Random Acts of Trivia

Happy Birthday Marvel!

Here's to 70 years of making mine Marvel!

New Stuff

Finally, something worth blogging about. Behold, BUDDHA!

About a month ago I filled out the adoption form for a pug rescue in OKC. A real bitch of a form too. It repeated questions and wanted everything save for a blood sample. 5 references. I filled the fuck out of that form. I gots the pug knowledge. So it was no surprise when the director of the rescue called a week later to initiate stage two of the adoption process, the home visit. They knew from the form that we lived in an apartment so the home visit was just a formality. They usually come out and inspect the fence line. The woman that did our home visit is also the owner of the Empire Bar. She brought her pug to see how she got along with Elvis. The woman was amazed at the pep that Elvis showed at 9 years. She chatted us up for a while and said she would put in the word for us to move forward. A couple of days later I got the email congratulations that we had been selected to adopt a pug.

We chose Buddha because his picture on the website was so damn cute. He's 5 months and every bit as cute in person. We got him last Thursday. He layed with Elvis and then settled into his new home. Everything was going great until Elvis started being standoffish on Friday. He didn't seem to want anything to do with Buddha. Saturday morning was worse. Elvis seemed annoyed with the dog and depressed about everything else. Andia started to worry that the new puppy wasn't going to work out. I reassured her by telling her to give it a week.

Late saturday night Elvis sat behind me on the sofa for two hours. Sat. He wasn't curled up like he normally would be. I looked at him and he started shaking. I got a little concerned. I petted him for a while and the shaking went away. We went to bed and the next morning everything seemed fine. Well, he was still indifferent to Buddha, but his tail was wagging at me and he wasn't shaking. Sunday night the shaking came back and I noticed he was taking a long time to lay down. This morning he wouldn't get down off the bed when I told him it was time for breakfast. When he did finally get down he only made it halfway down the hall before he decided to sit. The shaking was back. Andia decided she'd take him to the vet.

Turns out the old man pulled a disc rough housing with Buddha Friday night. The vet gave Elvis some steroids and anti-inflammatory drugs. The vet also ordered him on bed rest for 12-14 days. How the hell do you bed rest a pug? It would be easier to ask me to sort out the election in Iran. On the plus side I came home from work and Elvis was in great spirits and even had to be pulled away from playing with Buddha. I think they'll be fast friends as soon as he heals up.

Now some pics.

We Now Return to Random Acts of Trivia Already in Progress

Today's Player vs Player reminded me of my marriage. We did the whole save the wedding cake for a year thing. I was opposed to it from the get-go. First, I've learned (through some very hard lessons) not to eat anything that's been in the fridge longer than a couple of weeks. I once ate pizza that had been in my dad's freezer for three months and was laid out for a week with food poisoning. So imagine my lack of enthusiasm in eating year-old cake.

Second, Andia chose this huge Rubbermaid container to store the cake in. It took up a fourth of the freezer. We would go grocery shopping and when we hit the frozen food section I'd have to pass on certain items because of lack of storage. I could only buy one bag of Totino's Pizza Rolls!

Then of course there was the blackout of '07. Two months after the cake went into the freezer the power went out for a week and a half. We through everything in the fridge out. Everything but the cake. The cake stayed. All because of some bizarre tradition that requires old food to be consumed and the chance of illness put into play.

So when the anniversary rolled around I didn't eat the cake. I think Andia took a bite and decided to chunk the whole thing. It was amazing how much roomier the freezer was after that. I think what I'm really trying to say is that I'm a pie man.

Headbanging Plastics

Funny... Disturbing...

The Rain is Gone

The other night, while I was playing Scrabble on Facebook, Andia started talking about Hillary Clinton and her talks with parties in the middle east. I turned and gave her a
could you be more annoying" look and she was smiling. She had read the scroll on MSNBC aloud. Her eyes are getting better every day. I should have forced her (and I did have to force her) into doing something about her vision years ago. I got goosebumps last week when she was able to read the clock on the DVR, something she's never been able to see.

The downside to her proceedure is the doctor installed corrective lenses into her eyes and everything is blurry. Her vision won't be perfect and she'll need readers to see clearly. Her eyes are still healing from the operations and she can't get glasses for another month. From what I've seen already the wait will be worth it.

Round Two

Andia goes in for the right eye today. Everyone think happy thoughts.

