Kitty Litter

 
IS IT 1984?

If you have never heard of Ad-aware, you should. It's FREE software to detect and remove the "spyware" companies sneek into your computer to track your surfing habits. These nasty little bits can slow your computer, even cause it to freeze, to the point where you think you might have a virus problem. Not to mention the invasion of privacy! Lavasoft is the maker of Ad-aware. Here's how they describe the problem:

"While the Internet is a powerful resource and provides users with many useful and often entertaining things to see and do, it also has its dark side.
Most people are familiar with freeware, shareware, cookies, media players, interactive content, and file sharing. What they may not realize is that some of the aforementioned may contain code or components that allow the developers of these applications and tools to actually collect and disseminate information about those using them.
They can track your surfing habits, abuse your Internet connection by sending this data to a third party, profile your shopping preferences, hijack your browser start page or pages, alter important system files, and can do this without your knowledge or permission. The security and privacy implications of these exploits should be quite obvious and undesirable on any system or network!
Lavasoft is the industry leader and most respected provider of anti Trackware solutions. We have developed several applications that will provide you with the means to keep your computer or network free of these compromising and intrusive threats to your privacy."

As I said, Ad-aware is FREE and you can download it very quickly. It saved me from going crazy! Everyday I run a scan PLUS I check for updates, as well. (It's also a good idea to check your anti-virus software for updates at the same time.) Over the holidays, with all those great e-cards I received, I was finding crap every day! Here's the Ad-aware link. There's a list of places for the free downloads. For what it's worth, I use the one at PCWorld.


Myerskatt@aol.com

 
DOG DAYS OF WINTER …

Raw, cold rainy today, so DogMan won’t have dog training. Rainy days mean muddy dogs. Blech! DogMan has 4 German Shepherd dogs: 2 males (Cai & Armin) and 2 bitches (Freja & Anni). They stay outside in kennels during the day and sleep inside in crates at night. He trains them as a hobby, not for profit. He trains them in Schutzhund, which is German for protection dog. Not attack dog and not police dog. DogMan learned this training in Germany, long before I ever knew he existed, and was instrumental in creating it as the flourishing sport it is today here in the US. I think of him as the American Godfather of the sport. His involvement here in the US began in 1972 when there were just a few like-minded Schutzhund people and, I believe, two dog training clubs, one of which was in LA. DogMan was voted in as the club’s president, even though we lived here in NYS, and served for two very demanding years. Within that two years, 30 more clubs were formed around the US. He became fairly well known in dog training circles. That was the beginning of Schutzhund here in America … in case anyone was curious. And for the record, we have 3 cats: DiDi, Princess & Ichabod.

DON’T HAVE A COW, MAN!

If Bush eating beef isn’t enough to convince you to return to your Big Macs, maybe this Wall Street Journal article will. Don’t Go Crazy: Mad cow disease is no cause for panic.

YOU TALKIN’ TO ME?

I’m going out on a limb here and guess that, at the time, Joan of Arc was ridiculed for claiming she heard “the call of God.” Then Hollywood purloined her story and she was eventually made a saint, although I doubt that one has to do with the other. Does anyone laugh at her now? So why do these same people doubt Pat Robertson? Me? I’m not passing judgment one way or t’other. I’m just another low-level sinner who hopes to pass through those Pearly Gates some day. I do admit, though, that I like the message he’s hearing: God told him it's Bush in a 'blowout.'


IF YOU SHOW ME YOURS, I’LL SHOW YOU MINE

LoanCat sent me a terrific brain test. (Note: There are several links here; look for Brain.exe.) Are you predominantly left-brain, right-brain or center? No “right or wrong” answers; MAJOR relief :) Take it a couple of times just for fun, and don’t neglect to read about your answers. Send me your results and I’ll print mine. If you want me to include you’re results here, include a name. And, Slappy, I’ll definitely expect your results, you being our resident bonafide Mensa member and all.


