Supercuts does a fine job, thank you...

20% is like a normal tip, right? We tipped our waiter around 20% last night and he made a point to come over and thank us. Did he think it was a good tip because all his other customers are cheapskates and we looked good in comparison or have we been overtipping people for like ten years?

And are you supposed to tip your dog groomer? I don't. I figure I'm already paying the lady three times what I pay to get my own hair cut so why should I give her any extra. Is that why my dog sometimes comes back with little bald patches here and there?

I was doing a search on how much to tip and I came across this:

Arlington VA: Gross AND embarrassing question for the servers who read this: What is an appropriate bonus gratuity to leave when one's toddler has barfed at a restaurant. No, we didn't know he was ill, and yes, we cleaned up as best we could, but we know we lowered the tone and ruined someone's shift.
We feel terrible--can money buy forgiveness?

Eww. I may have had to sit next to a screamer once, but at least she didn't barf.

I just wish they'd quit playing Ice Ice Baby...

Oh my God. JACK fm is playing "Run Runaway by Slade! I haven’t heard that song since high school! I loved that song! I love JACK.

Let this post be a reminder to myself to download Run Runaway when I get home tonight.

Don't they know I have blogs to update...

7/30 update: I've just read this post again. I feel that it is quite boring. I just wanted to say that in advance so, if you read the whole thing, you don't think that I think that it is really good stuff. I do not. You can skip it altogether if you'd like. The gist of it is: I bought a new modem, my cable company annoyed me, I like Clay Aiken and mmmm...ribs.

Clay Aiken's first concert of his new tour was last night. If you know anything about online Clay Aiken fans you'll know that's a big deal. So I really wanted to get online as soon as I got home from work. (Well, work and eating some ribs. It was rib night at the Village Pub and those ribs are good enough to miss the first couple of songs.)

When I got home and tried to get on the internet I had no connection.I kept messing with it and unplugging things and plugging them back in and checking connections but nothing worked. Finally I called the cable company and the weird little teenaged customer service kid mumbled something about how he thought the modem was going bad. Well, he finally mumbled that after he had mumbled a bunch of other stuff that didn't work. He said they'd send someone out next Tuesday. I said I was working on Tuesday so they said the earliest they could come out was August 6th.

Yeah. Like I'm going to be without the internet until August 6th.

So I just went and bought a new modem. Radio Shack didn't sell them. The girl that worked there suggested I call my cable company. I ended up at Fry's, which sells just about everything as far as I can tell, including cable modems. I got back at around 8:30 and hooked it up and the cable company came online and said I had to do some setup thing. So I tried and they kept giving me error messages.

Finally I got everything to work so I called the cable company to cancel the service appointment and they tried to convince me to keep it. Ummm...why? I have service now?

Of course, by the time all that was finished the concert was long over. Bummer.

I'm not Britney Spears...

I like my boss. I really do. Sometimes he just drives me crazy, though.

At the end of every month I mail out the same payments. Every month for like a decade. And every month he’s just shocked…shocked!....that I’m mailing out so much money. “You have to mail how much?” And he always says it like I’ve personally gone out and bought a million dollars worth of Doritos and Red Bull and charged it to the company credit card.

It’s annoying. That’s all I’m trying to say.

Uncle Jesseeeeee...

My mother decided to take a shortcut through the Twilight Zone to get to the Fremont Street Experience. I was just chatting away in the passenger seat when I suddenly realized that I had no idea where I was. Then we passed a Hari Krishna watering his driveway. At least I think he was a Hari Krishna. He was wearing a robe like this. Except he must have been wearing the summer version because there wasn't as much fabric. Pretty much just the shoulder drape part. Anyway, across the street from him was a house that just had a bunch of fruit in boxes sitting along the sidewalk. In Las Vegas. In the middle of summer. Then we went by a house with a table in the yard with two table lamps on it. It wasn't a yard sale or anything. Just a table with some lamps. Then we went down this other street where, on one side of the road, there was this Leave It To Beaver style 1950s neighborhood. On the other side of the road there was like a ghetto with bars on all the windows. Like the criminals just don't want to cross that street or something.

