Well, we TRIED to look into that new gym that's right near the place where I had physical therapy. Turns out that they're SO new, they aren't open yet. Mark and I got there, but the most we could do was look through the big plate glass windows at the tools and materials that they're using to remodel the site from being a clothing store to being a gym.

I'll look the site up online, as they're part of a national chain, and see if I can register that way. They're definitely taking registrations, but it's not obvious from the literature they delivered in area mailboxes that these are actually PREregistrations at the moment.

Their prices are pretty reasonable, though, so it's definitely worth looking into. If I sign up at the rates they're advertising, I will spend less in one year of membership than I spent on copays for physical therapy.

Gotta feel sorry for Stanley, Captain, and Mark. We had a little incident after dinner where Stanley followed close on Mark's heels as Mark was walking in the vicinity of the sink, getting ready to make some Crystal Light.

Mark had no idea that Stanley was even there, and when he took a step backward, he tread on Stanley's poor wee paw.

Predictably, the response was "MRRRREAAHH!!!"

Mark nearly went through the ceiling. Stanley retreated to the dining room, hackles raised and tail fluffed up like a Halloween cat. Captain heard the commotion and came running in from the living room to see what happened. He saw Stanley and his bottle-brush tail, and sniffed his brother all over, fluffing HIS tail up in response. Captain didn't even know what was wrong, but if Stanley's fur was all standing on end, then it must be scary. So then we had TWO Stripey Critters wandering around the dining room with raised fur and supersized tails.

Poor kitties. Poor Mark.

Fortunately, when I checked Stanley's paws, I found no evidence of injury. Now the Stripey Boys are curled up next to me on the sofa. Mark's logged in upstairs. So peace has returned to the household.

(Now that the crisis has well and truly passed... um, is it OK if I laugh now?)

Today, for the first time, I tried to use Word 2007, which Mark installed on our main computer a few months ago. I rarely print from a word processor anymore, and when I do, I've usually edited and stored the file online with docs.google.com on my own laptop first. Then, all I have to do is go upstairs, log onto Google Documents, and print the file THAT way.

But I received some .doc files in my email which I figured would be easy to print via Word.

HA! Little did I know! I think the previous version of Word that we had on the computer was Word 2000. Whatever the heck it was, I was familiar with it. Word 2007, on the other hand, is COMPLETELY revamped. Good grief! I can't freakin' find anything I want to do!



To heck with this aggravation. I'm installing AbiWord on the upstairs computer. It's free, it's small, it runs quickly, and since it's the word processor on my laptop, I know exactly where everything is.

What's cuter than a Shiba Inu puppy? How about SIX of them on a live webcam?

Puppy Cam is just too adorable to be legal. Enjoy it while you can, because they won't stay wee forever.

Click HERE to watch infinite cuteness in action. :)

Wow. I don't know what kind of gastrointestinal bug I got hit with, or how I caught it, but WHAT a rough day Wednesday was!

Note to self: pick up some kind of sports beverage or electrolyte-enriched water tomorrow. My electrolyte levels are probably all out-of-whack after, umm... let's just call it a day of intestinal rebellion, and leave it at that.

I figured out where exactly this new gym is opening in my neighborhood. It's in the shopping center across the street from where I had physical therapy. so it will be stupendously easy to get to. It's even a walkable distance, really, if the weather is decent.

Now all I have to do is pay them a visit to see what they have. I know what the therapist recommended that I should look for in a gym, to maintain the muscle tone I built up via the therapy exercises. If they have that, and if the price is right, I'm joining.

This label, for a pen kids can spin, appropriately named "Spinz", says "Spin pens like the pros".

Um, what? Pros? People get paid to spin pens? And if they do, clearly I haven't been creative enough in seeking my next field of endeavor, because I had no idea that I could convert my pen-spinning prowess into a paying gig.

Live and learn.

Here is a thank-you message for the people who donated to the OLPC Foundation last year.

