I finally received all the podcast files to put the entire thing together. I found that some of my recordings were corrupt, so I had to do them over. Fun. My brain is fried though. I only spent just over two hours working on putting it together. Trying to keep the sound level the same for everyone’s different recordings is a major pain. Now I can’t think straight. I’m probably not finished. I sent it off to the others to listen. They will probably find things that need changed or edited.

Please scroll down and read the previous posts, if you haven’t. I’m going to go rest my brain until I can think again.

This post is for a friend who knew Joe Barbera and worked at Hanna-Barbera. While I didn’t know him personally, his cartoons (along with Hanna) were a big part of my childhood. Who doesn’t remember watching “The Flintstones” or “The Jetsons”? I particularly enjoyed “Snagglepuss” on Sunday mornings. There is one Snagglepuss cartoon where he’s being dragged around by a baby saying “Clabba clabba clabba kitty kitty kitty.” My sister said that a few times to a new cat we had, and it became the cat’s permanent name. She would only come to “Clabba.” Sunday mornings also brought us Yogi and Boo-boo and Yogi’s quest to fill his belly. I didn’t have many opportunities to laugh as child, so I remember laughing watching these cartoons. I haven’t seen any of these cartoons since I was a kid. I loved the Jetsons. I always thought when I grew up we’d be flying around in cars like the Jetsons. It was even a line in the movie “Singles.” But as you can see, it hasn’t happened yet. I liked Astro, and he’s a big reason that I have a Great Dane. Everyone assumes “Scooby” was the influence, but it was “Astro.” The cartoons captured the personalities of Great Danes.

I’m sure Joe Barbera lived a full life. If only we all could live to 95 or longer. I saw another nice tribute on Red Monkey’s blog. For a full obit, check out the Associated Press article.

Joe, you gave many of us creative and funny cartoons that we will remember all our lives. For me, your cartoons were a temporary escape from a too serious childhood.

The biggest news here is that for two nights now, it has been below freezing. Everyone complains about the cold. I think the high yesterday was 55 F. It’s funny to hear everyone complain since they don’t have a clue about really cold weather. I came from where it gets well below zero and wind chills in the minus 20 region. However, after six years of living here, even I’ve turned soft. I can complain about the “cold” California weather with the best of them. Although I have to admit that the cold here gets to you differently than it does in the Midwest. I can’t explain that at all. This cold weather though is particularly nasty to the grapes and my tropical plants. I’m hoping that my tropical plants survive. I enjoy a little bit of Hawaii in my yard, but sometimes we get a little too cold for the plants to survive. Although a good hard frost will kill most plants.

The other big news here is that lethal injection has been declared “cruel and unusual punishment” and halted. Our dear governor’s response? Let’s do whatever it takes so we can keep killing people. Interestingly that this just came into the news because according to an article I read this morning, executions have been halted since February. February? And they are talking about it now? The details of the article seem a bit gruesome to me. I really don’t care to read about the details of the drugs. I’m not a fan of the death penalty. We are one of the few countries that still has the death penalty. We’re in some interesting company. There are countries who have outlawed the death penalty that the US thinks are backward, second world (even some third world) countries.

Well after that serious note, I’m sure everyone would like to get back to thinking about shopping, visiting family and the upcoming holidays. Although I’m sure many are so stressed out that the holidays will mean lots of alcohol just to get through it.

It’s another not very exciting Monday. I have quite a bit to do this week to prepare for my son coming for Christmas break. Cleaning. Present wrapping. I’m still not feeling fully functional after the weekend.

My most important thing today was to take my dress to be dry cleaned. In the daylight, I found dirty spots and other discolorations I didn’t see the night (morning) I took it off. I hope it comes back white. It got snagged anyway, so it’s a bit ruined. I should know better than to wear white silk chiffon, but the dress was so pretty. Oh well. At least I didn’t pay full price. I’d be sick if I had.

I still have to get a podcast out before the end of the week. It wouldn’t be a problem if I didn’t have several files I need from other people. I’m hoping that adjusting the sound levels won’t take too long.

I checked in on a friend last night. He gets down in the winter, but he can be unbearable to be around then. At least he’s extremely busy at work, which means he can’t stew so much. We talked for quite some time. I got another phone call, so I didn’t get to finish finding out entirely how he’s doing. Since his parents moved into the room behind his garage (it’s nice large room…more like a small apartment), I always like to ask how that’s going. I think it can be a bit strange to be an adult with your parents so close by knowing all your business. I wouldn’t want my mother to know everything.

