This space doesn't do photos justice but.....I'm posting some anyway

However random, i like to share some...more to come as i am infatuated with my new camera.

4 things of note on my flight today....

1) Since when did United airlines stop serving snacks?! I sat waiting for my ethiopian-portion-sized mylar pack of snacks and it didn't come...jeeeeezzzzzzzzzz!

2) Never ask the person next to you how to use the headphones. They assume this means you want to hear about how they are retired from the Army and "wow, the snow out here" Argh.

3) Why do the flight attendents give you .5 seconds to drink your can of pepsi before they sweep through the aisles and try to collect your beverage? I barely have time to fasten my seat belt, a-hole.

4) Skymall magazine. I want to meet the lazy jerk-off who buys the automatic cereal dispenser. I guess I never thought it was that "inconvenient" to simply raise your arm and pour cereal into a bowl, but I guess I was mistaken. This magazine never fails to amaze me at how one can master the art of laziness. A place you can store your magazines and take a shit? No WAY! That's amazing!

I mean, COOOOOOOOOOME ON!

yeah, another you tube...

I like to search and I came across this "vintage" commercial.

Jackson and Sydney

My sister posted my nephew on YouTube. I know, I am linking this by proxy of her, but I couldn't resist sharing him with you all. He is truly the apple of my family's eye. So, here he is in video form via my sister, Angela.

It's my cake in a box, girrrrl

As mentioned before, Chas and I have what most people call "Dog-human confusion". (see Jax in Chief's jersey). Another common symptom includes: treating your dog to "human-like" treats such as a dog-safe cake made of carob and having a birthday party for them. Yeah, it's somewhat absurd, but he's such a "person" sometimes that it's his fault we are confused.

Jax turned 5 today and since we didn't do a single thing last year except offer a "happy birthday, doggie" and a pat on the head, we decided to get him a cake and gifts at a local pet/grooming store called "Wag N' Wash".

This place is amazing. You can wash your dog in the back with all the luxuries without soiling your bathroom and/or your clothes as you would at home and of course you can have someone do it for you while you shop. This is pretty normal nowadays, but this place was POSH. They have a smorgasbord of doggie "pastries", various upholstered dog beds, doggie fleeces, no-spill dog dishes and frozen dog cuisine, not to mention feline delicacies and toys, but this is not about cats, they have their own fan base.

I've been to Petsmart and Petco but this place has taken a whole new spin on treating your pet well. I felt a bit silly having bought a dog cake, which is more like a brick and hardly "edible" for humans but still a freaking cake from what they called the "doggie deli/bakery".

When we placed it in front of Jax, it actually scared him a bit. At first, he backed away from it. Finally, he looked at us as if to say, "seriously, my own cake?". Once we sawed through this "delicacy" and placed it in his bowl, he just about passed out from ecstasy it seemed.

Problem with getting aforementioned cake? When Chas and I were checking out, the teenage girls at the counter were a little over the top with excitement that we had ordered a cake, leading us to believe we were a minority and some of the more diehard dog lovers haven't caught on yet.

"OOOOh, can I see the cake?" One such salesgirl exclaimed.

"Uh, sure". I was thinking "let's not make a spectacle out of this, shall we?"

Then another girl quickly sprinted over.

"Is that THE cake for Jax...ohhh, sooo cute". (giggle, giggle)

I guess since this was my first official dog-cake buying experience, I should understand the novelty of it.

As we loaded everything into the car and headed home, I began to think: what was once unheard of, the dog birthday cake and thus the celebration, is now a booming business. Dog grooming, dog hotels and the dog birthday party have reached new heights of "humanness", it's almost ridiculous. Another thought about this new "buy everything you can buy" for your pet phenomenon: What once was man's best friend is now man's best accessory. I guess we can thank people like Paris Hilton for that. Minus opposable thumbs and the ability to speak English, dogs are ultimately "humanized" by virtue of these new luxuries present. Man, makes me wish I was a dog....um, wait, nevermind. I like pooping indoors.

Funniest clip from Scrubs last year

This is why I love this show...the dance sequences.

No one bothered to tell me....

I had been spelling my blog name wrong. I mean, if you look up minutia, it gives you two spellings, but so far, every spelling I have read today is minutiae. For an English major this is a CRIME and embarrassing! Oh the humanity! Well, I'm not changing the URL because it will screw up everything. Anyway, C'est la vie.

Cheers.

Top shows of my week...

My week in review:

1)The Real (Desperate) Housewives of Orange County - sure, it can be pretty vapid because these women go on shopping sprees to diamond stores and sweep down lush parkways in their custom made Escalades and go straight to the tennis club but the repeat episode I watched tonight surprisingly had some substance to it. One single mom is actually struggling to make ends meet (well, her ends are far different than mine but she has a drug addicted son, boyfriend and a daughter with virtually no drive, so that counts). Another mom is struggling with the possibility that all her sun-soaked days could kill her. She's had over 100 biopsies for skin cancer and has had some spots removed. I don't care how much money you have, cancer doesn't know dollar signs. And yet another woman is struggling to keep her champagne tastes afloat when her husband has been unemployed for quite some time. I guess I stumbled upon this show because I watch a ton on Bravo, but it kinda made me feel a little bit better knowing that in truth, we all have some kind of depth even if we are cloaked in silicone.

Disclaimer: I do at times watch this and after each scene where their opulence reaches new heights, go "Ah, geez, this makes me sick". But, I guess we all are suckered into this kind of empty programming from time to time, so that's my disclaimer. I am not completely devoid of substance that I find this show interesting. In part I like it that the Bravo producers do spin each episode a little so that you can see that they are essentially making fun of these people.

2) Beauty and the Geek - Well, these "beauties" have much less substance and smarts than the women mentioned above, but they surprisingly do have hearts. I snubbed this show when I heard the premise but Chas told me it was actually pretty good. I grumbled but gave it a chance. The "geeks" are paired with the beauties in competitions for a prize of 250K in the end. At it's core, it's a game show which polarizes the inadequacies of each group for a laugh but it really is quite fascinating. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I watch a lot of junk, but amid that slew of TiVo garbage, I find some gems. I find myself watching B&G and wincing with embarrassment for these people but also enlightened because even in this ever so shallow world, something pops up on TV that surprisingly has a moral.

3) Ugly Betty - Devil Wears Prada meets Ugly Duckling but pure genius. I watched a marathon on New Year's Day and it's no surprise it made Thursday night must see ABC. Worth a shot to those not easily swayed.

4) The Gerald Ford Funeral - Yes, I actually recorded this. I guess partially because it eclipsed my regularly scheduled recording of Today show but also because I wanted to hear the eulogies. Tom Brokaw, to name one, actually had some pretty powerful things to say. Also, it was interesting to see how he was remembered as an average man who made it to the White House by sheer circumstance. I am always fascinated about Presidents who haven't entirely screwed up our country like Bush has, so I tuned in. In addition, I was in utero when he left the White House and I really wasn't very knowledgable of his brief tenure other than pardoning Nixon (which cost him the election) and that he was clumsy. I have never watched a Presidential funeral and it's not normal for me to set such a thing to record, but hey, I was curious.

Until next week...

Thank you Set' N Amy