Idle Ramblings of a Slightly Mad Man

We have a teabagger in the family.  She love a good teabag.  She does all she can to get a good teabag. 

All you perverts can get you minds out of the gutter now.  I was not making reference to that kind of teabagging.  I was talking about the new kitten we have.  She loves teabags.  Used or unused bags are playthings to her but her love is unused teabags.  She also likes to poke her head into my tea mugs or cups and drink my tea.  I would swear she has a little English in her.

Let me just tell you, my four loyal readers, I am a tea drinker.  I drink iced tea all day long.  I will consume a gallon of iced tea a day.  I drink hot tea too.  I love a good English Breakfast tea or an Irish Breakfast tea in the morning.  I enjoy a Darjeeling in the night.  I usually have about a dozen different types of tea in my kitchen at any one time. 

Knowing that my kitten loves teabags I have been very diligent in making sure that I promptly dispose of any used teabags and I usually keep all of my teas in sealed canisters for freshness.  The kitten is using her head.  Literally!  She is using her head to wedge off the lids to get to the teabags to bat them about the house.  I bought some Prince of Wales tea yesterday and I forgot to secure the box in the canister and as a result I found the box ripped open and the teabags all over the house this morning.  I have one bag left. 

Thankfully she does not mess with my loose tea.  That would be a huge mess to clean up.  And expensive too.

On the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the news media reports how the people of New Orleans are disgusted with the lack of support from the government.  People are wondering where is all this money that was promised and when are they going to see it.  Then in the news, I see how the city of New Orleans has decided to give money to a Hurricane Katrina Memorial.  Granted, it is only one million dollars that they are giving but that is one million that could go to something else that would better serve the city. 

I have to wonder why no one has complained.  This is one million that can help rebuild, or clean up destroyed neighborhoods, or help the police department buy equipment.  The city does not need a memorial right now.  People are crying that the government is not doing anything and now I can see why.  Money is being wasted on things like memorials when that much needed money could/should be used for the city to get back on it’s feet. 

New Orleans, you need to get your city back on it’s feet first and then build a memorial later.  Maybe it’s 5 years from now maybe it is 10 but until the city is back up and running 100% money should be spent more wisely and memorials should be on hold.

Senator Larry Craig has made big news over his regret to plead guilty in connection to the airport bathroom incident.  I am curious as to why this is now big news.  The incident happened in June, was mentioned in the media in June, but it was not until yesterday that it made “Big News”. 

As I read more about this story and the actual account of what transpired, I learned more and more about how these solicitations and signals work.  Little did I know that a wide sitting stance and running your hand under the stall wall were signals.  I was suprised to learn these things. 

That being said, I travel extensively for work.  I am flying often to Chicago, West Palm Beach, Boston and taking the train to NYC and Richmond just to name a few.  I often use the public restrooms mostly because I get the window seats and hate to disturb others on the flight.  So I just camel it up and use the restroom when I get into the terminal.  Now I am wondering if I have ever been signaled when I have been in the restroom.  Since I never knew the signals I did not know what to look for.  I may have been hit on and never knew it.  I wonder if I ever accidentally sent the wrong signals when in the restroom.  I wonder if now I would be better off making the people sitting in my row on the plane get up and let me out to use the restroom on the plane.  I wonder if I can camel it up until I get to the hotel next time.  Maybe I should just invest in adult diapers for travel. 

Damn you Craig!!!!!  Why did you have to do this and mess with my mind!!!!! 

Cereals used to have great prizes in the boxes.  They don’t anymore.  Today’s cereal either does not have prizes or they have really cheap prizes.

Growing up, I remember I used to have to fight my sister for the prize out of the cereal box.  I remember that I would have to wake up early just to open the new box of cereal to get the prize before my sister did.   But what I really remember about cereal prizes has to do with my father.

It was about 15 years ago and my family and a few friends were on vacation in Chincoteague Virginia.  During the Month of July they have Pony Penning and carnival.  Like all carnivals they have games that you can play and you can win cheesey little toys.  My sister and her friends won several of these little toys.  My friends and I, up extremely late for teenage boys thought it would be very funny to play a joke on my father by putting these toys in his cereal. 

My father was a cereal eater.  He loved to eat cereal.  We always had cereal in the house, especially Kix.  Kix was his favorite.  Vacation was no exception.  So this particular morning he wakes up and wanders to the kitchen of the house we were renting and gets out his bowl, the milk and the cereal and sits at the table.  By this time me and my friends had sneaked down to the room adjacent to the kitchen just to hear his response. 

As he poured out his cereal out comes a little toy.  We could see the confused look on his face as he examined his box of Kix looking for anything that would indicate that there would be a prize in his favorite cereal.  Not finding anything about it on the box, my father puts the prize aside and finishes his bowl of cereal.  My father then pours a second bowl of cereal and out falls a second prize.  Stunned, he pulls the toy out of his cereal bowl and again examines the box for anything that would indicate there were toy prized in his favorite cereal. 

At this point in time me and my friends are doing all we can to keep from laughing so loud that my father would hear us.  Looking in the kitchen we found my father with his arm in the cereal box looking for more toys.  Each time after finding a prize  my father would return to the box of cereal digging deeper in search for more.  In all my father found five toys hidden in his cereal box.  He had made a mess of the box of cereal.  There was little Kix cereals all over the table and floor that had fallen out of the box during his digging. 

