Welcome to the Madness

My precious baby Emily passed away this morning. She was 19 and only a sad shell of her former self. I look at her photo in my icon that was taken about 18 years ago and think of all that we've been through together.

She had such personality. I never met anyone who didn't love Emily. Even my stepdad, who only tolerated cats because my mom loves them, fell under Emily's charm. We (Yoda, Emily, and I) lived with my folks for a few months back in 2000. I couldn't figure out why Emily was getting so fat, then I learned that my stepdad was giving Emily her own bowl of soup every time he got one. She had him trained quickly! Now they're both gone.

She's been sick for sometime and I've been giving her thyroid medication for over a year. She was frail and night before last stopped meowing. I knew then she wasn't well and left work early yesterday to be with her. She wouldn't eat and couldn't seem to find a comfortable position. I felt her get up and stumble off the bed during the night, but let her go.

My mom called and woke me this morning. At first, I couldn't figure out how I slept so late, then I realized Emily hadn't woken me for food. I found her downstairs, she had passed in the night.

I'm having her cremated. I've never done that before, but it felt right.

This year has been so hard. I keep thinking it's the end of so many eras. I'm sorry if I'm not responding to posts properly right now, I've not spent much time online. I know she's in a better place, but this is a sad day in a sad year.

I just wanted to let you know I've not fallen into a hole.

Sometime around the beginning of August, someone introduced me to the Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris. I bought the first book.

I just finished the 9th book and can't wait for more.

Oh yeah, and there's that whole school thing I 'should' be doing. Having said that, does anyone else have any reading recommendations?

Just when I thought I couldn't hear another political clip, I was sent this:

It was day 3 of the Republican National Convention, and gay love was in the air!

Really you only need to watch the first bit...

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=184082

If homosexuality is a disease, let's all call in queer to work:
"Hello. Can't work today, still queer." --Robin Tyler

A successful businessman flew to Vegas for the weekend to gamble. He lost
the shirt off his back, and had nothing left but a quarter and the second
half of his roundtrip ticket -- If he could just get to the airport he
could get himself home.

So he went out to the front of the casino where there was a cab waiting.
He got in and explained his situation to the cabbie. He promised to send
the driver money from home, he offered him his credit card numbers, his
drivers license number, his address, etc. but to no avail.

The cabbie said (adopt appropriate accent), "If you don't have fifteen
dollars, get the hell out of my cab!" So the businessman was forced to
hitch hike to the airport and barely caught his flight.

One year later the businessman, having worked long and hard to regain his
financial success, returned to Vegas and this time he won big. Feeling
pretty good about himself, he went out to the front of the casino to get a
cab ride back to the airport.

Well who should he see out there, at the end of a long line of cabs, but
his old buddy who had refused to give him a ride when he was down on his
luck.

The businessman thought for a moment about how he could make the guy pay
for his lack of charity, and he hit on a plan. The businessman got in the
first cab in the line, "How much for a ride to the airport?" he asked.

"Fifteen bucks," came the reply.

"And how much for you to give me a blowjob on the way?"

"What?! Get the hell out of my cab."

The businessman got into the back of each cab in the long line and asked
the same questions, with the same result.

When he got to his old friend at the back of the line, he got in and asked
"How much for a ride to the airport?" The cabbie replied "fifteen bucks."
The businessman said "Okay," and off they went.

Then, as they drove slowly past the long line of cabs the businessman gave
a big smile and thumbs up sign to each driver.

A census taker in a rural area went up to a farmhouse and knocked. When a woman came to the door, he asked her how many children she had and their ages. She said, "Les' see now, there's the twins, Sally and Billy, they're thirty-two. And the twins, Seth & Beth, they're twenty-six. And the twins, Penny and Jenny, they're twenty-four... "

"Hold on!" said the census taker, "Did you get twins EVERY time?"

The woman answered, "Heck no, there were hundreds of times we didn't get nothin."

This was to crazy not to post:

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53327

Recently, I came across a few posts for the Halloween Scavenger Hunt. I really enjoyed this and want to thank the person responsible for all the fun. In return, I was asked to post this:

Hobbity Halloween Scavenger Hunt

Thank you, hobbity hunters! I hope you had as much fun hunting as I had thinking this up and watching it happen. I don't usually expect crazy last-minute schemes that occur to me in the middle of the night to actually work out, but this one did okay, it seems! There was one detail I didn't think of soon enough, though: those who received Frank-o-lanterns had a bit of a head start on the hunt. Sorry about that, but managing a scavenger hunt entirely by anonymous virtual pumpkin is no easy thing. The fairest solution I could think of was to give prizes to the first three people to e-mail me, so as to include someone who didn't have a Frank-o-lantern. The first three all e-mailed within minutes of each other anyway, so it was a close thing. :) In conclusion, if you ever need someone to find a lost hobbit, I suspect any of these lovely people would be very speedy: danachan, frodobaggins252, and trd9091.

Cheers!

Anonymous

And, for anyone who didn't find the entire story, here it is:
( The Pumpkins of Doom )

BLESSED ARE THE CRACKED; FOR IT IS THEY WHO LET IN THE LIGHT

Let's see if I understand how the world works lately...

If a man cuts his finger off while slicing salami at work,
he blames the restaurant.

If you smoke three packs a day for 40 years and die of lung cancer,
your family blames the tobacco company.

If your neighbor crashes into a tree while driving home drunk,
he blames the bartender.

If your grandchildren are brats without manners,
you blame television.

If your friend is shot by a deranged madman,
you blame the gun manufacturer.

And if a crazed person breaks into the cockpit and tries to kill the pilot
at 35,000 feet, and the passengers kill him instead,
the mother of the crazed deceased blames the airline.

So, if I die while my old, wrinkled ass is parked in front of this computer,
I want all of you to blame Bill Gates...okay?

Two couples are on a double date when they start talking about partner swapping. They decide it would be cool to try it out. The two couples then go to a local motel. They rent two rooms for the night, and the newly shuffled couples go to their respective rooms. One couple, in their room, go wild with each other. They make love for hours. When finished, one of the two rolls over on her side, props herself on one elbow, lights up a cigarette, looks at her partner, and says: "I wonder how the guys are doing?"