We finally made our way to the semi-private concert. Apparently, semi-private means that all the people who were attending a furniture trade show and had their credentials were corralled behind a white picket fence and the rest of us weren't allowed in. Then, at one point, they moved the white picket fence and all the furniture people got to go up by the stage and the rest of us had to stand behind some metal gates about a foot away from them. Then the security just seemed to say "screw it" and let everybody go up by the stage. So, basically, it was a bunch of hullaballoo for nothing.

I should mention that it was like 130 degrees out there. At least it felt like it. It was hellishly hot.

Then the most wonderful thing happened. The Beach Boys came on stage and introduced John Stamos. John Stamos! The crowd went INSANE. This guy who was standing by us started screaming "Oh my God!! John Stamos!! He's my idol!!" I just went into a Blackie/Uncle Jesse stupor for the next two hours. The Beach Boys were there and they were singing hit after hit and I was enjoying them. Really I was. They were great and I guess I'm a big ol' fan after all because I knew and loved every song they sang for two hours. But they could have had monkeys playing the tambourine for all the attention I paid them. John Stamos was on the stage grinning and bouncing around and getting all hot because it was like 130 degrees out there and his shirt got wetter and wetter and started clinging to his chest and...well...I enjoyed the show. A lot.

After they played Fun Fun Fun and the band had left the stage I heard one lone man screaming "Uncle Jesseeee!!!" to no one in particular. Alas, Uncle Jesse was already gone.

To sum up: Las Vegas has some weird neighborhoods. Even at night, Las Vegas is hecka' hot in the summer. A lot of grown men watch "Full House." The Beach Boys deserve their legendary status and I recommend you see them even if John Stamos isn't there. Although John Stamos makes it better. But John Stamos makes everything better, now doesn't he?

Sunkist orange soda taste sensations...

So the Beach Boys are playing an unadvertised concert at the Fremont Street Experience tonight. It's a "semi-private" concert, though. What the heck does "semi-private" mean? It's either private or it's not. I can get in or I can't.

I'm not a huge fan but I'm going down there anyway just to see what all the tourists walking around with their cups full of nickels and plastic footballs full of beer do when the Beach Boys just show up and start singing.

Once I was obsessed with Grease 2...

Since I was completely bored last night I decided I'd start another blog for my postcard collection. I have a tendency to get sort of obsessive about things and, at one time, that thing was buying old postcards. I've got a ton from the early 1900s up through the 70s. I'm going to try to put one up every day.

Anyway, it's "Wish I Was There".

My laundry still isn't done. I did do enough that I don't have to fear for my life if I need to go to the bathroom, though. That's something, right?

You know what's pathetic? When I was sorting my laundry I found clothes that I wore back in the winter. Apparently I just keep stuffing them back down to the bottom of the hamper. That's just sad. I'm ashamed. I'm washing it tonight.

That's what you get for messing with a Quaker...

You know, I've been thinking that "Six Feet Under" had lost something. This year seemed a little boring and predictable and I didn't really care what was going on. Then Nate's arm went numb and a second later he was flat on his back. And no previews?! What the...?!!? Is he dead? That was awesome!

I watched "The Forgotten" yesterday. I really like that Dominic West guy. I may have to start watching "The Wire".

Wow. I really don't have anything to say today.

Penny never had a wardrobe malfunction...

TV Land is having a "Good Times" marathon. I watched an episode. Now I can't get the theme song out of my head. It's driving me crazy.

Keepin' your head above water,
Making a wave when you can.
Temporary lay offs.
Good Times.
Easy credit rip offs.
Good Times.
Scratchin' and surviving.
Good Times.
Hangin in a chow line.
Good Times.
Ain't we lucky we got 'em.
Good Times.

There. You take it for a while.

That Tarantino CSI was reeeallly good...