My mom had come down to the kitchen for her morning coffee to find cereal all over the place, toys on the table and my father confused.  She asked what had happened and my father started to explain.  His best line was that he thought the cereal company had made a few mistakes because Kix was not supposed to have toys in the box and that not only did it have a prize but it had five in the box. 

My friends and I could not contain ourselves at that point and just roared with laughter.  After discovering that we were the culprits that put the toys in the box he found it very humorous. 

It is a shame that today’s cereal does not have prizes.  Today’s children will not know the joys that come with cereal toys. 

How does one follow up Shamelessly plugging his own blog?  I really have no idea.  I had no big grand follow up.  I do know that after spending the weekend plugging this blog I hit a high of over 100 views each day.  That has pushed up my total visits to over 2000.  Hopefully this poor pitiful blog will continue to grow.  Anyway, I will try to come up with something grand to post.  Time to put my thinking cap on and look around for some inspiration. 

I have just received an award for this blog.  I consider this a great honor.  What a thrill it is to have won. 

Teeni at vaguetarian tea room has awarded me the Teeni Tiny Shameless Plug Award for shamelessly plugging myself over the last few days.  What can I say?  I admit that is was done to try to get my readership up.  I’m shameless!  Basically, I am whoring myself out there. 

Anyway, thanks for the award.  First I would like to thank God for giving me the talent to do what it is that I do. I would like to thank my manager, my producer, my assistants, the acadamy, my driver, my lighting people, the makeup people, the shoes that I wear, my mom and dad, Goodyear, Ford, Interstate Batteries, Yeungling Beer, Pepsi, the musicians, those that provide me material for my blog, and all those that read it.

Thank you.  Thank you all.  Please pass the word along about this blog.  Please remember to tip your waiters and waitresses, return your seats and trays to an upright position, and make sure you check to make sure you turned off the stove before you leave the house. 

Two reasons why I am posting this.  First reason is because I am trying an experiment in visibility.  Hopefully, some new people will read this when they surf the WordPress Tags and be intrigued enough to read this.  If you are one of these people then read more of the other posts below, make a comment, add me to your blogroll and come visit regularly.  I have about 4 regular readers and I am looking to have one or two more, or at least one more. 

The second reason is that I really had nothing else to post about today.  I have had a really boring 24 hours and nothing really interesting happening going on. 

So there you have it.  A post of nothing but a shameless plug for myself. 

Two reasons why I am posting this.  First reason is because I am trying an experiment in visibility.  Hopefully, some new people will read this when they surf the WordPress Tags and be intrigued enough to read this.  If you are one of these people then read more of the other posts below, make a comment, add me to your blogroll and come visit regularly.  I have about 4 regular readers and I am looking to have one or two more, or at least one more. 

The second reason is that I really had nothing else to post about today.  I have had a really boring 24 hours and nothing really interesting happening going on. 

So there you have it.  A post of nothing but a shameless plug for myself. 

The sign says “Please Ring Bell”.  That was all it said.  So I rang the bell and kept walking. 

You see these signs all over.  Very simple handwritten signs that say “Please Ring Bell”.  It comes off to me like a command, a directive.  It is telling me to ring the bell.  So I ring the bell.

I did this once at a CVS.  The clerk was ringing up my purchase and I saw the bell and the sign.  I tapped the bell making it ring and the clerk jumped, suprised that I rang the bell.  She then glared at me angrily so I sheepishly explained that the sign said to ring the bell.  She proceeded to tell me that the bell was only to be rung if there was not a cashier at the counter and a customer needed service.  I pointed out that the sign did not say that.  The sign just simply said “Please Ring Bell” and that if it was only for service then it should say that.  After my transaction I walked out of the CVS never giving it another thought.  I did return a few days later to that same CVS and noticed that the sign was changed at the bell and now read “Please Ring Bell For A Cashier.” 

So yesterday I am walking down this hallway in a building that houses different professional services and I notice a sign on the wall outside of the door.  The sign said “Please Ring Bell”.  It was a simple request so I did and I kept walking.  A woman comes out the door and comes chasing after me.  She was clearly disturbed by my ringing the bell and she loudly informed me that she is running a daycare there and I had disrupted the class by ringing the bell and walking off.  Puzzled, I asked her if I would have caused her any less of a disruption if I had rung the bell and not walked off.  Unamused by my questioning she demanded to know why I would pull off such a childish stunt.  I politely explained my reasoning and how her sign more or less requested that I must ring the bell.  She then explained to me for the third time that the bell was for enterance to the daycare and was not to be pulled as a prank.  I told her that if she wanted the bell to be rung only by people gaining entry to her daycare then her sign should be written in a way that will prevent any future confusion from people like me.

Wouldn’t you know that I walked through there this morning and the sign now reads “To Enter The Daycare Please Ring The Bell”

Daddy mole, Momma mole and Baby mole were all going up the mole hole when Daddy mole stops suddenly.  What are Mommy mole and Baby mole doing?  Sniffing molasses