Ebay seller mentality

I don't know about the people who make ebay a business, but I know that the few times I have sold something on ebay I check my listings many times a day. What makes me do that? the item doesn't close for 4 more days, but I check it 3 or 4 times a day, every day. I do it even though I know most bids come in the last two days. Still, I check the counters and see how many people are watching the item. will they sell? Will my watching the pot prevent it from boiling? I'll know in 4 days.....

More info on implant surgery

After doing a little more research, it appears that this benefit has been around for a while, but recently made the news. A related article appeared on the Reuters wire yesterday. Check out Porn star tells U.S. military "bullets, not boobs"

And here is the New Yorker article, that seems to have started the whole controversy: Chest Out, Stomach In: All That You Can Be.

To quote CBS News -- "Semper cute and perky?"

My husband told me a story about objections to a current government policy were in the Wall Street Journal. The military is luring young female recruits with offers of breast implants. I didn't believe him completely, but it's true. Check out this CBS News story:

Semper Cute and Perky? by Lloyd Garver.

I agree with the column -- what's next...

Is my cat Jewish?

So I realized this evening that the kitty Atkins diet is pure pork. I can serve my cat pork because I can get benefit from it even if I can't eat it, but I can't get even get benefit from a mixture of milk and meat.

Anyway, I just realized that maybe my cat isn't eating because it's pork?

Neah -- couldn't be........

More kitty troubles -- or how to prep a cat for a urine test

The vet's office called the house yesterday when I was out, but my husband was home. They wanted me to bring Caroline in for a urine test. My husband let me know that he had made an appointment for 7:30 Monday evening. That's fine, I'm thinking, except now I am going to terrify the cat again. She hated the first visit, and now I have to take her back.

Then he tells me the kicker. I have to keep her from urinating for 2 hours before the appointment! How the hell do you keep a cat from urinating? "By the way, Caroline, you have to go to the Vet, so please don't pee for two hours." ?? That's going to go over big. That is also the reaction of everyone to whom I have told this story. There is a solution, or so the vet's office says, close the door to the room containing the litter box.

So that's what I am going to do on Monday afternoon -- close the door to the litterbox. But I can just see all the possible drawbacks. The cat will pee on the carpet in the house. The cat will pee in the car -- even worse! The cat will pee on the bench waiting in the vet's office, or the cat won't pee once the technician gets his hands on her. Finally, the cat will be scared sh*tless, literally and figuratively!!

Oh, and the poor kitty still doesn't like Atkins.

Kitty Atkins

This is Day three of Atkins for my cat Caroline, and she is still resisting. She mews outside my door to be fed, but still doesn't eat very much when the food gets in front of her. I am not worried yet, she is drinking, and a few days with less food won't hurt her, but if by Monday she isn't eating, it's time to call the Vet again.

Protests at the Olympics

Does politics have a place in international sporting events?

Early in the competition, an Iranian competitor in judo declared that he would not fight an Israeli athlete because he did not recognize Israel as a country, and then proceeded to get out of his fight by failing to make the weight limit.

Protest has always intruded on the games. Think of Hitler and Jesse Owens. Of black power and fists raised in the air. Of massacres at Munich. Of boycotts by the USSR and the United States. Athletes have protested Zimbabwe, Israel, South Africa, Australia for playing South Africa in preparation, and for various other reasons.

As Americans, we strongly believe in free speech. But wouldn't the Iranian athlete have made a much stronger statement if he had fought the Israeli and won? By all accounts he was much better at Judo. Should countries force their athletes to express political opinions in this way? There is at least some suggestion that he was "persuaded" not to fight.

For more on this situation and the IOC response/non-response, take a look at this recent feature from the Toronto Star. Should the IOC ignore the situation? Does interfering here only bring more politics to the Olympics? I do not have any answers....

Cat Torture: Episode 2

My cat isn't eating much. She has gone from dry food to canned, and everyone tells me cats like canned better, but she is not eating the way she used to. Does it take 2 weeks for cats to get used to the Atkins diet the way it does for humans?

