For all my cat loving friends out there

And especially for all those cats who have inherited a lot of money from their slightly batty owners! This is terrific. You must turn on your sound to appreciate it :-)
http://www.mollygood.com/celebrities/video/morning-moving-picture-meeeoooww-20061017.php

A message for parents in the Orthodox Jewish Community

Have you hugged your child today?
Have you asked your teenage child where he has been, where she is going, who they are going to be with, what they are going to be doing?
Have you hugged your child today?
Did you sit down at dinner and discuss what happened in school or at the mall today? And didn't take "stuff" for an answer?
Have you hugged your child today?
Have you set a curfew and made your teenager stick to it?
Have you hugged your child today?
Have you told your child once, and then again, and then still again, to "just say no" -- have you also told them to walk away and don't go back?
Have you hugged your child today?
Do you tell your child that you love him, that you will always love her, and that if they need help you will provide it? And then carried through?
Have you hugged your child today?
Are you willing to call your child's bluff? To call the police, to take them to the hospital, to carry through with the drug test?
I have. I am one of the lucky one's. It took me a long time to see, and when I did, I called the bluff. I called the cops. We went to the hospital, and for us it worked, and I can hug my child today.
It doesn't always work, and then we all cry for the lost potential, the lost hope, the lost opportunities.
But what you can't do is close your eyes, to say it doesn't happen here, to say it can't happen to our kids, to say it isn't in our community -- because it is.
Please, hug your child today!

I may never talk to another small child

I like children, especially small ones. My husband calls them OPC, for Other People's Children. I like to talk with them, flirt with them, play with them. Babies are wonderful. I am, of course, very aware of today's climate, and only connect when a parent is present and when it seems most likely that the overture will be acceptable. I don't give advice, and if I can't pay a compliment I make no comment at all.

Late Sunday afternoon my husband and I took our youngest son to the airport. He is spending this week in Northern Israel volunteering to help pick the harvest, and repair damages caused by the recent rocket attacks.

As we were waiting in the check-in line I noticed two adorable little girls, both wearing pink poufed dresses. They had ice blonde hair and looked about 3 and 5. I made a comment to the parents and the mom smiled. We saw the girls and their parents again when we got to the security line. By then our son was close to the scanner, and we were standing outside the barriers. The two little girls were standing right in front of us swinging on the ropes, and smiling up at us. I smiled back. Then the older one opened her mouth, and all my illusions shattered around me.

"Do you have a grandchild?"

I don't want to think that I look old enough to have a grandchild, even to a child young enough to be my grandchild!

The Who -- Any suggestions?

So does anyone have any thoughts as to how I can persuade my husband that I should leave the family thanksgiving weekend (inlaws, kids, daughter-in-law, etc.) early, and spend the Sabbath in Philadelphia with my youngest son so we can go to "The Who" concert at the Wachovia Center on Saturday night?

I didn't think so.... :-(

I don't suppose anyone has any inside knowledge on whether they are going to extend the tour to make a stop in the Washington area?

Think of water flowing past a rock in a stream

Now that the image is in your mind, let me give you the setup.

Saturday night four of us went to hear/see Rascal Flatts at Nissan. After the Alabama concert I had sworn I would never go back, but I guess I didn't swear hard enough. In addition, it was Saturday night and I couldn't walk out the door until 8:06 because of the Sabbath. The concert had started at 7:30, and even with a somewhat lead foot it can take 45 minutes to get there. My son and I were in the car by 8:07 and on the road. We got to Nissan almost exactly 40 minutes later, and then the problems started -- no parking.

I was asking an attendant where to park when I heard "Erica!" a very "happy" work colleague, BC, had just arrived with friends. My son hopped out of the car with them, and I went to find a park. I kept getting turn left, turn right, turn left, and kept turning into places where I couldn't park. Finally, there on my right was an opening in the barriers, and a car with some space to its right. Good. No signs not to park. I pulled in, and as I did so I heard the roar as the lights went down, and the music of the first song starting. I locked the car, and raced for the entrance. Please note what got left out of this operation. Contrary to my typical actions, I DID NOT identify where I had put the car. It was relatively close to the entrance, and I was sure I would identify it again, after all, there weren't any other cars around!

Fast forward about 90 minutes. They didn't play enough music, they did too much talking, but what they did do was terrific. The harmonies are excellent, and they have wonderful voices. They do a lot of a cappella singing, and I really enjoyed the concert. My son, daughter, and daughter's boyfriend were in no hurry to race back to the cars, so we sat at the entrance for a while talking. Then my daughter said she was thirsty and so we decided they would walk back to my car where I had some water. I confidently led the way to where I thought I had left the car -- UH OH -- no car.

For the next ten minutes the four of us wandered back and forth looking for the car. At one point my son left me with the key. Sooner than expected he shouted "I found" it. He couldn't have. There weren't any open spaces where he came from, just cars trying to leave. Of course you have probably figured out, there was my car -- stubbornly parked, facing in the wrong direction, in the middle of the exiting streams. The four of us could do nothing else but double over with laughter, but that explains the 'water flowing past the rock' image.

I can only imagine how many people were cursing me, silently and openly, while I laughed. Thanks to several wonderful drivers, I managed to get turned around, and pointing in the right direction. We were out of Nissan in less than 15 minutes once we found the car, and hopefully I will someday live down the fact the I a) parked on the road, and b) lost the car after I parked on the road, but I swear, it wasn't a road when I parked there!!

This one is for my friend AD

I am on an email list that sends me sporadic jokes. Most of them are tired, but even so, they often provide a chuckle during my day. Today's list was of "unfortunate" choices in web site names, from ExpertsExchange.com to TherapistFinder.com. However, they pointed out that one website that sells custom pens, not only has a poor name choice, but their home page text leaves much to be desired.
Copied from Pen Island.net:

"We understand that some people don't have the time to design their own pens, and for those people we offer our pre-designed line of pens. Whether you're looking for a long and skinny pen, a thick pen, a fountain pen that squirts ink, or even a black pen, we have just the one for you."

Use your imagination....

Of course, after viewing the site, I do tend to doubt its legitimacy :-)

Playing with Google

A couple of years ago, putting Weapons of Mass Destruction (or was it WMD) into Google produced a very clever error a la "404 Page not Found" errors, discussing the lack of WMD. Google-bombing has been going on for several years now. Try "failure" or "miserable failure", read the Wikipedia article, and for my technical friends, let me know when you are working on one of your own.

Is there an alternative?

One of my colleagues referred me to this visual reference to the three stages of a man's life.

Is there an alternative? Of course there is. Romance your wife, stay faithful, and don't get divorced!