CafeChatNoir

But it’s good to be back home. I feel like I’ve been gone a month.

This is the first year in forever that I have not had to answer to ANYONE as to what I will be doing on New Year’s Eve. Not that I have any plans, and will probably end up falling asleep before midnight anyway, but it’s still nice for a change to do whatever *I* want. (I’ve never thought of New Year’s as a family holiday. It’s a do whatever you want holiday.)

What I’m actually thinking about more is - will anything be open tomorrow? Starbucks? Bagel shops? Anything? Or am I just resigned to being stuck inside all day? (I know the pub will be open for the bowl games, but that isn’t going to help me with a bagel fix in the morning.)

Some interesting things I learned on this trip courtesy of USAirways:

When doing a pushback on a large commercial aircraft, if the trailer or plane turns too sharply, the pin holding the two vehicles together will shear right off.

Things you don’t want to hear 45 minutes into a 5 hour flight: “If there are any medical professionals on board, please hit your call button.”

If you are flying USAirways into Sky Harbor, stop at the Einstein Bagels between the gates and baggage claim. In the time it takes to sit down and have a bagel and a drink, half the bags will have been picked up and the crowd will be gone.

Now that I have my critters back.  They also got nice report cards for their stay at the kennel.

Mox pretty well destroyed his green froggie toy I sent along with him - gutted it nicely.

Target yowled the entire way home.  The lady that tended to him remembered Snoopy from this summer and asked about him - I felt so bad having to tell her that he had passed away.  She said that Target seemed a little sad at times.  (I’m glad I signed him up for extra cuddle time.)  He looks like he lost a bit of weight, so operation “fatten up the kitty” starts today.  I am sure he’ll be amenable to some extra treats and goodies with his food.  Since he normally free-feeds, trying to get him to eat on a schedule doesn’t always work.

But they’re home and they’re happy and I’m happy.

Makes it a lot easier to kill time in an airport.  Our airplane has been sitting empty at the gate for about an hour now, so in theory we should be getting out of here on time, except because of some noise abatement rules, there are delays leaving of 15-30 minutes “and increasing” according to flightarrivals.com.

Other than the addition of a Starbucks and a Trader Joe’s, Sun City AZ has not changed a whit since I was here 22 years ago, except that the entire population is 22 years older. I can count on one hand the number of people I saw under the age of 60.

While it’s an easy enough place to drive around since Phoenix is laid out on a grid, the drivers here are as bad, and in some cases worse, than the drivers back east.

You know those jokes about older folks eating dinner at 4:30PM? They’re not jokes.

It’s very strange to walk into a CVS here and see an entire aisle for liquor.

I’m going to be optimistic and think that we’ll be boarding soon, so I’m going to pack up.

I’m way behind the loop on the news, but I setup my phone to get the latest breaking news (OK, once I figured out *how*), and when I heard of Benzanhir Bhutto’s assasination today, it was Toby Zigler’s voice in my head saying these words…

“Why’s a test-ban treaty so important? Let me tell you. In 1974, India set off a peaceful nuclear explosion. Indira Ghandi herself said they had no intention of building a bomb, they just wanted to know that they could. Twenty years later India sets off five nuclear explosions. Who gets nervous? Pakistan. And when Pakistan gets nervous, everybody get nervous. You know why? ‘Cause we’re all gonna die.”

I’m in hate mode at the moment.

Still have to go to Staples, Petco, the cigar shop, and Kohl’s. ATM machine. Ticket and rental car printouts and directions from the airport to the house. Have to get the animals to the kennel. Packing. Figure out what laundry I missed.

This is why Valium should be available over the counter.

Heading out in 3 days. Mail is taken care of, animal boarding is taken care of, 1 present left to buy, transportation to airport is done. The only other thing I can even think of at this point is doing some laundry and that’s it.

It seems like there should be much more to tend to before leaving - so, what on earth am I not thinking of that is going to come back to haunt me at 6 in the morning on Thursday?

A Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect from 3 PM this afternoon to 11 am EST Sunday.

OK, it’s 3:05 - where is my wintry armageddon? I’m ready! I have milk, bread, and toilet paper. As well as things that are actually useful in a storm, too.

So, bring it on!

Last spring I lost my cell phone - searched high and low for days for it and it didn’t turn up, so I had to replace it.

