Finally, we come to the end of the longest short month on the calendar (right? This isn’t leap year, is it? I lost track after they fucked with the Olympics). While we did manage to dodge the foot-o-snow they predicted (incorrect weather forecasts – how unusual), it’s still really goddamn cold out there, and my wife informs me that, while the driveway was passable this morning, it could use a “quick” plow (it’s about 3° out there, so “quick” goes without saying). February, for the most part, has pretty much sucked and I’ll be happy to see it in the rear view mirror (not that March is shaping up to be much better – at least to start. Comes in like a lion and goes out like a mountain lion and all that). At least when March gets out there, you know there’s light at the end of the tunnel and only six more weeks of winter.

I bought Greek yogurt the other day. Not on purpose, really – it was all they had that wasn’t in the little tiny cups. I had no idea what the difference was between that and “regular” yogurt, but I know it’s gotten to be a big deal, which is good for the local economy (‘cuz yogurt is made from milk, and one thing we’ve got a lot of around here is cows. And chickens). So I read up about it, and apparently they strain it multiple times until it comes out really thick and slightly chalky, so it’s got like 2-3 times the protein and less carbs (and no fat if you buy the fat free stuff). I wasn’t overly thrilled at first, but with some blueberries in there, I got used to it and developed a taste for it (I think the shit would work really well as joint compound and/or spackle, too).

Well, I guess I’d better get some work done before I go out and plow.

I opened up the lo-cal newspaper site this morning (the word “newspaper” strikes me as something destined to become a quaint old term that will hang on for a while, though only old people will remember where it comes from – like “icebox” or “dialing” a phone), and this is the headline (there’s another one) I was greeted with:

Over a foot of snow, 45 mph gusts and bitter cold in store :omg:

Time to finish my coffee and go back to bed, I think.

Fortunately, it appears they were talking about the folks just to the north of us, though we’re due for cold and wind and snow, too. Just not quite as much (as always around here though, it depends on which way the wind blows).

Have I mentioned that I’m tired of winter?

So, Jan Brewer has done the right thing and vetoed Arizona’s “it’s OK to discriminate against people you don’t like as long as Jesus told you to” law. I would hesitate before praising her as the most wonderful white raisin in the desert, though. She clearly stuck a finger or two up into the air to see which way the wind was blowing before acting.

While perusing the Crap Post this morning, I noticed a headline of “A ‘Bachelor’ Contestant Just Exposed The True Reality Of The Show” so I figured I’d click on it, and I was shocked. Shocked to read that this piece of dreck has been on for 18 years. 18 years! Do you remember when it was a big deal that Gunsmoke ran for 20 years on the teevee? Not that I was much of a fan (of the tv show – the radio show, however, is great), but at least it was a real show and not something dumb fake reality thing.

Anyhow, if you care, the big “secret” revealed was that the bachelor in question is an asshole. Big surprise there.

Wine Woot has a deal on “Truffle Butter and Duck Fat” this morning, for all those interested. Never tried either of those things, but they sound rather disgusting to me. And duck fat sounds like something you’d use to waterproof your boots.

Oh well, time to go make my breakfast. Like my dad, I’ve long been allergic to eggs (not in the “break out in hives” sense, but in the “get all bloated and feel like shit for a few hours” sense). So I’ve decided to eat two eggs every morning until I get over it. I’m on about day five now. :yuck: It’s working quite well.

It was way up there in the 40s yesterday (for a while, then it got colder and snowed like hell for a few hours) and today they claim it may get to 50. Then the roller coaster starts downhill again and it’s supposed to go back to being really friggin’ cold next week. And so it goes. I’m tired of it.

