Monday. And another week that starts out with a trip to the dentist. Plus, it was hot and muggy last night, and I didn’t sleep for shit last night, so this is gonna be a long day (and an even longer week).

Finally, it’s Friday. And another warm day in store for us around here (and just about everybody else, I expect). Yesterday we had our 12th day of the year where we got into the 90s, and today, appropriately, will be number 13. In a typical year, we hit 90+ seven times, so this has been a hot one. Dry, too. My sister had to come over and get some water, ‘cuz her well is getting dangerously low, and I (thank goodness) have city water.

Poor Mitt Romney. First, he said he was a job creator. Then it turns out he was an outsourcing job killer at Bain. Then he said, “nu-uh, I wasn’t even at Bain after 1999.” Then SEC documents surfaced showing that Mitt was CEO, sole shareholder, and chief cook and bottle washer. Then Mitt said, “doesn’t count. That was just some legal mumbo-jumbo.”

So now, it turns out that back when he was trying to prove he was eligible to run for MA Governor (despite the fact that he had been living in Utah for three years), he testified that he had all kinds of business ties to Bain and Bain-related companies.

Mitt Romney testified to Massachusetts officials in 2002 that he maintained business ties during his Olympics work, undermining his argument that he had no connection to Bain Capital or related companies after 1999. Notably, his campaign has refused to deny whether or not he ever held meetings with Bain during his time in Salt Lake City.

So, once again, Mitt. Were you lying then, or lying now?

Just got back from a morning diversion. The fire alarm went off here, so we all got to go stand out in the parking lot for half an hour. Sadly, the building is still standing, so I had to come back to my office.

If you have a Yahoo account, you may be screwed.

Nearly 443,000 email addresses and passwords for a Yahoo site were exposed late Wednesday. The impact stretched beyond Yahoo because the site allowed users to log in with credentials from other sites — which meant that user names and passwords for Yahoo, Google’s Gmail, Microsoft’s Hotmail, AOL and many other email hosts were among those posted publicly on a hacker forum.

It’s always something, I guess.

Oh well, back to work. Let’s get this damn long week over with.

Yesterday was our anniversary: 14 years, and the first one ever without Siggy. We celebrated by getting up and going to work, and then coming home and floating around in the pool for a while, before sitting on the deck and reading until it got dark. We’re a pretty wild couple.

Today is gonna be another hot one – 90ish, they say (I know it’s hotter in other places, so I’m not complaining, plus it keeps the pool water warm). Speaking of pool water, I think I’ll have to add some more, because we haven’t had squat for rain around here in quite a while. The grass is brown and crunchy (which is fine with me, since it means I don’t have to cut it), and the ground (which is mostly clay) is hard as cement. I’d hate to have to dig a hole. Not with a shovel, anyway.

Speaking of holes, Mitt Romney appears to be digging himself in to one. When he whined about the WaPost being a bunch of meanies in saying how many jobs got outsourced and companies that were bankrupted after his vulture capital company took them over, he claimed that he left the company in 1999, so it wasn’t him.

The Boston Globe says he’s a liar.

Romney has said he left Bain in 1999 to lead the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, ending his role in the company. But public Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed later by Bain Capital state he remained the firm’s “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president.”

Also, a Massachusetts financial disclosure form Romney filed in 2003 states that he still owned 100 percent of Bain Capital in 2002. And Romney’s state financial disclosure forms indicate he earned at least $100,000 as a Bain “executive” in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings.
[…]
Bain Capital and the campaign for the presumptive GOP nominee have suggested the SEC filings that show Romney as the man in charge during those additional three years have little meaning, and are the result of legal technicalities.
[…]
A former SEC commissioner told the Globe that the SEC documents listing Romney as Bain’s chief executive between 1999 and 2002 cannot be dismissed so easily.

“You can’t say statements filed with the SEC are meaningless. This is a fact in an SEC filing,” said Roberta S. Karmel, now a professor at Brooklyn Law School.

“It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to say he was technically in charge on paper but he had nothing to do with Bain’s operations,” Karmel continued. “Was he getting paid? He’s the sole stockholder. Are you telling me he owned the company but had no say in its investments?”

So, Mitt, are you lying now? Or were you lying to the SEC then?