New Stuff

Hello old friend.

Where the hell was I? Oh, we got a new television for the living room. It's a 40" lcd 1080p. The thing just barely fits in the Ikea entertainment center. I mean that too. Dad and I had to jimmy rig some stoppers to keep it in place. When I ordered it I didn't think about the stand adding another two inches to it's height. Luckily it has a built in dvd player in it that makes the base stable enough for it to stand. Anyways it looks awesome...well, save for the one dead pixel in the lower left corner. Not sure if it's annoying enough back to send it in.

The 32" got moved to the bedroom. Pryor and I had to make two trips to the hardware store to get everything needed for the job of mounting it to the wall. The wall in question is concrete. More jimmying was required. That thing isn't going anywhere.

My Mother Knows Everyone

Mom calls me the other night to tell me a funny story. She manages bank branches in Sand Springs, Owasso, Miami and Grove. A couple of times a month she travels to those branches with an investment officer. The other day she's talking to the girl on one of their trips. Mom discovered she graduated from Sand Springs and asked her what year. The girl says '93. Mom tells her that her son graduated in '92, but his last name is Matthews, not Barnes. The girl turns beet read in mom's passenger seat. The girl says, "oh my god! Jeremy was the first boy I seriously made out with." I start laughing because I know exactly whom she's talking about. Indeed, she was the first girl I made it to second base with. I told that to mom and she said that would make future trips awkward. I then added we made out in my room. Several times. Ahhh, Junior High.

Duel Screening It

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on the Nintendo DS is one of the coolest games I've played in a long time. It's everything you want from the GTA franchise with the added bonus of using the touch screen for various activities. Say you break into a car. Well, now with the touch screen you actually have to unscrew the steering column, disconnect the wires and twist them together to hotwire it. There's a convenience store that sells scratch off tickets. You use the touch screen to scratch the tickets.  You also use that screen to navigate the game map and choose weapons. Great game.

In Case You Missed It

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
IndigNation! Populist Uprising '09 - The Enragening
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Important Things w/ Demetri Martin Political Humor

OO:42-01:55 is greatness!

It's All About the Washingtons

Highlight of the birthday weekend? Kaia Cheney making it rain.

The Dream is Pissed On

For those not in the know, the Watchman comic ends with a giant squid attacking New York. The book is set in a world where heroes are outlawed because the government things they're no longer needed. The squid is used by unknown forces as a worst case scenario (i.e. alien invasion) to show the world that heroes are needed. Alas, we've known for months that the big screen version of Watchman will not have the giant squid in it. Someone just broke the news to Hitler.

Momma Mia

We went downtown to Joe Momma's Pizza Saturday night and I gotta tell ya, we'll be back. You walk into the place and pass by the guy hand tossing the dough into the air. We sat down and ordered some fried mushrooms as we tried to decide what pies to get. When the mushrooms arrived a popped one in my mouth and instantly wished I was the only person at our table. The best fried mushrooms I've ever had.

Jay and I decided to split a 14" pie, half Lucky #7 (Momma’s red sauce, pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, black olives, red onions, green peppers, and mozzarella cheese) and half Chicken Bacon Ranch (Buttermilk ranch, chicken, thin strips of breakfast
bacon, Roma tomatoes, and a sprinkle of cheddar cheese.) Andia and Janina split there own pie. Half Six Cheese (Momma’s red sauce,100% whole milk pizza
crumble mozzarella, parmesan, romano, feta, provolone and cheddar cheeses) and half Betty White (Alfredo sauce, Roma tomatoes, Feta cheese, and crushed black pepper.) Other pies of note on the menu were the T-Rex (Pepperoni, Black Angus beef, sausage, andouille sausage, Italian sausage, salami, breakfast bacon, ham, and a sprinkle of cheddar cheese) and the Judgement Day (Spicy arrabiata sauce, sliced hot link, red hot
buffalo chicken, pepperoni, red bell peppers, habanero shreds and jalapeno peppers.)

Janina had the line of the night. When Andia asked he if she didn't like mushrooms Janina replied, "no, but they're growing on me." I then added an occasional shower would stop that. Also of note that night was the music the place played. All 80's hits. We got some Def Leppard, some Journey and we even got Rick-rolled. Great time.

Joe Momma's Pizza, you rock!