Beep Beep!

Just a year or two off, but who's counting?
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A few of the gifts I received today?

A gazillion and one birthday wishes on Facebook. I'm truly blessed with wonderful friends.

A stunning decor suggestion from Og.

A Master Class in prose from Leeann:

This demonspawn is obviously the love child of Joan Crawford at her frothing finest and the Honey Badger. She’s the only 4 year old I’ve seen that has the voice of a chain-smoking dock worker. She is the dark underbelly of what happens when breeding is left to amateurs. If we airdropped Makenzie’s rhinestoned ass into Afghanistan, the war would be over the next day. If we sent Makenzie to live one day with each teenage girl in America, the teen pregnancy rate would drop to zero. If we wait long enough, most likely the pits of Hell will open up and reclaim her.

Fried butter on a stick.

The race card.

Fantastic news in the fight against leukemia.

A heads-up from my pal Donna:

If you are a LinkedIn user, you may want to act on this quickly. In classic social network style, LinkedIn has borrowed from Facebook’s playbook on abusing your privacy. They’ve made agreements with advertisers and defaulted your LinkedIn account’s privacy settings. Unless you change the default setting, advertisers have permission to use your LinkedIn name, photo and posts in their ads. In effect, this makes you an implied endorser of a company, product or service without your explicit consent.

To change your settings, do the following:

Go to LinkedIn and sign into your account. In the upper right and side of the window you’ll see a small hyperlink for your name.

Click on your name and click Settings from the drop down menu.

Go to the bottom left of the window and click on Account (icon is a small grey shield)
Just left of that, a list will appear for PRIVACY CONTROLS. Under that, click Manage Social Advertising and remove the check from the box.

You may also want to click Turn On/Off Enhanced Advertising and remove the check from that box too…depends on your feeling about ads you receive.

When’s the last time you heard of anything more snake-oily than ‘enhanced advertising’?

A very naughty, very funny gift from Ray at Finish the Book, George:



A new dive to visit!

A mention from Oom Keesie with a request for pictures of lips.

When a man describes one as "Da driver of some serious sex and common sense" you've gotta ante up.

(Oom Keesie? I do not think that Hillary is wanking at you. Or maybe she is. Come to think of it, she's probably got the equipment for it.)
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Happy birthday to me!

Who Said...

... no good deed goes unpunished?

I promoted an Etsy shop last week because I really love their gorgeous, girly jewelry... and I come home to find these (or the next closest thing) in my mailbox with a lovely thank-you note:

Girly, pretty, totally romantic! I'm going to have to go shopping because I want something soft and feminine in heather grey and another something in burgundy lace to wear with these gorgeous ear bobs.

To the wonderful folks at A Pocket Full of Posies -- thanks for the totally unexpected and greatly appreciated birthday gift!

(To my gentlemen readers -- A gift from APFOP will make your own lady feel totally appreciated. Bookmark and use them for Christmas, birthday, Valentine's Day or "just because" gifting. Your lady will be impressed with your good taste and flattered that you see her as feminine enough to rock this gorgeous stuff.)

Again, many thanks!
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UPDATE: It wasn't a gift from APFOP after all. Even better, it was from my beautiful daughter. I wore them right away, and felt absolutely beautiful in them! (But it does pay to post your wish list!)

Drive-Bys

A fixture from my childhood here in Chicago has turned 90. Happy Birthday to Dr. Lester Fisher, who introduced us to The Ark in the Park at Lincoln Park Zoo!

And since my most persistent ear worm has returned due to these memories, I'm passing it on to you:


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Mark your calendars for November, when Rob Kroese's next book in the Mercury series lands! I loved the first one, and can't wait for the new one to arrive!
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Things I won't be doing this weekend? Going to WingFest (Wah! No PB&J wings!) or to the IKC Dog Show, where I'll bet you Hickory and several of the best in Group from Westminster will put in an appearance.

I will, however, be at the Irish American Heritage Center working the box office for That Was Then on Saturday and Sunday. See you there?

Drive-Bys

My Magic Cheezburger and I have awesome predictive powers when I comes to Carol Mosley Braun's chances of landing her butt in the Mayor's chair here in the Windy City.

I'm giving her style points for her latest blooper:

At a debate on Sunday at Trinity United Church of Christ, Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins said Braun was returning to Chicago politics after having been “missing in action and lost somewhere” — and Braun responded by saying, “Patricia, the reason you didn’t know who I was for the last 20 years is because you were strung out on crack. I was not strung out on crack. I don’t have a record.”

Watkins, who has acknowledged using pot and coke as a teenager, says she’s been sober for 25 years and has demanded an apology.More comments from around the town on Braun's

“This says a lot about her character,” Watkins said.

Or lack thereof.

More comments from around the town on Mosely Braun and her big mouth:

• Approximately 20 percent of Chicago voters say they’re planning to vote for Braun. She’s still a huge long shot to upset Rahm Emanuel, but the fact that one of five of my fellow voting citizens believe she’s the best person for the job is more daunting than the Storm of the Century looming over us.
  
• The question, you said Jan. 14, is one of temperament. Thanks for displaying yours now, when voters see it implode.
  
• [T]here was nothing to be gained for Braun by responding with an attack on Van Pelt-Watkins, a minor candidate in all the polling so far. Braun's dwindling hopes depend on softening up and prying away Van Pelt-Watkins supporters, and are further eroded by antagonizing them.
  
