Pardon the production value here as this pic was taken by The Boy on his cell. But it’s so hard to get our sweet kitty’s dark side on record, I just had to show you.

When our kitty is in this mood, you have three choices:

1. Run screaming from the room like a little girl (but if you do you have to be fast – he will chase you and jump to bite your butt!).

2. Protect your neck from the vampire kitty attack.

3. Grab the kitty and put him in his naughty spot (the laundry room).

I usually opt for option three. He only does this to me and The Boy. Somehow Tommy is immune to these moods…..

Now that you’ve seen our danger kitty, go check out the Friday Ark.

No, seriously…..don’t mess with Billy. Or he’ll deck ya!

…..he was scratching off a losing $2 lottery ticket inside a gas station when he felt a hand slip into his front-left pants pocket, where he had $300 in cash.

He immediately grabbed the person’s wrist with his left hand and started throwing punches with his right, landing six or seven blows before a store manager intervened.

He’s anything but an easy mark: Barnes served in the Marines, was an accomplished Golden Gloves boxer and retired after 20 years as an iron worker.

Ever humble, Billy quipped:

Barnes said he’d probably do the same thing again under the same circumstances, if for no other reason than what he would face back home.

“I wouldn’t want my wife to give me hell for lettin’ that guy get my money,” he said with a smile.

Good for you, Billy! You have your priorities straight. You can see the full story here.

In England of late, they appear to think so. A secondary school in Kent has banned a 16 year-old from wearing a purity ring, saying basically that it is not an integral part of her religious faith.

She claims that her secondary school is breaching her human rights by preventing her from wearing the ring, while allowing Muslim and Sikh students to wear headscarves and religious bangles.

The school denies her claims, arguing that the purity ring is not an integral part of the Christian faith, and contravenes its uniform policy.

For me, I don’t think it’s for them to say what is an integral part of one’s faith and what is not. Do some religions think they are not true practitioners of their faith because they do not wear bangles? To some (like secular educators) a bangle might just be a bracelet that goes against safety policy and should not be worn. To others, it would be a direct slap in the face of their faith not to wear a bangle or two or three. Same with head scarves.

For the girl and her group, their purity rings symbolize their commitment to the teaching of abstinence that is an integral part of their faith – having to do with morality and purity and all that.

I think for the educators to arbitrarily decide what is important to a follower of a particular faith and what is not is just wrong…and arrogant. If they are going to ban the rings, they should ban all religious clothing and jewelery of any kind, regardless of the faith. Creating these rules in favor of some religions while excluding Christianity and other faiths will only lead to major problems I don’t think these near-sighted educators are prepared to deal with.

Unfortunately, I think there will be more rules like this that are brought to light in the U.K. and other countries as the desire to be inclusive works against the very thing they are trying to accomplish.

You can see the full article here.

National drive around in your car while on the cell phone-going at least 10 miles below the speed limit-chat in line instead of filling out your mailing label so your turn takes less time at the window-refuse to use your turn signal-generally annoy me…..day?

Tommy was right. I should have waited until tomorrow to run my errands.

On the upside, we’re all home safe after a fabulous trip to Argentina! We even got business class seats back to the states.

But seriously…what the hell is WRONG with people?!!

In case you forgot, we’re still here! After beers we went out for BEEF! and WINE! and FLAN!

I haven’t been that full in a really long time. But it was SO good. And some of the crew went too so it was good times. We were so tired from the walking and eating yesterday that we slept in until 10:30.

Then it was time for omlettes! I don’t know what they do, but the omlettes here are beyond good.

Then it was more walking.

Then I bought a leather jacket! The leather shops here are outstanding, so since I really wanted a leather jacket it made sense to get it here…it is, after all, in the low 50s so I could even wear it while we walked through the park after I bought it. It’s so lovely walking through the park down here on a crisp fall day south of the equator.

We have to go back tonight, but not until we have one more meal and a little more walking. I’m thinking maybe a panini or more empanadas. Oh, did I mention The Boy had some gelato during our walk earlier? The real stuff, Italian style.

Hopefully I will post with good news of getting on flights back home to arrive some time on Tuesday.

Cheers!

Yup, The Boy and I are on Tommy’s trip to Buenos Aires. Luckily there were first class and business class seats for us on the flights down here.

Oh yes, Buenos Aires. Where it is clear and sunny and in the 50s!!! We’ve already had our beer, empanadas and naps and then we headed down to a street festival they hold every week in a really cool part of the city. There were many small musical groups playing, lots of booths with crafty type stuff, artists painting canvases in the street, antique stores nearby, and of course….Tango dancers!!!

After walking around for a bit, we headed over to Cafe Tortoni and had a late lunch. That’s just a cool place. No wonder Robert Duvall is known to hang out there!

Now we are back at the hotel for a brief break before heading out for beers with the rest of the crew at a sidewalk cafe so we can people watch. Then later there will be steak (of course because really why would you go to Argentina if not for the beef?!).

