THE SENILITY PRAYER
God grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway,
the good fortune to run into the ones that I do,
and the eyesight to tell the difference.

Okay, that's it. I'm tired of being tired. Things have really picked up at work, so I'm mentally exhausted at the end of the day, then we head to the new house for another session of painting and scraping up putty (in case you were wondering, wet putty feels like mushy dog poop) to get ready for the hardwood guy, who comes tomorrow at 8:30 am.

My morning walks with the dogs are getting slower and slower, I hope they don't notice.

We went to the Flames Coffee Shop for dinner. The hostess looks a looks a lot like Flo from Alice, yes that's right, kiss my grits Flo. If you don't know what Alice was, please fire up Nick at Nite and pretend that I'm not a geezer.

Anyway, we were at the counter paying for our fine meal and discussing the cost of shipping the rug when Flo spoke up, telling us about the Sears card she had gotten without asking for it, never used it, just kept it in her (big brown vinyl) purse until a telemarketer called her about life insurance. She listened politely and gave him a fake birthdate (1952) and ended the call by asking for a brochure in the mail.

That nasty telemarketer charged Flo $128 to her unused Sears card. As she told us this story, I couldn't stop looking at her huge hair or the thick swab of makeup on her face and thinking "if Amy was here, we'd both be laughing." Then I started laughing and had to excuse myself.

That Flo.

In honor of Zeus' presence here at work today, the LizCam is now the ZeusCam. That way, I can keep an eye on him without turning around and catching his attention.

Here's a helpful article: The Basics -- Steals on wheels: a simple way to save $10,000. Will that stop me from buying a brand new car when I'm ready? Probably not but at least I'll think twice about it.

I've always been close to my mom. When I was in kindergarten, there were many days where I couldn't bear to go. We'd roll up and I'd start to cry, I so much wanted to be with her instead of in that classroom. More often than not, she'd give in and we'd head off for a fun afternoon. We've stayed close throughout most of my life (that rough period after I announced my sexual orientation notwithstanding) but lately it's gotten hard to take. She's under a ton of stress arranging care for my Grandmother and dealing with her siblings who range in helpfulness from ass-wiping to no effort beyond bitching from far away). I respect that and have done my best to be there for her, but right now that means dealing with a lot of her emotional runoff and I'm afraid it's more than I can bear.

So we bought this house, with no help from Andrea's family or mine. To do that, we've borrowed 100% of the money but it doesn't matter, we have a house. My mom also bought a new house this year, one with carpet throughout so all her rugs are in storage. Our house has hardwood floors (or does now that we've ripped up the hideous carpet, linoleum and tile that was covering it) so I asked if we could have one of the 5 (expensive and nice) rugs that are in storage. It's going to cost $345 to ship the one rug that we really want but mom's all set to spring for it.

Or at least she was until she ambushed me a few minutes ago with one of those phone calls where she's on the verge of tears, saying that now she wants me to have it but she'd rather pay up to $500 for a new one. What the fuck?? I can't deal with that kind of emotion over a rug.

This year, I've become her emotional scapegoat. How the hell do you stop this kind of crazy emotional roller coaster ride? I'm a nice person but I can't let myself get walked on anymore. It throws me way off then I can hardly work and how would I pay for this house if I can't do that?

AAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!

While looking for the most excellent game Snood, I found this other, creepy kind of snood.

We've spent so much time painting at the house that things now smell funny to me if there isn't a paint smell.

Alice is enjoying her day at the office, she's getting treats every hour as well as a steady stream of visitors. I'd have her wave for the camera, but then she'd shed all over me.

Poor Alice. This morning after our hellish walk in the rain, Zeus was running around like a madman, barking and tearing through the house. Alice was in the kitchen, since I was in there too and you never know if some food might fall. As Zeus tore through the room, Alice was in his way and got knocked over pretty hard. She's still a bundle of energy but seems to be more fragile than she used to be. Today, she's having a rest day here at work with me.

George W. Bush or Chimpanzee? is the funniest thing. I can't stop looking at it. via Andrea

Yet another company I interviewed with, Savvio has gone under. A sign of the times, I guess.

"If I put a bucket on my head and you don't laugh, it's time to go home."

Went by the house today at lunch, it's still as charming as it was when we were there last. And the garbage service even dropped off new containers so we can recycle in style. I haven't been jumping for joy about it because getting it was such a pain in the ass, I guess I can hardly believe that it's already happened. We were outbid (by a lot) 4 times before we got it, each bid was fraught with disappointment so after a while, we stopped getting our hopes up. Somehow, when we saw our house, I knew it would work out but there wasn't the great emotional build up that you might expect.

I am, however, extremely glad that we found a freestanding house, complete with garage and a yard.

I heard on the radio this morning that a Rudy Boesch action figure is in the works. Anyone have any info on this?

My Current Dilemma
I've been a loyal Volkswagen owner for most of my 11 driving years. I've been the proud owner of:

• '85 Quantum
• '87 Fox
• '95 Jetta
• '99 Passat
• '72 Squareback

No, not all at the same time, just in recent years the Squareback and the Passat. I bought the Passat after 8 grueling hours at the Evil Nissan dealership, where I haggled with a man named Babu, then 4 of his bosses over a Pathfinder. At the last moment, as I was about to sign for it (they'd even filled the gas tank for me) my Jetta winked at me and I lost it, started crying and walked out, grateful that I hadn't signed anything.

The next day I bought my Passat, happy to still have a VW but secretly wishing that it was a sporty SUV. You could say that I got that car under duress.

VW has been working feverishly with Porsche to create an SUV:

which is kinda cool but not really because it's rumored to cost anywhere from $30,000 to $35,000. Hello? It's a Volkswagen, you know, the car for the people. Where do they get off pricing it that high?

So, with all this in mind, I'm preparing to depart from my old friend VW and invest in the sporty yet relatively inexpensive Mazda Tribute.

The fabulous Carol found the equally fabulous Romenesko's Obscure Store and Reading Room, now one of my daily reads. It's like the Onion, but real.

Allow me to wish Amy a happy birthday.

The Marginal Prophets totally rule. If you haven't heard their music, do so now.

I'm a homeowner! We spent the weekend ripping up linoleum, carpet and the most hideous tile you've ever seen, all to get ready for the hardwood refinisher who's supposed to come tomorrow. Hard work but pretty damn satisfying.