And I’m tired of work (not working in general, just the mind-numbingly dull shit I do day in and day out, mostly sitting in a shitty windowless office next to a door that you have to enter a code to open, so it goes “beep beep beep beep beep…beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep” all day long, except 78% of the fucking idiots that work in my area are too stuipd to get the code right, and/or are too stupid to turn the door handle before trying to open it, which means the door goes “bang bang bang” and the piece of frosted glass that would allow us to look out over the stairway if it wasn’t’ frosted glass shakes and rattles and makes you jump out of your skin every time it happens and it happens basically every five to seven minutes all day long except for a couple hours around lunch when it’s more like every thirty seconds – I swear to baby jeezus they stand out there and wait to enter one at a time).

I’m not even there today, and it’s making me irate just thinkingabout it. But you know what I’m really tired of? Obama palin’ around with terrorists, that’s what.

Here he is yucking it up with Comcast CEO Brian Roberts (and World Bank Prez Jim Kim. Yeah, Jim Kim) at Martha’s Vineyard last summer.

Roberts and Comcast are big Obama donors (not that he doesn’t spread it around to other folks, of course), so what do you think the odds are that the DOJ (or FCC or FTC) are going to oppose the Comcast/Time Warner merger that will be the beginning of the end of the Internet (and Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, etc). There’s already pretty clear evidence that Comcast (consistently rated among the absolute worst companies in America, by the way) – in clear violation of the agreement it made when the government allowed them to buy NBC Universal – is already throttling traffic from Netflix over its network (which I’m sure has nothing to do with Comcast’s Xfinity Online Streaming service – which, BTW, doesn’t count against a Comcast subscriber’s monthly data limits).

When a single company both owns the content and controls the means of distributing said content, guess who gets screwed? Hint: it won’t be Obama. In fact I bet Brian and Jim will even keep letting him win at golf.

So you better binge watch House of Cards while you still can, ‘cuz pretty soon you’re gonna have to take whatever Comcast decides you should have (kind of like Apple, come to think of it).

Oh well at least it’s Friday. Normally, I’d be happy about that, but this week, not so much. My friend John is making me go out tonight to see some live music. In theory, I like live music, and I even might enjoy leaving the house. In practice, however, it means I have to do laundry and put on some clothes and leave the house at night in the dark and stay up way past my bedtime. Plus I’ll have to be seen in public, which I try to avoid unless absolutely necessary.

This is kinda how I feel:

Going to work this morning sucked, but at least the ride in was nice. Well, except for the douchebag who insisted on going 40 mph (max) for about a 15 mile stretch in a 55 zone. It was a crystal clear night last night, and the 93% waning gibbous moon lit everything up brilliantly (one advantage to being blanketed in snow – even moonless nights are bright).

Clear skies meant somewhat chilly temperatures, though – below zero, for a change. The coniferous trees are all dusted with snow, and the naked branches of the other trees are coated with ice. With the sun and bright blue skies, everything looked absolutely magical this morning.

It was nice to see the sun, especially since we’re due for more snow tomorrow. As of Saturday, we were officially up to 99.9″ for the season (more than that where I live, though), and since it snowed all day yesterday, I assume we’re over a hundred now.

If it wasn’t for having to go to work, I really wouldn’t mind the snow and cold at all. It’s much better to look at than brown grass and mud. I’d be quite content to tromp around in the woods in my snow shoes. In fact, looking at my show shoes hanging up in the garage this morning, I thought to myself, “gee, I ought to actually use them one of these days.” But then I remembered how much my feet start to hurt when I walk a little bit these days. So, like, never mind.

Oh well, back to work I guess.

The National Science Foundation recently surveyed a bunch of Americans to see what they knew about science as part of a report to be sent to Congress and the Prez. I know this because a British daily paper – The Independent – wrote a story about it in today’s edition. To be fair I also saw it on the USA Today website – along with a link to a “related” item about “How giant rats could someday rule the Earth.” Hint: Phase One was to take over both houses of the US Congress.

Anyhow, according to the survey, if you’re in a car pool with three other people (hah! Trick premise. This is America we’re talking about), one of them will not know that the Earth orbits the sun. Yes, only 74% of Americans know that. They didn’t list the other responses, but I assume they ranged from something like “the Sun goes around the Earth – duh!”, to “whut’s uh oar-bit?” and “because Jesus.”