Mug shot vs glamor shot

My daughter's picture from the intranet at her new job. For a different look, see Jessi's blog. For an even prettier photograph, if you work at PPC, there's the one on my desk.

Quotes of the day

I get a daily email from Quotes of the Day. Yesterday's was blocked by spam filters all over the country, including PPC. It was the birthday of two female stars oftened called "sex symbols" and the quotations were about sex. I had to go to the archives to read them because PPC's spam filter rejected them as well. There was one that I thought was true, and one that I thought was hillarious. The true one was:

Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading sex manuals without the software. - Arthur C. Clarke

The hillarious one (that may also be true) was:

There are a number of mechanical devices which increase sexual arousal, particularly in women. Chief among these is the Mercedes-Benz 380SL convertible. - P. J. O'Rourke

Mindset transitions?

My daughter started her first full-time job today. She graduated from college in May. She was very excited. Of course she is, the real world is new and exciting. She also heard that she got the apartment she wanted in DC, so that is also good.

I had a question though. How long before she realizes that this isn't one more summer job, that there are no more 30 day winter vacations and 2-3 month summer vacations. How long does it take before reality sets in, and does it depend on whether she loves what she is doing?

Cat Torture?

I had to take my adorable kitty to the vet today. Actually, Caroline is almost 10 years old, and fairly overweight. The poor cat was terrified. She saw me get the leash (I haven't mastered the cat carrier in 10 years) and fled under a king size bed, huddled against the wall, only her yellow eyes glowing. When I tricked her into coming down by opening a can of tuna fish, she found herself trapped, harnassed, and carried to the car. She mewed all the way to the vet, shedding copiously, mewed all the time she was at the vet, and continued to shed, and then finished the ignominy by peeing on the counter while I was paying the bill. I felt terribly for her, but still. Here I was in my work clothes, not wanting to get this damned wet cat anywhere near me, and her back claws are out and getting hooked in the threads of my blouse. What a scene. When we got home she immediately lay down in the center of the kitchen floor and started to clean herself. I suspect I will get a cold shoulder when I get home again.

Just wait -- more indignities are to follow. My fat cat is going on a kitty version of Atkins. First, it was heart problems, and kitty heart workups, including ultrasounds and kitty stress tests, then it was heart medication, cut into quarters to get the right dose, now it's kitty Atkins. This should be fun -- NOT!

Liar, Liar

Ask anyone who knows me, I have a very difficult seventeen-year-old son. He was an adorable baby, and little boy -- most children are. His teachers started to suspect learning issues early in school, but he is very bright, and an auditory learner, and hid things until 4th grade. He was diagnosed then with severe learning disabilities -- dyslexia and dysgraphia to name a few -- and the odyssey began. He has moved from school to school, started acting out at home and in school, become violent and depressed, separately and at the same time, and learned to survive any way he could.

Now, he is a senior in high school -- on his 5th school since kindergarten, probably bipolar, taking a cocktail of medications, with two suicidal gestures and 4 hospitalizations behind him, and a chronic and habitual liar. Over the summer, he added smoking to the mix.

His father has vascilated between draconia punishments, blaming everyone in sight, depression, over-indulgence, and running away. I have tried believing everything he tells me until I am forced to see the light, then I get depressed and disappointed, and it spills over into the rest of my life. I give punishments that I try hard to make "fit the crime" but then sometimes I lift them earlier because he promises never to do it again. Today, I finally saw that once again, my son had lied to me to do what he wanted, and only confessed when he knew he was caught red-handed. I ended up taking away his credit card. I don't know what I do about the spending money issue, but I do know I won't support or pay for smoking. So what do I do when he lies to me the next time?

How do I manage this out of control child. How do I deal with life the way it is, not the way I wish it were. Don't ask me, I don't have any solutions. If I were really 25, or even 30, I wouldn't be dealing with these issues yet. All those movies about being 13 and waking up 25? I wish I were 45 and waking up 23....