This week has been a crappy one, critter-wise. Yesterday, my sister lost one of her cats. He was pretty ancient (over 20, so he goes back to my parents. Now we have no critters left that knew them), but that doesn’t make it any easier, of course. He was more or less blind, but his sniffer still worked good. Lately, he spent most of his time on his memory foam pillow in front of the pellet stove, occasionally taking a swipe at the other cat if she was dumb enough to get close (not so with the dogs; he loved them all, and they’d routinely slurp him). I’m really hoping that a period of happiness will now settle in. Oh well, time to clean out the garage or something.

I guess everybody saw that the FBI for some reason released its file on Steve Jobs (I didn’t catch if that was the result of a FOIA request or something, but I don’t really see the point). Apparently, he was kind of a self-absorbed dick. Gee, what a shock. I’m glad I never had to pursue a career with the feds and get a security clearance, because I really wouldn’t want to some day read what the people they spoke with had to say about me. I don’t think anybody would say I was a amoral liar or anything, but there may have been a wee bit of both licit and illicit substance abuse in my past. Not saying there is, mind you. Just that the possibility exists (I’m a little fuzzy on the events that transpired between, say, 1978 and 1987. Give or take. And maybe 1991 to 1998).

Rather frequently, the lo-cal morning news will feature some high school or another that’s putting on one of the standard musicals that every freakin’ high school puts on, and then will broadcast them doing a number from the show live, right there on your teevee.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve done my high school musical penance (not to mention band, jazz band, and chorus concerts), and see no reason why I should be subjected to this shit now (especially in the morning). They get my goddamn taxes – is this really necessary?

Speaking of schools, by now you’ve certainly heard of this rather disgusting case of child abuse at the Miramonte Elementary School. As I understand it, the school district had wind of this for, like, a year, and they allowed this guy to keep teaching there while they investigated it. Then there were accusations about a coupe of other teachers there. And now, in the wake of a wee bit of criticism over that, school administrators have said, “fuck it” and fired everybody. Now, I’m all for firing child abusers and putting them in jail, but this strikes me as a slight overreaction.

I haven’t really been paying attention, though, so perhaps there are more facts and a rationale that I’m not aware of. But if you start firing the entire staff at every school, church, and company in the country every time you find a pervert on the payroll, all of us will be out of a job pretty quick (not to mention the government will have to shut down and the Supreme Court will have to close its doors). I mean, let’s face it, perverts are running rampant out there. Just look at the frothy mixture of candidates for the GOP nomination.

Speaking of perverts, why are people so eager to kiss Catholic ass? I mean, real Christians hate Catholics (even more than they hate Mormons), and consider it a cult. Isn’t it odd that we’ve gone from fearing that the Pope would control the US Government if Kennedy got elected, to, well, demanding that the Pope be allowed to control the US Government because Obama’s been elected?

Four words of advice to Obama and the Democrats:

Fuck the Catholic Church (just make sure you’re using birth control).

I can’t wait for CEOs around the country to claim they’ve seen the light and are converting to Christian Science, and it would be infringing on their religious freedom to make them pay for any health insurance.

So I’m watching the news this morning, and on comes a commercial for PACE CNY. PACE is for Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (personally, I think that’s stretching it a but I guess POAICE doesn’t have much of a ring to it). Anyhow, they showed the requisite old people on the short bus, old people on the wheelchair ramp, old people playing canasta or whatever, and then they say, “…taking care of the elderly 55 and over.” :omg:

OK. Just fucking shoot me now.

Did you hear the most important news of the day? Get ready. Sit down. Here it comes….

Adele is gonna sing again! Yes, that’s right. Adele will sing. Adele. Wait. What? Who?

OK, I know I’m old and out of touch and she’s probably really great. And there was something about “Simon,” which I can only assume is that jackass from the other stupid show. Or something.

Whereas this has been a shitty week, I decided to put a premature end to it, and take today off. I saw my Friday, and then raised it a Monday. So it’s a 4-day weekend for me. This is good, because my wife has been off all week (but has to go in today), and has been able to keep poor confused Fritz company, and I’ll be able to hang with him today. Not that I’m all that much fun for him. He needs a puppy. We’ll have to see what we can do about that.