Soledad O’Brien was shocked – shocked, I say – to hear Joe Biden tell a sex joke. He said:

“It was wonderful for children. By the way — having your grandpop living with you, having your great aunt, your uncle, for real. Those walls were awful thin. I wonder how the hell my parents did it. But that’s a different story. I know you don’t know anything about that. I know none of you in your families have done the same thing.”

Well that’s disgusting. I mean, um, wait a minute. That’s not a sex joke. I’ve heard sex jokes, and that doesn’t even come close. It’s not really even a joke. It’s more of an anecdote (which may or may not be particularly amusing) from his childhood.

People really need to get a grip.

Oh well, back to work.

It seemed to be “big” news yesterday that Romney raked in a helluva lot more money than Obama did last month. Or May. Whenever. Something like $106 million to $71 million. Doesn’t seem like much of a surprise to me. I mean, they guy’s got lots of pals with big bucks, and the rich folks are terrified that they’ll have to pay a few more bucks in taxes (that they won’t even notice). So why wouldn’t they back Willard?

Just look at this chart. Under the GOP plan, the top 1% will pay about $50,000 more in taxes if Obama has his way. And that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to all the other ways they figure on cashing in on a Romney presidency.

Speaking of Romney, he has no idea whatsoever where his money is at. I guess when you’ve got so much of it, it’s hard to keep track of. Poor man.

As expected, this is a painfully slow week. Hard to believe it’s only Tuesday, ‘cuz it sure feels like it ought to be at least Wednesday.

Oh boy, it’s Monday. And everybody’s pretty miserable about it, too. My day started at the dentist, where I hoped for a quick in and out (so to speak) with limited pain. I was fairly successful on that score, but, sadly, I have to go back next week because I have an “open contact” that needs to be closed. I have no doubt that this will be a thrilling experience (and costly, no doubt). Oh well, I guess the yacht will have to wait for next year.

More sad news. I’m sure everyone’s heard by now that Ernest Borgnine passed away. And who didn’t like Ernest Borgnine (except Ethel Merman)?

Speaking of sad, if you’re a cat owner, you may want to get rid of any sharp implements around the house. We all know that cats often make you want to kill yourself, but now we know why.

There’s fresh evidence that cats can be a threat to your mental health.

To be fair, it’s not kitties themselves that are the problem, but a parasite they carry called Toxoplasma gondii.

A study of more than 45,000 Danish women found that those infected with this feline parasite were 1.5 times more likely to attempt suicide than women who weren’t infected.

Of course, the big news of the day is that Savannah Guthrie started her role as Today Show co-host with Matt “the rat” Lauer. I don’t actually know who she is, as I was forced to stop watching the morning moron shows quite some time ago, lest my head explode (or I do serious damage to my teevee). But I’m sure she’ll do fine (until the ratings continue to suck, at which point they’ll throw her under the bus).

Oh well, back to work. I have to pay for my dentist’s summer vacation, after all.

I walked into my garage yesterday evening, and saw a car in my driveway. Kind of disturbing, really, as we’re a long way off the road, and don’t typically get many visitors (let alone unexpected strangers). About all we get are FedEx and UPS trucks, and maybe the mail lady, if she’s bringing a parcel in that won’t fit in the mailbox. At least it wasn’t a cop car (not that I was doing anything particularly illegal or anything, but, as David Crosby said about seeing a police car in his rear view mirror, “it increases my paranoia.” I approached with caution.

Turned out to be nothing sinister, just a nice guy from the Working Families Party, wanting me to sign a petition to get some people on the ballot on the WFP line. No problem. I’m a petition signed from way back (as long as it’s not something about declaring marriage to be between a man and a woman or something). And I was even wearing my “Just Say NOW! Legalize Marijuana” t-shirt. I’m not sure if legalizing pot is part of the WFP platform or not. But it ought to be.

Unfortunately, the candidates were all Democrats. All swell folks, I’m sure, but I’d like to see the WFP get their own candidates on the ballot. Not the statewide races, but the local ones. Start getting WFP candidates on the school boards and town councils and work their way up to the county legislatures. That’s the way to get a party started (that, or a keg of beer).

Not that I’m gonna get off my ass and do it. I’m not a knocking on doors, making phone calls kind of guy.

Oh well, the weekend’s just about over. And I’m looking at a five-day week that starts off with a dentist appointment. This is gonna suck.

