buds.  But then the check clears and they go back to hating our guts again.

Even more ridiculous is the $3.5B we give to Pakistan every year.  Are there varying degrees of how much you can hate America?  If so, the Pakistanis would be at the top of that bar chart.  Except on the day our foreign aid check arrives in the mail.  Then we're big buds.

We also give $3.1B a year to Israel, but at least they share with us some of the world-class R&D they're doing.  Considering how much we shovel their way you'd think Pakistan and Egypt would share, too, since they're world leaders in....ummm....ahhhh.....somebody help me out here.  (Rock chucking doesn't count.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Early this morning a UPS Airbus A300 cargo jet crashed on its approach into Birmingham, Alabama, killing the two crew members.  Tragic.  :(

This somehow brings to mind something I've wondered about for a long time:  Why do commercial pilots make so much money? *  (Smooth segue, huh?  Yes, my mind works in strange ways.)

Don't get me wrong, I don't want some slovenly bus driver up there hauling me and my family all over the sky.  It's a tough job, with terrible pay and long hours for newbies, but they eventually cash in big a few years later, while there are (or at least there used to be) hundreds of very competent high-hour pilots leaving the military every year who are turned away by the airlines.  (Many are now being soaked up by new foreign air carriers, but this is a fairly recent phenomenon.)  

What happened to supply and demand?  I always thought a shortage of a particular job skill = higher pay for those who had it, while an overabundance moderated wages. Apparently not so for commercial pilots.

Pilots I've asked about this say the public can't imagine the huge responsibility they have to care for the 200...300...400 or more passengers strapped to their back.  OK, fair enough.  But why then does a senior FedEx pilot make MORE than a senior Delta, American, or United Captain?  All they have strapped to their back are letters and packages.

*I wish someone would pay me for thinking of weird stuff like this.  I'd be rich!*

Oh well.  Just another of life's mysteries.  Have a great day everyone.  :)

S

* Why does a Boeing 747 have that big bulge on top of the fuselage at the front of the plane?  So the pilot can sit on his wallet.  :)

Well, there goes the neighborhood

My city, Frisco-on-the-Plains, TX, not to be confused with 'Frisco-by-the-Bay, CA, convened a City Council meeting last night to put the finishing touches on a deal that will bring the Dallas Cowboys training facility and *drum roll please* "World Headquarters" here.  And by "here" I mean just across the street from me.  

Right behind those trees, just a 5-minute walk from mi casa, is where "America's Felons" (formerly known as "America's Team") will check-in during the season.  

I wonder if they'll call it a "practice field" or an "exercise yard"?

Da 'Boys.

Here they are posing for a recent team picture.

"Stick 'em up!"

As Cowboys owner Jerry Jones never does anything all on his dime, I'm anxious to see how much he extorted from the city to make this deal happen. 

Late EDIT:  It was announced this will be a $115M project, with public money accounting for $85M of it.  The upside....the city will retain ownership of the 12,000-seat domed stadium/practice field, with local schools able to use it on Friday and Saturday nights for high school football games.

I would personally be much more impressed if the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders would move their practice facility here.  ;)

S

Hey buddy, can you spare a few bucks? Checks accepted, cash preferred.

So why is Rep. Andy Barr (R, KY) all smiles?  Because *cha ching* he was one of the lucky congressional Freshmen who was appointed to serve *cha ching* on the House Financial Services Committee *cha ching*.  Screw the lottery.  This is where the REAL gold mine is!

This is the committee, along with the Senate Banking Committee on the other side of the Capital, that oversees all of the banks, insurance companies, etc.  And these are the committee members who both party's look to to bring in the Big Buck donations.  And right now they're delivering like FedEx....$9.4M just this year so far.

This is such a desirable committee to serve on that it has been increased over the years from 44 to 61 members, which required a whole new tier of seats to be installed in their meeting room.

So how do they raise so much money, you ask?  They're "good listeners".  In exchange for patiently listening to the bankers tell them how badly they want certain new rules written, or NOT to be written, the banks shower them with campaign contributions.  

Example:  Rep. Barr heard them say how much they wanted to keep a certain federal tax break that saved them $500M a year, so he introduced a bill that would put it out of reach of reformers.  

And when the do-gooder's put into the Dodd-Frank Banking Reform Bill a requirement that banks do more thorough checks on applicants they made mortgage loans to to make sure they could make the payments, they "casually mentioned" how much it would cramp their style (read: hurt their profits), and Mr. Barr introduced legislation that kept that pesky 'ol rule from being enforced.  