Also, 61% of Americans do not believe that the universe began with the “big bang.” This one is quite distressing to me. I mean, it’s, like, the #1 sitcom on teevee people – all you have to do is listen to the theme song!

And 52% of Americans don’t believe in evolution, which means half the people in our fictional car pool are godless heathens who hate Jesus.

42% of Americans apparently think that astrology is either “very scientific” or “sort of scientific” (‘cuz, like, it ends in “ogy” so it’s gotta be kinda sorta sciency, right?).

On the bright side, over half of us (51%) realize that antibiotics don’t kill viruses (the other 49% of course run to the doctor demanding – and getting, damnit! – an antibiotic every time they feel “the flu” coming on). And only a little more than 10% of Americans believe the dangers of science outweigh any potential benefits (this is the same percentage of people who, when questioned about it, responded “FIRE BAD!“.

Yesterday it finally quit snowing for a while and the sun even came out late in the day. But it looks like it snowed some more overnight (how unusual), but the temperature has edged it’s way up into double digits (just barely). I guess I need to determine whether or not I need to plow the driveway. Or maybe just go back to bed.

You’ll no doubt be happy to hear that, with this last little burst of snow, Syracuse has now taken the lead in the Golden Snowball race with 95.2″ for the season so far – about half an inch ahead of Buffalo. Now that Lake Erie is frozen solid (that’s not unusual, but a rather astonishing 90% of the Great Lakes is frozen this year – including almost a third of Lake Ontario, which tends to be the least frozen of them, ‘cuz it’s so deep relative to its surface area(, we shouldn’t get much competition from them. Sadly, it appears that Erie PA has an insurmountable lead of almost 15″ on us. At least, I hope it’s insurmountable, ‘cuz I’m tired of winter. Unfortunately we get, on average, another 34″ of snow before the end of the season so odds are it aint over yet.

This morning, however, it’s all the way up to 27 degrees above zero, on the way to a high of…. Well, only 29. But that should feel pretty good. And we’re only supposed to get a few snow fluffies today (of course they lied to us yesterday, so you can’t count on it). I’m gonna have to get out there and clean up the driveway while it’s warm out. It’s gotten a bit narrow, and I’ll probably need to take the plow off so I can use the bucket to move the snow around – the pile at the end of the driveway is way higher than the car now, so it’s kinda hard to see what’s coming.

After today they say things will cool off again – and then get warm! They predict a high of 47 for next Friday! Of course, they tend to change their minds on that stuff. Today, 47. Tomorrow, 43, Monday 39 and by next Wednesday it’ll be a high of 12 and 15″ of snow. So we’ll see what really happens.

Still, we’re more than half way through February now, so in a couple of weeks it’ll be March, and if I see my shadow on March 2nd, it means there’ll only be six more weeks of winter.

We watched the first three (or maybe even four) episodes of the second “season” of House of Cards last night. I won’t spoil it for you, but there was a bit of a shocker right there in episode 1 (or 14, depending on how you’re counting). Not sure how long we can make this last, so I hope Orange is the New Black comes out soon.

Oh well, time for some more coffee, and then maybe a nap.

We were told that this latest winter storm (which the Weather Channel has decided to lamely label “Pax” – I mean, if you’re up to “P”, why not go for Patrick?) would stay well to the east of us, and we’d only get a few inches of snow. Like maybe four, tops (ha – Four Tops). It appears that we were lied to.

While we didn’t get as much as a lot of places, it’s looking like we got something like a foot of snow. It’s hard to tell ‘cuz it’s too dark for me to see, but based on what I can see on the back porch it looks like I’ll have to get out there and plow the driveway so UPS can get in so my wife can get out. What a pain.

OK, just got back in from plowing. There was way more snow than I thought, and while they said it was supposed to stop snowing by sunrise, it appears we were lied to yet again, ‘cuz it’s still snowing out there. Just spent over an hour out there in the cold and wind, and am pretty darn stiff (and not in a good way) and cold. I really need to get a plow truck this summer.