If you are looking for a philanthropic cause to get behind, hit http://laptop.org and find out more about the OLPC Foundation. Don't delay too long, because the Give One, Get One program will only last until the end of the year.

Have no fear. That odd glowing orb in the sky today is NOT a UFO. It's called "The Sun", and it's been entirely too many days since anyone's had a decent sighting of it. I was starting to think it was as mythical as the Loch Ness Monster and Sasquatch.

How excellent is this? Look at how the OLPC XO is doing on its first day of availability via Amazon.com:

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1 in Computers & PC Hardware (See Bestsellers in Computers & PC Hardware)

Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

#1 in	Computers & PC Hardware > Laptop Computers
#1 in	Toys & Games > Electronics for Kids

Head over to http://amazon.com/xo if you want to learn more and/or support a GREAT cause!

G1G1

OLPC's Give One, Get One for 2008 starts on November 17! I CAN'T WAIT! I want to use my XO at every public wifi spot I know of, to drum up support.

Head over to http://amazon.com/xo for information. It's a great little device.

.

We're on the way to Hershey to see the Phantoms! Presuming that the tornado watch that's posted in both Hershey and Philly doesn't come to fruition, that is.

Phantoms STH Bus Trip

Mark & I are in one of three buses for the Phantoms STH trip to Hershey.

Mobile post sent by Gabey8 using Utterli.  Replies.

Hahaha! We bring you the latest edition of "Stupid Criminal Tricks"! Seems that Mr. Burglar tried to steal the laptop of a first-year law student, who was horrified at the prospect of losing an entire year's worth of course work. Mr. Student proceeded to beat the living daylights out of Mr. Burglar.

I love it when the good guys win!

HA HA HA HA, gotta love this cat video! Watching it will be a well-spent 84 seconds, so click play and enjoy. :)

"Ground control to Major Tom..."

Is there anyone other than me who has a moment of cognitive dissonance while watching a car ad that's got a cover of the above-mentioned song playing in the background?

Yeah, sure, they cut out right after reaching the lyrics stating, "You've really made the grade." But anyone who actually KNOWS the song is aware that the song ends up with the astronaut's loss of communication with Earth and getting lost in space as a result.

I think of how the story pans out *every time* I hear the song, and that includes the car ads. Yeah, that's just what the carmaker wants me to associate their product with: a catastrophic technical glitch resulting in a deceased astronaut. Brilliant move, especially in a depressed economy that has people resisting large-ticket purchases like cars in the first place.

I posted a few weeks ago about songs whose lyrics send all the wrong messages if they're being played at weddings. Maybe it's time to establish a similar category of Inappropriate Music in Advertising.

Rarely do I find the need to express political views in this blog. However, I can't in good conscience let this go by without comment. This comes from Rush Limbaugh:

Noting that a Rasmussen poll showed that 69 percent of GOP voters love Palin, Limbaugh sneered, "So all of you wizards of smart on our side, all of you intellectualoids who think that Palin was a drag, the party loves Sarah Palin. The vast majority of conservative Republicans love Sarah Palin. Twenty percent of Republicans who say she hurt the ticket, you are probably the ones that need to go and walk and join across the aisle with the others that you find so much more palatable because they are able to communicate and they are writers and they are intellectual ... The party loves her."

GOP voters were in the minority on this past Election Day. How does Limbaugh not see that 69% of a minority is an even SMALLER minority? If he's basing his argument that Palin is good for the party on that statistic, he's part of the party's problem, not its solution.

Also, he's inviting people who disagree to leave the party and go to "the others that you find so much more palatable because they are able to communicate and they are writers and they are intellectual".

Um, what?

First of all, since when have the qualities of being "able to communicate", being a "writer", and being "intellectual" become attributes worthy of disparagement? What planet does HE live on? Moreover, does anyone else see this as an implication that if you don't like Palin, but you do like communicators, writers, and intellectuals, then by extrapolation of Limbaugh's logic, Palin fits none of those descriptions? He shouldn't be dispatching the people who dislike Palin to join the other party, he should be INVITING those communicators, writers, and intellectuals from "across the aisle" to join HIS party.