Myerskatt@aol.com

 
Okay, the holidays are over now. Can we puh-leeze get back to everyday life? Oh, but wait, it’s Friday! Silly me. Life won’t begin again until next Monday. And Valentine’s Day candy has already been in the stores for a week. Presidents’ Day. St. Patrick’s Day. Easter. Memorial Day. You know the list. Not to mention how every single community has a full calendar of its own events as well. Life seems to have become an endless series of events, lurching from one to another like a drunken sailor on shore leave, with nary a respite for everyday routine living in-between. Time Warner Cable has a commercial on TV informing their customers that the company realizes how busy everyone is, so they promise their cable guys will show up on time. In the commercial all sorts of people hold up their schedule books. Even the Little League kid has one and it’s crammed with stuff! This is truly sad, and if you have to ask why … oh, forget it.

DogMan and I spent our usual quiet New Year’s Eve safely ensconced in our living room, far from Times Square’s madding crowds. I sat transfixed and wondered if the terrorists were planning something pyrotechnically diabolical for the stroke of the New Year, but there was nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Just a claustrophobic's nightmare of a boozy, boisterous bourgeoisie en masse.

I was up and out the door New Year’s Day by 5:30 a.m. to care for Little H. because his daycare was closed and both parents had to work. So there was some everyday activity going on, but not much. Our local Wegman’s super-supermarket, usually open 24/7, was closed until 7:00 a.m. And Faulisi’s Newsstand is always closed New Year’s in order to do inventory. Even Drudge was taking the day off! Thank God Lucianne.com is always up’n’running.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT …

I’m amused at the pundits. Some seem to think that Dean can lose some of his support. They think that when push comes to shove, some Dean-iacs will opt for a more sane choice, like Gephardt. In my opinion, be it ever so humble, Dean’s support is almost entirely a tidal wave of pure emotion with little rational thought involved. So far, their support is unconditional, and every attack on him only strengthens their commitment. He embodies something that can not be altered in their minds, and I have a feeling that they really don’t know him.

MORE CARDS …

Even if you're not a cat lover, you'll love this.

Another dog card, another winner.


For now ...
Myerskatt@aol.com

 
TAKE A CHANCE

When I launched Kitty Litter on an impulse a month ago … has it been only a month? … I wondered if I had made a mistake. On December 8th, when Lucianne promoted my blog in her “Must Reads,” I began to panic. I felt as if the world was focusing its attention upon me. I’m not certain just what it was that panicked me … maybe that people would look and shrug, “big deal.” The fact that my name and e-mail are displayed for anyone to use’n’abuse didn’t comfort me, either. Whatever! It was too late at that point. I had taken a chance and I’m here to tell ya that this past month has been delightful! I didn’t have the bloggiest idea of what to do, but learning proved to be easy. I’ve received wonderful responses from many people. I hope Kitty Litter doesn’t get so big that I can’t respond to each one. I took a chance and it paid off.

Which brings me to my one’n’only New Year’s resolution: TAKE A CHANCE! Supposedly, Thomas Edison made thousands of attempts to invent the light bulb. When someone commented that Edison had failed thousands of times, he replied that no, he had merely discovered thousands of ways which didn’t work. Thank GOD he kept trying!

I thought at one time that I’d like to be a syndicated columnist. A penny-for-your-thoughts kind of job, except the rate would be much higher. Back in 1993 a local newspaper columnist named Jim Pfiffer, our own local Dave Barry, was planning his 2-weeks vacation and decided to offer a budding writer a chance to be published. The paper ran a “Humorist For A Day” contest. Submit a humorous piece in 500-600 words, and the two winners’ columns would appear in the vacationing Pfiffer's place. I took a chance and submitted two: one about how DogMan had traded in My Beloved Beretta GT (in black) for a Subaru … in BLUE!, and the other was about Hillary’s power. Needless to say, the Hillary piece was passed over, but My Beloved Beretta column won. I have always loved that Hillary column. So, since this is MY blog, I’ve decided to take a chance and publish it here. See if it doesn’t bring back a few memories :)

30 September 1993

Back in the days when young men burned their draft cards as symbols of protest against the war, young women publicly burned their brassieres as symbols of their emancipation from an all-male-dominated society. Personally, I thought burning one's brassiere was a bit much. But symbolism was very important back then, and flaming brassieres definitely drew attention. So young men gawked as females ignited their frilly effigies of male oppression.