Well, I got part of my list done today. There's still a massive amount of laundry overflowing the hamper in my bathroom and causing me to fear for my life if I need to go in the middle of the night, though. I fear that I will trip sometime and crack my head open on the toilet and then CSI will come investigate and see what an utter slob I am and somehow it will get in the press and everyone at work will know that I'm not the neat, efficient person that I've led them to believe. That CSI show has caused me a lot of paranoia, actually. I'm always afraid that something's going to happen to me and some Grissom-type is going to show up and make an obscure comical reference about the dishes in my sink or something that, if I were still living, I probably wouldn't understand.

That's it. Tomorrow I'm doing all my laundry.

I went out to dinner tonight and the lady at the table behind me totally didn't know how to use her indoor voice. The entire dinner she was just yelling everything. And they forgot her salad. THEY FORGOT HER SALAD. They didn't charge her so she claimed it was ok. IT WAS NO PROBLEM AT ALL. Except, even though it was no problem, she WOULDN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT IT. Then, when the check came, she said that she was tipping FIVE DOLLARS. To which her dinner companion exclaimed, FIVE DOLLARS!?!? So I got to hear exactly how she came to the five dollar total. SHE TOOK THE TAX AND MULTIPLIED BY TWO WHICH IS FOUR BUT SHE GOT GOOD SERVICE you know except for how THEY DIDN'T BRING HER SALAD so SHE WAS GIVING FIVE DOLLARS even though SHE DIDN'T GET HER SALAD. So, HALF OF FIVE IS TWO FIFTY which is what her companion OWED HER FOR THE TIP. Then she TALKED for a while about some METAL GLASSES that she has that MAKE HER DRINKS TASTE FUNNY. And then she finally left. THANK GOD.

I wonder if Jeff Goldblum ever watches it...

Friday! Thank God it's Friiiiiday!

It's the weekend! Yay!!!

I have a list of things that I want to get accomplished this weekend but I'll probably end up on the couch watching the Travel Channel. Then Sunday night I'll remember that I had all of these things I needed to do and get freaked out because the weekend's almost over and I haven't accomplished anything. Then I'll get depressed because I'm so unmotivated and I'm never going to amount to anything and someday I'll be living all alone in a studio apartment in the bad part of town eating cat food with a spork I stole from the KFC.

But, still...yay!!! It's the weekend!

There was just a commercial on tv for "Tommy Lee Goes To College". Is it just me or is he kinda' skeevy?

There's spam egg sausage & spam,that's not got much spam in it...

Why do the spammers think I’m a Christian male with a pornography addiction who wants his penis to be bigger even though he has an impotence problem brought on by emotional stress from being seriously in debt yet really wanting to own a Rolex watch?

This one has no title...

This is the HP Purchasedge guy. Frequent visits to the HP Purchasedge site at work have caused me to develop quite the crush on him. I'm tempted to take a picture of myself and put it in the empty space to his left so it looks like we were just hanging out and someone snapped our picture. Except that would be taking the crazy of having a crush on a picture to a level of crazy that I don't want to go. Yet.

"So You Think You Can Dance" starts tonight. Yay! Spazzy people who think they're hot and Paula Abdul?! How could it not be good? From the website: Paula Abdul will be using "her unique skills of dance and motivation to teach large groups of real people how to find their groove thing and really shake it." I know that I would love to shake my groove thing if I could just find it. Oh, Paula...won't you use your unique skills to help me find my groove thing?

What I want to say to my co-workers...

“Hey, you! The one that thinks she’s getting a direct ticket to heaven because she refuses to be happy about anything. Sitting around being miserable all day doesn’t make you a better person. It just makes you miserable to be around.”

“You know that basket on my desk? The in basket? Don’t put things next to that. Put them in that. That’s what it’s for.”

“Hey, person that puts stuff in my in basket going a different direction then everything else. That’s not helpful. It’s annoying. Stop it.”

