• Eating and drinking are not permitted anywhere within the transit system. This includes sneaking a french fry from your Johnny Rocket’s bag or swigging on your tourist water.
• When using cellphones, please do so respectfully. If you are having to hold your finger in your other ear in a screeching railcar, this usually means you are yelling into your phone, disturbing other passengers.
• When standing in a crowded railcar please remove your backpack or shoulder bag and hold it at your side. You may not realize the extra two feet of depth on your back is crowding other passengers.
• When sitting, please place your backpack or shoulder bag on your lap. Continuing to wear your bag may impede other passenger’s personal space.
• Please fill up empty rows of seats first before doubling up by taking a seat directly next to another passenger. This simply ensures everyone’s comfort when a railcar or bus is not filled to capacity.
• If you are seated directly next to another passenger in an emptying railcar with newly available empty rows of seats, please move to one of these empty rows. This allows all passengers more personal space with less crowding.
• Your luggage does not need (nor warrant) its own seat.

Goldy had to have her kitty, PJ, put to sleep last night. PJ had not been doing well for the last couple of weeks, not eating much and taking in very little water. She was listless and her eyes were kind of staring off in the distance. PJ was 18, which is pretty darn old for a cat. Goldy surmised that PJ wasn’t really going to be getting any better, I agreed, and when we took her to the vet, the vet agreed as well. There’s only so much you can do for them, especially at that age when it’s difficult to tell what they’re feeling because it might be harder for them to communicate it.

So we took PJ into the vet, and spent some final moments with her. I don’t know how much comfort I was for Goldy because I was pretty much a mess too. But she was there for me for both Rattle and Hum so I was definitely going (and wanting) to be there for her when PJ’s time came.

Luckily I didn’t have to make any decisions for putting The Twins™ down, they both went on their own time. And for our family dog, Tip, I was away at college for that. So actually witnessing the injections was upsetting but I still knew it was the right thing for Goldy to be doing at this time. The vet said it was a good time now before any onset of suffering really started.

RIP, PJ Goldy.

Yesterday I attended my fourth Walk to Defeat ALS. This year I designed shirts that we could all wear to support our team, called Jo’s Kids after my Mom of course. Even with a small printing omission I think they turned out quite nice and everybody seemed to enjoy them. Plus it was nice presenting a unified front with all the other teams that have coordinating t-shirts.

Walkers this year are (l-r): John, Narcisso, Deidre (front), Butch (rear), Waima, Landon, Keli, Isabelle, Kelly, Chuck A. (rear), Will & Sarah Jane (in stroller), Dad, Jacki, Chuck H.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed. You can help in the fight against this horrible disease by donating here. 

The first thing I do in the morning, for the past month, has been to sleepily shuffle into my den and pull up The Post’s obit page(s). It is in this too-bright light that I squint and search for Todges’ obituary. If I had time to make coffee before getting my routine in motion, believe me I would. And I would sit there and enjoy a cup while I slowly woke up. But that doesn’t happen. I digress. And then get dressed. (Sometimes I’m clever in the morning too.)

This morning as I’m checking I’m thinking that I’ve had enough of this daily checking and that I’m not going to do it anymore. But of course then today is the day. The link  to the actual page is here but I’ll paste the entire entry as well:

M. Todd Hodges Creative Director

M. Todd Hodges, 40, a creative director at Gratis Internet, a Washington-based company that earns money giving away iPods and other items to consumers who sign up for corporate promotions, died Sept. 2 at George Washington University Hospital. He had lung cancer.

While I don’t watch much television as it’s actually being broadcast, I was anticipating the pilot of the Australian-import Kath & Kim. Starring Molly Shannon and Selma Blair respectively in the title roles, it seemingly has everything it needs for zany, kooky, madcap, Ab Fab-esque scenarios.

