Rough Life of a Cat Parts 1 & 2 and the Soup That made Me Laugh

There is an actual post under these pictures. I have found that for some reason when I include a lot of pictures blogger forgets all the rules of formatting and my posts come away with a real drunken, palsy stricken feel to them. Hence the compromise. Yeah, hence!

Ahhh, the massage chair. Just right for the kitties!

Ah yes, Ed's clothes. Just right also for the kitties!!

OK, I was in a Mexican Supermarket with the wife and we saw this. I didn't really want to start taking pictures of it and giggling, so I bought it, took it home and took pictures of it while giggling. When Mike came home from the base, I said, "If you're hungry I could make you this." Yeah, you know it. More giggling.

Biggerize this and look closely. We were fishing and the trees were full of buzzards. There's 8 I count in this pic, but there were probably 30 or so overhead. I was a little freaked out by it.

I liked them. They were tall.

These were all over Crystal City, each one different. I took a picture of the shiny one because, well, I like shiny things.

These are those cars you book online for an hour or so at a time so you don't have to actually own a car. They are parked all over the city and have designated spots in convienent locations. I think it's a neat idea. READ THE BOTTOM OF THE PLATE.

And now, our feature presentation. The post.

Been a while since I posted. It happens. Busy little hippie, I yam, I yam. Been to Boston and D.C. since I last wrote and am in Denver at the moment, luggage-less and preparing to go into work more than just a little bit casual. I mowed the grass this weekend, which is remarkable in no way at all, since I seem to have a schedule of working all week, coming home to mow the grass and flying back out. I bring that up because, being a firm believer that flip flops are the only true footwear, mowing the grass turns my toes a beautiful emerald green. But it turns my toenails a less sightly, almost turd-like olive green. For that reason I decided to wear Sperry loafers, sans socks though, instead of flip flops. So at least when I show up for work looking like a passenger on a slow cruise to the Bahamas, I'll have on shoes.

The trip out was a complete nightmare (again!). I have decided that unless it is very, truly, badly horrendous I will not rant and rave on these pages. It is not a travel venting blog after all. And boy could I vent. I have had wrecked rental cars, stolen passports, and a flight attendant's offer to sell me a glass of water on one flight. I will say this, however. The transformnation to a zero tolerance for customer support is apparently complete. Last night after reporting my lost bag to a representative... and by the way, this was a direct flight so losing it took a little creativity... a representative who not only could have cared less, but vaguely seemed have the opinion like it was my fault for trying to travel with luggage, she handed me a tracking number and said, "Probably sometime tomorrow." Totally bored and without any conviction. But what struck me the most was how she didn't even bother with the robotic "Sorry for the inconvienence". I mean, we both know they ain't sorry, but they've even abandoned the pretense. Or maybe there's a fee for airline condolences.

OK, so I lied. It was a mini-rant.

I actually quite enjoyed D.C., which was really Crystal City/Alexandria, VA. It was cool, with a lot of little shops, pubs, and restaurants that you could just walk to. Parking is a bona fide bitch in that area, which I have known for years, but I was only 10 blocks from where I was working at TSA Headquarters so I just walked. It was cool. And I was far from alone. It was like a 15 min walk in and the same back. Relaxing, actually. All in all I enjoyed it.

Did head down to Fredricksburg, VA one night for dinner with an old navy buddy. Stayed on the Interstate this time. Last time I went there using the backroads that I know so well, you may recall I got a speeding ticket... doing 36 mph. Yes, remember, apparently I had wandered into some kind of invisible school zone that only the cop (and out of state tags) could find.

I think after this trip, things will slow for me just a little. I will teach a couple of factory classes in St. Pete, be home every day, and slowly get back into routinely annoying the wife. Can't help it, seems I am a natural. We are selling a bunch more of these little babies, and there is a huge order for some explosive detection machines to get upgraded, so this is more of a brief respite than anything else. But I'll take it.

Got in the rental last night, blasting off eastward in what turned out to be a pretty long ride to my hotel 8 miles west of the airport. Didn't mind at all. I stumbled on a radio station that was playing some Taj Mahal so I gave it a little listen. Then some group I'd never heard of and can't remember other than they were quite unique also. But after that, some kind of Bodeans retrospectve/interview kicked off. I had a couple of their cassettes years ago and I really liked them. So I was pretty stoked and not that perturbed for the extra time driving.

And Baby, there you are, out

Ramblin' Ed