Why, I ask you, why?

So, I'm in the beautiful Renaissance Worthington hotel here in fabulous Fort Worth, and I have only one question for you. Whose bright idea was it to replace toilet ROLLS with toilet paper SQUARES in the public bathrooms here? This place is *pricey* and they can't afford real rolls of paper? For what we're paying?

In my room there are rolls, as it should be, but in the bathrooms in the public spaces, near the meeting rooms and lobbies, they use individual squares. So, you have to pull out how much you want to use one square at a time.

Do they think this will encourage people to use less paper? Because it doesn't. It only annoys me, and then I think, "Don't try to manipulate me into using the amount of paper you want me to use rather than the amount I want to use." And then I use more. Just to prove a point. Immature? Maybe. But I'm just tellin' it like it is. And don't pretend you're Sheryl Crow, and you're better than me, and you'd just use one square. You know you'd load up in aggravation, too.

Oh, and there's one more consideration. Someone in the bathroom next to our meeting rooms had, let's say, a problem - a spectacularly bad accident that the cleaning people had to clean in stages because they were gagging as they tried to clean it up and they simply couldn't stand to be in the bathroom for an extended period of time (neither could I, in fact, and today is only marginally better in there). Now, I'm not saying that a roll of paper would have prevented the mess, but I have to think that if I'm the person whose insides have just exploded, and I reach for the toilet paper to try and control the carnage, and all I pull back is a square of thin paper...well, I wouldn't be happy. Let's leave it at that.

Bizness, bizness

I'm headed to Foat Wuth (that's Fort Worth for you non-Texans) this morning for work. I'll be curious to see how much fallout from Hurricane Dolly we see up there while I'm there. I'm sure Austin will get some rain in the next couple of days, which we desperately need.

The word is that it's currently a Category 1, but may make it up to Category 2 by the time it makes landfall today. It's throwing rain all the way up the Texas coast.

Oops - just got the word I've got to head out! Happy raining!

In my email

Opportunity Knocks says "Future Millionaires Wanted".

They're wanted? What did they do? Are we assuming they're going to make their millions doing something illegal, so The Law wants to just go ahead and arrest them now? Wasn't there a Tom Cruise movie like that, where you knew the future and punished criminals before they committed their bad acts?

Man. The scary Big Brother Tom Cruise future is now.

The joy of flying

I got this in my email from a friend. I'll be flying in about a week and a half, and I'm afraid I may find this to be true!

WELCOME TO THE FRIENDLY SKIES

Attendant: Welcome aboard Ala Carte Air, sir. May I see your ticket?
Passenger: Sure.
Attendant: You're in seat 12B. That will be $5, please!
Passenger: What for?
Attendant: For telling you where to sit.
Passenger: But I already knew where to sit.
Attendant: Nevertheless, we are now charging a seat locater fee of $5. It's the airline's new policy.
Passenger: That's the craziest thing I ever heard. I won't pay it.
Attendant: Sir, do you want a seat on this flight, or not?
Passenger: Yes, yes. All right, I'll pay. But the airline is going to hear about this.
Attendant: Thank you. My goodness, your carry on bag looks heavy. Would you like me to stow it in the overhead compartment for you?
Passenger: That would be swell, thanks.
Attendant: No problem. Up we go, and done! That will be $10, please.
Passenger: What?
Attendant: The airline now charges a $10 carry on assistance fee.*
Passenger: This is extortion. I won't stand for it.
Attendant: Actually, you're right, you can't stand. You need to sit, and fasten your seat belt. We're about to push back from the gate. But, first I need that $10.
Passenger: No way!
Attendant: Sir, if you don't comply, I will be forced to call the air marshal. And you really don't want me to do that.
Passenger: Why not? Is he going to shoot me?
Attendant: No, but there's a $50 air-marshal hailing fee.
Passenger: Oh, all right, here, take the $10. I can't believe this.
Attendant: Thank you for your cooperation, sir. Is there anything else I can do for you?
Passenger: Yes. It's stuffy in here, and my overhead fan doesn't seem to work. Can you fix it?
Attendant: Your overhead fan is not broken, sir. Just insert two quarters into the overhead coin slot for the first five minutes.
Passenger: The airline is charging me for cabin air?
Attendant: Of course not, sir. Stagnant cabin air is provided free of charge. It's the circulating air that costs 50 cents.
Passenger: I don't have any quarters. Can you make change for a dollar?
Attendant: Certainly, sir! Here you go!
Passenger: But you've given me only three quarters for my dollar.
Attendant: Yes, there's a change-making fee of 25 cents.
Passenger: For crying' out loud. All I have left is a lousy quarter?
What the heck can I do with this?
Attendant: Hang onto it. You'll need it later for the lavatory.

My horoscope

My horoscope today: "Thanks to a recent accomplishment, you should be feeling much more confident today."

Well, I am feeling pretty good about a recent accomplishment, but being the type to be ever-reaching skyward, I'm already transitioning to, "Yeah, I did that, but what about the NEXT step???"