He's got his logic all bass-ackwards here. And if he continues to be one of the most prominent spokespersons for his party, he's going to continue driving away the moderates, and alienating communicators, writers, and intellectuals who might actually have a chance at leading the party AWAY from the ruinous policies that brought it down in 2008.

I got the above quote, as well as a lot of other food for thought, from this Salon article. I think it makes a worthwhile read no matter which side of the fence you're on.

OK, that's it for politics for now. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

I graduated from Physical Therapy today. In lieu of a diploma, I got a list of exercises to do daily at home, and a couple of therapy bands to use for resistance exercises.

Thursday is the final day of my Physical Therapy prescription, and coincidentally I have an appointment that day.

The therapist will be giving me pointers on what exercises to do at home, as well as what to look for in a gym should I decide to join one. A stationary bike and a treadmill are two necessities. Leg and hip exercise machines, like the ones I'm using now at PT, are needed as well.

There are a few places in the immediate neighborhood that I think I'd be able to check out. Interestingly, he recommended mom-and-pop type gyms over Big Name Chain Establishments, if I have to choose between the two, because a lot of the times the Big Names cost more just because they ARE a Big name. So that's a bit of food for thought.

One thing's for sure, though: I have to do SOMEthing. If regular daily activity was enough to get my strength up and keep it up, I wouldn't have been sent to physical therapy in the first place. And if losing muscle tone means I will go back to feeling like I did pre-therapy, well, that's not even remotely acceptable. Forget THAT. So I'll be looking into some nearby gyms, and choosing one to go to, in the forseeable future.

In other news: I have voted. If you're also in the US and age 18 or above, then I hope you have voted, as well. I look on voting not just as a right or a privilege, but as an OBLIGATION. People have given up their lives to obtain and maintain the right to vote, in this and other countries. The least we can do is honor their sacrifices by heading out to the polling place and pulling some levers/pushing some buttons/filling out a ballot/whatever the voting process is in each of our districts.

Besides, if someone doesn't vote, then I don't want to hear them gripe if they don't like the job that the winning candidate is doing. Speak your mind in a voting booth first, IMO. Whoever can't be bothered to do that shouldn't trouble themselves to grouse about the election results.

May the best candidates win. That way, we'll ALL win.

GO OUT AND VOTE today. Do your civic duty. There is no, and I mean NO, reason to skip voting for anyone who's in good enough health to walk, drive, limp, or anything else to the voting booth.

People throughout history have died fighting for the right to vote. Those of us who need not fear for our lives at the polling place have no excuse for staying away.

Vote today. Period.

I had an orthopedist's appointment on Monday morning. He didn't extend my PT prescription, so I suspect I'll be discharged from physical therapy after the next couple of sessions.

His advice included, "increase activity to tolerance", which in plain English means do as much as the knee can stand. If it starts to swell up and ache, then I'll know I've overdone it. See: walking to and from the Linc on Friday, lol. See also: leaving the house without the cane and using SEPTA to get from S. Philly to 30th Street and back, then going to the Phantoms game. The former involved a bit more walking-without-a-rest-break than the knee was ready for; the latter involved too many large sets of stairs to navigate cane-free.

I'm learning, though. I'm getting more used to the reconfigured knee and how it responds to different things. And I know that it's improved as the PT and activity has improved the muscle tone, so the end of the PT sessions will have to mean the beginning of my joining a gym. NO WAY do I want to regress to the way I felt before.

Opus

Dear Mr. Breathed,

Not everyone has internet access. Therefore, not everyone will have access to the final panel of Opus.

P.S. I'm :( at losing the rotund penguin for a *3RD* time (Bloom County, Outland, and now Opus).

:( :( :(