Sorry to hear about your Dad, Vernon. It’s not an easy thing to deal with, and I know how it feels. When you’re a kid, your grandparents die. Then you have to go through your parents passing away, and you become an orphan. After the grief subsides a bit, you start to realize, “holy shit, I’m next on the list.” Good luck with everything. Also sorry to hear about your mother’s apartment, Travis. Glad nothing was missing, but it’s still a hassle to deal with. And KP, sorry I missed you while you were hear. Glad to hear the farm is working out. I became mighty tired with Facebook, too. Especially when people from work started wanting to be my “friends.” Kind of hard to open up about how much you love your job when people are looking. Not much going on here today. It’s been a rainy morning, but things are starting to clear up now. Unfortunately, my ambition has now up and gone away, so I don’t think I’ll be getting much accomplished today. Oh well.

We had a puppy jail break yesterday. Thanks to the live puppy cam, we were able to monitor their activity (though we’re powerless to do anything about it; one of these days I gotta hook speakers up to it so I can at least holler at ’em). The damage was minimal (an old sneaker that the sole had fallen off of a long time ago, turning it into kind of a moccasin, a cat toy, some unidentifiable shards of something or other, and a yellow sponge), but, for some reason, while they are more or less over crapping inside their containment area, they (or at least one of them, and I suspect it’s Bud, who is a bit of a troublemaker) seem to enjoy crapping and peeing in the dining room when they can get to it. As it’s a wood laminate floor, that’s certainly preferable to hitting up the rug in the family room – especially since it was more of the hot fudge-type consistency than neat little logs.

Still, it was pretty stinky, and my wife tends to dawdle at work in order to ensure that I get home first and have to deal with it. To quote my father-in-law: “imagine me, a man, having to clean up shit.” Indeed.

Worse, since this is on the western side of the house and it was quite sunny and warm (though not as hot as it has been) yesterday, things were pretty well baked on, so it took quite an effort (and half a roll of paper towels) to get it all up and disposed of.

Puppies. Gotta love ’em. I really think they should be over this crapping in the house phase by now (I mean, they’re 8 months old). I blame my wife; she’s just too easy on them.

Speaking of wives (and stinky stuff), I see that Yasser Arafat’s wife wants his body exhumed. That doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. I mean, he looked like he smelled pretty ripe when he was still alive. But now? :yuck:

Oh well, time to get this two-day week over with already. I just hope it doesn’t end up with me cleaning up shit.

After six days off, I have to go back to work today. This is a pretty disturbing thought, only slightly tempered by the fact that it’s only a two-day week. Like many places, it’s been on the warm side lately, which is really good when you can go jump in the pool from time to time, which is mostly what I’ve been up to (when not building a boardwalk around the pool deck, which is now about 75% complete, and is only awaiting more material). It’s not so good when you have to go to work, though.

Since I spend my working hours inside with no windows, banging away on a keyboard, I’ve spent as much time outside the past six days as possible – and more or less away from my computer. I blasted through about four books on my Kindle, and all but ignored the “real” world out there, which is why I’ve been off the air for a while. In fact, other than a trip to Home Depot yesterday, I don’t think I even ventured beyond my property boundary this past week.

It’s been too hot to cut the grass around here. In fact, it really hasn’t grown enough to cut (the weeds, however, are about three feet high), and it kind of crunches when you walk on it. Not as bad as some of you folks, I know. But it’s been in the 90s around here, and that’s pretty warm for we us Northerners. I guess we’ll have to start getting used to it, though.

I was sad to hear about Andy Griffith, of course. 86 used to seem old, but now it seems…. Close. Too close. I accidentally took a good look at myself in the mirror the other day, and realized I got old somewhere along the way. Bummer.

Speaking of bummers, time for work.

It’s that time of year again. You know, when you have the all-American burger and plump hot dog with a cold coke or frosty beer. Cheery pie and water melon for dessert. The time of sparklers and firecrackers, friends with time off, box office premieres and summer sales on every block.

But uh, fuck, I’ll probably stay inside and have me a good old-fashion cup noodle on this Fourth of July, and maybe light a candle. You may think I deserve it– I probably do. At least it’s better than beef bullion in water with a glass of kool-aid.

I haven’t posted here in a while. I doubt anyone really cares if I croak tomorrow. Though, I am concerned about PJ not keeping up with the daily threads. I noticed that he had started a Saturday thread draft but didn’t publish it. Maybe he’s sick, maybe sick of the blog. I don’t know. Live long and prosper.