We listed our house today

It’s easy, and I mean easy, to find something on the local market which is crappier and more expensive. Such places don’t move. They sit there for months, even years. Our house sat on the market for three or four years before the previous owner dropped the price into a reasonable range — and then she dropped it too much. Lucky us!

We should have left the place alone, not put any money into remodeling. Then we’d have made a killing. As it stands, we should do okay (assuming our agent is right about the list price), but no one’s talking about early retirement.

I would post a link to the listing, but (A) our agent isn’t THAT fast on her feet, and (B) that probably is a little bit too much information. I have enemies, after all:

The italicized bits are from a comment I left on Daily Kos the other day. The non-italicized bits come from some asshat who has nothing better to do but send hate mail.

obsession of some of my fellow American Jews with Israel.

I am hoping that you are just another Daily Kos Neo-Nazi parading as a Jew, because if you really are Jewish then your parents did a miserable job of educating you.

I don’t share it. But I suspect some of the older folks regard Israel as an insurance policy.

One can only hope that as this growing anti-Semitism takes place that when the latest generation of Brown Shirts comes knocking you will not be surprised when they haul you off to the gas chambers or just hang you. Clearly you are too much of a coward to stand up and fight.

the uncomfortable details of Israel’s politics.

Obviously you get all your information from this looney-tunes website and not from credible information sources.

One more thing. You should understand that by posting who you are and where you work you may offend someone so much who lives in that area that they will do what ever it takes to cost you your business. The only moron here is you.

My original comment wasn’t even inflammatory. I was speculating why some American Jews are so blinkered when it comes to the subject of America’s policies toward Israel. Really nothing in the comment (from MY point of view) to inspire such animosity. But there you have it . . . say anything which diverges from the party line, and you’re a target.

But I did learn a couple of things. (A) Ignore the Daily Kos diaries on Israel. Ain’t worth it. And, (B) Don’t let ’em know where you live. There are a lot of crazy-assed mofos in the world and this guy is one of them. It’s not the brown shirts coming to my door that scare me . . . it’s my coreligionists.

D.

Memorial Day

Veterans on Memorial Day Call For End To Iraq War

How should we support our newest veterans? By bringing them home, and taking care of them once they’re back. It’s that easy.

This is more a Veteran’s Day post than a Memorial Day post; I guess I’m more focused on those who are still with us.

D.

The meta post

Wear a shirt like this,

and it’s inevitable you’ll meet someone who has never heard of blogs or blogging*. “It’s like a diary,” I said, “except it’s out there for all the world to see.”

He wanted to know the URL. Who knows, he could be lurking here even now.

***

Note fly zapper in the background. I may be kinda sorta almost vegan these days, but that doesn’t prevent me from taking pleasure in the sudden death of flies. So unBuddhist of me.

***

We’re traveling tomorrow. Thank heavens we’ll be leaving this heatwave behind us —

Doh!

D.

*If you can’t read it, the shirt sez, “I’m blogging this.”

I never talked like that.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Hollywood has decided that scientists are, um . . . funny?

Science with a laugh track: The Big Bang Theory. More here.

D.

Junk, Part Deux

Last week, I cleaned out the outer third of our obscenely excessive RV garage in order to create room to clean up the rest of the RV garage. Here’s what I began with this morning:

And here’s where we are seven hours later (with Jake’s help):

Unfortunately, that “clean end” of the garage?

. . . now looks like this.

It’s not as bad as it looks. Everything is neatly sorted into “keep,” “sell,” and “rocket into the sun” piles. Getting this mess to disappear will be relatively easy.

No live-blogging tonight. I might hold myself in high regard, but even I realize that watching me yawn is about as much fun as watching horseshoes rust.

D.

Something to consider

From my son:

Dust

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia’s quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (May 2007)

More later. I’m watching the returns.

D.

Junk

I spent a good part of the day attacking the RV garage.

You have to understand: we bought this place because it was a steal, and because it had a killer view. Did we need all this square footage? Did we need an RV garage? NO! And while those things are nifty-cool for resale value, they have led me to accumulate hundreds of pounds of junk.

Trouble is, it’s not really junk. Much of this stuff will have value to someone; I’m sure I could make a bit of money hosting a yard sale, but that’s not my goal. My goal is to get rid of all of this junk before the big move. Relay for Life is coming up, so perhaps I can donate everything to our hospital’s team.

I found some neat stuff amongst the dirty cages, computer cables, stuffed animals, Legos, and cat turds . . .

(more…)

I Heart ThinkGeek

One of the bitchy things about the job search: strangers call me. And I want them to call me, I really do, even at odd hours. Still, it plays hob with blogging. Not much time left for serious writing pursuits . . .

Here’s what caught my eye tonight at ThinkGeek:

From the wonderful geeks at ThinkGeek,

Don’t get it? We propose the following thought experiment:

1. Give your friend enough money to purchase the “Schrödinger’s Cat” shirt (don’t forget the shipping).
2. Tell your friend to take the money and lock himself in a room with a cigarette lighter.
3. Let your friend know that once in the room he is to randomly choose either to burn the money, or return in five minutes with the money intact. We emphasize that this must be completely random (aka, impossible for a human to determine but bear with us).
4. Your friend must then stay in this box for eternity. Hey, that’s how thought experiments work. Hopefully he/she is OK with that.

There’s more; I’ll let you have fun with it.

***

I told the OR crew today that I was leaving. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Upon hearing the news, one woman said, “I’m dealing with a lot of sadness right now.”

I said, “Do you think the hospital needs to offer grief counseling?”

I can be such a prick sometimes.

D.

To boldly die

For $799, your ashes can be stored in this beautiful urn:

I may be weird (shut up) but this appeals to me. It’s like one of those big mirror balls you put in your garden; I’ve always wanted one of those, too. I figure it would make for countless hours of entertainment, watching hummingbirds attack their reflections.

More to the point, I DON’T want to be put in the ground, even if it is in a photon torpedo (linked above).

The STAR TREK Casket styling has been inspired by the popular “Photon Torpedo” design seen in STAR TREK II: The Wrath of Khan.

Way too confining. Deep down, I suspect I may be claustrophobic even in death. Burn me to ash and toss me to the winds! But leave a little for the cool urn.

Sometimes, I think I want to be mulched. Run me through a wood chipper and put the Walnut-slaw around the base of a middle-aged Sequoia, preferably in the middle of an untouchable national park. Yosemite, for example. The Republicans wouldn’t dare drill Yosemite for oil. Then I could become part of some massive tree which would stand erect for centuries to come.

That’s what I want to become in death — a humongous lingam!

How about you?

D.

P.S. We’re home. Six hour drive today, and I did most of it.

Full Balls and Walnuts services should resume tomorrow. Thank you for your patience.