But that was then and this is now. That same pyrotechnically-obsessed generation who bucked the establishment twenty-some-odd years ago is now the same generation who IS the establishment, and they're firmly established in Washington, DC.

No longer is it necessary to burn your draft cards, especially since the draft ended in '73. And now that we're a little older and gravity is a lot stronger, torching our Victoria Secrets is not even an option.

Those pioneering feminists blazed trails through all-male bars, onto construction sites, into pro football locker rooms, and all the way to the House and the Senate and the Supreme Court. These aren't just your average token tootsies, these are 90s women; hear them roar! They've come a long ways, baby!

And then came Hillary.

William Jefferson Blythe Clinton may have won the election, but it was Hillary Rodham Clinton who conquered the final frontier by storming the White House last November. The woman who stated "You vote for him, you get me" wasn't kidding.

While Commander Bill was playing the military hokey poky with Bosnia and eenie-meenie-minie-mo with his attorney general nominees, HRC was stacking up impressive ratings with her public and his, too. True to his Donohue-sensitive nature, though, Bill doesn't seem to mind; he seems content to bask in his wife's limelight. But he may want to rethink that considering the power-monster he has wrought.

Just how powerful is Hillary Rodham Clinton?

Forget that she's totally reforming health care or that Congress is positively tripping over its bipartisan tongue so as not to offend the little lady. That's chump change in power currency.

If I were Bill, I would have worried when she sidled her impressive desk right up next to mine. (Symbolism is still very important today.) Then there is her no smoking rule and her no junk food rule.

Still, that pales in comparison to what she recently stated to the media: "I haven't told my husband this ... but we're going to have a living will, which instructs doctors when to withhold treatment aimed solely at delaying an inevitable death." In the immortal words of our president: "Whoa, mamma!"

No wonder Dan "The Postman" Rostenkowski recently gushed to Her Royal Clintoness that before long "the president will be known as ... Hillary's husband."

My advice to Hillary's husband is to quit playing games, pitch those Cuban stogies, and bypass those Big Macs. After all, bud, the Almighty Hillary now wields the ultimate power, and she just may get antsy being so close and yet so far from the numero uno desk.

While you may define "inevitable death" in terms of all medical miracles exhausted, she may define it as low poll ratings and yank your political plug.

So the next time you hear Al Gore chant, "It's time for him to go," remember that George Bush doesn't live there anymore.
###

Some things never change :)

If I don't talk to you again before tomorrow, have a warm and safe New Year's Eve, and thank you all again for a great month! DogMan and I will be watching the ball drop in Times Square (safely from our living room) while wondering if anything more than bottles of bubbly will go pop ... or kaBOOM. Then tomorrow morning I have to leave at 5:30 to care for Little H. Nurse G and C.O. both have to work New Year's Day. The Sick and convicts wait for no holiday. See ya next year! (if not before:).


Myerskatt@aol.com

 
WHEN HELL FREEZES OVER

It snowed in Las Vegas! Maybe by the time you read this it will have disappeared, but it was there! Here in NY we’ve got cold rain and muddy dogs. The day after Christmas the stores were stocking their Valentine’s Day candy, and we haven’t even had winter yet! Not really. Just another winter of extended blaaaaaaaah-ness.

Myerskatt@aol.com

 
“FONDUE A LA BARBIE” ?