“I don’t know why that bill never got here. How would I know that? Oddly, I don’t know where every piece of mail in the entire US Postal system ends up. Perhaps it was sent to Alaska. Maybe you should go check there.”

“I also don’t know why the printer skipped a page, the computer froze, the coke tastes funny, Joe Blow got fired, what that little dot on your Excel spreadsheet means, why your chairmat feels different or why the manager at that store wrote $51.26 instead of $51.27. Furthermore, I don’t really care. So no, I won’t call someone and ask for you.”

Maybe my insanity is the common thread...

Some random musings with no common thread:

I had a dream last night that I found the perfect office chair for work. Then I loaned it to a co-worker and when she went to give it back to me it had fleas. I took the dream to mean that generosity only leads to heartache. Or, in my case, fleas.

On the way to work this morning the car in front of me had a big circle on the back window that read "What Goes Around Comes Around". In the middle of the circle was the name of a man that died when he was 23. That's a weird memorial, right? What goes around comes around?

I think my dog has devised a Hitchcockian plot to make my mother think I'm crazy. On Saturday, when my mother was at work, Maggie was limping but I couldn't find anything wrong with her. When my mom came home I told her that something was wrong with Maggie's paw and that she's limping and lethargic. As soon as I said this, Maggie started playing with her toys and blanket. Not just half-heartedly playing but full-on puppy-like wallering around like she's the happiest dog in the world. Then, this morning, Maggie was just laying around like she was depressed and wouldn't even come out from under the table to get her breakfast. So I told my mom that Maggie seems depressed and won't even come for her breakfast. Sure enough, as soon as my mom came in the room Maggie runs out from under the table and starts eating. Just before I left for work I caught her staring at me from the darkened hallway. She was planning something. I just know it.

How long 'til the post-Potter depression hits...

Wow. Harry Potter was good. Really good. I guess I should have seen the ending coming but I didn't. My only complaint is that I'm totally ready for number seven and JK Rowling is saying I have to wait two more years. Two years?! And you know two years probably means three.

Yay!!!....

My Harry Potter came! I'm so happy.

Now I must lock myself away and read all 652 pages in one sitting.

I'm a cheap, lazy muggle...

Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter! My Harry Potter doesn't get here until next week. Next week! Had I not been so cheap and just paid extra I would be receiving my little Amazon box today and I would know all about the half blood prince by tomorrow morning. But, noooo. I had to save a few dollars. Now I won't be able to read it until next weekend.

I watched "Brat Camp" last night. It was interesting. I love how ABC gives the kids labels like "Hostile Outcast" and "Angry Punk". I couldn't figure out whether they were saying he was a punk as in "Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya' punk?" or like an "SLC Punk!" punk. Maybe both? Anyway, I love the counselors. They're so calm. They're like my patience role models now. The wilderness names are a little dopey, though.

Should I do something productive now or go lay on the couch and watch Degrassi? Hmmm...I think I'll do the Degrassi one. (Really, was there ever even any doubt?)

That's the signpost up ahead...

It was 122 degrees where I live today. That's crazy. It reminds me of the Twilight Zone where the temperature just keeps getting hotter and hotter and all the paintings melt and the thermometer bursts and then...well I don't want to ruin it for you. It's a good one, though.

Hmmm...not a very interesting day today. I woke up late. Work was work. I got annoyed about some message board stuff. I felt stupid for getting annoyed about message board stuff. I came home.

I watched a couple of documentaries. "Party Monster - The Shockumentary and "Devil's Playground. "Party Monster" was about Michael Alig and the Club Kids and it was all sex and drugs and crazy, irresponsible behavior. "Devil's Playground" was about Amish kids and rumspringa, where they get to go do "English" stuff when they turn sixteen. Except their idea of being "English" is sex and drugs and crazy, irresponsible behavior. After I watched the two movies I had a headache and felt like I'd lost at least 10 IQ points. It was sort of like how I felt when I spent a whole afternoon watching Jerry Springer "Too Hot For TV". That was a bad day.

Pop in an 8 track and fire up the fondue pot...