Yep, not much gets by the Honorable Representative Andy Barr (R, KY).  He listens really well!

And if you think I'm just picking on Republicans and that Democrats are above all this, I have some beautiful oceanfront property in Kansas I'd like to sell you. 

After the recent election Democratic Party leaders gave a PowerPoint presentation to their newly elected members urging them "to spend as much as four hours a day making fund-raising calls while in Washington, and an additional hour of 'strategic outreach' holding breakfasts or 'meet and greets' with possible financial supporters.  That adds up to more time than these first-term lawmakers were advised to spend on Congressional business."  (NYT)

The sad thing is, nothing I've mentioned here gets even a raised eyebrow in Washington.  This is just business as usual.

It seems the financial interests are very well represented in Washington.  My question is, who is looking out for ME?  Everyone agrees Washington is a nasty cesspool and that everyone there is a crook....except for their representative, "and he's a really good guy!"  

And the mugging continues.

S

Yacht racing on the high plains, and I was there!

So last night K went to an "Arrivederci, love you / mean it" party for one of her co-workers who is going on to law school, leaving me home alone to fend for myself.  That didn't bother me at all as I actually enjoy my own company and had a plethora of books to read, a big-enough TV to watch, and more than one bottle of vino.

While channel surfing I stumbled across one of the Louis Vuitton Challenge Cup races from San Francisco.  This is the series of races that determines who the challenger will be versus the reigning champ Oracle boat in the America's Cup (yacht racing).  I was absolutely mesmerized by what these things can do!

This is Luna Rossa, the Italian entry.

What I didn't fully understand until they explained it last night, if the skipper is really on his toes and can balance his boat just right, these 72' catamarans can actually rise out of the water, riding on just a couple of curved foils (like underwater wings), the hulls never touching the water.  This reduces drag and enables them to go well over 40 mph. 

It seems to me they're as much airplane as boat.  It's like watching a ballet, the dancer precariously balanced on her tippy-toes.

I think things like this appeal to me so much because they are unlike anything I'll ever see here in Dallas, Tx, USA.  It's sort of like downhill skiing or the luge in the winter Olympics.

I wonder if people who live in the mountains ever just sit around and think, "Oh man, I'd love to see people walking on flat ground, just standing there....sweating.  I wonder if there's a cable channel that shows cool stuff like that?"

Have a great Saturday everyone.  I've gotta get going....I have a big day planned.  I'm gonna stand here on flat ground....and sweat.  :)

S

Let's talk "thongs"

Yeah, I thought that would get your attention.  Sorry to disappoint, but I was thinking more of thong sandals.

I'm pretty sure "thong" is an old Indian word that means "stuck between two body parts that you really don't want something stuck between".  (That's why, except for that one tribe in northern California, old Indians didn't wear lointhongs.)

One thing I must admit I do look forward to every summer are all the ladies putting on their thong sandals.  They look much cooler than shoes and, quite frankly, are super sexy.

Whether dressed up....

....or dressed down, IMO women generally look nice in sandals.  Some men *ahem* even have a near-fetish about them.

Men also wear sandals in the summer to stay a little cooler, but they usually don't pull off the look as well.  Let's be honest, unlike women's feet, men's feet just aren't that sexy.

Men don't like dirt in their shoes, or their sandals.  It drives us nuts!  If there's a bunch of loose dirt or gravel or mud around, chances are good a man will find it and step in it.  Women on the other hand rarely if ever find loose gravel or mud while trooping around inside Sak's 5th Avenue or Target.

Every few years I get it in my head that a pair of sandals would be my footwear of choice for the summer, so I buy some.  A week later they're usually in the back of my closet.  For one thing, I don't like all those straps criss-crossing my feet.  They chafe.  And they look dorky.

But back to the theme of this post....

....thongs.  

How does anyone put up with that little strap of leather or plastic stuck between their toes?  It drives me absolutely nucking futs!  It's like having something sticky on my hands or a rogue moustache hair that does a 180 and tries to climb up my nose. 

Well, this is one of those "every few years", so I recently bought me some cheapo sandals....

So far they're tolerable.  Comfortable, actually.  I'll take that as a sign that maybe I've mellowed a bit in my old age.  But they're still not thong sandals.  I doubt I'll ever mellow that much.  :)

S