DON'T BUY POM JUICE!!!!

Please don't buy POM Juice!!
I was at the doctor's office today reading an article called "PETA vs. POM Horrible." As a former "rodent mom" it made me very angry. Here it is:

PETA has uncovered reports showing that pomegranate juice manufacturer POM Wonderful pays experimenters to perform hideous tests on and kill hundreds of rats, mice, and rabbits. Not one of these tests that POM funds--or any other test on animals--is required by law for juice products. And because animals have different physiologies from humans, the results of the POM-funded tests tells us nothing about how pomegranate juice affects the human beings who drink it.
POM-funded experiments have done the following to animals:
* In order to study human heart disease (atherosclerosis), they've deliberately sickened mice, fed them pomegranate juice, and then cut them up to see if the juice made a difference. POM now claims that pomegranate juice helps mice with heart disease, but what the company fails to mention is that mice don't even develop atherosclerosis naturally--they lack the human enzyme related to the disease. Experimenters didn't really study heart disease--they only created symptoms in mice that mimicked heart disease.
* In a bizarre attempt to show that pomegranate juice can help erectile dysfunction in humans, experimenters injured rabbits' arteries to create artificial symptoms of erectile dysfunction--a condition that rabbits don't suffer from naturally.
*Experimenters locked week-old mouse pups (whose mothers were fed pomegranate juice) in a chamber with almost no oxygen for 45 minutes to cause severe brain injury and later decapitated the babies.
* Elderly rats were forced to swim through a stressful water maze to test the effect of pomegranate juice on the animals' short-term memory.
These outrageous experiments are unnecessary, and more accurate and applicable tests could be easily obtained from non-invasive tests on human volunteers. Many other juice companies--including Naked Juice, Old Orchard, and Frutzzo (available in the US), and Pomegreat (available in the UK), whose products can be found in many of the stores where POM is sold--offer healthy and delicious pomegranate juice without hurting any animals. These and other juice companies have provided PETA with written assurances pledging not to test on animals (see CaringConsumer.com for a complete list).
POM executives have refused to ban cruel animal tests. Help persuade them to do so.
YOU CAN HELP!
Don't buy POM
* Tell everyone you know about POM's cruel animal tests.
* Distribute PETA's "Stop POM!" literature at your local grocery stores. Email campaigns@peta.org with your name and address to receive free leaflets and stickers.
* Please tell POM Horrible that you agree with PETA--juice tests on animals are painful, pointless, and unacceptable. Mention that you won't buy any of its products until the company permanently bans all animal tests:
Matt Tupper, President
POM Wonderful, LLC
11444 W. Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064
USA
customerservice@pomwonderful.com
310-966-5800
(Postage from the UK is 72 pence)

The Plastic Thingy Mystery Solved!

So I found this black plastic thingy on the floor by my desk the same night a friend visited. I thought maybe it was something that belonged to him because he went to my desk area to look out the window, so I thought "oh this black thingy must've fallen out of his jacket or something, I'll just send him a picture of it and ask if it's his, and it probably is." He said it didn't belong to him, so I was confused. My cousin had been here recently as well, but she hadn't gone into my desk area, so it couldn't belong to her. So I've had this mystery black plastic thingy just hanging around for a while. We recently just got hit by a huge blizzard, so today I've been pretty bored, and I suddenly discovered the answer! If I wasn't bored, I may have never noticed, or at least not for a long time. Here's the plastic thingy:

Looks pretty weird, right? I didn't know what it could possibly be for, I initally thought it was a piece of a clip for a cell phone or something. Now I feel pretty silly for having such a creative imagination, because this is what it's for:

Look closely. See the lower left drawer? No handle! The thingy is just the handle for that drawer! I probably took so long to notice because I don't often need something from that drawer. And If I hadn't been bored, I probably wouldn't have been looking around for something to clean, and I wouldn't have looked at the drawers. I also wouldn't have blogged, but like I said, I was bored! :-P And it's a funny story anyway.