• Is it too late to coin the terms "crackusation?"

P.S. -- I asked my Magic Cheezburger what were Mosley Braun's chances of beating out Emanuel and Chico in the mayoral race. Cheezburger sez, "SRY. I EATED IT." (I'll bet you the leaders of the black community that pushed so hard for her to be the "unity" candidate wish they had a Magic Cheezburger of their own and had consulted it a long time ago.)

Update: Ms. Mosley Braun offers up an apology to everyone but the one person she owes it to."

I want to apologize to her, to the congregations and members of Trinity United Church and of New Pilgrim Missionary Baptist church and all of the families and friends of those who are or who have been caught up in the tragedy of drug use. I meant no disrespect of the sanctuaries in which campaign tensions spilled over.

She gives the word "ungracious" a whole new face.
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One hundred and eighty degrees in the opposite direction of black women in Illinois politics is Toni Preckwinkle, on whom I am developing a tremendous girl crush:

“The proposed budget represents the first step of a restructuring of county finances for a long-term plan that will address the structural deficit and lay the groundwork for the rollback of the sales-tax increase,” Preckwinkle said. “We must break the habits that got us here. We must build a new foundation to stabilize our finances.”

You go, girl! (Can we clone her a couple of times and send one to Springfield and the other to the White House???)
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While this news is not good, it does not in the least take away from the fact that a toddler would not be dead if his mother hadn't left him alone to play in the hallway of a hotel while she fooled around with her boyfriend:

A switch used by a 2-year-old boy to open an elevator door before he fell down the shaft last week should have been locked up, Joliet’s chief building inspector said Monday.

David Mackley said the exposed switch in the Plaza Hotel elevator car was a code violation. He told a city council committee that the switch either should have been in a shielded case or the device should have required a key to operate.

This whole mess saddens and enrages me in equal parts.
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Cool Quotes of the Day:

• Roethlisberger is to role model what Snooki Polizzi is to classy.
  
• Sheriff’s Police are ruling out a phone malfunction for the disconnection.
  
• They’ve even narrowed down names for their twins. “They won’t be crazy names like Carburetor or something,” he says. “But they’re definitely unique.”
  
• What the hell is Whoopi wearing? It looks like a Snuggie.

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The last living WWI veteran, Frank Woodruff Buckles, turns 110 today. God bless him!
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In the middle of the biggest recession in a long time, Caterpillar's workers take this brilliant step:

Union members at Caterpillar Inc. facilities in Illinois and three other states have authorized the United Auto Workers to strike if necessary.

This is why it took my father-in-law 30 years to get fully vested in a 20 year pension/retirement benefit.
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I'm heading home. Wish me luck.

More later!
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Update: Strike that heading home thingie. I'm on the reception desk until 5:30 p.m. Yahoo.
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Anyone who thinks having the Muslim Brotherhood in charge in Egypt seriously needs to rearrange their thinking:

A leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt told the Arabic-language Iranian news network Al-Alam on Monday that he would like to see the Egyptian people prepare for war against Israel, according to the Hebrew-language business newspaper Calcalist.

There's your religion of peace for you.

And, by the way...

If Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is toppled, Israel will lose one of its very few friends in a hostile neighborhood and President Barack Obama will bear a large share of the blame, Israeli pundits said on Monday.

This is unbelievably awful foreign policy on the part of the U.S.
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Tootin' the Horn

Eric and Jimbo and Dave...



Birthday smooches (both belated and on time) to all of you!

Tootin' the Horn

Harvey makes birthday shopping easy:

[T]his year I was wondering what to ask for and drawing a blank. But I was pruning some of the dead links off my sidebar (which, apparently, I haven't done since 2005) when I noticed that the section labelled "USEFUL TOOLS" (right side, way towards the bottom) needs more links.

So, that's what I want.

Links to web sites that belong in the "USEFUL TOOLS" section of my sidebar.

Alrighty, then! I'm gifting him with one of my favorite sites -- The Awesomer -- which features tons of cool and useful tools... like this:



Happy 44th, Harvey!

Cat's Meow

The only cool cat I know who participates in the Friday dance party instigated by Jihad Gene is Billy Sweetfeets Gingersnap Norton, who is three today. At his request, in honor of his "purrfday" I offer up this dance...

... this appe-teaser...

... and this bit of premium nip...


Happy Purrfday, Darling Billy!

Love,

MissieAuntieLeslie

P.S. -- Watch your mailbox!

Sign of the Times

Yep.
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Update: I got a birthday bonus from my girl Betty and my guy Craig!

Tootin' The Horn

El Capitan is celebrating another birthday. Go send him best wishes or I'll make you swab the poop deck and walk the plank or other such piratical nonsense. Argh!

Tootin' The Horn

My Meezer Mom pal is having a birthday today. I hope it's a really happy one... and that the boys -- Miles, Sammy and Nicky and especially Billy, who likes to break for the street any time a door opens -- behave themselves for 24 hours.

And Happy Gotcha Day to my lovely Miles!

Lighting the Candles

Someone very dear to me is having a big 5-0 birthday tomorrow. Head on over to Nancy's place and drop birthday wishes in her comments.

As for me... I have a little something up my sleeve I think she'll like!

Happy birthday, Miss Nancy!

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Update: Score! (Yes, I do pay attention to what people say.)