So it appears that Republicans are going to force a fight over the requirement that employers cover contraception as part of their insurance plans. This is rather curious, as most people (other than the truly crazy, “every sperm is sacred” crowd) are on board with this. The Republicans are, predictably, framing this provision as “an attack on religious freedom,” which is pretty stupid, considering nobody will be forced to use contraception, and, instead, employees who don’t want to breed irresponsibly will have their religious freedoms attacked – all for the crime of working at, say, a Catholic hospital or something. Assuming the Obama Administration isn’t stupid enough to pre-cave on this (a huge assumption, given its previous track record), I think this will turn out to be a real bummer for the GOP – and not a fight that will do them any good in the long run.

Bad news, homos, heathens, and perverts: Rick Santorum stormed through the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and took the non-binding, what the fuck’s the point, Missouri primary. Better make a piacular (today’s word of the day) sacrifice and change your ways, lest the frothy fury of President Santorum rain down upon you. And nobody wants that.

It’s not all good news for the righteous, though. Yesterday, the godless 9th Circuit struck down California’s Prop 8, spouting some kind of cockamamie drivel about people having the right to marry whoever the hell they want. Balderdash, I say. Don’t fret, though. This will end up at the Supreme Court, where Saint Thomas Scalius and his hooded colleagues are sure to set things right.

It’s every-other Wednesday meeting day but, alas, the stupid meeting has been cancelled. It was cancelled last time around, too. I just don’t think this guy is taking this thing seriously anymore. Or perhaps he’s realized it’s a pointless time waster.

Nah, can’t be that.

Oh my gosh, the reviews are in for Madonna’s SB halftime show, and everybody agrees she was FABULOUS! I didn’t actually see her performance, but it’s of course impossible to miss clips of it, no matter how hard you try. I realize I don’t exactly represent mainstream America, but I thought it was, well, stupid. And crappy. And from what I could tell, she wasn’t actually singing. So I think the NFL could have saved itself a lot of money and had the Gay Men’s Chorus of LA dance around a cardboard cutout of her while they played a couple of mp3s. But, hey, to each his or her own.

It was nice to see Boston lose (though Gisele wasn’t too happy; perhaps they ought to hire her to coach the Patriots’ wide receivers next season). And of course it makes it a bit more likely that Tom Coughlin will join his teammates Floyd Little and Larry Csonka in the Hall of Fame some day. So that’s good.

Have you ever seen the stupid “Northern” toilet paper commercial. Well, I need to be more specific, because the ones with the bears are really stupid and strange. I mean, maybe my house was atypical, but my mom never inspected my ass for toilet paper residue.

But they have another one, with several women starting out with one saying it’s “time to get real about what goes on in the bathroom,” and another that says I should think about “what I want” from my toilet paper, and it’s all about “being clean” or some such shit (so to speak).

Um. I think that what I want from my TP is pretty straightforward – and not really brand specific (though I will admit that some are better than others). Basically, I just want something that my fingers won’t poke through (and won’t give me paper cuts). And if you’re using toilet paper to “get clean” then you need some basic hygiene lessons.

Yesterday was one of the most Monday-est of Mondays I’ve ever suffered through. I think work lasted about 63 hours. It was a good one to get out of the way. Hopefully today will be a little bit better.

Yesterday was a tough day for us. We lost Siggy. I was gonna put up a picture of him, but, well, I can’t quite bring myself to look through my pictures right now. To tell you the truth, today actually feels worse than yesterday.

Again this week, I have to ask: “why?” What purpose does it serve to have Rick Lazio as a guest on Bill Maher. Let me be clear, Ricky is nowhere near as annoying as Dana Pigfucker Rohrbacher. He’s just as stupid, though. Maybe even more stupid (assuming there are negative numbers on the IQ scale). I was rather surprised by Suze Orman, though. I never really paid much attention to her before (other than thinking she was an annoying pain in the ass), but I’ll be damned if she didn’t sound like a lefty. Go figure.

Also interesting was Mike Daisey. Bill should probably have had him for the whole hour. I highly recommend you listen to him on This American Life. Listen online, or, if you want to be really ironic (or iRonic), you can get it on iTunes for a buck and listen to it on your iPhone.

It’s Saturday, which is nice. It means I can be exhausted at home, instead of at work. Though I’ll be spending a large part of the day being exhausted at my sister’ house, so I can watch the game (yeah, the SU game; nobody else cares, of course, but it’s about all I’ve got going on that doesn’t suck right now – and that can change at any moment), and so my younger dog can play with his cousins and get away from the stressful house of misery that we have going on with his brother here. He needs a break (and, frankly, so do I).

