✓ December 18, 2012 ✓

Good morning everyone. How are things with you? All is well here except for waking up with the headache that I went to sleep with last night. Usually they go away overnight. Stress. Anyway, I had a hot cocoa yesterday & wow that was good! What I miss is the hot cocoa from Starbucks. Best I ever had! Maybe I should swing by there someday & buy some. I never go to Starbucks ... you can buy it in packets, right? That's how I had it last time, but that was part of a Starbucks gift basket that I bought Pete for Christmas. I haven't seen those little packets since. Me in a Starbucks ... now there's a funny thought. After my hot cocoa I got a bunch of stuff done around the house. I checked the shower curtains, watered the bedroom plant, fed the cats & dogs, dusted the dining room lights, neatened one of the kitchen cabinets & decided it was time to eat some of those potatoes before they go bad, folded laundry, dusted the living room audio system, mopped the kitchen, dusted my office lights, & swept the bedroom. Josh did an amazing job too, he got ALL his chores done & done WELL. I'm very impressed & happy. Of course Murphy's Law states that anything that can go wrong WILL go wrong. Josh did a wonderful job, yes. He even hand washed the dishes because there weren't enough to put in the dishwasher ... but he hand washed the dishes immediately after I got into the shower. I barely had time to wash my hair & had to jump out because there was no more hot water. Sonofa ... OK ... great job in the kitchen & I thank you, but your timing stunk! LOL!! This is all I ever asked, help out around the house & take pride in it as it IS currently your home, & we'll get along just fine. Kyle on the other hand ... same ol' same ol'. He went to school, then stayed out until 9, then came home & went straight to bed claiming he was sick, then went to school again this morning. Chores? What chores? And he wonders why he has NO television, NO gaming system, NO laptop, etc. THIS is why! Out of the 4 of us, Kyle was the only one who did zero in the household yesterday. Not cool dude. Not cool. After I was done around the house I checked eBay & then crawled into my massage chair for some down-time with 5 Card Slingo. My back & legs sure were grateful. After that I showered briefly (as Josh was washing dishes & stole all the hot water LOL!) & waited for Pete to call me right back with where to meet him for lunch (although it was late now & probably going to end up being dinner). And I waited. And I waited. He was on his way out the door & would call me from the car once he decided where he wanted to eat. 5-10 minutes at most. I played Pyramid Solitaire on the computer ... no use starting anything productive when I've only got 5-10 minutes. TWO AND A HALF *HOURS* later ... he calls. The joys of being married to someone with ADD. Oh look, A SQUIRREL! ::: sigh ::: Oh well, I was nice & relaxed from playing solitaire for 2½ HOURS. There was once a time I would panic. I'd think something happened. I'd be thinking car accident or something horrible. After 20 years of this though, I don't even blink anymore. It's just Pete being Pete. We eventually made it out to Chopsticks Asian Cafe & of course due to the late hour, lunch not only turned into dinner (I'm forever skipping meals & it's NOT my choice!), I also felt rushed because I knew they were closing soon & just waiting for us to finish so they could clean up. I hate that feeling. I always feel bad ... always feel rushed. Why can't we go out to eat at a NORMAL hour like everyone else? Oh, that's right ... because there are too many shiny objects & squirrels between here & there. ADD married an OCD. Talk about a fun couple! He's doing 12 things at once & I'm compulsively focused on doing only ONE thing until it gets done. I guess opposites really do attract. When we finally got home we watched Hawaii 5-0 & headed to bed. After I'm done here I need to type up the meeting minutes from last month (I know ... absolute LAST minute. I used to type them up the night of the meeting as soon as I got home. What happened?). I drive Josh to work at 2 & then have the BIG LCFD meeting tonight at 7. Tonight is our election night. New Chief. We all know who it's going to be ... voting is just a formality. What I don't know is who, if anyone, will be Assistant chief. And what about appointing Captain & Lieutenant? What about my position as Safety Officer? So many questions ... all will be answered tonight. Then I have to come back & rewrite the roster both online & offline, Send out the offline roster to everyone, type up the meeting minutes (let's try to get back in the habit of doing that sooner rather than last minute) & that'll be that until next year. By next year I mean January, when I get back from Myrtle Beach & our vacation. Hopefully the meeting won't last longer than 2½ hours because I have to pick Josh up from work at 10.

Ask for help. Remember that you don't have to do everything by yourself.

Cars.com names most memorable TV cars (2007):

On this day in 2007, Cars.com names its top 10 most memorable TV cars; a 1982 Pontiac Trans Am named KITT from the show "Knight Rider" tops the list.