I’m recovering today from a night in San Francisco. “The City” as they say here, even though San Jose is much larger than San Francisco. I’ve only been to one other club in SF before. People make such a big deal about. It’s not like the people in SF are any better looking. I think I need to party in LA. Now, LA has some hot men and women. Eye candy.

I’m mostly just very tired from lack of sleep. It was a late night getting back from SF, and then of course, there’s Mr. O to keep me awake. I did get a couple of hours of sleep only to be awakened again. I think I got less than another two hours of sleep before… As you only live once…and who am I to pass up the O?

Met some of Mr. O’s friends. Interesting group of people. That’s really all I can say without going into hiding. I mean “interesting” in the best possible way. No sarcasm here.

Oh the latest news from my mother…She found a PS3 60 GB. Otherwise her news is all teeth all time. Pain. Cost. The pain of the cost.

I thought of something to write last night, but by this morning I have completely forgotten. My day consists of getting ready for a party this evening. All white. Should be fun trying to get out of the house without getting dirty. I don’t own white clothes for that reason. I had to run to the store this morning, and they are surprisingly not that busy–at least not where I went. I found a purse to go with my dress–and for half off. I love it when the things I need are on sale. I don’t have the patience to browse any store, so I got what I came for and left.

While I’m writing, one of the cats just threw up tree pieces. It’s a fake tree. Darn cats are eating my fiber optic tree! I hadn’t set it up until last night for that reason. I don’t think I can stand a whole week of yelling “Get out of the tree!” There are no ornaments. Ornaments are just too attractive to cats. Last time I put up a tree with ornaments I had fewer cats and every morning the ornaments towards the bottom were on the floor. The tree is mostly for my son. Cats could care less about the menorah. In fact, fire makes them stay away. Well, I have to go clean the carpet.

Well I did it! I got a PS3 for my son for Christmas. I had a little help from a friend who was stopping in a nearby store every day to ask about them. I had been either stopping by or calling six places almost every day.

Buying one was easy. I was escorted by a store employee to my car. They didn’t give me a bag for my PS3, so everyone could see what it was. The looks on people’s faces were priceless. Setting it up just to see if it worked right was another thing. I could only get a 20GB version. I must say if you can get the 60 GB, it’s worth it. In the set up it kept asking me to connect to the Internet. I couldn’t figure out how to bypass it. It’s a good thing I didn’t because there was a rather large software download. So to get connected to the Internet I had to get a wireless game connection ($100). I have wireless in my house. Of course, my Ethernet connection is nowhere near the television. So off I went to the store to buy the wireless box I needed. While I was there, I also bought a LCD TV and HDMI cable that I had been planning to get. The only HDMI cable available was the most expensive ($100).

So I get home with my purchases only to find that I can only program the wireless game box with a PC, but my PC isn’t directly connected to the router. It’s connected wirelessly too. So it doesn’t want to work right. So I spent a half-hour on the phone with someone at Cisco—probably just down the street from here. I finally get that working only to see that a massive download is required. I think that took more than 30 minutes. I have no idea because I spent most of that time on the phone with my mother. These phone calls can be an hour or so. I get to hear about her teeth at the moment. She’s having 20 crowns replaced. I’m sure that everyone is interested in that.

Then there’s installation time for the software download. I think I bought the PS3 at about 2:30 pm or maybe I was home by then. I was home before 3 pm. Now it’s nearly 7 pm before I can even see what a game looks like on the TV. I’m still working on the old TV. No lunch. Haven’t had dinner.

Then I decide it’s time to move the old TV and put up the new one. These new TVs seem to be easy to set up—plug in and put batteries the remote, tell it you want the menu in English. Well, it’s not that easy. I couldn’t figure out why there was no picture with the HDMI cable. Instruction manuals don’t cover this problem. I finally realize that maybe the settings are on the PS3. Aha! So at 8:30 pm, the PS3 is working. I’ve looked at a game and checked out a video (regular, not Blu-ray—I don’t think I can stand Talladega Nights). The video was giving me fits earlier too. I couldn’t figure out why it was shrunk rather than taking up most the screen.

I was so frustrated before 6 pm that I wanted to explode. By 8:30 pm, it was worse, but now I was exhausted from moving the heavy beastly TV to the garage.

