Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! Monster Monster Action!

It's crazy! It's madness! It's hard core rumble action! One week only, no passes, no gift certificates... get your ticket today!

In corner #1, we have Chet - - the Orange Man - the hometown favorite. Yes, you can tell he's an old favorite with this crowd and he knows it. He's calm. He's cool. He's not letting anything ruffle his fur. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say he was purposely poking at the other contestants just to watch them squirm. The real question is - is he past his prime? Can he compete with these young bucks? Or will he spend the rest of the night drinking out of the bathroom sink and ignoring the action? You be the judge.

Speaking of new contestants, lets take a quick look at Dante - the new guy on the home team. Word on the street is he's scrappy, but let's face it folks - he got a little freaked out by a stuffed tribble lying on the living room floor a few hours ago. We've seen some definite tail puffing in the last couple hours and I think we're all anxious to see how he's going to hold up in the serious competition.

Dante's holding up his end of the trash talking, but Shadow is giving him a run for his money. Round and black, Shadow is the main player on the visiting team and I think we can safely say, he's got a mouth like a sailor. He's done nothing but growl since he came in the door, and for added effect when he gets really worked up, he throws a loud snort into the growling/hissing mix. He's put down stakes under the coffee table and is keeping everyone at bay. He'd be a bit more threatening if he didn't keep forgeting he was growling. He actually dozed off earlier while continuing his low rumbling growl.

The final contender and the only lady in the bunch - Ashes. She's a mystery. She's secretive. She's been hiding in the bedroom closet for the last six hours. We're not worried. We're sure she's just patiently plotting world domination while the boys duke it out in the living room. Or something like that.

Who will win the battle of the monster cats? Stay tuned - there are ten more days to go!

Note to Lizzie: Strangely enough, we do call it plexigass.

Saw Lord of the Rings last night. I agree with everything Gryph said and more. And yes, I too am one of the shameful horde who never read the books. I think I tried to read The Hobbit when I was younger and couldn't get into it. Of course, with a year to waste before the next move, odds are good I'll be reading the whole series.

Auto-maintenance Susan Style:

If you ignore the noise your car is making long enough,

Eventually the noise stops...

It just took me 17 minutes to pay my Sprint bill over the telephone using their bill payment system. I entered my Sprint PCS phone number 3 times. Twice I pressed #1 to confirm that I wanted to continue in English (in case I wanted to mix it up a little and throw in some Spanish mid-transaction.) I was transferred 3 times. Once, I had to listen to an incredibly disconcerting computer voice tell me to speak to it like it was a person.

And now I have to wait 12 hours.

Why? Because Sprint disconnected my cell phone without telling me they were going to, and they even still had money in my guaranteed give-us-your-money-so-we-can-hold-it-oooh-happy-money account with them.

This is why people go mad during the holidays and start stabbing strangers with sharp sticks.

"A month?!?! It took her a freakin' MONTH to update her site?!"

Yes. She's a slack baby, she is. Ought to be cut off. De-blogged. Forced to update using MS Front Page. Certainly the least you should do is throw her out of the online journal brigade. But by this point, there probably isn't anyone stopping by the site anymore anyway... so she's succeeded in her evil plan!

Right. How about for starters, I quit speaking of myself in the third person?

So, let's hop right in, shall we? The following are various bits and pieces of things and stuff that I keep forgetting to put up here.

1. I'm a slack-ass biznitch. It's true. Alright - really I just wanted to fit the phrase "slack-ass biznitch" in here to see how many people find it in a search engine. But I have been blog slack. I have forsaken my responsibilities. I've been... busy. Or something. Something, in this case, is probably that I've been busy being under a lot of stress, worrying too much, dealing with some crises, and battling a case of the winter blues. Combine them all together and I haven't had anything amusing or witty to say lately, so I've just tended to keep my mouth shut of late.

2. The number of times of late that I've been whiney or grumpy about the above has been greatly reduced by the fact that I keep Corey in my thoughts as much as possible. You know, when it comes down to it, I may be stressed. I may not have my world together and I may from time to time forget things, break things, say or do the wrong thing, or just generally fuck things up. I may be facing 33 and a future that currently looks like it will be me and my two cats (three, but I'll get to that.) I may be pissy or frustrated or angry or lonely and I might want to curl up in my bed with the covers over my head, but Corey? I read Corey's writing and I'm blown away. I read Corey's writing and get angry that I could even be annoyed that there aren't enough hours in my day. I read Corey's writing and I'm pretty fucking ashamed of myself.

3. Happy Birthday, Jeff. You always, always make me laugh, and I hope you got to raise your mad skillz for your birthday. Bruce, I'm sorry. There are things in life that I'm bad at dealing with, and that is one of them. Your mom was an awesome woman with a damn fine name. Steph? Thank you. You kick butt. And Suz - I miss you, damnit! :)

4. Tomorrow marks the official point at which I have been cigarette-free for 3 months. I've managed to go to Las Vegas and gamble, to get drunk several times, and I haven't broken down yet. I think I just might be able to do this.

5. I seem to have unintentionally acquired a third cat. An adorable stray has been hanging around my house since before Thanksgiving, and I figured out this weekend that part of the reason is because she's living in my garage. Sigh. If I didn't already have two cats, I'd take her in, but as it is, I'm looking for someone in the Austin area who might want her. She's very sweet, very nice, and purrs very loud. Email if you're interested.

There's more to come, but that should do for now. Remind me to tell the story of my exploration of online personal ads. It's not often I'm generalized as angry cattle, but it's damn funny when it does happen. ;-)