Yesterday, it was sunny all day long and it didn’t even snow (which you’d think would be kind of a redundant statement, but I’ve seen it snow on a sunny day – which I think is a lost CCR verse).  And after a rather chilly (as in, below zero) start, it got all the way up into the 20s  (which, let me tell those of you who live where it’s warm all the time, felt pretty darn good).  It appears the snow will be back today, though.  No, we’re missing out on this big killer storm coming up the coast – but once it gets north of us, it’s supposed to turn into a nor’easter and bring some snow.  How much is TBD – it all depends on how far east it stays.  Personally, I hope it stays way east.  At least as far away as Utica (no offense, Uticans).

Very scary news – Comcast wants to buy Time Warner.  As much as TWC sucks (at least for teevee), from everything I’ve heard, Comcast is worse.  Glad I have DirecTV, but I have TW for my Internet access.  Please, FCC and DOJ, don’t let this merger happen!

Derek Jeter is retiring after next season.  This is something I’m apparently supposed to care about – especially since I keep reading that Jeter is “classy.”  At least compared to most baseball players in general and the Yankees in particular.

Oh well, I guess I need to get back to work, here.  I’m kinda tired this morning, so it promises to be a long, long day.

My arm hurts too much to do a lot of non work-related typing today, so I figured I’d cheat and do some copying and pasting instead. I’m not terribly hopeful that this will have much of an effect on anything, but what the hell. It’s either this, find some cutesy YouTube video of Shirley Temple singing Animal Crackers in my Soup, or wish Sarah Palin a happy 50th birthday.

Today — Tuesday, February 11th — thousands of websites and groups are protesting online as part of The Day We Fight Back against mass surveillance.

Since June, ongoing revelations about the NSA’s activities have shown us the expanding scope of government surveillance. Today is the day. People around the world are demanding an end to mass spying. Click here to take part.

A broad coalition of organizations, companies, and individuals are loudly voicing their stance against unwarranted mass spying—over 6,000 websites have joined together today to demand reform. Countless users—represented by groups like EFF, Demand Progress, ACLU, PEN, and Access, as well as companies like Google, Twitter, Mozilla, and reddit—demand reform to governmental collection of innocent users’ information.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen the Internet as a political force make waves in Washington. From our defeat of the Internet censorship bill SOPA to our battles over CISPA, and the TPP, history has shown that we can activate our networks to beat back legislation that threatens our ability to connect, as well as champion bills that will further our rights online.

Click here to join today’s effort by placing a call, sending an email, or signing a petition — it’ll just take a minute or two.

We can win this. We can stop mass spying. With public opinion polls on our side, unprecedented pressure from presidential panels and oversight boards, and millions of people speaking out around the world, we’ve got a chance now to change surveillance policy for good.

Last year, we were presented with a new opportunity—an opportunity in the form of leaks that showed us the truth about deeply invasive surveillance programs around the world. This is the year we make good on that opportunity. Let’s ensure that sacrifices made by whistleblowers and risks taken by brave journalists were not done in vain.

Join us in fighting back. Click here to make a call, send an email, or sign a petition to key decision-makers.

If we keep fighting, we will win.

I’ve never had anything against Denmark. Other than Hamlet, who really spends time thinking about the not so great Danes? Now, however, I have to say fuck you to Denmark in general and the Copenhagen zoo in particular. That’s about all I can bring myself to say about the giraffe, other than there was no fucking reason for it. Moving along….

Apparently some kid who plays football for Missouri has come out of the closet and is openly gay – and very likely to be the first openly gay NFL player. So good for him – and good for his teammates, who he apparently told last year, and who apparently don’t give a shit (and why would they).

I never heard of him (no surprise there – it’s rare I know of any college player who doesn’t play for SU, unless it’s some asshole like what’s his name who won the Heisman last year or that Jesus-loving guy who was a quarterback that throws the ball like my sister. Scratch that – my sister doesn’t have a lot of range, but she can at least throw a spiral), but he’s apparently good (which means the Jets will probably draft him and then trade him to the Browns for Brandon Weedon or something really dumb like that).