DTA Buses Are Getting Too Smart

DTA buses have been talking, yes literally talking for a long time now. Saying things like "Miller Hill Mall, Door 8" and "Downtown" and "Stop requested." Now they say "Approaching...Lake Superior Zoo" and "For your safety, please remain seated until the bus comes to a complete stop." The fare paying thingy even says "Coin not accepted" if one of your coins doesn't go in, and if you request a transfer, it spits one out and says "Please take transfer." These buses never fail as far as navigation is concerned. I found out they're wifi equipped, so sometimes when they say "Approaching...Commonwealth Avenue and Gary Street" they're actually past Gary Street, but not very far past it. Tonight though, I was officially creeped out for the first time about these "smart" buses. I've heard a lot of the buses phrases many times, including the new one about the use of profanity being prohibited on DTA buses. But tonight's phrase almost made me freeze. I was listening to music on my iPAQ as per usual, and I had my groceries in my seat, and was just being a good bus rider. The bus said "Please remove your feet from the seat." I ignored it figuring it was another new random message like the one about profanity or the one about crossing the street. Again the bus said "Please remove your feet from the seat." I was thinking "WTF, my feet are on the floor, does someone on this bus really have their feet on the seat and the bus KNOWS this??" I was creeped out. The bus knew somebody had their feet on the seat!! The driver said "Take your feet off the seat, you in the back..." I knew it wasn't me that had my feet on the seat, I always sit in the middle of the bus and my feet were on the floor, but I was still just thinking "WTF, how did the bus know that? Maybe I don't want to know."
YOU! Reading my blog!! PULL UP YOUR PANTS!!

Sweet Upgrade

In 2001 or thereabouts, I discovered HP & Compaq's brilliant iPAQ. After drooling over them for a few years, in 2003 I went with an HP h1910, and I am still loving it. It's REALLY getting worn out though, and the right directional button broke like 2 years ago from me playing so much Tetris. It's really scratched and the silver finish is worn off in a lot of places, and the screen is REALLY scratched up, and the battery life just isn't what it used to be.

I am now the proud owner of an HP rx1955, and I'm excited. It will be at my door very soon. Oh yeah. :-D

Apologies to all non-geeks who have no idea what I just said.

Look at it. Drool, drool...

Tattoo Picture

Tattoo'd

I went in to Tatts by Zapp today and got my blue roses. I'll post a picture when my internet isn't acting broken. Lately it has liked to do that. I liked the guy that did my tattoo, he was really cool and also good looking.
The weather has been way too warm lately. I fear the coming of summer. This is it. This is the year the heat will kill me. Make sure my tombstone mentions how cool I was.

Cheapy-type Target Bowl

So I have this really cool blue metal bowl I used to put my popcorn in, but it wasn't quite big enough to hold a whole bag of microwave popcorn. I looked at a bunch of stores for a good popcorn bowl, not caring what it was made out of or anything, I just wanted the right size bowl, even if it had to be a mixing bowl, because I didn't care. I finally found one at Target that's actually meant FOR POPCORN. I thought "how handy." This was on Saturday. It's Thursday night now, and I had the bowl on my desk with popcorn in it and I heard this THUNK! I thought either a kernel somehow popped or the bowl cracked. I scooped the popcorn out of the way where I heard the noise, and sure enough, my bowl cracked!! Really severely hard too, look at the picture, the bowl actually bulged upon cracking!! Stupid thing's going back to Target. I was just at KMart last night, had I known this would happen I would have looked for a popcorn bowl. Guess I'll have to go back again, grumble grumble...

(By the way, the DOLLAR STORE USB cable I used to transfer that picture on here works just fine. This is the epitome of true irony--an electronics department item from the DOLLAR STORE functions flawlessly but a PLASTIC FRIGGING BOWL I paid like 4 friggin dollars for quits after not even a week. This is the weird and wild world we live in, people.)

Edible Blue Roses

I made those last night, they're edible!! They're from blue candy melts I bought, and I got the rose mold to go with them. I'll be serving them for Christmas along with white ones and chocolate ones. Should be darn tasty!

Idaho Street

I was taking the bus to the grocery store tonight, and when we turned onto Idaho Street, I noticed everyone's Christmas lights are that excessive kind, but somehow it was still tasteful. In fact, the bus driver stopped suddenly because he had driven right by a lady who was waiting for the bus, and he apologized to her and said he was busy looking at the lights! I found that kinda funny, especially since I'm sure he goes down Idaho street more than I do. I didn't have my camera with me, but just take my word for it, the lights are nice on Idaho Street.

Angry At Jennifer and Josh

So I keep getting calls for Jennifer or Josh. Listen, Jennifer and Josh: GIVE EVERYONE YOUR NEW NUMBER NOW!! I am sick of getting your phone calls. Fix your credit or whatever reason they call me wanting to talk to you. You've annoyed me beyond belief, and I've never even met you. Pretty soon I'm gonna stop being friendly with the people who call me and ask "Well do you KNOW Jennifer?" FRIGGING NO I DON'T! Jerks. (And what business is it of yours how long I've had this number?!)

Let's be thankful the kids can't go see THIS at the mall!!

Does Mrs. Claus know about this??