The premise goes something like this: Kath is the newly divorced mother of Kim and trying to “get out there again” when Kim’s relationship fails and she rebounds home. There’s lots of tacky clothes and general nutball-ism with a smidge of out-of-touchedness thrown in for good measure. It’s assumed that Kath and Kim will cramp each other’s style and generally not see eye-to-eye but will always have each other’s back before the ending credits roll.

iTunes has been offering a free download of tonight’s pilot (in Standard HD). I’m assuming they will be offering a Season Pass as well, but that hasn’t been posted. I watched my downloaded preview last night.

It was nice to see Shannon not reprising a crazy SNL character for a change. I’m glad Blair gets to step up to the plate in a leading role after playing supporting roles for such a long time.

But the problem is that it’s just not funny. You can see where the abrupt airheaded observations are meant to be funny, but it’s just not. I don’t know if it’s the timing or the direction but it’s a little disappointing. Maybe it’s one of those shows that takes a few episodes to hit its stride? I’m hoping so.

After playing North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and in November South America on their recent world tour, John, Nick, Simon and Roger of Duran Duran are soon to be headed to their respective homes. But not without once more wiping through central and eastern seaboard of America with a couple of shows in Canada to boot. Playing intimate venus for the world tour finale, they are hitting some of the places they were not able to play earlier this year.

And I’ve never been to Atlantic City…

December 1 / San Antonio, TX / San Majestic Theatre
December 2 / Grand Prairie, TX / Nokia Theatre
December 4 / Tulsa, OK / Brady Theater
December 5 / Houston, TX / Verizon Wireless Theater
December 6 / Biloxi, MS / Beau Rivage Theatre
December 8 / Columbus, OH / Schottenstein Center
December 9 / Toronto, ONT / Air Canada Centre
December 10 / Montreal, QC / Metropolis
December 12 / Mashantucket, CT / MGM Grand Foxwoods Casino
December 13 / Atlantic City, NJ / House of Blues (@ The Showboat)
December 14 / Montclair, NJ / Wellmont Theatre

(obviously.)

At the crackadown I was up, chugged two cups of coffee, put on my running gear and went outside. On the porch I met up with KT-JT, hubby Will and Will’s sister Cheryl. KT-JT’s father had already left 1/2 hour before us. We’d all signed up for the 24th Annual Army Ten-Miler and it was showtime.

I was a little nervous, as I hadn’t trained quite as much as I should have (again). It became apparent that I had only trained on the treadmill and not outside on the pavement as the race began. The first two miles were pretty hard on my ankles, but that subsided. What really got me was the very last mile across the 14th Street Bridge, as we made our way back to the Pentagon where we started, when my hip joint started aching. Ooof, that was a rough one. But I did finish the race at least, without getting rounded up by the pick-up ambulance that scoops up the too-slow runner. Imagine the shame!

From the press release:

The Army Ten-Miler, also known as the Army’s race, is a part of the Army community and donates all of the proceeds from the race to the Army Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR).

The MWR is a comprehensive ntwork of support and leisure services designed to enhance the lives of Soldiers (active, Reserve and Guard), their families, civilian employees, military retirees and other eligible participants. The MWR offers services that reduce stress, build skills and self-confidence and foster strong espirit de corps. These services range from child development, day care and after school programs to deployment assistance, official travel lodging, relocation aid, career services, financial management, family counseling and social/support networks for single soldiers, families, retirees and civilians.

A course map is after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re on Facebook, you have to see this photo album. It’s posted by Jon A, whom I do not know, but I do have a friend (real and FB) who commented on one of his pics, and therefore I had a link to it. Jon’s profile is hidden, but apparently the photo albums are public, if you can navigate to them. 

Jon’s album mainly consists of family photographs taken in the 70s. They’re of his youth in Florida, and he’s supplied witty on-point commentary to most of them. Themes are scary clowns, a devastating grandmother, being restrained and discovering Darth Vader is, in fact, his father.

My absolute favorite is #10 (there’s a total of 47). It’s the kind of picture that because you had to wait a week for the film to be developed, cracked you up when you flipped through them. Sadly, this never happens anymore;  with digital cameras everyone has to relive the moment of five seconds ago by demanding to see the picture immediately after it’s taken.

The link is here, after you sign into FB it should take you to the photo album. Let me know if it doesn’t work.