In this morning’s game of “what’s wrong with me today?” the big winner is: my right elbow. I had some pain in my elbow towards the end of last week (by “some pain” I mean if I touched the pointy part, it felt as though somebody was jabbing me with an ice pick), but over the weekend things escalated. It hurts to both bend it and to straighten it out (still hurts to touch, too). Makes putting on a shirt or a jacket rather painful (but, hey, who needs a jacket this time of year, right?).

The pain has now radiated up into my upper arm, which is just aching pretty much all the time. Fortunately, it’s my right arm, which I only use for, like, everything.

I’m going with tendonitis on this one – and most definitely work-related. Particularly after reading the “5 Weird Things Your Desk Job May Be Doing To Your Body” story at the Huff Post. Though I’m not sure “weird” is the adjective I’d use. I’d have probably titled the article, “How Your Desk Job is Fucking Killing You One Piece at a Time.”

After I read it, I found I was in the “Oprah Winfrey” section of the Huff Post (which I didn’t realize existed), so I’m not sure if I’m allowed to have these complaints or not (also explains #3 on the list “The area between your neck and your bra strap is a wall of tension”).

Yeah it is.

In fact, I pretty much have everything on the list (other than I don’t need a bra – yet).

From there I moseyed on over to another list (they love their lists) – “14 Little Ways To Make Your Spouse’s Day”

1) In the winter, start the car while your spouse is getting ready for work. Nothing beats a nice, toasty car on an ice-cold morning.

We have a garage – what, they want us to get carbon monoxide poisoning?

2) Kiss first thing in the morning before you even get out of bed. There’s no better way to start the day!

First, yeah, there is a better way to start the day, and if I woke my wife up for that, I’d probably get punched in the face.

3) Greet your husband or wife at the front door as soon as he or she gets home from work — or anywhere.

This is what we have dogs for.

4) Hide little gifts around the house. Treasure hunt, anyone?

The dogs and cats hide enough “little gifts” around the house as it is.

5) Carry the laundry baskets to and from the laundry room when your wife is pregnant (or any time, really).

I do my laundry, she does hers. If she carried may laundry basket to the laundry room, I’d never be able to find it.

6) Text each other from work in the morning just to say “I love you” and “Have a great day”.

We do this – except our texts are usually something like “I hate this fucking place.”

7) Stock the fridge with your spouse’s favorite food or drink.

Far be it for me to argue with that one.

8) Bring your love breakfast in bed. Because breakfast eaten underneath a comforter always tastes the best.

It’s a pain in the ass to sit in bed and eat. I prefer a table. Besides, who wants crumbs working their way up into all your crevasses?

9) Make the coffee in the morning. Bonus points if you put out the cream and sugar, just the way your spouse likes it.

We’ve come to the stage in our marriage where, I’m afraid, we have made the move to separate coffee makers. And if either one of us took our coffee with anything in it other than coffee, we’d have never gotten married in the first place.

10) Have an early morning cuddle session. If the dog jumps in, all the better.

Yeah, you can toss a couple cats in there, too.

11) Put a sweet Post-it note in your spouse’s lunch box. A simple midday “I love you” will instantly turn your husband or wife’s frown upside-down.

I only bring a thermos of soup-type stuff. A post-it note would get all slimy and nasty.

12) Write a cute message in dry erase marker on the bathroom mirror. It puts a smile on your spouse’s face before he or she even gets in the shower!

Smile? More like “what’s this shit all over the mirror that I now have to clean up?”

13) If you have small kids, get up first and change the baby’s morning diaper.

First one up let’s the dogs out. Close enough, right?

14) Make dinner and do the dishes.

We’re kinda “do-it-yourselfers.” I bought her a dishwasher, that should count.

Oh, crap. Getting late. Guess I better get going.