A Glimpse into my mind

For years, my favorite kind of chewing gum was your Doublemint brand. It was one of the few that I could actually chew.

But now.. WTF... sneaking in Asparthame into the ingredient list? And because use still use regular sugar for the main sweetener, you don't say you are "sugar free" then giving us who can't have asparthame a clue that things have changed. I stopped reading your ingredient list because you had been consistant for YEARS, if not decades

The headache and the tingling of my lips and tongue were a nice way to bring a small panic to my ordinarily "enjoyable" Wednesday.

Thank you for taking one more thing away from me.

Sincerely,

Me.

I'm lactose intolerant. Fact.

One of the ways I can get dairy into my diet is yogurt. There is something about the cultures in it that allows me to tolerate the dairy.

I hate yogurt taste. Fact.

When I started WW ages ago, I found that I actually liked the diet stuff. Specifically the WW brand and Dannon lite and fit. Both are made with sucralose. This is good as I am allergic to asparthame.

I tended to favor Dannon for two reasons. 1) cheaper than WW by upwards of 30 cents. 2) they have more flavors available.

Not too long ago Dannon changed their recipe to have BOTH sucralose AND asparthame. So yesterday I finally broke down and wrote to Dannon about my disappointment and how they have lost a loyal customer because of the change.

Here's the response I got:

( sorry it will kill you but everyone else likes it )

So I guess my business goes fully to WW from now on. Dannon's loss. And I do urge you to consider not partaking in Dannon as a small little boycott. I know it's not much but still.

So I went to the apartment to trash it out for garbage night and get a second coat of paint on the kitchen.

When I got there I ended up having to sit in my van for 5 minutes first because Max, the beagle that lived in the apartment across from mine was running around the street and parking area.

After the creepy redneck next-door shooed him away and I parked I learned Max's story and it PISSED ME OFF.

See, the [insert derogatory insulting racist N word here (which I don't like to use but it fits in this case)] that Max belonged to packed up to move. Aparently this morning when they went to leave, Max - being the playful beagle year-or-two year old that he is- didn't want to get in the car right away. So rather than try to catch him, the asshats left him.

That's right. They left him behind.

So creepy redneck next-door, another guy from the town houses on the opposite side of the street and I, along with three boys in blue from Cheektowaga PD spent the better part of an hour trying to corrale Max and get him into one of the squad cars so that they could take him off to the animal shelter.

I was so pissed off. If I had the time right now to nurture a dog I would have brought him home with me. Max was sweet, obviously upset at being abandoned by his humans and just wanted some attention.

The police took down the name and phone number for the landlords and are going to track the asshats down that left their dog behind to fend for himself in a fairly high traffic area with no food or water or anything else other than a collar that was on him too tightly.

I just hope that his former humans find themselves rotting for a long time in the special hell reserved just for people who don't know how to treat a four legged member of the family.

I go out to my car on my lunch to sit and read. Get the "you've go voice mail" beep on my cell phone.

Check the voice mail. It's John, the install guy for the carpet that is supposed to be installed tomorrow.

Notice the supposed to part?

Apparently, when the "shipping inspectors" unrolled the carpet in georgia for one last Quality Control inspection, they found something wrong with it. It has been reordered and by the computer it is listed as still being in Georgia.

What this means is... the carpet is not going in tomorrow. John's not entirely sure when it will be here. I said "I need it in by the 6th of July. I'm moving into the house on the 7th."

He totally understood my frustration.

He said as soon as it arrives, which he believes will be in by the end of the week, and he will call me right away to make arrangements. He will also bump someone else if he has to to get my carpet in.

So now I have to just wait, pray that it arrives before the 6th and make arrangements for someone to be at the house to let the install guys in.

I just can't win. Maybe I should just rent a power sander and sand the subflooring and seal that and live without carpeting.

*sigh*

Please, please, please... when putting on perfume in the morning stop at one dab on each side of the ear and one on the inside of your wrists.

You do not need to bathe in it for the smell to hold. Just because your nose has become desensitized to your fragrence does not mean others have not.

Please remember that some people out in the world are actually allergic to perfume and will have nasty reactions to it (say, for example... a not so pleasent asthma attack).

Remember.. a little dab will do ya.

Same goes for you gentlemen out there who wear cologne.