Of course this meant that not terribly long after replacing it, the old one finally turned up. Despite the fact that my first instinct was to toss it at the wall as hard as possible for hiding from me, I just tucked it away in a drawer.

That move paid off this morning when the display on the replacement phone went out on me. It’s now charging back up and hopefully will be activated and ready to go soon. (We’ll see if Sprint activates the right phone…)

Or anyone else for that matter.  HGTV is doing a contest to makeover a neighborhood somewhere in the US.

Anacostia is among the potential winners.  Anyone from around here knows that it’s an area that has seen better days and could definitely use some help.

So, unless there is another neighborhood on the list that is near and dear to your heart, give Anacostia a little love.  Lord knows it needs it.

I got a visit from the Department of State today… And I greeted them with my usual side door ambush of “Can I HELP you??!?” cause I don’t take kindly to people ringing my doorbell when I’m trying to work.

It would seem that my ex-husband either has or is going for a job that requires a clearance. Mind you, I’ve not seen or spoken to him in over 7 years, so from the get-go I didn’t exactly feel like my input should matter given that a) there was no physical abuse, b) no monetary addictions, c) no active plans to overthrow the government in a violent manner, and d) he’s 7 years more grown up by now - and I’m quite sure at the age of 42 I’ll be quite different from the gal I am now, and I expect no different from him. Though I will admit that the first words out of my mouth were, “Wait, he’s got a REAL JOB?!!?” Followed by, “Feel free to mark me down as the snarky ex-wife.” (What can I say - the job he had the last time we spoke was 32 hours a week, 8 of which were playing golf.)

Shit, what the hell am I supposed to say? I did say he was “a decent guy, but a lousy first husband” and I clarified by saying it was simply because he was too young at the time. (I know they discount bitter sounding comments from ex’s - we’re ex’s for a reason.) I wouldn’t date him again, but shit, I’d trust him with national secrets, especially since he has more to lose now than he did when I knew him.

I’ll fully admit that there is part of me that wants to hunt down his current address and drop him a note saying, “Don’t worry - I never mentioned the cross-dessing!”

He was by no means a perfect person, nor am I - otherwise we’d still be hitched. But hell, give him the clearance - he’ll do just fine.

Just odd to have that part of my life that I thought was totally and completely behind me crop up on me when I would have never expected it.

And DoS - if you’re reading - I didn’t lie about anything today - it was just weird.

Trying to do some picking up in the kitchen today.  Managed to knock over a glass and break it, and then not 5 minutes later, picked up a package of light bulbs, the package popped open and then I spent the next 10 minutes getting more broken glass off the floor.

I don’t think I’ll be attempting any more cleaning tonight - I’m obviously going to be injured if I continue.

So, Apple is opening a new flagship store in Manhattan this evening. Now, I have no doubt that it will be a very cool store, with very cool toys and will be a fun place to wander around and look at shiny things. If I were to find myself walking in front of an Apple store, I’m quite sure I’d be sucked in to look around.

However, CNBC is reporting that people have been lining up since last night waiting for the opening. Now, there is no product launch going along with this - it is just the opening of one of their stores. Not the first store - another store. Bigger and shinier it seems, but nothing inherently new.

I have a hard enough time with the idea of camping out for video games - but a new store opening? A store you’ve been to in other locations? A store that will still be there next week? Just can’t get my head around it.

But, for those souls sitting out in the 34 degree weather - have fun, enjoy the new store and try not to spend all your rent money. I’ll stick with my warm couch, hot coffee, and Apple’s online store.

It’s 45 degrees with 20 mph winds - of COURSE the dog is outside and absolutely refuses to come in. I do not understand his “wild dog of the north” complex he gets when it’s windy outside, but he LOVES it. Makes us look like we’re abusing him and locking him out in this weather, but he knows he can come inside whenever he wants, and if I open the door and ask him if he wants in, he looks at me like I have lost my mind.

The wind is bad enough that it blew the back door open while little bro & I went off to run an errand, so upon returning it was time to play the “find the cat” game. Searched the house, outside, shook the treat bag, called and yelled and nothing - and then out of nowhere he just appeared in the upstairs hallway with this look on his face of “WTF is with all the yelling? I’m trying to nap here.” I still have no idea where he hides out upstairs when he’s not snoozing on the bed.