Pennsylvania House of Criminals

The bare bones:

A Pennsylvania legislator decides PA needs one of those trendy new transvaginal ultrasound laws.

A blogger reads the entire bill, then writes him a letter.

The legislator responds with condescension, obfuscation and the disclosure of his own daughter's medical information.

The long version

Dear...

Grump ringing up my purchases at World Market,

If you don't like people, get a different job.

Opposing counsel,

We're in compliance, you're not. Straighten up!

Collection agency person,

No, I'm not going to prove to you that my boss is someone's guardian so you can serve the ward. Call the nursing home and see if you can get past the staff.

Mail order pharmacy,

You have the checking account information, STOP telling the nursing home staff they can't re-order without a credit card. Assholes.

Dog,

Get your stanky butt off my brand-new pillows.

Other dog,

No people food for puppies in this house. Get used to it.

Love,

MondayJammies

One good Valentine deserves another...

I had to stop at Petsmart tonight to pick up a tag for a client's dog, and there was a very long checkout line, and next to it a bin filled with dog toys for $1.47. So of course I succumbed--the toys were adorable, cheap, and they don't have faces. I brought home two toys, and Mouse went "Meh" and went back to sleep, and Little Miss Piggie Pie went nuts. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.








After Little Miss Piggie Pie had gone crazy, she walked away. Poor Mouse got curious and was left red-pawed with the evidence of the crime. Fortunately, he's got me as a character witness. ;)

She loves me, yeah, yeah, yeah, BLECH!

Valentine's Day is bad enough when it's a daylong reminder that I am a rejected spinster, but it didn't help that my first Valentine of the day was a dead mouse from the dog at oh-dark-hundred!

Oh, well, at least my nails looked pretty and we had a yummy lunch at work, complete with vegan strawberry cake and pitas and homemade snack mix. Of course afterwards, instead of napping my way out of a food coma, I had to help Mom with trial prep, but TANSTAAFL, right?

Happy Valentines to everyone!

Book Review

The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren by Jonathan Lopez

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


An intriguing story, a compelling if not particularly likeable subject, crisp writing, elegant language and an author who explains details and concepts without talking down to his reader all made this a wonderful reading experience.



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Book review

The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


Bleah. For a so-called "ghost story," this was terribly boring. The writing is technically proficient, but the characters are two-dimensional placeholders, which makes for absolutely no tension in the scary plot developments. Those plot developments are telegraphed loudly in advance, and there's no leavening humor or humanity to make a reader care enough to be scared on behalf of any of the cardboard figures populating the novel. Throughout the read I was irritated by the use of second person singular for chapters involving the main character, then ticked when the cat was killed for no apparent reason except to demonstrate which "herbalist" was the Big Bad and finally just bored right out of my little fuzzy socks



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Happy Massacre!

When I bought the gingerbread trains for my nephews, I also picked up a gingerbread house for me. Unfortunately, the weekend was just too crazy for me to do anything with it, so it's been sitting in my cupboard for the last two months. When I found out Mom was giving a Valentine's Day talk, I knew what I was going to do with the gingerbread house!







And because Mom mentioned the Valentine's Day Massacre in her talk and I had some extra pieces in the gingerbread house kit, well...