It turns out that I don't even like Rock Star:INXS. So I guess I didn't have to worry about missing the first one, huh?

You know what I love?
The 70s House. Love it. I wish that I had an alarm that played "The Hustle" every morning. Then I could start every day in a groovy way.

If you want to wallow in some seventies goodness check these out:

Avocado Memories :
I love this site. I just stumbled upon it one day and now I'm addicted. I think I might steal his idea and make a site like this for my family.

Stuck in the 70s :
There's a bunch of fun stuff there but the real draw for me is the old school blog.

retroCRUSH :
Entertaining and informative. Plus, a super fun message board!

It's creepy and it's kooky...

So I'm going through my DVR recorded shows list and my DVR recorded something called "The World's Creepiest Destinations" on the Travel Channel. But, get this...I never told it to record that! Dun Dun Dun. Creepy, indeed.

It looked kind of good though so I kept it.

What I was really hoping was that I had somehow set "Rock Star:INXS" to record because I completely forgot about it last night and didn't see the first episode. Alas, it was not there. Bummer. Hopefully one of the AI media sites is also putting up Rock Star video.

Check out my weather forecast for the next 10 days and then question why a sane person would choose to live in a desert.

Don't know what you got til it's gone...

I miss my desk. My desk is big and open and everything is within arms reach. My desk has inspirational sayings and pretty pictures and neon colored post it note cubes. My desk has an ostrich pen and a cool toy where Clark Kent turns into Superman in a phone booth. This desk has none of those things. It’s grey and drab and when I look up I just see boxes of promotional pens and caps and binders and an apparel & accessories catalog. Ok. I sort of liked the apparel & accessories catalog. It’s small. And cramped. And the walls make it seem like a prison cell. And the chair is broken. And the monitor is going bad so I think I might be going blinder than I already am. And the mouse doesn’t work. Waahhh!! They better bring my computer back soon or I might just start ditching work until they do.

I'm like the stalkerazzi...

This is my dog, Maggie Mae O'Molley. You can tell by these pictures that she doesn't like getting her picture taken. Not long after the last picture was snapped she jumped on top of a two foot tall coffee table to escape me. I took pity on her and put the camera away.

When does the fire start...

I show up for work this morning and my fan won't run. I turned the blades manually with a letter opener until I could get them to start moving. I think it's time to replace it which sort of sucks because I really like that fan. It looks like one of those 40s fans that would show up in a Humphrey Bogart movie or something.

Then I couldn't get my computer to work. I checked connections and whatnot and then called the help desk. He asked me if the computer was turned on. Men irritate me. Anyway, he sent someone out who said my hard drive was fried. He went to get a replacement but it wasn't the right kind so he took the whole computer away and said he'd come back after lunch. Then he calls and says that it's actually the motherboard that's gone and that I won't get it back until tomorrow afternoon. So I'm stuck at a spare desk with no phone or calculator that had a computer no one is using.

Meanwhile, my co-workers can't seem to get it through their heads that I'm not next to a phone right now. They just keep calling my old phone and I have to get up and run across the office and answer them and it's usually something totally uneccessary like "Hey, did they fix your computer, yet?"

And, on top of all that, I've been trying to process the same check batch since 9 am this morning. The computer messed it up once. I messed it up the second time. I'm hoping the third time will be ok because I might just put my foot through the monitor and leave if it's not.

I probably should have just stayed at home.

On a happier note, I watched "Purgatory" last night. It was very enjoyable. I also managed to get off my butt long enough to do the dishes and wash a load of laundry. I even made some iced tea and brownies. Look at me. I'm a regular Martha Stewart.

A lot of people have blogs...

I was looking at a blog and she linked to another blog which linked to another blog which linked to blogexplosion which links to a thousand blogs which I'm sure would link to a thousand more. It's like the Heather Locklear shampoo commercial. After about an hour I was all blogged out.

