Straight backed dining room chairs and other fairly decent ideas

To make a shortened story out of a longer one. I called the electric company and told them I wanted to make sure my account was in my name, to find out what I owed, and to get a mailing address to send the payment to. They told me how much and where to mail it. Then told me it was going to be a $215 deposit to change the name because they didn't know how conscientious I was about paying my bills. I politely reminded her that I initiated the call. OK, no deposit required.

Today I will also use a couple of paintings I like, that are never really going to fit any text I write. Well, I say never, but I probably mean probably never. This guy likes to do some kind of Japanese themed juxtaposition thing that is weird and mildly disturbing but I like it. The lead pic is not one of them. It is of a samauri, although I get a kick out of the Japanese habit of making something rather manly (bucket loader, samauri, diesel truck) a pastel color. Or of painting cartoons on it. Or both.

We are sure (not) getting our money's worth out of cable. We don't watch it very much to start with, which is 180 out from when we lived in front of the tube in Japan. And when we do watch it, there is a 95% chance it'll be one of these three things: COPS, Dog: Bounty Hunter, or that infomercial that is constantly running at the top of the TV Guide channel. They do a lot of hair and makeup infomercials and the wife sits there mesmerized. They've already sold her on some kind of ceramic hair rolling/straightening device. She's just working on convincing me I need to buy a $120 curling iron ($140 for the pink, SMALLER one).

I passed my pre-licensing exam and went down to Ybor City to be fingerprinted, which was the last of the pre-requisites. We got fingerprinted at some kind of school administration building instead of a police or government place. The fingerprints went straight to Tallahassee as they were scanned into the computer. "Neat-o", I thought to myself in a Leave it to Beaver sort of way. I always knew there was the possibility I might get fingerprinted in Ybor, but I always thought it would also include a ride in a cop car and the question, "What in the world were you thinking, son?"

And, present readership excepted, or maybe not, I concluded that people in, around, or associated with colleges are a bit disheveled and odd. That's just my opinion, but it's a good one as I try to keep the wrong ones to a minimum.

I had a Shih Tzu once. Like I have said before, God didn't put them here on earth to be great thinkers. Or to be particularly house trained. Or, in Japan anyway, to walk on their own. My dog (or at least he was a small, furry, dog-like creature) used to sit out on the back porch staring off into space. I always used to tell the wife, "Don't bother him. Leave him alone with his thought." Hahaha. It's funny because I didn't say thoughts, I said thought. You know, like in one thought only.

Despite Katrina, I have no shortage of gas. So I can only conclude that I ate something noxious. Or at least it's noxious now. You're welcome. Glad I could share. I only mention it because it is making it difficult to concentrate. And because it's kinda funny.

It may come as a bit of a surprise to all of you, but I really don't mind recycling. I do it regularly. It's easy. Like everything else in my life other than Saints football, I am not fanatical about it. But still, I like to do my part. I have lived places where recyclables were sorted into SEVEN different categories, with each category requiring a different type of plastic bag, so NEWSPAPER, ALUMINUM/PLASTIC, and regular garbage is not a big deal.

The girl cat loves me. But the boy cat loves me more. How is this possible? I'm sure I don't know. You can tell a cat what to do, but you aren't really. The best you can ever hope to get out of them is the acknowledgement that you may have said something, but, "I wasn't really listening". However, and this is something you may want to file away into your MORE GOOD ADVICE FROM RAMBLIN' ED folder, if you smack 'em upside the head with a rolled up newspaper they hear THAT. To them it sounds a lot like, "I thought I told you to stay off of the doggone counter ... WHAP!" Hard to ignore, even for a cat, and causes the skeedaddle gene to kick in.

We played Phase 10 and Rummy last night. Look at me. You are looking at a winner. And a poor winner at that. I can lose graciously, but must dance and taunt when winning. Because you never know how long you'll be winning you should gloat at every opportunity. Hey, that's some more good advice from Ramblin' Ed.

Well, off to read the Tampa Tribune. It's a great paper if you want local and human interest stuff but a real disappointment on the national and international level. Did I say disappointment? I meant disappointment. But, it gets delivered straight to the house and has a respectable amount of good comics. 1 to 10, I give it about a 5 1/2.

Ramblin' Ed