Signed,

One of the ones allergic and now fighting to keep breathing.

When I got out of work today I didn't feel like going home. It was nice out. I wanted to do outside stuff, but fun and social.

I got in the car and the radio reminded me that today is Thursday. That means "Thursday in the Square" which is a free concert ever Thursday downtown in Lafayette Square. I call the Boo and see if she wants to go. Score. I go pick her up and after a 20 minute game of "how many blocks can we circle until we find a parking space" we go.

Today was Blues Traveller. We didn't stay long enough to see them but their warm up band was OK. Some group called "Carbon Leaf". Whatev.

What got me was the great dynamic of people there. You had your businessmen and women in their high end suits who obviously just left their plush downtown offices at Bank of America or some swank lawfirm in the Liberty Building. You had the high school kids who obviously had hopped the metrorail from the suburbs downtown for the free concert. And you had everyone in between.

It was the in-betweeners that got me.

Now, I never claimed to have much of a sence of fashion. But... I would like to think I have some small clue about how not to dress. Especially when trying to look "attractive" to what ever gender you are trying to catch the attention of.

Skin tight spaghetti strap tank tops, layered over painted on hot pants (these couldn't even be considered capri's. They were hawtpants.). When did dressing like a sausage become fashionable for anyone over a size 4? (And I'm still wondering how anyone can be a size 2 or less... don't these women have pelvic bones and rib cages?) When did wearing an oversized bandana tied around your chest constitute a shirt?

When did mixing neon plaids "jams" with vertically striped pastel polo shirts become "cool" (they werne't cool in the 80's they sure as heck ain't cool in the 00's). T-shirts over longer sleeved and hemmed shirts.... add a belt and call yourself a Norman.

Why can't fashion, attractiveness, glamour and comfort go hand in hand? Why is it wrong to dress for what makes you feel good and comfortable? How can you be comfortable if you are constantly having to pull your pants out of your ass crack because they are so tight they automatically give you a wedgie with every step?

If woman were meant to walk around on 3 inch platforms (not counting the heel), the devine would have made our feet bigger.

I just don't get it.

I might be able to now walk into just about any store and get stuff... but I see what's out right now for clothing and wonder... why? It's a good thing I have friends that threaten bodily harm if I wear certain types of clothes. It's too bad the rest of the world doesn't have more friends like that.

I have come to realizes... it's not dentists that I hate. It's the hygenist.

Those that have followed my lj for a while know that I've had major work done on almost every tooth in my head. I have one left that I need to see a specialist for.

Today was a general cleaning. The woman was nice enough. Chatted and talked with me. But I don't know what happens to nice people when you put sharp pokey things in their hands.

Conversation:

Her: "Does that bad tooth bother you?"
Me: "No. I figure by now the nerve is dead"
She takes up hook thingies and pokes.
Me: "OW"
Her: "I thought you said it doesn't bother you"
Me: "Well I don't generally go digging at it with a pick axe"

And once again my 8:15 apointment became 8:45 as I sat and read. This was better than the last 8:15 apointment where I didn't get seated until almost 9:30.

This is me grumpy.

But I got my blue paint so I'm going to go paint for a bit.

AT work they had a contest amongst the departments. It was making welcome care packages for the Ronald McDonald House. They asked us to make up boxes or bags with shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and then other little items for a total of ten things in each bag.

We were told the prize would be some sort of breakfast to the department who had the most donations. So... my co-workers are very very competative alpha bitches. One woman got a mcdonalds to donate happy meal boxes for us to use and amongst us we came up with 139 boxes. Yes... one hundred thirty-nine. Let me tell you no dollar store in a 10 mile radius had any shampoo, soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste left when REO and Third Party were done.

Needless to say we won the contest. No I figured we'd get bagels and donuts and stuff. YOu know... office breakfast food. Today the coordinator said that we were invited to go to the Ronald McDonald house on Saturday the 22nd to deliver the boxes and bags from the entire firm (something like 430 total), and we would get a tour of the facility and they would give us a small breakfast.

I personally though that was nice. Get to see where our donations were going and they were thanking us with a breakfast of somekind.