I'm incredibly lazy today so I'll just do my weekend in words and phrases:

"Free To Be You And Me Retro feminist fun. Go Princess Atalanta! Cry Rosie Grier! Play with that doll, little boy!

"Best of Johnny Carson" So that's what all the fuss was about. Funny and charming and cool.

Sort bills. Don't shred. Pay bills. Have no money.

"Hamburger America" Crush on Billy Goat family. "Cheeseburger..cheeseburger. No pepsi...coke"

Ate hamburger because of "Hamburger America". Got very sick. May never eat hamburger again.

Nerds. Brachs caramels. Coke. Sugar slump.

Nice man on tv talking about the hurricane. I like him. Aacckk! It's Jeb Bush. I can't like Jeb Bush. Feel sick inside. Question judgement and politics and beliefs.

"Party Monster" with Culkin and Green. Irritating.

Chore avoidance. Dishes? Laundry? Dinner? I don't want to.

I think I'll watch "Purgatory" instead.

I'm not high right now...

You know, even though I'm not a 14 year old boy who smokes a lot of pot, I just watched "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" and thought it was really funny. I may even have a little crush on Kumar. Go figure.

Yeah, I'm not reading The Rule of Four. I'm actually sitting here amidst a pile of old bills and receipts that I'm supposed to sort through and shred but instead I'm messing around on the internet and listening to golf on tv because I'm too lazy to go back in the living room and change the channel. Apparently Tom McKnight is catching a putt to roll in the hole. Ooooo! It lipped in! It lipped in! Fascinating.

Except for the being an alcoholic part...

It was a pretty good day. It was payday. I got all the work done that I had planned to get done. I went to Sam's Club and bought Cokes in a bottle. Cokes in a bottle are way better than canned Coke or the dreaded 2 liter. The only problem is that Sam's Club only sales them in boxes of 24 bottles and I tend to drink a lot of them and get sick. I'm not big on the self-control sometimes. I bought ."The Rule of Four" to read tomorrow. I'm always buying books though and then not reading them so we'll just have to see how tomorrow goes.

I've got boxes of unread books. I used to read constantly, like maybe two books a week. Then I started up with the stupid internet messageboards and I pretty much didn't do anything enjoyable with my free time for about a year and a half. I think I'm slowly getting over the whole messageboard addiction though because I read a book two weeks ago (Lori Foster's "Jamie") and one last weekend (Julia Quinn's "It's In His Kiss"). Plus, thanks to Netflix & Cox Cable, I'm back to watching movies like there's no tomorrow. Lately I'm trying to watch all of the Thin Man and Dirty Harry series. Why aren't movie couples nowadays as cool as Myrna Loy and William Powell? I want to be Nora Charles.

Let's try this again...

So, I started a blog a little while ago and posted on it like three times and then just deleted the whole thing because I decided it wasn't very interesting. This blog will probably not be very interesting either but, as Lyle Lovett said, where would you be if you didn't even try. You have to try. So, some random ramblings about me:

My name is Catherine. Most people call me Cathy. Either is fine. Don't spell it with a "K" though because that's just wrong.

I live in Las Vegas. I moved here just to run away from somewhere else but it feels like home now. I live with my mother. We ran away from the other place together. We're best friends and we do everything together anyway and we'd probably need roommates if we lived separately so we figure living together is the best way to go.

I work in an office. Growing up I was going to travel the world for a living but now I work in an office. I guess I could be all bitter about that but, let's face it, traveling the world for a living wasn't a very well thought out career plan. Anyway, the office isn't so bad. I'm the boss of my little section and all my bosses pretty much leave me alone as long as we meet our deadlines. The work is fairly easy and the pay is pretty good.

I have a dog. Her name is Maggie Mae O'Molley. (She seemed Irish to me.)

I watch a lot of tv. I love Netflix. I haven't stopped listening to Jack fm since it took over our local easy listening station a while back. Therefore, this blog will probably have a lot of references to tv, Netflix and Jack fm in it.

That's it. I'm tired. Big Brother 6 is starting soon. Gotta go.