I did not think it possible to gay up Christian Siriano any more than he already is, but this photo accomplishes it. (from my new favorite blog, gayest ever)...
Television Without Pity makes me laugh without fail. Here it is on the scallop discussion with Martha Stewart from the last Top Chef quick fire challenge...
Jamie introduces her scallops and fried sage over potato and kale stew. Padma asks if scallops are really a winter dish, but Martha totally defends it, saying that they go diving for scallops in Maine in January. I'm so sure that Martha pulls on a wetsuit and jumps in the ocean in January. Girl, please.
Argos died yesterday. I don't think I can write anything more right now. I'll add a tribute to him later when I am not so prone to tears. He was a great, wonderful dog and I couldn't have loved him more. I am heartbroken.
Two bits of news to report. The first isn't really that shocking, but when I was bringing the garbage cans in last night, Jessie (Walter's wife) came out to ask me if I heard someone opening my gate the night before. I also noticed that the sideview mirror on my car was pushed up against the car which was odd. I told her that I thought I heard the gate slam shut and she confirmed that she heard the same thing. We both surmised that what must have happened is someone from the stolen car, for some reason, abandoned it, ran up my driveway,opened the gate and then when they heard Argos at the other end of the driveway, they got the shit scared out of them and slammed the gate shut. They were probably trying to cut through someone's backyard (they hoped to use mine on the first try), hop the back fence so they could get to West Macarthur Blvd.
Here's the shocker though. I got my free FICO score for the first time in a while, and I am at 590!!!!!! WTF???? That's in the bottom 8%! Yes, I've been late on some of my credit card payments from time to time, and I did have a major issue when my corporate Amex was shut down and I was $700 short of the amount due. That was a nightmare to audit all my expense reports against all my AMEX bills. It took me a couple weeks to find missing expenses and track down back-up documentation, and to finally get reimbursed (I did not have $700 of my own money to spare to cover the bill in the meantime). All in all, final payoff on that ended up begin over 60 days past due. But other than that, the three biggest outstanding debts in my life, my house, my home equity loan and my car loan, have all been paid on time, never late one single time in ten years, never missed a single payment. You'd think that would add up to more than a 590! One issue with Amex and a few late payments on the cable bill and a couple credit cards outweighs never missing or being late witha payment on three huge loans? Whatever, FICO.
We were deep asleep last night. Argos was outside in the backyard. We were woken up to some loud noise and Argos going nuts in the backyard. I was staggering out of the bedroom thinking it must have been the trash pickup at the apartment next door. But Argos doesn't usually bark at that, and he was going nuts out back. I did not put my glasses on before I left the bedroom, but in the kitchen I could make out that it was 2:40am. Way too early for trash pickup. Then I started thinking it sounded like it could have been our front gate crashing open (or closed). I was almost to the back door when I realized Tony was right behind me. So it had to be something pretty disturbing for that to happen. He never gets out of bed, or even wakes up. We had both been so sound asleep that we only caught the tail end of the sound and were really confused as to what it was. So I get to the back porch and call Argos. Usually when I open the back door during the night, especially when it is cold, he immediately stops barking and comes right up the stairs and into the kitchen to get back in his bed. But he was not barking like usual. He was facing the neighbor's side fence (Walter's house) and barking like crazy. I finally got him to come up on the porch, but he was still barking, though not as voraciously. I didn't have my glasses on, but I didn't see anything in Walter's yard. I couldn't make out anyone moving or running. I got Argos inside, but couldn't get him to lay down on his bed. And now I am trying to calm him down and get him to stop barking, and I have Tony on the other side of me telling me to "call 911." I say "what am I going to tell 911, my dog is barking?" There is no way, even if there is somebody lurking around in Walter's yard, that they are going to hop the fence into our yard, having heard Argos frothing at the mouth. So I get my glasses and go back out with Argos. He again runs to the side fence and starts going ape shit again. There is nothing over there. I am thinking maybe there is a racoon or possum, but even for that Argos wouldn't be going this nuts. I get him back up the porch and into the house again. We go to check the scene through the front window to see if there is anything going on out there. By now it about 3am and we are wide awake. There is a car parked across the street, headlights on, it seems to be idling, but it doesn't look like anyone is in it. Hmmm. Again Tony starts getting on me to call the police. Again I ask, "to report what?" He heads back to the kitchen, I stay there watching the idling car for a few minutes. Nothing is happening. Argos is still clearly agitated and doing his "indoor soft bark" every minute or so. Back in the kitchen, Tony has his phone out ready to call 911 himself. I ask him to please not call. I head back out to the living room window and see that there are now 3 police cars pulled up around the idling car, so I tell Tony no need to call the police, they are already here. He comes back out and we watch for a few minutes. One of the police cars pulls away and slowly drives down the street flashing its searchlight along the sidewalk and into the schoolyard across the street. Now we're up to 3:15am. Tony asks me to go across the street and tell the police "that my dog was barking at something." I am standing there in my boxers and t-shirt and am not feeling like walking across the street in the dark at 3:15am to tell the police my dog "was barking at something a few minutes ago." So Tony comes back with his flip flops and hoodie on and heads across the street himself. The police car next to the idling car that I can see from the window is empty. It seems like the police are all standing at the other police car which is parked directly behind the idling car, of which I can only see a small corner of the front hood. I can't see any police or anyone else. It is very quiet outside. I see Tony crossing the street, passing the idling car and then out of my sight towards the rear police car. It seems like he is over there for a long time. I finally see him coming back. The first thing he says is "mmmmmm. Officer Brandon." I say "What happened?" He says he would like to give office brandon a cavity search. I tell him that unfortunately, since Officer Brandon is the cop, he'll be the one searching Tony's cavity. So the word is that the car is stolen. It was just left there idling. Someone had called the police to report it. That's all. Tony went back to bed. I tried to, but Argos was still barking intermittently and then I could hear the tow truck pulling up to tow the stolen car away. (what a drag to be a tow-truck driver on the graveyard shift!). It wasn't until 4:00am that I was finally able to sort of fall asleep. I never really fell fully asleep again. I am tired today.
I don't know why I am on such a Japan kick lately. And what's with all the videos? I guess I was so proud of myself figuring out how to embed, that I am getting carried away. I need to get back to the blogging. Or does embedding videos count as blogging too? I need to get back to the writing. Anyway, I got a kick out of the Japanese commercial touting a "Kentucky Christmas" - all you have to do is buy a "Christmas Pack!"
I don't do politics on my blog (actually, I don't do much of anything on it!) but I love this ad.