Thanksgiving in All its Northern Minnesota Glory

It's really friggin windy out, and my building is old, so my windows don't really seal, and my curtains are moving. But hey, not only do I not have to pay for my heat, I am actually allowed to adjust it!! The radiator turny thing isn't painted over like other landlords have it. So I turned the heat up for the night. Maybe sometime the landlord can come and caulk around the windows or something. Here at the edge of the Earth, some cranky people dwell. In this neighborhood, I have seen great displays of shouting, carrying on, even screaming. Luckily on this Thanksgiving night, a lady down the hall proved to be very nice! This was nice for me after having to hear a high-strung dad deal with his total brat kids across the street from me. At least the neighbor kids were behaving themselves and taking turns riding the ATV on the grass. And my dad grilled tonight! I don't trust people enough to throw a grill on the porch, so I look to my dad for grilled food when I visit my parents, and he never disappoints. As windy as it was and as much trouble as that was for his grilling, the turkey burgers were most tasty! Mom made fries in the oven, and I didn't have to make anything, although I did do my laundry at their house. And I had an RC Cola. I push Coke aside for RC Cola--I even push Pepsi and Shasta aside for it. I got my mouse so I wouldn't have to use the worn out clicky thing on my laptop, and I grabbed my box of plastic canvas supplies because I have a host of patterns to choose from now, so I have no excuse not to stitch in my free time. And last night I cleaned my kitchen, so I got to come back home to a clean kitchen for once. The hermit crabs might get an extra hermit crab cake tonight just to simulate typical Thanksgiving dining habits.

Livin' On The Edge (Of The Earth)

So I moved out of my parents' house now and into a little place of my own in the above pictured building with the hermit crabs and the fish. The hermit crabs are still too quiet, I would rather have furry rodents, but I am only allowed to have the crabs and the fish. Although my kitchen echoes quite a bit, so sometimes when the crabs decide it's party time, the "THUNK!" of them screwing around travels through the whole place and I would imagine down the hall as well. If I laugh at my TV I can hear it in the kitchen and I'm sure they hear it down the hall. Everything I do is sorta magnified by the kitchen. Just pouring cereal or opening chips seems like it's picked up with a mic and then there's speakers up in each corner. The ceilings are really high, so I'm sure that's what's going on. The edge of the Earth is just down the street. Dad says he saw "sailboats piled up down there," and I saw for myself that the edge of the Earth looks to be the St. Louis River. I see a lot of cars come up the road that comes from the edge of the Earth, and I assume there's so many because they come from the other way, realize they've reached the edge of the Earth, and then they turn around and come back. Even the bus goes there, which is handy for me because even as someone who lives at the edge of the Earth, I need to go places, too! I also have phone service and I get TV channels and radio stations, so there must be a big antenna at the edge of the Earth as well. My apartment even came with a phone book, so I am able to reach the other Earthlings. I have even had contact with a few, and they're all as friendly as me. I think the hermit crabs can contact those BEYOND the edge of the Earth, and that may be why they're so restless at night.

Burned Out By Haus

So okay. Friday afternoon I showed up at my Uncle Mike's house to watch his girlfriend's daughter, who's 9. She asked me if I could do the whole weekend because she wanted to have a girls weekend out, so I said that was fine. I agreed to do this because her daughter is no trouble at all. I have been babysitting this kid since she was 4, and she's never been any trouble. Uncle Mike's dog, Haus, however, is more trouble than a spoiled toddler. He's a huge energetic lab, so he's this big dopey furball. I got here on Friday and it's Sunday, and I just can't wait to get the heck out of this house and go back to Esko to my parents' house. At least my parents and my hermit crabs aren't like spoiled toddlers, so things are pretty quiet there. There's also 2 cats living here, but they really like to just sorta hang out or sit on my lap--they don't cause any trouble. Well hopefully I'll end up renting this little efficiency like way out on the edge of Duluth where I'm sure tumbleweeds blow--although the bus goes there, so maybe it's the same scene only no tumbleweeds. It will be way too quiet there because I won't be allowed to have furry critters, just the crabs and a seemingly epileptic betta. I really think those fish need to be taken care of better at Wal*Mart. The betta cups are stacked REALLY high and the water in every cup is dirty, so it's no surprise that my betta suddenly goes from calm to flailing around like he's being choked. Maybe when he gets old, he'll get fishy Alzheimer’s and forget his water was ever dirty at Wal*Mart, or maybe he'll forget what Wal*Mart is and stop randomly freaking out. For now I just worry about him trying to purposely choke on one of the rocks in his tank so he can end this battle between his brain and his brain.

