ING

Current reading: The Rubicon. Just finished my first and last Joyce Carol Oates novel. I was not impressed. I like her as a tipsy sock puppet. http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/reviews/critics/mmx-g3n21c7hh.6sep26,0,2006410.story?coll=mmx-critics_heds

Current listening: Linda Rondstat Greatest Hits, Clark Howard talk show at lunchtime. He'll help me "Spend less, save more, and keep me from getting ripped off." Precious!

So, thanks to Clark Howard, Scot and I have now opened an ING savings account. I'm such a nerd, I'm giddy about a savings account. It's almost as exciting as my 401 K. (Believe it or not there's no irony or sarcasm at all in the last few sentences, I'm serious.) There's something about the idea of financial security that makes me feel free and relaxed and excited at the same time.

Metal Detectors

As part of my job I have to go to court occasionally and testify about the work I do. Since 9-11 almost all of the courthouses have metal detectors and conveyor belts with the x-ray machine above them.

So, I go to a courthouse in the northern part of the state, a fairly urban area. I put my purse and briefcase on the belt and go through the metal detector. Since it's winter, I'm wearing my coat, and it has some metal zipper pulls. As I suspected it would, the buzzer went off and I walked over to the fellow with the handheld metal detector. I should mention that there were about five guards present.

As I'm being scanned the guard at the x-ray machine announces "You have a big knife in here!". All eyes are on me. I say, "No, I don't have any knife."

I opened my purse and pulled out my metal backscratcher. It's about 7 inches long.

X-ray man: "That's it."
Other fellows: "What is it?" "Backscratcher?" "That's not a very good backscratcher." "That's too short, it wouldn't work."

My secret, it's extendable! So instead of protesting I simply took the backscratcher by the teeth and pulled it to it's full length, about 20 inches.

SILENCE - and all mouths agape and I'm just grinning.


Fellows: "Where did you get that?" "That is too cool!" "My wife would love that!"

So that was my fun for the day. I continued to the elevator and went up to wait outside the courtroom for three hours until they called me to testify. :)

Gauntlet

I was up until 1 am playing Gauntlet on the Playstation. The cool thing about it is that I don't have to keep feeding it quarters. The bad thing about it is that I don't have to keep feeding it quarters. Of course, I didn't break my record of 8 hours playing Oddworld - Abe's Exoddus.

What an awesome game that was, I was almost sorry to finish. So if the Mudokon's are the Jews, shouldn't Abe be Moses, not Abraham???? I could be off, could be a coincidence.

Eleanor Roosevelt

I've just finished the autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt. I usually stick with biographies (as opposed to the "auto" type of biography) because I imagine that most folks have great difficulty really seeing themselves. Mrs. Roosevelt was an exception. Quite a great lady.

It's amazing how a plain or homely appearance can force a person to flower and grow on the inside. I have to say I've been lucky in that aspect. Started out very homely (birth defect), had lots of plastic surgery, was forced to develop a strong and deep personality, and now not so homely. Can't complain!