Good News! My friend Kathleen left word this morning that the additional growths found in her breast turned out to be benign, and so the outpatient procedure she's enduring today is to remove a single malignant lump.
From almost the very first moment Reynaldo joined my household in 2004, he has fixated on capturing and holding my attention in his furry grip. My best friend has always maintained that Rey is good for me, that his shenanigans keep me sharp, that it's good for me to be challenged on my home turf now and again. That's how we began referring to Reynaldo as his cat. As in "You won't believe what your cat just did!" and "My cat knows just how to handle you."
Today is Wednesday. As of Monday, there were two major changes in management here at work. It took the powers that be a while to inform us of the first, but they did it yesterday. The second one has yet to be announced.
I want to know why I'm getting zits again NOW! I have one on my right cheek and another on the right side of my chin. Neither is as bad as the ones I used to get in the bad old days, but I'm unhappy nonetheless. My diet's been all over the place. I wonder if that's it. Maybe it's the sunscreen I slathered on rather liberally over the weekend ...
Books. I love how they can take you somewhere you've never been before, or give you a new perspective on what's familiar. For example, I recently finished a book about Elizabeth Taylor that took me back to the 1960s and her lusty, boozing, brawling jetset life with Richard Burton. Now I'm reading Then We Came to the End, a book set in an advertising agency I worked at in the 1990s, and that's filled with characters based on people I knew. The books couldn't be more different, but they both deliver insight and escape and enjoyment.
If you could say just one thing to the so-and-sos of the world and in your life what would you say? Don't think about it too much. Just write the first thing that pops in to your head. It doesn't have to be just one word. 
The agency I work for hired a new Senior Vice President for the account I'm on. That they went outside and brought in fresh blood makes me happy. There have been rumblings that my client isn't happy with us, and if that's true, it's good to see that we aren't throwing in the towel and intend to fight for the business. Yea!| Greed: | Medium | |
| Gluttony: | Medium | |
| Wrath: | Medium | |
| Sloth: | Medium | |
| Envy: | Medium | |
| Lust: | Low | |
| Pride: | High |
I am blessed by an abiding love of silly, which helps keep me sane. If the Ren & Stimpy icon isn't evidence enough, I give you exhibit A:
Share lines from the movie you most like to quote or a list of those you quote from often, linking back here to the Bumbles.
So today begins this year's August Happiness Challenge. And today's entry is deeply heartfelt.
I love my Cubs. It's a love that transcends inconsequential matters like winning and losing. So when I have to say goodbye to special favorites, it's hard. Like my baseball boyfriend, Ryan Theriot, and my favorite leftie, Ted Lilly . Both gone to the Dodgers.
Saturday 9: Bad Day
talizing the weak.
As his memorable tenure with the Cubs limps to an end, the usually fiery Lou Piniella seems even more subdued than usual. For tonight is his last game with the team for a while. After the last out, he's on his way to Tampa to attend the funeral of his 92-year-old uncle, Joe, and to check in on his 90-year-old mom, who has been ill.
Temperatures dropped to the mid-70s this afternoon, so I was able to comfortably wander about the city this afternoon. First, I headed over to a new spa for a discounted 90-minute hot stone massage. Than I walked leisurely to the el. Along the way, I noticed many of those cool Chicago street moments that I normally would hurry past … like street performers making balloon animals, performing magic tricks, playing kettle drums, and a trio painted silver from head-to-toe, pretending to be a robot bride, groom and minister. A little boy was posing with the wedding party and his mom was snapping his photo. He looked as though being part of this robot wedding was the proudest moment of his young life.
Image Credit: Samantha Appleton/White House/PBS
“I’ve done a lot of things in my life, but never this,” Paul McCartney said on PBS tonight. “This” was traveling to the White House, which he did last month to accept the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. A properly all-star concert was convened to befit the occasion, and while bits and pieces of the event have leaked out on YouTube since then, tonight the whole thing (or most of it) aired as part of PBS’ “In Performance at the White House” series.
The show opened with some stirring words from President Obama. “It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly half a century since four lads from Liverpool landed on our shores and changed everything overnight,” he reflected. Then it was time for a cavalcade of stars old and young to pay homage to the voluminous back catalog that earned McCartney this honor.
High points were in abundance. Stevie Wonder’s super-tight “We Can Work It Out” featured a mean harmonica solo, while Elvis Costello’s faithfully jaunty “Penny Lane” boasted an even nicer piccolo trumpet solo. Emmylou Harris shone on an acoustic “For No One.” Dave Grohl wore the night’s biggest grin as he tore through “Band on the Run.” Jack White’s tender “Mother Nature’s Son”/”That Would Be Something” medley captured something of McCartney’s starry-eyed charm.
Intermixed with these were some…not quite as highs. I’m not sure anyone other than Sasha and Malia Obama needed to hear the Jonas Brothers’ competent if cutesy “Drive My Car.” (In fairness, McCartney and Wonder were visibly grooving during this performance.) Jerry Seinfeld’s random stand-up routine fell flat as he riffed from Beatles lyrics to stale “marriage, am I right?” shtick. Faith Hill’s “Long and Winding Road” was a bit schmaltzy for my taste.
McCartney himself was wonderful throughout, humble and jocular. Anyone who’s seen him in concert recently can tell you that he’s still all youthful energy at 68, even if his voice sounds a touch rough at the edges here and there. He had a grand old time with songs including “Got to Get You Into My Life,” “Michelle” (for the first lady in the audience), “Ebony & Ivory” with Wonder, “Eleanor Rigby,” and ”Let It Be,” as simply moving as ever. ”I don’t think there could be anything more special than for us to be performing here,” McCartney remarked, right before the all-inclusive “Hey Jude” singalong. “And we’re thinking of making it a regular thing. Lunchtimes, we could come around.” If only!
I Am Hopscotch |
 You are easygoing and carefree. You like to play, but you don't really like to compete. You prefer to cooperate with others. You like to work with people ... not against them! You have a childlike innocence and optimism that is worth holding on to. You find happiness easily. You can get pleasure from the smallest things. |
e last night about his daughters' birthday parties. They are events, as so many kids' parties are today. For example, last month his elder girl invited her friends along for a limo ride to and from a fancy restaurant in celebration of her 13th birthday. But, instead of gifts, her guests were invited to bring money -- donations to her favorite charity, an organization that buys mosquito nets for African villagers.
I'm off for dinner with my best friend! He's just in town overnight, and he wasn't sure the focus groups he was here to monitor would end at a reasonable hour.
Yes, his bad behavior has been documented more than once on this blog. Yes, I suspect that he is the inspiration for those Allstate Mayhem commercials. And yet, I can't emphasize enough that my Rey-Rey is not a bad cat.
odel for little girls. Then there's Lumiere. As a big Law & Order fan, I found it amazing that my Lennie had been a legendary Broadway star, and here's one of his musical performances (Lumiere) preserved on film.
After I cleaned the mess a certain skinny cat made in my sandals (AARGH!), I went around and touched-up ALL the spots on the living room/hallway/bedroom carpets that had met with hairballs. I mean, after all, I had the paper towels and Woolite Rug Cleaner in my hand already, so why not?
57. How often do you talk on the phone? Less and less.
Every day I am going to do something -- no matter how small -- to improve my standard of living at home.
s.