Better go rest up so we can get ready for the next round.

Jealous?

Yup. The Boy and I looked at flights and it seems like we’ll probably be able to tag along on Tommy’s trip to Buenos Aires tomorrow. So off we will go tomorrow afternoon, attempting to make it to our hub city and then on to B.A. so we can be with Tommy for Father’s Day!

It is winter down there. We will be wearing sweatshirts!!  And enjoying a coffee at an outdoor cafe! And The Boy may even get some kisses from his favorite waitress if she’s at work when we go.

Hopefully the next time you hear from me I’ll be below the equator!

Okay, so we got the new tile in. And of course when service people lay new floors, they don’t care much about putting marks in your trim around the floor. Or your doors as they move stuff in and out.

So after they left I decided it would be a good idea to “touch up” the trim and doors and really make the place look nice. After all, we still had not tweaked the trim after we had the place painted so it was well past time for some clean-up.

I decided to volunteer for the task because really…how hard could it be?

Yeah, right. Ladies, a word of advice…do not EVER, under ANY circumstances volunteer to do any type of touch-up anything in the house.

The first night, I was at it for 5 1/2 hours. With the artisan brush on the top and near the grout and the angled brush in the middle. Of the trim. All the way around the walls of the main parts of our house on the first floor. And our house is not that small. And the tile hurts. Your knees. And your back. And your elbows. And your feet. And your shoulders. And your hips. As you slide your little paint can on its newspaper around the floor to protect the new (and older tile) from the dreaded paint.

When I was finished, I realized that although I thought I had been smart and found the correct paint to match the trim and door in the bathroom….I was wrong. There were little white spots all over the place (which Tommy hesitantly pointed out). So I had to paint ALL the trim and the door in that bathroom (took me an extra 45 minutes). Doors suck.

The next day I decided to go ahead and fix up the parts under the cabinets in the kitchen that we never took care of when we got our tile put in that area more than seven years ago. I think that tile’s even harder than the new tile. Three hours later, I could barely move. Then I decided that while I was all messy I’d go ahead and paint the garage door leading into the house. That took another 45 minutes (did I not just say that doors suck?).

Once I got out of the shower and got (a very late) dinner cooked (pumpkin and Italian sausage pasta with wild mushrooms which was very yummy….I know it sounds kinda weird but it was yum)……I noticed little white spots all over the inside of the garage door. And then I went to the bathroom and noticed the bottom half of the door in there needed to be painted again (hey, I was tired and I got lazy..so sue me).

I told Tommy the news of the doors today and showed him where the spots were. And he took pity on me. He will be finishing the “touch up” painting job from hell that I started on Tuesday. I’m not sure if it was that he was sick of listening to me whine and complain talk about how hard it was and how sore I was, or that he wanted the job to be done right. I don’t care. He is finishing it. I’m sure it will look lovely.

I, on the other hand, am taking a trip to the nail salon in a couple of hours. Oh yes, it will be a long appointment. And I will be lectured on using my nails to get paint off the tile and grout.

But I don’t care. I guess it was worth it. The place looks lovely. However…next time I thing I will either just ignore the black marks and scraped paint or hire more services to take care of it for me!

You are Dr. Doom

Dr. Doom 83% Venom 79% Apocalypse 76% Dark Phoenix 69% Magneto 67% Juggernaut 65% Mr. Freeze 60% Lex Luthor 60% Mystique 57% Kingpin 56% The Joker 51% Two-Face 45% Poison Ivy 42% Catwoman 36% Riddler 35% Green Goblin 25%

Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.

Click here to take the Supervillain Personality Quiz

It couldn’t possibly be the bi-weekly trips to the nail salon or my need to keep my eyebrows perfect or my bangs straight, could it? No way. Not vain. Nope. Am not.

Swiped from Paula.

Like when you have other people lay tile…..did you know you have to get up at an ungodly hour to let them in to work?

People!!! Seriously!!!! Isn’t 8:30 a.m. a little early to be running the jackhammer to take out the old tile in the entry?

And…..how the hell long does it take to lay the tile? We’re not doing any special pattern or anything. Geez. We’re on day three now.

But…in keeping with my desire for lots of services…..in all fairness they did have to move all the furniture in the front of the house and the toilet and sink and washer and dryer. And they will have to put all that back, along with re-attaching and fixing the base boards.

I know, I know. 8:30 isn’t that early to be up. Well…it isn’t if you’re used to getting up that early. We’ve been taking turns letting the guys in and The Boy has been sleeping in as usual since it’s summer.

Oh, and the tile? It looks fabulous! As usual, Tommy picked a really good color and it looks like we planned it to match what we have (which we didn’t…he just picked what he liked and I agreed). He says we should just pick what we like and it will all come together in the end. Although I hate to admit it, he’s actually right about that.

To summarize….like services…hate to get up to let them in….but in the end it’s all worth it.

Maybe pictures of tile later after they leave…maybe not.