Pontiac, a division of General Motors (GM), began making fast, sporty muscle cars in the 1960s, including the GTO, which launched in 1964, the Firebird, introduced in 1967 and the Trans Am, which debuted in 1969. The Trans Am got its first big dose of Hollywood stardom when it was featured in the 1977 Burt Reynolds movie "Smokey and the Bandit." Continued fame for the car followed with the TV show "Knight Rider," which originally aired from 1982 to 1986 and starred David Hasselhoff as a man named Michael Knight who traveled around America fighting crime with his indestructible automotive sidekick KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand), a talking, two-door coupe equipped with artificial intelligence.

Pontiac discontinued the Trans Am in 2002. On April 27, 2009, a financially troubled GM announced it would phase out the entire Pontiac brand by 2010.

The second-place vehicle on the Cars.com list was the the General Lee, a souped-up 1969 Dodge Charger featured on "The Dukes of Hazzard." The show, which originally aired from 1979 to 1985, centered around two good-old-boy cousins, Bo Duke (John Schneider) and Luke Duke (Tom Wopat), who lived in the rural South and were on a continual quest to elude their nemeses, the crooked county commissioner "Boss" Jefferson Davis Hogg (Sorrell Booke) and the bumbling Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane (James Best). "The Dukes of Hazzard" was known for its car chases and stunts and the General Lee, which had an orange paint job, a horn that played the first 12 notes of the song "Dixie," a Confederate flag across its roof and the numbers "01" on its welded-shut doors, became a star of the show. Due to all the fast driving, jumps and crashes, it was common for several different General Lees to be used during the filming of each episode. Chrysler introduced the Dodge Charger for the model year 1966 and the car remained in production through 1987. After a hiatus of nearly two decades, Chrysler relaunched the Charger in 2006.

Third place on the Cars.com list went to the mythical Mystery Machine, a multicolored van from the cartoon "Scooby-Doo." Coming in fourth was the Ferrari 308 GTS from "Magnum, P.I." Fifth on the list was the Batmobile, a modified 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car that was featured on the show "Batman." Rounding out the second half of the list were the 1975 Ford Gran Torino from "Starsky and Hutch," the 1973 Chevrolet El Camino from "My Name is Earl," the 1983 GMC G-Series from "The A-Team," the Mach 5 from the animated show "Speed Racer" and the 2005 Maserati Quattroporte seen on "Entourage."

Gravamen:

The material or significant part of a grievance or complaint.

The gravamen of Walter's letter to the editor was that the newspaper frequently reported on the school system's failures but rarely covered its successes & improvements.

"Gravamen" isn't a word you hear every day, but it does show up occasionally in print. It comes from the Latin verb gravare, meaning "to burden," & ultimately from the Latin adjective gravis, meaning "heavy." Fittingly, "gravamen" refers to the part of a grievance or complaint that gives it weight or substance. In legal contexts, "gravamen" is used synonymously with "gist" to refer to the grounds on which a legal action is sustainable. Other weighty words that descend from gravis include "gravity," "grieve," & the adjective "grave," meaning "important" or "serious."

If you show up when you say you're going to show up, you complete the job when you say you're going to complete the job, & you do high-quality work, there's almost no ceiling on what you can make.

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Never eat more than you can lift.

Staying cool & pleasant is the best way to confront rudeness, & your good manners might even be contagious. Before you decide whether or not to respond to rude behavior, try these: Don't take it personally. Size up your annoyances. Set a good example. Cool off: Count to 10. Laugh it off - in a kind, understanding way.

Use an over the door shoe storage pocket organizer for more than just shoes. Use one to store gloves, hats, & scarves to make bundling up or unbundling quick & easy this winter.

What animal’s teeth gave rise to the expression “long in the tooth” to describe someone past his or her prime?

The horse. As a horse ages, its gums recede, exposing more and more of its teeth, and eventually the roots of its teeth. Thus the longer a horse’s teeth appear to be, the older the horse.

What kind of government is a kakistocracy?

Where is the International Court of Justice located?

A. The Netherlands

B. The Czech Republic

C. France

D. Austria

Which famous Christmas duet was sung by David Bowie & Bing Crosby?

A. "Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy"

B. "White Christmas"

C. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"

D. "Sleigh Ride"

Answer: A. "Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy"

Which is the longest?

A. Carton of eggs

B. 12" ruler

C. 14-cube ice tray

Which person(s) was (were) the 1st to win a Nobel Peach Prize after 1989?

A. Nelson Mandela & Willem de Klerk

B. Jimmy Carter

C. Mikhail Gorbachev

CAB. Gorbachev won in 1990 for his sustained efforts to end the Cold War; Mandela & de Klerk in 1993 for their collaboration against apartheid. Yayyy!

Your __________ smells like a jar of __________ that spent the day in the sun.