Utah photographer, Thomas Forsythe, photographed nude Barbie dolls in unusual situations: some hilarious and some “dangerous” and many supposedly sexual, although I always thought Barbie was anything but. He painted himself as some sort of iconoclast commenting on the "objectification of women." But let’s get real here: he was trying to make an easy buck. But, Mattel didn’t care for his choice of models, so they sued. Barbie has pulled in a total of $4.89 BILLION for Mattel to date, yet she only generated a mere $3,700 for Forsythe. For whatever reason, the judge dismissed the case, so we can all legally admire Mr. Forsythe’s work. There’s Barbie in a blender and Barbie in a martini glass and Barbie in a Hamilton Beach mixer. I’ve been google-ing for an hour and could not find Fondue Barbie.

Mr. Forsythe: I hope you have a day job.

Mattel: Good Grief! Have you ever looked into a little girl’s toy box? You’ll see worse, trust me!



Myerskatt@aol.com

 
THAT’S THE GUY FOR ME

I saw “Good Morning, Vietnam!” in the theater, all by myself because DogMan is not a let’s-go-to-the-movies kinda guy. Usually Nurse G and I would go, but for some reason I was by myself, in the afternoon because I hate crowds, even small ones. Remember the scene in which Robin Williams in stuck in military traffic (Forest Whitaker is driving the jeep) and the truck in front of them is carrying American soldiers? Those soldiers were wearing Big Red One patches. It was the mid-60s. I sat there in the theater and choked up because DogMan was in the Big Red One in Vietnam about that same time. We hadn’t met yet; I was still in school and he was over there. A staff sergeant who had volunteered to go to forget a wrenching divorce back home. Even at the time I knew it was silly to think that I could have been looking at DogMan sitting in that truck in that movie. Silly maybe, but I still choked up. I thought about that moment when I read Larry Miller’s column “That's the Guy for Me.”

The movie was based loosely on an actual person by the name of Adrian Cronauer. I found the following on a blog:

Whatever became of "Good Morning Vietnam" DJ Adrian Cronauer?
Easy, he became a supreme court judge. Adrian Cronauer, 65, was sworn in Wednesday to the Supreme Court Bar. He had been played by Robin Williams in the 1987 movie based on his stint as an Armed Forces Radio disc jockey in Vietnam.

Further bio info on Adrian Cronauer can be found here.


Myerskatt@aol.com

 
EUREKA!

I found that photo of Bush, but it's so tiny! The one I used to have was muchmuch larger. Does anyone know where I might find this particular photo (online) in a larger size?

Myerskatt@aol.com

 
MEMO TO LOANCAT:

The Kinkster has landed ... THANKS!


Myerskatt@aol.com

 
THROUGH A SOLDIER'S EYE

Loancat sent this to me. Get the news from someone who was there and who is willing to return. Thanks!

Myerskatt@aol.com

 
BABS GOES BONKERS?

R. Emmett Tyrrell, over at The American Prowler (or is it The American Spectator now?), declared President George W. Bush to be Man Of The Year, a choice with which many of us agreed. As usual, RET’s writing receives lots of letters. His MOTY column generated a pile, of which one was from a JB Corrigan, who just happens to be a fellow blogspotter. Like I’m going resist checking that out … NOT! JB may not be the pithiest blogger around, but he does propose an interesting scenario in which liberals will vote FOR Bush. JB’s blog is not without humor: “Barbara Streisand is hospitalized for mental health reasons.” And what he suggests for Michael Moore is suicide at a drive-thru bank? JB, if you’re reading this, what’s this about Ted Rall “found in his leather-walled bathroom”?


DEAN IS A LOSER
So sayeth John F***ing Kerry. Actually, he said that Dr. Dean would lose to Bush. Like John F***ing Kerry would WIN?

Once again the question: Would you entrust your healthcare, and your children’s, to this man?


BUSH EATS BEEF!