The project I've been working on has a bunch of different steps in it, and I've just gotten past the first few. The next one could be easy and quick or it could be long and tedious. Unfortunately, someone else is in control at this point, so I have to just wait patiently for them to decide what my next move is.

I can't decide if I want to know now or I want them to wait a few weeks to give me the verdict, though. I have a bunch of stuff to do in the next 3 weeks, including a vacation, and I'm not sure I want to know if the verdict is that I'll have a long and tedious process ahead of me. There won't be anything I can do on it until after these next few weeks, so I might prefer to just enjoy my vacation, then when I get back, I can find out that I've got a hassle ahead of me and get started on it. On the other hand, if the verdict is that it's easy and quick, then go ahead and tell me and I can enjoy that!

Audience poll: Would you rather know that you've got something big ahead of you, weeks before you can actually tackle it? Or would you rather just not now until you're actually in a position to do something about it?

I'm indoors too much, maybe.

So, it's going to get into the 100s again this week here in fabulous Austin, Texas. We're used to that, so we don't worry too much about it. But I have to say it creates a dilemma for me regarding clothes.

No, I'm not conflicted about whether to wear them. I just have trouble deciding if I should dress for the weather or the air conditioning. See, I'm cold by nature. If I have the a.c. set where I'm comfortable, everyone else is hot. The only exception is when I'm sleeping. To sleep, I have to have it really cold. But when I'm conscious, I like things kinda balmy. That means that whenever I'm at someone else's house, I'm cold.

That also means that I'm cold at the office. So, year-round, I have to have a space heater. Because if the a.c. is set where everyone else is comfortable, I'm freezing. So, the question becomes should I dress warmer to accommodate the a.c., which I'll be sitting in all day, or do I dress for the actual weather. Because if I'm dressed to keep warm and I have to leave the office for anything, I'll pass out from the heat.

I've ended up dressing for the weather and then futzing with the heater all day. If the air isn't blowing, I turn it off. If the air kicks on, then I turn the heater on and decide if I need it up on the desk, blowing on my arms, or on the floor blowing on my feet. I spend the whole day moving it around and turning it on and off. It's quite the pain the butt, if you must know. I used to have an office sweater, but I came to hate it, and I don't really want a caricature of myself someday wearing an awful sweater, so I did away with it.

So that's what I'm stuck with. Maybe I need my own climate-controlled bubble like The Boy in The Plastic Bubble. I want one that doesn't come with a John Travolta, though. I'm a Scientology-free zone.

Good food and good music. What else do you need?

Hoo-boy - still in the weeds around here! Sorry I'm still not posting regularly. Someday things will calm down...and then I'll go on vacation. ;)

Work is crazy busy, but I had a nice, relaxing evening last night. J and I went for 2-for-1 burgers at Hut's, then hit Blues on the Green. Our Hut's burger extravaganza this week was the Beach Boy Burger. It has swiss cheese, pineapple and green pepper. I know - it sounds hideous. But it's really good! It's J's favorite, and I'm always denying him on it because I just couldn't see how that combination belonged on a burger. But I gave in, and I must say, I really enjoyed it. Gotta keep an open mind, people! (No, J, that doesn't mean we'll be getting that everytime now.)

Blues on the Green was also very cool. We had perfect weather and last night Los Lonely Boys were headlining. There was an opening band, but I'm not sure of the name. I think they said "Tex Mix" but I think I might be off on that somehow. In any case, Los Lonely Boys were great. J went to check out the stage and got up there just as they were arriving. Ringo came out and mingled with fans, signing autographs and such, and he gave J "bones" - that means they bumped fists in greeting for those of you who don't know all the cool lingo. Cuz, you know, I knew...right after J told me.

We topped off the night with a visit to Sonic for one of their fantabulous new Banana Split blasts. It was taaaasty! Sonic has good fast food in my estimation. And I love their commercials, so that makes everything taste even better. Top fast food choices for me: Sonic, Wendy's, Arby's. If I'm jonesing for a fish sandwich, then McDonald's has the best, and Burger King makes a mighty fine chicken sandwich. But Sonic has tots. Tots, I say!! AND cherry limeade. Hello. How are you gonna beat tots and cherry limeade?

Your daily dose of cute

I'm finally starting to surface after finishing a long project! Sorry for the infrequent posts, but I'm going to start back strong with something today that's just too freakin' cute.

One of the blogs I like to stop by is The Daily Kitten. I noticed that a poster there kept referring to "munchkin" kittens, like it was the name of a breed. So, I investigated. And there is a such a thing!

Seems the breed originated from a genetic mutation (if Wikipedia is to be believed), and it's a breed of cats that have unusually short legs. Here's a YouTube video of a munchkin kitten: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBO2U7SZ5qs.

I hesitate to believe conclusively that this is a breed, rather than a deformity, since the little fella in the video appears to have a long-legged sibling, but tell me that's not the cutest thing ever!