After all this work, there’s no way that PS3 is going back in the box. The box will be wrapped up—empty. The TV will get a bow. I’m just hoping he’s thrilled. It was far more work than I expected, so I hope to see my son jumping up and down when he sees it.

Ever tried to find something you know you have, but have no idea where you put it when you last moved? I moved to this particular house three years ago. Many items styed in boxes and were shelved in the garage. Most of the stuff belonged there…holiday decorations, sports equipment, lawn tools, collections of stuff that had no where else to go.

I’m currently trying to find some purses. I remember the last box they were in, but apparently I moved them from that box. They never made it into the house, which is were they should be. In particular, I’m looking for two Coach purses. Not for them. Inside the Coach purses are some evening purses. One is a vintage black velvet purse. So far I haven’t been able to identify any box that may contain them. Nearly every box is marked. Of course, I can’t get to every box because there’s an aisle (yes, an aisle) of stuff to get rid of. It’s a pain to move it.

I look over the shelves, and I see box after box labeled “xmas.” How many boxes of xmas crap do I really need? I have no idea what is in some of those. All ornaments over the years have made it into clear plastic containers. So what is in those brown boxes? I have no clue. Honestly, I’m afraid to find out. After seeing half a dozen “xmas” boxes, the next half dozen makes my head spin. It’s probably more stuff for the “get rid of aisle.”

If I get a spark of where to look, I may venture out to the garage again. I hate to. I typically don’t even look around when I go to my car. I ignore the mess, but it’s absolutely horrible. I’m looking at having someone else possibly see my garage. I’m dreading it already.

Since the only thing I have to write about is something I don’t, I thought I’d visit the search logs for my site again. Apparently someone in London is searching for a boobie teapot. Now, is that a teapot with boobies? I can’t imagine what one looks like. Perhaps it has two spouts. A teapot that can pour two cups at once! Do they have teapots with boobies in England? I know they really like their teapots.

Well enough of that. Time to break my tradition of not writing about certain subjects. It’s time to talk about Mr. O. He loves the nickname for those of you out there who aren’t sure. What guy wouldn’t? I’m sure everyone associates the “O” with one word. And that would be pretty accurate. In an attempt to find other “O” words, I noticed that English has very few “O” words. Here’s a few descriptive ones: overwhelm, oversexed and obeisance. Overwhelmed: that’s me. Overwhelmed by Mr. O. Now we could argue who is oversexed. However, he is one of the beneficiaries of “The Tantric Master.” Obeisance. Yes, he’s that good and that much fun.

Since English left me with few words, I went to French. The “O”: oui et oui et oui. If he visits the blog again, which isn’t often, I think he’ll enjoy that one. That reminds me of James Joyce’s “Ulysses.” Perhaps it is even hotter in French? Here’s another: obsédé. Again, I think we might argue over who that fits (him, me or both). I’m going to be egalitarian considering the results of the art of seduction quiz and say both.

I may need to get another bottle of champagne just to pay obeisance to Mr. O. I think he’s worth it, don’t you?

It’s raining here, so I hardly want to get out of bed. It looks like it will be raining most of the week. Welcome to December in California. I wonder how long before my backyard is a swamp. For some reason, my backyard gathers water. It looks pretty flat. There’s no evidence that it is bowl shaped and, thus, perfect for holding water. My poor dog gets stranded on drier spots. She doesn’t like to cross the water to get to her food. It rains enough here that the ground will squish water for up to a week (if there hasn’t been new rain) when you walk on it. Everywhere else I’ve lived the water either runs off or soaks in. Here? Here, the ground is like a sponge, except at some point that sponge gets too full of water.

I’ve been getting some interesting Google searches. Apparently, people all over the world are looking for a cure for over thinking. Most of my loyal readers suggested either illegal substances or highly addictive ones. I don’t recommend them. Besides it really isn’t over thinking that is the problem. It’s the negative thoughts that rattle around in the brain. Nothing is ever as bad as it seems. No one complains about positive thoughts. It is possible to change your thoughts. Anytime you have a thought you don’t like, change it. Listen to some favorite music. Laugh. Play. Notice the thought and move on. Anyway, that’s my advice for what it’s worth. Does it work? Absolutely. Have I cured over thinking? Not entirely.

Now if I could just bring myself to type more interesting keywords–bring some of those porn viewers over here. But I’m sure they would just be disappointed. The words are so common that I can’t imagine that I would even get into the top 10 on the list.