Like, duh, he’s a TEXAN! This, of course, has the Dems’ panties in knots, so they’re going after Dubya on food safety. I repeat, like, duh … like they have anything else to go after him with! (I know, the grammar stinks, but deal with it. And oops! there’s a dangling participle!)



WHAT WENT WRONG? AND WHEN?

Blue asked if I had watched the Jackson interview last night. I had forgotten it was on. We were too busy watching reruns of Carmella throwing Tony’s belongings out their bedroom window on the SOPRANOS.

Sideline: Ingenious how Tony is attempting to break his commitment with that tighta$$ by blaring Dean Martin’s routines from his yacht named Stugats! Rubbing his Italian mob-ness in his nose publicly! The SOPRANOS returns mid-March. Such a loooooong wait.

But I digress … Which is what I would prefer to do when confronted with Jacko’s pathetic image: digress, get the hell outta Dodge, run like crazy, just get far-far away! I’m not suggesting he’s guilty … although I think he is … but just when did he go wrong? Because something did go wrong with him. Look at his face through the years. I can understand if he had wanted rhinoplasty to narrow his nose, but most of the other procedures have left him a carnival freak. I look at his early pictures and find it difficult to think he was molesting kids back then. I know, I know, there is no “molester look” per se. But he appeared happier back then than he does now, more content, the charges withstanding. What went wrong? And when?

SO “CHICKS DIG RAMS FANS,” HUH

Nortzman says so, at least. I don’t do football, but Nortzman knows this already. He always has a great way to end his e-mails … when he does e-mail, that is. Which is why I replied that CHICKS DIG NICE GUYS WHO E-MAIL. Hope you’re feeling better, N!


Myerskatt@aol.com

 
JUST BECAUSE I LIKE THE GUY

I had a computer file of photos of Bush, which I used as wallpapers. My favorite was Bush wearing his cowboy hat and a Texas-sized grin. God, how I loved that picture! But our computer crashed earlier this year and I lost it. So I've been searching for that photo while creating a new file along the way. Here are just a few.

My favorite with Barney.

A great ranch shot.

With his dad, 43 & 41 together.

A tender moment with Laura, with whom he's obviously in love.


Myerskatt@aol.com

 
TO “THE FUTURE MRS. DEREK JETER”

Derek is considered a HOT HOT HOT property in the bachelor market, but Short Stop already knew that, didn’t-cha :)


MAJOR SNAFU?


Has it really been 7 years since that precious little JonBenet Ramsey was murdered? Seven years, and they finally find new DNA in her underwear?!? Just a reminder: SNAFU means Situation Normal and All F***ed Up.

PSYCHO CHIHUAHUA BITES JOHN F***ING KERRY

This is GREAT! And all because a 17-year-old Republican didn’t have time to change his T-shirt. You go Mark! May I suggest wearing these shirts to a Dean rally? Which brings me to my standing question: Would you trust your healthcare, and your children’s, to this man?


CFR? WHAT CFR?

I don’t believe in campaign finance reform and this is why. Looks like the Dems are hauling in the dough. I’m donating to Dubya.


Myerskatt@aol.com

 
TO “THE FUTURE MRS. DEREK JETER”

Derek is considered a HOT HOT HOT property in the bachelor market, but Short Stop already knew that. Didn’t-cha :)


MAJOR SNAFU?

Has it really been 7 years since that precious little JonBenet Ramsey was murdered? Seven years, and they finally find new DNA in her underwear?!? Just a reminder: SNAFU means Situation Normal and All F***ed Up.


PSYCHO CHIHUAHUA BITES JOHN F***ING KERRY

This is GREAT! And all because a 17-year-old Republican didn’t have time to change his T-shirt. You go Mark! May I suggest wearing these shirts to a Dean rally? Which brings me to my standing question: Would you trust your healthcare, and your children’s, to this man?


CFR? WHAT CFR?
I don’t believe in campaign finance reform and this is why. Looks like the Dems are hauling in the dough. I’m donating to Dubya.


Myerskatt@aol.com