If I had my shot together, I’d go get some plate steel so I can do some welding later on (or tomorrow). But my shit is typically not together, and today is no different.

God, Rick Lazio really is an idiot. At least he seems capable of keeping his mouth shut. I hope he runs for something.

It’s Friday, and not a day too soon. In fact, it’s a day too late. At least. I was pretty thrilled to see how thrilled Mitt Romney was to get the coveted Trump endorsement. Oh, that Donald. He played pretty coy, didn’t he? He teased Newt rather mercilessly. As Charles Barkley would say, it was “turrible. Just turrible.” But I guess millionaires have to stick together (not that Newt isn’t a millionaire, of course, but he’s been pandering to the socialist wing of the Republican party – which makes you wonder why people seem to think Newt is so smart; I guess that’s just in comparison to the rest of the Republicans). And I’m sure Mitt and Donald both share that whole “I don’t give a shit about the poor” thing.

In other exciting news, I got the welding station attachment for my Jawhorse yesterday. Very exciting indeed. Now I will attempt to fabricate an adapter bracket for my Quick Hitch. It’s been quite a while since I did any welding, and I wasn’t any great shakes at it. My welding experience is strictly related the the 10-week welding course I took back about, oh, maybe 15 years ago. The course consisted of a guy who had a day job welding at a local company who said: “those things over there are welders. Go weld.” And, so, that’s what I did. I stuck pieces of metal together, and got a certificate when it all was over.

My biggest problem was trying to strike an arc while wearing a helmet through which I couldn’t see (until the arc was struck). Consequently, I often struck up an arc on the table, missing my target. I think I laid some of my best beads on the welding table.

But my friend john gave me a 120-volt light-duty stick welder over the summer, so I am determined to use it (which I have not yet done). I really should buy an auto-darkening helmet, but am not sure I want to spend the money for the amount of welding I’ll probably be doing. But, maybe down the road. In addition to my adapter bracket, there’s a leg on my fire pit that needs to be tacked back on.

First, though, I need to get through today.

I had an idea of something to say, but now I have no idea what it was. Lack of sleep will do that, I guess. If you stop hearing from me, it’s probably because I nodded off, went off the road, and died in a fiery car wreck. Not that car wrecks are usually fiery (except on teevee).

The lo-cal weather dude did a comparison of how much snow we typically get here when Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow vs. when he doesn’t (why we outsource this shit to PA, I don’t know; we could use the jobs here, and I’m sure there are plenty of people locally who’d be willing to hang out in a stump for a few hours). Seems that if Phil predicts six more weeks of winter, we average 47″ of snow. Whereas, when he predicts an early spring, we average 49″. So, by my reckoning, that means we average four feet of snow between now and the end of the season. Which I guess is about 40% of our annual average.

Of course, we’ve had a real snow dearth here (no complaints), and have only had like 32″ or something. That doesn’t mean we won’t get another four feet. Hell, we’ve had four feet in one storm before. But we’re just gonna have to hope that doesn’t happen.

I’m hoping things get warm and stay warm.

Well, another January is in the books, and it was a strange one here, as we had hardly any snow, and other than the odd day or two, it was pretty warm. In fact, it was 55 degrees yesterday (it’s actually 55 degrees right now). Even if it all turns to crap right now, we’ve gotten quite a break this year – whether the woodchuck sees his shadow or not.

Mitt Romney stomped Newt Gingrich in Florida yesterday, taking all of the state’s 54 (or something) delegates to the Republican National Convention. Although the circus will continue, Mitt is now the nominee. That’s what everybody says, anyway. So there you have it. Iowa was the biggest thing in the world, but it didn’t really count. Same with New Hampshire. South Carolina was huge for the Newt, but, sadly for him, it doesn’t really count either. Florida. That’s where it’s at.

I don’t really care for Florida, but I’ve only been there a couple of times, so I don’t really know much about it. It’s flat, which I don’t find appealing, since I come from a place with lots of hills. And it’s hot, which maybe would’ve been OK when I was younger, but not something I’m into these days. Though I’d like to be able to use the pool all year long, so that would be an advantage. But from what I see on the teevee, there seems to be a lot of rednecks down there. And serial killers. But I guess there are lots of rednecks and serial killers everywhere these days.

Still, it seems odd that Florida ought to dictate who the potential President is gonna be.

Oh well, I guess maybe I should make some coffee.