AFter reading the email I hear my coworkers go... "9:30 in the MORNING?? On a Saturday. Are they insane?" "I wanted breakfast here at work" and other assorted complaints. All I could think was... if all you wanted was a stupid bagel we could have saved money and time and gotten ourselves our own breakfast. The whole point of the thing was to do good for others.

It pains me at times on just how shallow and selfish they can be. REally.... a bagel is what? a Dollar at a gormet bagel shop? But knowing you helped a family who is going through a very stressful ordeal as they watch helplessly as doctors try to save their child if far more valuable.

Today was getting up and heading out to get the Boo to go for our mall walk. We tried a new mall today. I didn't particularly car for it. It was laid out wierd and the tiles they used for the floors is not as comfortable to walk on.

After two laps we headed out and I took the girl home. I wasn't particularly ready to head home and since I was in that part of the city I headed over to go wander the zoo for a little while. When I first got there I was hesitant to get out of the car. The line to get in was almost to the end of the block. But I did it. Got out of the car and got in line. It was nice out. Almost 60 and I really wanted to wander around outside for a while.

Came to find out the reason the line was so long was they only had one admissions window open. Eventually I got to the window, showed my membership card and the chica behind the counter looks out the window past me and goes "How many with you?". "Just me." "Just you???" I could hear the multiple question marks. Yes. I know. A grown up all by herself wants to go look at the animals and take a walk. That ranks up there with Elvis sightings. I ignored her stunned expression and headed in.

It was beautiful. Not too many people. The reptile house was open after having been closed all summer. I can't wait to see some of the "coming soon" exhibits. They are going to have a Basalisk. No shit. that's what they identification card called it. Must remember not to look at it in the eyes when we see it.

The cat and primate houses are closed but that's ok. I didn't go into the gorilla house any longer that to use it to cut through to the cool animals outside. And that's when I got annoyed.

With the other humans.

I'm crouching down having a spiritual conversation with the lemur I've always called "Bob". Bob's special. He's not like the other lemurs. He has his own little fantasy world that he is perfectly content with. Eventually all the other lemurs execpt "Pee-wee" (again, the name I call him by) came over and we had quality sit and just be time. Then all the humans realized the lemurs were over with me and came over to hover. OK, I can accept that. But what got me was this mother telling little boy "See the monkeys?" "Look at the monkeys". I glanced up at her and then the little boy standing next to me. I smiled at him and said "They are actually called Lemurs. Aren't they neat?" Little boy noded and had some quality non verbal time with the lemurs too.

Eventually the crowd got to much and I wandered down and had some crouch and quite time with the mandril. Eventually same mother and little boy come over "Oh look at the baboons, Mikey". I sigh. "They're not baboons, they are Mandrils". The woman, who is standing next to the HUGE picture identification sign that says "MANDRIL" blinks at me and says, I kid you not, "LIke there's a difference".

I stand up and blink at her. "Well other than the fact they come from different parts of the globe, Baboons have tails and Mandrils have big neon colored butts, I would also think there is a big difference to the mandrils and the baboons."

It would have been one thing had there not been any really easy to read identification signs every three feet along the exhibit. But there were. Would it really have been all that hard to glance at the big huge 3 foot by 4 foot sign to see the name of the creature before arbitrarily assigning it the wrong species?

Damn breeder. And yeah... telling a person who majored in anthropology (the concentration of which was physical anthropology leaning towards primatology) that there's no real difference between a baboon and a mandril is not smart.

However, my faith in parents was restored as I was walking past the Guanaco and I heard a father and little girl discussing that those were Guanaco and not Llamas or Alpacas. While they all kinda look the same and are all probably part of the same family they are different than Llamas and Alpacas. I wanted to walk up to the man and hug him for the conversation he had with the child.

I found great humor at the mallard and his lady friend sitting on top of the net that holds the wood ducks in their enclosure. It was like the free birds were going "hehehehe we can go anywhere we want and you can't".

The lorekeet enclosure was closed. That's ok. Didn't feel like getting shat on anyway.

The baby rhino has grown and there's a baby polar bear that I don't remember seeing before. He's at least a year old and damn cute. He was wrestling with a block of ice when I walked by. Teh cute.

It was a pleasant walk though. I would have liked for it to have been just a little warmer but I'm not going to complain about 60 degree weather. Nosireebob.

Oh well. Now to figure out what to do with the rest of my day.