The Secret to Why I Smell Good and other pics

I smell good, and people sometimes ask me what I use. Allow me to show you:

Left to right: Suave Ocean Breeze shampoo, Suave Ocean Breeze conditioner, Suave Ocean Breeze bodywash, Suave Ocean Breeze body lotion. That's my big secret, and that whole works is less than 5 bucks at Wal*Mart.
I have this thing in my room, and it's really handy when I need to take my pills (tilt your head to see, I was too lazy to rotate this picture):

Last week, my normally well-behaved razor decided it was tired of obeying, and it really showed me who's apparently boss:

I suppose now you're ready to write me an angry email about showing off a wound, but I'm not even worth yelling at--you should see some of Odd Todd's stuff--I have seen so many pictures of his big hairy feet and stuff, and he posts about his dog's crap, and although that's kinda unsavory, it's still funny. I'm not a wuss like lots of people, I can handle things. I can watch a mouse clean his tail while eating gummi worms, that's easy. And anyway, mice are cute, especially when they clean their tails.

I miss noisy rodents

I bought a blue betta and his name is Bubba. I still have my hermit crabs from NY. At night they make a lot of noise. Often their legs clink on the metal grate they like to climb, or sometimes they dig in the rocks or do cannonballs in the water dish. A hermit crab doing a cannonball into a half shell full of water makes a loud CRACK! And when I put out a hermit crab cake at bedtime, they actually CRUNCH on it. This goes on while I watch the 10:00 news, and then it continues through Jay Leno, and then through Conan. I usually hit the lights and settle down for bed after Conan, and then the hermit crabs really party. I know hermit crabs are nocturnal and they do a lot of stuff at night, but it's weird that the sun goes down and they do stuff for a while, and then a false sun is up (my lamp is on while I watch TV for a few hours) and then it's dark again, and that few hours of "sunshine" doesn't quiet them down. Listening to them scrape around in there is nice, but I miss having noisy rodents. No click-click of a water bottle. No crunch-snap of seeds. No screech-screech or squeak-squeak. No roll-roll of a plastic wheel. No metallic thrum of a climbing rodent falling off the cage wall. No scrape-scrape of digging on the cage floor. It's too quiet without furry little critters around. As soon as I move, I'm going to PetCo and scooping up a handful of white female mice and taking them into my home. I already had males, and they're stinkier than females, so I'll try the females. I miss being kept awake by my beloved furballs and having to get up and take the cage into the kitchen and having to share my cheese because they clung to the sides of their cages waiting for it. I miss coming home to lots of furry critters and greeting them. With the hermit crabs, it's just like "'Sup..." and the little black eyes looking up at me. I do admit that's cute though.

Stuff about recent stuff

I'm back in MN again. I am living in Esko, but today I spent the day in Duluth. My Uncle Mike's girlfriend and I went out to lunch and then went shopping. I got a new pair of shoes, which I was really starting to need. I don't buy shoes like most women do. What I do is buy a pair of athletic shoes and wear the same pair every day until that pair wears out, and then I get another pair of athletic shoes and repeat the process. Kinda like back in the playground days, where Mom buys one pair of new shoes for the child to wear for the whole school year as well as the summer. That works for me as well, especially when they're $24.95 a pair! I also finally picked up the postcards to send to all "m'peeps" in NY. Tomorrow, Grandma & I will go rummaging around Duluth for a while and then go have lunch with Uncle Mike's girlfriend and her daughter. Rummaging is something I haven't done in TOO too long. It's the only thing in my life besides jazz band that's worth getting up way too early for. I used to get up at 5:45am in high school because I had jazz band before school. Grandma & I have gotten up to go rummaging as early as 6:00am. Tomorrow we're getting up at 7. If I still had the rodents, they would be very pleased about this because they seemed to be most active when their mom wanted to sleep! At 6:30 one morning, I heard paper being shredded--rrrriiiip...rrrriiiip! It was just Salvador the hamster and Benny the mouse making a nest. They couldn't have waited like just 2 more hours when mommy would be getting up? Nope! But animals will do things like this. Back when one of my dogs was a puppy, she decided that 3:30am was a good time to jump the wall in the wooden dog pen in the back hall, go upstairs, push my door open, and sit on my floor and howl at me. I took her into my bed for 2 reasons--she was lonely, and it would quiet her down. Nowadays, as soon as I turn off my lamp at 12:30 to go to sleep, THAT seems to be when the hermit crabs decide to start excavating different sites in their tank as well as do cannonballs into the water dish. Whatever! I STILL like little animals anyway! Although I did have to move my frog into the basement because he chirps very loudly at night. Naturally, his name is Chirpy. Here's a picture (click it for full view cuz it looks a bit blurry this way):

Duluth is a cool place

I was born in Duluth, MN, and I grew up there as well as Esko, MN. I'll be going back to Esko soon, and while I'm there, I'll be looking for a job in Duluth and eventually a place to live in Duluth. Duluth is a really cool place, so I thought I would put some cool links on my blog here for different Duluth type stuff.

This guy takes really cool pictures of northern MN and the Duluth area:
http://www.northernimages.com/lakesuperior/index.php
Here's a good site for touristy type people
http://visitduluth.com/
These folks are helping preserve a very important piece of Duluth's history in education, and I am part of this group:
http://duluth.k12.mn.us/Alumni/reunion_info.htm
Here's another site so handy for visitors:
http://www.duluth.com/
City of Duluth stuff:
http://www.ci.duluth.mn.us/city/mainpage/
University of Minnesota Duluth:
http://www.d.umn.edu/

If you want any more information, just Google "Duluth MN" and you'll get tons of info. My favorite of all of those is Northern Images. Enjoy!

How do I start this post...

Well I guess it's time to tell you guys. After meeting Matthew back on October 30, 2003, having a relationship with him, and being married to him for a year and 3 months, I guess we've reached the end. Matthew still likes me and wants to be my friend, but he doesn't love me anymore, and honestly, I don't love him anymore either, so we're getting a divorce and I am moving back to Minnesota to live with my parents until who knows what (or who) else comes along. Sunny, Sandy, Salvador, Benny, Buster, and Boris are not allowed to come with me. Sunny is my precious angel, and I love him dearly, and he will always be my best friend. He has been since our eyes met at the pet store. Steve, Vince, and Jack are coming with me, and Gary & Tiny Tim might be too. Oscar is going back to live with Matthew's mom, who we originally adopted him from. I am asking my friends and co-workers if any of them want to adopt the others. Matthew has assured me that if I can't find other homes for them, he will take them in. He has a web cam, and as soon as he installs the software for it, I would be able to see all my furry friends (as long as Violet is shut in the bathroom for that!). I will do my best to be online when I can so my web site (www.bobcartoons.com) can stay up to date, and I will continue to produce "Goings On." Lately there HAVE been lots of goings on as far as acquiring new animals and what not, but I haven't had the time to do them up, I will do my best to get back into them. I really don't want to quit my job at the fabric store, but I don't really have a choice. I hope to find a job that pleases me just as much when I move. Feel free to email me (lianne@bobcartoons.com) and I will VERY likely get back to you as soon as I can. Sorry for the sad news, and I hope to be posting happy news again soon.

Waving a fist at my laptop...kinda

So my 11-year old computer is finally starting to show its age. It won't take modems anymore, so it's great for word processing and a CD player (I like to use Windows Media Player and turn the visualization on full screen while I put on my tunes and clean). It's also my Flash 5 station since Matthew & I reinstalled my OS and the computer doesn't freeze over every little thing.
Now this laptop...
Like my computer, this laptop was given to me, so I didn't pay for it. It's my "middle child" technologywise. The computer's 11, this laptop is 7, and the iPAQ is a mere 3 (although for an iPAQ, that's supposed to be darn old). So I lost a bunch of pictures all random-like after Christmas last year. Then in March, I was having so many problems with this thing that Matthew & I just reinstalled my whole OS (unfortunately, it was at the COST of my data! Yep, I lost pictures and all kinds of stuff, but I had no choice). So I started to have like big fat problems again, and last week I attached my CD drive to it, inserted a Windows 2000 CD I borrowed from Matthew, and told it to repair. It told me that I needed the same CD I used to install my OS (this was not the same one apparently), and it told me to hit ESC to restart. I thought, "Lovely, won't this laptop make a lovely paperweight AGAIN." It started Windows, and I was shocked to find that it started up PROPERLY! It also didn't yell at me when I wanted to open programs. I had just one little problem with my AOL trying to get online, so I popped that CD in for a reinstall of my AOL software. It stopped on the middle of installation and said "We're sorry you have chosen not to install AOL at this time..." I was like "Oh, I DIDN'T want to? I was just sticking the CD in there FOR FUN? LOVELY..." But then my AOL let me online with no problems. WHAT THE HECK?! I guess I kind of waved a big angry metaphorical fist at my laptop. I first threatened it with another big fat reinstall of my Windows, and all of a sudden it cooperated. Then I threatened it with a reinstall of my AOL, and it was like "Ok ok! I'll behave I promise!! Please don't hurt me!" This metaphorical fist worked pretty well. I should do that with my other programs and see if I get even better performance...but I'm just not the type to be running around waving fists.